An impromptu ride today for an hour or so, a 'toss up' between watching the Six Nations Rugby - Scotland v Wales or jump on my GS and make the most of the dry weather after all of the recent rain with more rain forecast for Sunday.
The bike ride option won, so a couple of hours before the England vs Italy match I took off in the direction of Bridgnorth again, a few other bikers had the same idea with riders out near Quatt and the cafe. I was surprised to see quite a few Sports bikes out despite the cold.
This time, I took the left turn after the by-pass toward Kinlet near the Punch Bowl in the direction of Highley. I love this road ideal for a GS, a bit gnarly and bumpy in parts and quite a bit of mud and gravel in the road but great to get out and thread through the lanes near Deuxhill and Billingsley. I chose the right turn signposted to Cleobury Mortimer taking the back road up the side of Clee Hill via Cleeton St Mary and popping out a bit later in Cleobury town via one of side roads.
I rarely get to stop this side of Clee Hill (one of the six Shropshire summits) , so decided to pull over to take in the view, grab a photo and shuffle the play-list on my phone before turning right just after Cleobury toward Pensax. Yet another great motorcycle road with a fast ride across the high ridge down to Great Whitley with good views of distant Worcestershire countryside below. No real traffic to contend with either this afternoon, and sadly the trees showing no signs of buds just yet, winter is still well and truly with us despite the mild weather a week or so ago.
I really enjoyed this short ride today and I'm finally starting to feel like I belong in the saddle again at last after the Winter layup, I was playing a bit with the suspension modes on my GS too, switching between Dynamic and Auto settings and good to feel the system react to the road conditions. What a great bike, so for a change at Dunley I took the narrow lane up to Heightington and out through Bliss Gate. Haven't been up here for a while and reminds of my early Sunday morning 'razz' with Dean Peplow as a teenager on my 2 stroke Suzuki. It bought a smile to my face as I came up the hidden dip section as the road 'crowns' up for us to try and jump all of those years ago.
Feeling the cold by now, I switched the heated grips on to warm my hands. It wasn't long before my hands were feeling the benefit too, I'm convinced BMW heated grips seem to get hotter the faster you ride - kind of regulated it seems. Anyway, back down through Bewdley and home just before the England/Italy match, parking up in my garage with a grin. Not long now before a good ride into Wales 👍
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