All entries for Monday 23 May 2005

May 23, 2005

CW Motorcycles off road ride, Shaftesbury to Stonehenge

Follow-up to The wisdom of Obi Wan Kenobi from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

Just to prove that the GS is a great off-road bike rather than a two wheeled Range Rover, we went out with a group of 14 of them in difficult conditions across Dorset to Stonehenge.

Martin (BMW R1100GS) and I (BMW R100GS-PD) had a great weekend in Dorset. On Saturday we had our bikes serviced at the always excellent CW Motorcycles in Dorchester, and then stayed in Charminster's Three Compasses Inn for the night (really good beer). On Sunday morning, we met up with the CW Riders Club and went for a swift road blast to Shaftesbury, where a group on 12 other bikes met up. These included almost all of the bikes from the 25 years of the GS range, including an early 80's GS made into a lightweight trail bike…

…my '93 GS Paris-Dakar, Wally's GS sidecar outfit next to Martin's R1100GS…

…several F650's, R1150GS's, Martin's R1100GS, and even a new R1200GS.

The route was excellent, starting with a long stretch along the top of a ridge – an old drover's route i think. An 1150GS was an early casualty, going over just in front of me as it dug awkwardly into a section of chalk gravel used to repair a worn track. Wally followed us with the mechanic Richard on the side car to help with any problems and more importantly to take photos of the fallen bikes.

We then came to a long section with more pools of water than dry road. This was great fun, splashing down into them, causing a bow wave to splash out, and then powering up the other side. Unfortunately, in one very large pool, I got cross-rutted just as I came out, and ended up going sideways and landing with a splash. As you can see from this photo, I was heavilly loaded with camping gear, which didn't help its stability…

After a short section of road, we turned back onto another byway, leading up a steep hill. By this time it had started to rain, and the chalk track got quite slippery. This was made worse by the deep ruts cut into the hillside, some of which were narrower than my rear tyre, causing it to spin. I paddled my way to the top, with both feet down, pausing twice to rest. Once up to the top, we were treated to better roads and a great view. Martin powered along, much faster than me, seeming thoroughly at home sitting rather than standing on his big white GS.

After some smoother tracks, we reached another road, at which point Wally advised the bikes without full off-road knobbly tyres to take a road route for the last couple of miles, as it had started to rain heavily. Once we reached our destination, it really started to pour.

Thanks to all the riders at CW's for making it such a great trip. I'm looking forwards to some more when the weather improves a bit.


: 23 May 2005 23:22 |  Tags:       |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem

The wisdom of Obi Wan Kenobi

"So, young Jedi, you wish to conquer the universe and defeat the forces of darkness. You will need a vehicle, a special vehicle, one for which there are no bounds, one that will allow you to travel to any part of the empire, no matter how uncivilised and wild. One capable of carrying a wookie as pillion and R2D2 in the top box. Such a vehicle exists. But it is only for the bravest of Jedi. You must choose the BMW Gelandestrasse, and may the transverse twin force be with you."

And so I rode with Martin from Engineering (R1100GS) on my R100GS-PD to Dorset, and accompanied by the CW Motorcycles off-roaders, waged war against mud, rocks, vast pools of water, and those nasty rutted chalk tracks wrecked by the drivers of Range Rovers (Darth Vader's choice of car).


: 23 May 2005 22:32 |  Tags:       |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

BBC greatest philosopher poll – vote for Gilles!

Writing about web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher.shtml

In an attempt to replicate the success of Fame Academy, the BBC web site is running a poll to find Britain's favourite philosopher.

You can nominate your personal favourite, along with a short text explaining why, or in my case, a long essay about Deleuze. Read through the list of nominations so far. Surprisingly, it appears that Wittgenstein, Spinoza and Leibniz are front runners. All of the other personalities are in there, with some positive recommendations for Popper (hoorah!), Hume (hoorah!), Foucault (hoorah!), and Eric Cantona (grrrr!).


: 23 May 2005 21:48 |  Tags:    |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Workshop paper proposal completed, finally!

Follow-up to Conference proposal: From Monadic Architecture to Nomadic Anarchitecture from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

I managed to get my proposal submitted almost on time (at 1am in fact just after the deadline). I almost didn't make it, as I stalled for two weeks whilst reading chapter 2 of The Fold. The first time I read it, i'm sure it made sense. Then when I came back for a more detailed reading, building a concept map as I worked, I was sure that Deleuze had just gone completely beserk. It made no sense. Fortunately, with just two days to go, it started to make sense again. The trick is to think about how for Descartes and for Leibniz (and later Kant) mathematics is actually an expression of something more fundamental than measurement – space, intentionality, and ultimately real time. However, the world is thankful that Deleuze never tried to teach mathematics, because he would have been absolutely hopeless at it.

You can read my proposal in the conferences section of my ePortfolio.


Robert O'Toole : 23 May 2005 11:58 |  Tags:   |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Successful presentation to the English Department

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/elearning/workshops/presentations/introductionmay05/

I actually recieved a standing ovation at the end of the presentation last week. I think, in part, this was due to the amount of ground that I covered in 30 minutes. But they did seem genuinely impressed with what we are doing and how I talked about it. Using a Tablet PC to do the presentation was superb. If only we had a wifi link with the projector, I would have been able to wander around whilst talking, as most arts lecturers do (although I have seen Hugh Denard actually dancing in a lecture, but he is Theatrical).

You can see the presentation at on the E-learning Advisor Team web site


Robert O'Toole : 23 May 2005 11:40 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem