Non bike related: A bit of history

This is a small, non bike related, sidestep from what this blog usually is about. Thought you might find it interesting. If history is not your thing, just skip this post ;)


Went to the Grebbeberg today. The Grebbeberg is a hill on the banks of the River Rhine in the center of the Netherlands that was formed in the second to last ice age. The ice pushed earth ahead of itself while expanding to the south and forming a line of hills of which the Grebbeberg is one.

Areal picture with the Grebbeberg on the right

So what makes it special? It's a place oozing with history. From the top of te Grebbeberg you can see the famous church tower of the nearby ancient city of Rhenen (we couldn't today, too foggy). The church is late medieval, but the history of the place goes back much further than that. It is hard to see on the photo, the scale of the thing is MASSIVE and impossible to catch in one photo because of the trees, but you can see an earth wall if you look carefully:

Barely visible in the background: The earth wall that is part of an ancient fortress 

That wall is part of a fortress that is estimated to be from 700 - 800 A.D.. But the place goes even further back in time.... Inside the hill flint fragments have been found that once were Neanderthal tools. 

In more recent time this hill saw some military action too. At the start of world war two this hill was the most important part of the main defense line: the Hollandse Waterlinie. The hill saw a lot of action, pretty much every tree older than 70 years can testify to that.

Every tree on the mountain that is older than 70 years bears a huge number of battle scars caused by bullets and shell fragments.

But that's all the long gone past. Today the whole area is a great place to be with a magnificent forest

And some great views on the river on which I spend the last year doing research: the River Rhine (it's flooding history to be precise). I will finish the report on these researches this week (one of them has already been submitted for publishing. Just not with my name on it, while it is 100% my research. No further comments needed.). As soon as it's corrected, I will be done with the study. Finished.

And then all of the sudden...

... It is finished. We finished the Virago last night. All the painted parts are back on the bike, all the electrics are hooked up again and we ran the bike for a few minutes. Feels a bit weird now it's finished, but we're looking forward to riding it. And looking forward to starting on the SR500 that is already waiting for us.

The beam of the headlight penetrating the smoke and kicked up dust after the engine start

The beam of the headlight penetrating the smoke and kicked up dust after the engine start

No shots of the completed bike since it was already late and very dark.

trying out some new techniques

Just took the CB out for a spin. I recently had the carbs ultrasonically cleaned, so it had been sitting for a while. Apart from that the carbs could use a little bit of synching now, she ran great. Man, I love riding that bike...


Tried some new photo techniques. I only had very limited time so I did not really get what I wanted, but it looks like it's worth trying again as far as I'm concerned.

That's how it is supposed to be

I emailed the website that posted my photos with their logos on it (2 out of 4 posted photos had their logo on it). I almost instantly received an email with sincere apologies. It was an error by their editor (sounds believable since not all photos had the logo on them).

Apologies accepted of course.

I would like to thank them for their very quick response. Check out their site (although you might have to use google translate, at least I had to). It has some pretty cool articles.

motorkari

No words needed

Via ADVrider

Not cool

Do I even have to explain what is not cool about this?


Well, at least the did post a link to this blog..... But: This is one of the photo's I made for BikeExif, I did no even post them on this site. I rode about 40 miles for this photo shoot. The photo shoot itself took me about 2 hours or so and back home a few more hours processing the photos.


It took someone 5 seconds to put his/her own logos on these photos.

The master at work

I still have problems with the text editing. Don't know a solution yet, so I have to deal with it until I do.

I have been extremely busy. Had to do an oral presentation on an international congress (went very well by the way) of my intern research last week and I am now finishing the report, writing another one an reviewing one. Too many letters, not enough bikes.

 Some 'older' (few weeks) photo's Desmomeister  took. Take note of all the safety measures I take so my ears and eyes are protected when I grind parts of my upper leg ;)

Blogspot help?

Maybe someone here can tell me.

I am an avid user of the Opera web browser, so I use that to make new blog posts. However, lately a lot of edit functions disappeared. I can't change the color of my text, can't center the text, can't make it bold, can't change the font, etc... etc..., basically the only thing I can do is add photos.

When I try the same thing in Internet explorer I can change the font, I can change the color, but I still can't make a hyperlink or center the text.

When I use a laptop with the Opera browser, I can do all that. I deleted all the coockies and stuff, but nothing changes.

Anyone know how to solve this?

Evening ride

Virago chopper update

I'm a bit late, these photo's are from last week.... We are already much further along now. For instance: we painted the yellow brake caliper black, we fixed the exhausts in the right place, painted some more (but what u see here is the final (roughly) paint scheme) and did quite a few other jobs that in the end make a big difference, so keep in mind that it looks a bit more sloppy on these photos than it does in reality.