Is it Spring or Summer?

With Spring Bank Holiday on the horizon I decided to book the remaining week off work and so glad I did, I put the word out in the hope I could find someone to have a ride with on a quieter weekday, and Ron contacted me to say he was up for a run out somewhere too. We are still in Coronavirus lockdown and following the rules of one other person to meet outside our homes so meeting up with Ron was a great idea, and I haven't ridden with him for a few years now, so a Wednesday ride was arranged over the phone. I re-configured an old GPX route I had that looped around Herefordshire, originally across the River Wye to Skenfrith Castle, but seeing as the castle was in Wales and they have different lockdown rules I adjusted it to skip Skenfrith and ride the Wye Valley keeping to English roads via some real picturesque villages e.g. Peterstow, Garway Hill, Kentchurch, Tram Inn and Pontrilas before heading up through the Golden Valley past Arthur's Stone and Abbey Dore toward Leominster with a great view of Clee Hill way in the distance as we came down Dorstone Hill. 

Shady looking Ron

Kentchurch

 

These days I'm used to riding a few lanes, and the route change I made ended up taking us down some narrow gravelly roads for a few miles. I was concerned the route might not suit Ron's choice, when we used to ride together in the past we both had Harley Davidsons and kept away from the more choppy roads, however Ron now rides the Kawasaki Versys like Mark, a very capable bike down the lanes, so no worries it seems on that score. Ron has the GT version with a nice throaty Scorpion end-can that made the Versys sound different to Marks stock exhaust. Today was the first day out with the new Puig screen (see previous post), and I wasn't disappointed, loads more protection and a bit quieter too.

  

Its great to meet up with old mates and ride some new roads together, and the weather was superb, peaking up to 25 degrees later in the afternoon. I spotted a narrow lane as we passed through the village of Kentchurch with a great shady tree next to the church ideal to eat our packed lunch and catch up on our recent adventures. Ron had been across to Spain to ride the Pyranees last year somewhere I've yet to ride so good to hear his thoughts on how good it was. While eating I did marvel at Ron's curry Pip had prepared for him in a Tupperware box, and I was really jealous only having a ham sandwich in tow with a bag of crisps, but it seems there was no curry offering at all, it contained two orange coloured moist flannels instead!

 

Later, we took off toward Mortimers Cross finding the twisties on the way ending up on top of Clee Hill for a drink on the bench to admire the view. While sat there this chap - Pete as I found out his name later rode past a few times before pulling up and joining us. Nice to speak to fellow GSers, he was on his way home to Stafford on his very tidy 13 plate, and I guess needed a bit of company. A native of North Wales who moved to Stafford recently so good to swap stories for a bit while keeping our distance as best we could. This social distancing thing can make life a bit awkward sometimes. 

Great to ride with Ron after all of this time, and glorious weather too that continued for the rest of the week. After a bit of work in the garden Thursday, Friday and Saturday I decided to go out for a ride on the Sunday too. For this one I wanted to get out early while the air was still cool and the roads quiet. I left home at 7:40 am toward Bridgnorth past the closed Quatt cafe passing a few bikes with a few sportsbike riders out having fun passing me near Alveley. This morning was great. I connected my phone music app via the helmet comms to get some tunes playing that had to be the Doobie Brothers to get me in the rhythm of the ride.  No GPS this time just make it up as I go, first down toward Craven Arms before switching across to Ludlow via the racecourse road, then down to Richards Castle and traversing up and down toward Leintwardine before doubling back to Tenbury Wells then on to that brilliant twisty road down to Clifton on Teme, doubling back again to Caynham to Clee Hill and Clows Top. So good to get in the groove and just continue riding for a good 3 or 4 hours. 

Somewhere out near Clows Top

 

The new screen, loads more protection now.

View from Clee Hill towards the Malverns in the distance.

What a great week off and some brilliant local roads to ride. Such glorious weather too, is it really Spring? This week has been more like Summer.

Bimbling about at last, catching flies

With lockdown now relaxed to allow unlimited travel to meet with one other person, myself and Mark enjoyed a long awaited ride out last Saturday afternoon up and down the English side of the Welsh border (Welsh roads are still forbidden) starting out in Tenbury Wells, we took the scenic route down through St Michaels, and then out via Leominster back up past Shobdon and on to Mortimers Cross before heading up in to Shropshire before winding home via Morville and Kinlet. It was so good to get out and ride after all of these months. A sunny day today but unfortunately the flies weren't keeping to social distancing rules, I couldn't believe the splatter on my screen and helmet visor. For sometime I've been thinking of replacing the stock GS screen for a taller, wider aftermarket one that might offer better protection and really fancy a 'smoked' colour to better match the bike too. I quite like the Puig screen Mark has fitted to his Versys, and found they produce a nice tall touring one for the GS, so perhaps now was the time to try one?

One advantage of working from home is the immediate freedom to finish work and quickly take off on an evening ride out before tea, so on Tuesday this is what I did, heading up and over over Wenlock Edge and out to Church Stretton before continuing over the wonderful Shropshire summit top of Long Mynd. A good two hours riding pleasure as the sun came down casting long shadows as I head home using a similar route as Saturday but this time along the now quiet twisty Bridgnorth road down through Quatt. On the way I was forced to stop outside Bridgnorth to clean the splatter off my visor again, bemoaning how I do miss the protection I had on my last GS with that Givi Airflow screen, but unfortunately that screen isn't an option for this later model, so on my return I started sourcing a Puig 6486 Touring screen. They do several colour varieties ranging from clear, light smoke, dark smoke and black. I sent my order off to Will who has an Amazon Prime account, he ordered me the 6486H - light smoke hopefully delivered in time for fitting at the weekend.

 

 On my headlight and some in my teeth!

The new screen arrived Friday evening, well packaged and excellent quality with the edges bevelled nicely, and no apparent distortion and was well protected in its wrapper with very clear fitting instructions. I removed the lower cowling first, and then four screws to remove the old screen and the reverse to fit the Puig by reusing the rubber grommets from the stock screen.  

 

So, here's the stock screen (left) for comparison with the new Puig screen (right). The new one is 13cm taller and a good deal wider too. No doubt it will offer more fly protection. While sat on the bike on the lowest setting I can still see clear over the screen which is a good thing and avoids the top of the screen distorting the view but it's always a concern when fitting a new screen we don't introduce buffeting on the helmet, so I accept it will be a trial and error affair getting the correct height to match my height and helmet profile. Its possible to get some additional support brackets to firm up the screen flexing too, both from Puig and Cymarc, but for now I'll try the new screen without the brackets until I have test rode it this week during my week off work. 

 

So, here's the new Puig light smoked screen fitted. I do like the colour and think it matches my bike well. Can't wait to get out and try it sometime this week, but for today I'm just happy to look at my clean bike instead, without the dead fly splatter all over the front!