Members of the Trail Riders Fellowship: the organisation that promotes the use of legal carriageways by road-legal motorcycles; are reporting an increasing number of encounters with deliberately scattered nails and concealed nail boards on Byways Open to All Traffic (BOATS) in England and Wales.
Such devices will normally only cause a temporary inconvenience to motorcyclists (their tyres are often tough enough to roll over such obstructions without damage, and punctures are easily fixed) and 4×4 owners, but they do have potential to cause possibly lethal injury to walkers, horses and horse riders, plus great inconvenience to cyclists.
Landowners should be alert to the placing of such devices on rights of way crossing ‘their’ land, as they may be liable under law for any injury or loss caused whether such devices were placed with their knowledge or not.
TRF members and any other users are asked to report all such devices they encounter to the police and RSPCA, so, to avoid trouble, landowners should arrange regular and frequent inspection of rights of way crossing their property.
Hall 1 offered the most notable unveilings at this year’s Paris Motor Show, reports Phil Weeden. Land Rover was proudly displaying the new Evoque and celebrated the life and work of Charles Spencer King, the driving force behind the Range Rover launched 40 years ago. On display was a CSK Limited Edition Classic from 1990 while Land Rover MD, Phil Popham, announced a new Student Sustainability Award in honour of ‘Spen’ King and in association with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Last month we followed Toby, and partner Jo, down the Autoroutes of France in our long-term Mitsubishi Shogun 4Work Van to their friends’ old farm house, high in the hills of Northern Italy. Following a wine-buying spree, Toby ventured off onto some of the tracks in the area to give the Shogun a chance to stretch its legs before an eventful drive home via the Alps
Our Jimny has clocked up plenty of road miles on various trips to magazine shoots. One was up to Derbyshire to meet a 4×4 on the opposite end of the scale – Bowler’s new Nemesis EXR, see last month’s issue – then a trip to north Wales, to hook up with contributors Wayne in his Defender Td5 90 and Toby in his 1945 Jeep, was a real test of its on-road mettle.
It was meant to be me giving Derek a masterclass on how to drive a moderately capable four-wheel drive over fairly serious terrain. It began with Derek putting my nose out of joint.
The last month has been jam-packed with events that needed to be covered. In addition to the packed weekend schedules, the Terrano, Stella and I, together with two nephews and a bridesmaid, had to make a midweek trip to the Irish Republic where I had the honour of photographing my brother Michael’s marriage to Paula. Leaving from my hometown port of Holyhead we sailed with Stena Line to the port of Dublin. The last time I had made this crossing was way back in 1978 with Stella riding pillion on my Honda 400/4 motorbike. On both of these trips we were headed for roughly the same destination, Roscommon, on the banks of the meandering Shannon River.
After three months dead in the driveway trying to find a replacement transmission, Kelsey is finally running again! Thank you Dixon Strachan of Rock Island Rovers for the transmission and Jason Coakley of Simoes Automotive for organizing the install. And a big apology to Norbert Simoes, owner and poor soul who did most of the work for what I gather was a nightmare of a swap. I hear ‘Kels’ is banned from rolling into the shop ever again.
At first it was just a vague feeling that all wasn’t completely well. I mean, I’ve grown accustomed to the regular foibles; to never leaving my keys in the car just in case it decides to lock itself when I’m not looking, or to ensuring, conversely, that nothing prevents the doors from locking, as the slightest piece of paper or fold of waterproof coat slipping over the threshold of the rear door will result in a big fat nothing in response to me earnestly zapping it with my key. I discovered that one after weeks of bafflement at the non compliance of the hardware (the Grand) in refusing to obey the control of the little button on the key fob, and felt a warm glow of achievement when I cleared the base of the door frame of carrier bags and other detritus and it all clicked and clunked, the hazards flashing a friendly, reassuring orange. I could always put the key in the locks and turn them, but why should I? If I wanted that I’d have an old Land Rover and all the bits of old twine that would inevitably accompany its door closing rituals.
It’s been a while since my Grand has graced the pages of the magazine. That’s because it’s been subject to a fair amount of repair, spending some quality time in the garage. The last instalment, regular readers may remember, was when I noticed that it was feeling particularly sluggish – ie felt as if it was not firing on all cylinders.
You always have some interesting adventures with a 4×4, and, recently, we were driving the RAV down a remote country lane on the south coast, near Pagham, and completely out of the blue we came across, rather appropriately, a ‘Blue Plaque’. Strangely, there were no buildings around, all appeared to be rather uninspiring, bleak and very flat farmland.
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