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Posted

Fab weather today so I got out for a jolly in the hills :-)

 

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  • Like 6
Posted

Popped over to Cambridge for the evening. Great ride out. Misty back.

  • Like 5
Posted

Topped up the tyres and oil, taxed it, and took it to tourist hell, Hathersage, Hope, and Castleton. Pretty little Winnets Pass and toying about in the traffic at each village, but no rush so no bother. Half a pint of best at Edale in the sun. Nice 80 miles of cobweb blasting. 

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  • Like 7
Posted

I didn't manage to get out in the sunshine and warmth at the weekend but by some freak of nature, Inverclyde was clear, bright and dry when I finished work today, so I got the bike out for a wee trip to Paisley during rush hour. You're mad, I hear you say, and you are probably right, there is a fierce rivalry between Inverclyde and Paisley 😂. Maybe that's why Mrs Buddie in Paisley decided that all she needed to do was indicate and move her car ever closer to me when she wanted to grab my road space. Frantic waving of my left hand and a big fat sweary word later she gave up. A minute later she pulled round behind me into the lane on my right, drew level and told me off for swearing 🤣I kid you not. Apart from that it was a nice ride, and I got my first proper taste of riding in the dark. In town it was fine, out of town the wee light on my 125 didn't really light up the road far enough ahead unless I used main beam, which I obviously couldn't do all the time. It was an interesting experience on a local road I know very well. I'm sure I'd have been crawling along an unfamiliar road.

  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Posted

Yeah, my ride back yesterday was in the mist and the dark. Bendy roads, too, but at least I know them. I think the problem with riding in the dark, is that I only look at the bit of the road where the patch of light from the headlamp falls. But at a bend, all the information I need is out there in the darkness, in the silhouettes of the trees against the moonlit sky, and the faint flow of grey tarmac sliding between the shadowy hedgerows. I did better when I started looking more often outside that illuminated patch.  

  • Like 2
Posted

Yes, I did the same because that brighter patch attracted my eyes, but the cats eyes got illuminated well outside that bright patch so I began looking ahead more on the bends. Now I wonder about potholes on an unfamiliar road at night, they’ll only be seen within the bright patch 😬

Posted

After several days of nasty illness, I finally managed to get out and have a nice ride this morning.  Hadn't intended to, only intended on a quick once round the block to see whether I was well enough to ride, but once I got round the block, as it were, I just kept going.

Stopped by dealership on my merry jaunt, took them a big stack of muffins (chocolate chip, double chocolate, blueberry) to eat on my behalf as since it is lent, I can't have any, but they most certainly can and I can live vicariously through them.  Sourced a funky helmet cover from them (Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon) while I was there to wear for the upcoming Wirral Egg Run Charity Ride which I have been convinced/coerced into attending, and after leaving there, ended up practicing avoidance manoeuvres when a suicidal Squirrel darted in front of me (the Squirrel still lives!).

Then acquired Coffee and Ice Cream by the beach, zoomed down some national speed limit country lanes, got stuck in traffic and roadworks, did some more zooming, and have come home and realised that I didn't pick up the feeler gauge that I wanted to buy but that just means that I have an excuse to go out for a ride tomorrow.

 

  • Like 4
  • Haha 4
Posted

Another ride after work today on what I call the North Ayrshire circuit. Inverclyde down the coast to Largs then inland over the hill to Kilbirnie. Big well done to the driver who was about to turn right out the factory car park who stopped immediately behind the white lines when he saw me coming round the bend. I think it's about time I praised another driver’s good decision 😊

 

From Kilbirnie, I rode through Beith and Lochwinnoch before joining the A737 to go across the M8 then on to Bishopton. It started to get dark then and the gentle heat from the sun disappeared, so I got chilly. But only 15 or so miles to get home to Inverclyde and it was a pleasant ride into the darkness.  

  • Like 3
Posted (edited)
On 09/03/2025 at 16:41, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

Summer kit today. Winter kit on standby for next week though. 

I wouldn't have believed it. Summer gear and 17.5 degrees on Sunday. Today I was caught in a hail storm and had a five mile long tetchy argument with gravity. 

 

I just about kept the shiny side up, but the little ice marbles are not to be trifled with.

Edited by Fiddlesticks
Halestorm are a rock band, in which I was not caught. Hail is a weather phenomenon in which I was. Learn the difference!
  • Sad 3
Posted

Well this is going well....got the Bobber out and the back tyre is flat. No sign of a nail or anything. So I'll take the CBF and look at the Bobber tyre when I get back. 

Posted

Here's a weird thing. This morning my Bobber rear tyre was flat, as in 0psi registering on the gauge. 

 

I pumped it up. It lost pressure again. No sign of a nail or any tyre damage. I assumed the inner tube had failed. The oem tubes aren't the best and it's 7 years old. 

 

I checked the valve, no bubbles showing. 

 

So I pumped it up to 42psi and went out on the CBF. When I came back I went to remove the rear wheel but first checked the pressure to see how much it had lost.

 

And it's stayed at 42psi all day. 

 

Totally baffled how it lost all pressure but now seems fine. 

  • Confused 2
Posted

A section of the inner tube or the section of the valve joint /seal with the tube is damaged, with it being rotated in a different spot it is essentially sealing it with the weight of the bike….maybe. 

Posted
3 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

A section of the inner tube or the section of the valve joint /seal with the tube is damaged, with it being rotated in a different spot it is essentially sealing it with the weight of the bike….maybe. 

I should have said, the bike is always stored on a jack with the wheels off the ground. It's just easier to fit into the garage that way. So there's no weight on the tyre at all. 

Posted

Ah well thats might help.
probably the valve pin wasn’t seated well before and was able to let air out, but when you pumped it up afterwards it resettled it? 
 

well either case the valve/tube is the problem , uve got more than your moneys worth out of it and id just change it if it was me.

Posted

Zoom in on the bottom picture, and the first thing visible is that flaming great big V-twin 😁

Posted (edited)

Having zero off-road skills and 90-10 tyres, I thought it would be a great idea to hit some trails 😂. Waze took me to the start of a permissive by-way just outside Thetford. You come to a T-junction, ride straight ahead and across a farmyard and you're on the by-way. Oh my. Very up and down. Quite a lot sandy. I did about 10 minutes before I had to stop to cool down and let the adrenaline fade.

 

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It was either carry on or turn back, and given that what I'd come through was a bit scary, carrying on made more sense. 😂It didn't get any easier, but I eventually found the right body position, and had bike was pitching back and forward underneath me, while I kept basically still. So much easier that way. Then a stretch where we had to follow ruts, so after that a rest to catch some breath. 

 

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By now I'm off the permissive by-way and onto county BOATs. These take me under the railway and onto proper gravel roads though the forest.

Time for lunch.

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Properly fed and watered, I followed the lane over a main road and onto perhaps the hardest - the sandiest - bit. Just trying to get used to the feel of the front wheel wibbly-wobbling everywhere.

Another rest.

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Then I did a short stretch on tarmac to connect with another lane that popped me back into the real world near Brandon. 

Here's the route, 12 miles in all.

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Not a long route, I guess, but it was good. It's a completely different feel, riding off road, and by the end I felt I was doing ok at it. And it's great being out in the forest, away from people, especially when the weather's like today's.

Edited by bonio
  • Like 6
Posted

Strewth, that must have been phenomenal!

What a treat, and that's a pretty long route for a blast down a trail. 

Great pictures too @bonio

  • Thanks 1
Posted (edited)

... sorry - deleted!

Edited by bonio
Posted
7 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

Zoom in on the bottom picture, and the first thing visible is that flaming great big V-twin 😁

 

 

And I didn't think my reflection was there

  • Haha 1
Posted (edited)

This mornings 178 mile ride from South Yorks to the north east of Yorkshire … Great ride out .. 17 Deg C !!! 👍 Roads from Pocklington to Wetwang were amazing … swooping narrow forest filled valleys then narrow open ridge roads … loved it … 

 

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Edited by Trooper74
Dgtdvbgc
  • Like 5

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