Mays update has run in to June I’m afraid.
We lost a long time member, Ted Snarey, in April. Ted had been ill for a couple of years and will be missed, one of the characters of our section. He was a member of several bike and car clubs and they were all represented .Ted had his wish of a humanist funeral, which was a bit unusual for most of us but the place was full.
I organised a run for the Hadleigh club and Colin and I enjoyed a daytime run to check the route on the day, and only Chris accompanied me on the run proper, thanks to a mix up of dates. Not us this time!)
Now you all know that John and I attempted the Lands end- John O Groat’s trip last October, and John considered it unfinished business. With the club s representatives doing it on the old bikes to commemorate the founding of the club, I thought we were going to join in and harass them for a couple of days and then come home.
When John said he intended to do the whole thing and it came as a bit of a shock to me, especially when I realised that the K100 mot ran out in the middle of the proposed trip, and I was going to be away until a couple of days before we were due to leave! However all went well and a new Mot was obtained in time. I did the usual check around the BMW, oiling cables, etc and gave it an oil change, and it was ready.
Because of this, one of the scheduled club runs was postponed.
I also got the engine of the Road Rocket back from its first refurbishment since 1966! Then it had seized and bent a rod, and with limited knowledge and budget I rebuilt it with one new rod, What I should have done was replaced them both because the other one was slightly out of true and over the years this had caused excessive wear in one bore resulting in burning oil. I didn’t do too bad a job as the crank didn’t need regrinding, just new bearings! With a rebore, new pistons and valve guides, I hope its days of oil burning are over. I managed to get it up and running and MOT before I left for Lands End.
Although we didn’t make it, Last year’s attempt was an eye opener for us both, in terms of what to take, and what to wear.
I settled for enough tools to get both wheels out! We both decided that wellingtons were the only way to keep your feet dry in 8 hours of heavy rain! I got a couple more of the waterproof bags from the camping shop, and loaded up the luggage on the BMW.With waterproof trousers, and top, together with waterproof over mitts from last time I felt ready for anything nature could throw at us.
We left on a lovely sunny day, Sunday 13th of May and made good progress to Launceston, arriving around 4 o’clock, staying in the same place as last time, and finding it first time! 315 miles just to get our hand in. Last year, we left these digs in the dark and the rain having spent an hour trying to find it, with instructions to get to a pub that “was only about a mile away”. I clocked it at 3.9 miles this time!
Monday morning it was pouring with rain and that set the tone for the rest of the trip. It was full wet gear no question. We visited The Lizard and then Lands End, all in the pouring rain and it stopped about 2 o clock and we arrived at Weston Super Mare around 4 pm, delighted to find that the accommodation had the heating on and we could dry our gear. I had one wet hand; due mainly because of the gloves and another pair solved the problem next day. Exactly 300 miles. It was also getting very windy, something that stayed with us for the whole trip.
Tuesday dawned with more rain and wind and we headed off for the M5 and M6 and made the trip to Carlisle with no trouble except for the occasional heavy shower. By now we just wore all the wet weather gear all the time! It was a bit disconcerting to get to the service area on the M6, only to find there was no sign of the Travel Lodge we were supposed to be staying at! It turned out to be on the other side of the motorway, and we made it via some extremely strange and badly signed service roads and country lanes. When we got there notices told us that if we stayed more than 2 hours we would be fined £80.I did say that if they expected us to pay to park they could whistle for it –I would go elsewhere! Commonsense prevailed and after some high tech registration we parked for free, chaining our bikes to the porch support of the hotel!Dont take a chance with the parking, they have number plate recognition cameras and the cooperation of the DVLA.What a lovely country we are living in! Just 286 miles but all on motorway and with the wind quite tiring.
Wednesday started in the dry, but the food was that bad at the service area we did an hour or so before stopping for breakfast. Not something we had done before. We headed for Inverness and into the rain. It had also turned a bit colder, something that neither of us had anticipated with snow forecast on the cairngorms which we had to come through. I was warm enough but I added another layer next day. John adopted the newspaper solution. Only 265 miles today, but the roads were notably worse in Scotland, with the surfaces in a much worse state than we are used to. That and the nature of the roads slowed us up a bit. Bonus was that we were staying just 10 minutes from the town centre and were able to walk in. John purchased some new wellies, the others having given up the ghost after some 30 years! They don’t make things like they used to.
Guess what, raining again in the morning, and I had broken the hinge on one of my panniers so the bungees came in to their own! My fault for taking too much including normal riding boots which refused to fold up small! We had a really stunning trip along the coast up to John O Groats and I think we were both quite chuffed to have made it at last. Quite a contrast to the Lands End experience which is commercialised to the hilt! And the scenery is definitely better. The weather relented and we had a lovely day. We also visited Dunnet Head, the most northerly point. I have to say the scenery was amazing up there. You know you are well up north when the place names on the road signs are usually found on the shipping forecast!
We headed back to the same overnight stop in Inverness and guess what, back into the rain. Only 258 miles but what with the coast road made for bikes and the scenery, it was just enough. It was worth the trip, just to take that coast road, but it’s a bit of a trek for an afternoon ride.
Now John had scheduled Inverness to home on Friday and given that we had been doing just about 300 miles a day, I had felt that 570 miles in one hit was probably a bit too far. And after a rainy start, and a slow cold trip through the cairngorms-this time noticeably more snow on the mountains, which were also shrouded in mist, I thought I was right. But as the day wore on and we headed south the roads improved and once we hit the A1 we were able to press on a bit and we stopped at Ferry bridge services at about 5pm having covered 400 miles. It was at this point that another 170 miles didn’t look so bad so we had a bite to eat and pressed on. I got back home at 8-30, having covered 572 miles, in twelve hours. We had showers all the way, and the last one started as I tuned off the M11 at Stansted!
I covered 1996 miles for the whole trip, and averaged around 50mpg.We made 17 stops for fuel, which just shows what silly tanks these bikes have!
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but my camera played up (or was it operator error?) and I only have pictures of Dunnet Head. My excuse was it was pouring with rain! John took some at Lands end so I hope between us we have enough evidence to silence the sceptics!
WE did however get back in time for the section lunch at Henny Swan on 20th and very good it was too. We have welcomed Bob, a friend of the treasurer, and a lapsed biker, in the hope that he may return to the fold.
Finally, three members attended the Jampot rally at Aylesford in Kent. I did hear complaints about it being too hot. I wish that was a problem we had a week or so earlier!
Dont forget the next club night on June 6th and make a note that the club BBQW is scheduled for Saturday 28th July, subject to confirmation with the Almas Landlord.
With all the nice weather I hope you have all taken the opportunity of giving those bikes a good workout.
Safe Riding. Gordon Levett