I received this email from Kevin Turner a couple of weeks ago.

Hi John

Hope you don’t mind me emailing you re: a book I’ve just had published. It’s about a trip around Europe on an SV650s and I wondered whether there might be scope to include something about it on your website?

The link is below, and as evidence it’s not an entirely hopeless collection of words, I’ve attached a photo of a review of the book in RIDE magazine, which gave it 3.5/5 (a 4 would have been nice!). 

Kevin

It sounded like a fun read and suggested Kevin dropped me a precis of the book and and I'd publish that and links to ordering for your enjoyment. Here it is;

A couple of years ago I managed to get sacked from a thoroughly dreadful job in financial journalism. With time to kill and a new Suzuki SV650s parked outside I decided to strap a tent to the back of the bike, pack some belongings and head off into the unknown (unknown to me that is; I’ll concede that mainland Europe may not hold quite the same mystique to most people). In a nutshell, I rode around for a bit, got quite lost then came home and wrote a book about it all, which is now available from all good bookshops and why I’m writing this article.

Bonjour! Is This Italy? is essentially my guide to life on the road if you’re a completely unprepared biker with no experience of such things. I didn’t do too much homework before I left London; I didn’t pack the things you’re meant to pack (first-aid kit, puncture repair goo, decent maps) and I didn’t know where I was going. I figured I’d let the journey unravel as I went along; hell, surely that’s the point of a trip like this? To this day I don’t know if I was right in that assumption, or whether I ruined a perfectly good holiday through laziness and stupidity.

I’d like to think my haphazard approach to touring captured the true essence of motorcycling; the freedom, the Easy Rider charm of life on the road; but it’s also true that when every piece of clothing you own is drenched, it’s dark and your tent has taken on the defining properties of a pond, those same notions of ‘freedom’ and ‘escape’ tend to sour a little. At such times I sought only the ‘freedom’ of getting into bed with a glass of wine and watching Top Gear.

Still, there were plenty of good times, and the Suzuki proved a more than capable machine to tour on, although I’m sure more than one Italian biker raised an eyebrow at the sight of the little V-twin with UK plates, practically buried in luggage, ticking over by the side of the road while its owner stared sadly at signposts that didn’t say what they ought to.

When I finally returned to the UK, after a month-long trip that had taken me through France, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Germany – where I had my first experience of the Nürburgring, covered extensively in the book – I wasn’t sure I’d done enough to merit writing about my journey. But it’s surprising how much you learn about yourself, other people and your bike when you set off with no expectations and become reliant on the kindness of strangers.

Bonjour! Is This Italy?  isn’t about an epic road trip — I’ve described it elsewhere as more Wind in the Willows than Long Way Round — there were no run-ins with drug dealers or armed militia (although I did experience some nasty ants, I guess they were militants). It’s a story about a journey that anyone with a bike and a little free time can undertake. I make no apologies for that, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

Bonjour! Is This Italy?  is published by Veloce Publishing Ltd | ISBN: 978 1 845843 99 1 Enquiries: Veloce Publishing Ltd | tel: +44 (0)1305 260068 | web: www.veloce.co.uk | email: sales@veloce.co.uk

Link to YouTube interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgT13DXEP_0

Links to a couple of reviews if needed:

WebbikeWorld http://www.webbikeworld.com/books/bonjour-is-this-italy.htm

Visordown http://www.visordown.com/product-news/book-bonjour-is-this-italy/20960.html

I finally found a few minutes to bring you an update on the Datatool fiasco. Read more about it here. Never ever will I go near a bike with an alarm again. The lost sleep and gnashing of teeth is not worth it.

Spoke too soon. After I wrote the piece below, I went outside to check again.  No response to the fob. I spent a lot of time playing and the fault does seem very intermittent. So long story short, I covered the speaker on the alarm with gaffer tape and put the alarm in service mode.

Reading various articles on the web, it seems like a 20 minute job to remove it, depending on how much on the original wiring has been chopped out by the installer. Meantime I have an MOT this Friday and I might tackle it after that. Watch this space.

http://www.matt-thornton.net/blog/how-to-remove-a-datatool-system-3-from-a-honda-cbr600fx

Summer is here at last, I think. Today was a bit grey and overcast and threatening to rain.

Anyway to get to the point of the headline. I came out of work last night and walked across the car park to the SV. There was a fair amount of music and noise coming from Osfest in the fields adjacent to our premises and lots of young peps walking along our access road to get there.

I blipped the Datatool alarm fob as I approached the bike, no response. I looked at the fob, the LED flashed as I pushed the buttons but still no response from the bike. I got as close to the bike as I could. Still no response. Blown fuse on the Datatool? I took off the seat accompanied by the din of the alarm, found and checked the fuse, all was good. Duff fob? maybe.  I then tried to recall the override option by using the PIN I set years ago. Trouble is I couldn't recall the set sequence of actions to use the PIN. Bugger. Back to the office, fired up the PC and goggled for the Datatool manual. Printed it off, walked back to the bike.

The sequence to override the alarm via a PIN number is to set off the alarm by turning on the ignition. Turn off. Wait for the alarm to stop. You then have five seconds to turn on the ignition and the alarm slowly pulses out bleeps. count the beeps, when you get to the number of bleeps for the first number in your PIN turn off the ignition and start again. You do this four times for the four numbers in your PIN. Turn on again and you should get a long confirmation beep and you can start the bike. Will I every remember this? No. So a copy of the manual is now under the seat.

I rode the bike home and parked up. Out of interest I tried the fob again, it worked. So is it an intermittent fault? I don't think so. I think it was radio interference from Osfest. I've read about this kind of thing happening to car drivers and door locking, but I can't say for sure. The moral of the story, make sure you know how to bypass the alarm should you lose the fob or it's batteries fail.

John