Mark's big Bike Ride blog: 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.