Northumberland and the Borders

A few great days was spent touring Northumberland and the Scottish Borders with Mark recently. We both agreed on a four day, long weekend trip up North so I started researching a few routes found in ABR and the Simon Weir Biking Britain book and decided to meet up on the Thursday night at the very friendly Redwell Inn in Barnard Castle. I was first to arrive with an afternoon spent riding through the Peak District, stopping just past Bakewell en-route. Mark arrived about 8.15 following a fast route up via Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. It was a hot days ride for both of us, however a few beers while waiting for him then a few more afterwards saw us grab a Pizza and more drinks to follow in the bar chatting to the bar staff. The following morning after a hearty breakfast we took the pre-planned route up through the North Pennines, Kielder Forest and on to the Otterburn ranges through the Northumberland National Park to Alnwick and up to Berwick upon Tweed for the second night stopover. 

 

A visit to Hadrians Wall was a must, so we met the A69 near Haltwhistle following the Wall to a stop and view at Steel Rigg to get up close to a section with some magnificent views as it winds its way over the hillside. On the way we linked up with a few other GS riders and tagged on to their convoy before leaving them at a junction to wave and go our separate ways. 

Our next intended route was to take in the Kielder Forest Trail, a gravel 12 mile section through the forest that was fun. It's not too challenging, mostly gravel chippings but following Mark, myself and my GS were soon covered in a fine powdery dust. The scenery was spectacular and the ride to and from the trail through the forest is a good fast road with quite a few twisties. I thoroughly recommend the trail, it is a toll route costing a few quid but well worth it. 

 

Alnwick was our next stop after riding along the Otterburn Ranges out to the picturesque village of Elsdon. I seem to recall us following some scenic moorland too before stopping at the Castle, otherwise known as Hogwarts School from the Harry Potter movies. 

Later in the afternoon we took the steady coastal road up through the seaside town of Seahouses with the wonderful Bamburgh Castle on the horizon looking magnificent overlooking the sea from up high. Another short stop and walk out across the cricket pitch took us to the beach. Excellent sand and a great stretch of coast too. 

 

At Berwick we stayed at the very nice Kings Arms Hotel. Ideal for bikes with an alleyway around to a convenient parking spot just outside the main doors. A quick wash and brush up and we were soon out for an evening meal seated outside in the sun at Limoncello, a really popular Italian Restaurant for some Mediterranean Fayre and Cocktails. A few more beers later and we ended up spending the rest of the night drinking Newcastle Brown Ale in a local night club watching the locals having their fun and games on the dance floor before getting back to the Kings Arms around 3 am knowing full well we would both pay for it in the morning!

 

 

Another Full Breakfast and much in fear of putting back on the three stone I'd lost over last Autumn/Winter we took a slight southerly route across to Holy Island, otherwise known as Lindisfarne riding the bikes over the tidal causeway. There’s a window of opportunity before being closed off from the mainland at around 1.30pm so we changed into shorts and ditched the bike gear to take a quick hike up near the monastery for a view out to sea before leaving the island crossing the border into Scotland and taking the mountain route across Dumfries and Galloway.

 

An afternoon stop near St Mary's Loch at this Reservoir we found one of the largest man made dams in the UK and quite impressive.  A few people were wild camped on the shore and later as we rode through the amazing Border country scenery we saw whole families wild camped along the rivers edge, caravans, tents an motor homes galore. You could tell lock down rules had just been lifted that weekend and with the good weather they had all hit the road with the free to wild camp rules in mind as is permissible in Scotland.   

We stayed the night at the Rivendell B&B in Dumfries, another excellent place with bike safe parking. Nice spacious rooms followed by a walk down in to Dumfries town to try and find a decent Indian Restaurant. The one we did find was ok, but mad crazy service, not the best Jalfreizi but a few pints of Cobra after a stint in the local Weatherspoons hit the spot. Our chosen route was through Alston just past Scotch Corner into the Dales stopping briefly at the car park above with a little thought and strategy on how we could avoid the number plate recognition camera on the way out as we realised we had been there longer than the 20 minute grace period and could be charged £100 fine. Before cutting South East across to ride that twisty Helmsley run and on to Beverley we stopped for a great lunch at an Italian Cafe 'Uno Memneto' in Stokesley where I was served an amazing cheese omelette with some amazing chips. The chips are off my diet these days so I did wonder if they just tasted great because I hadn't had any for a while, but no they were really that good. If you are in Stokesley you must visit the Cafe. Great part of the world but today seemed busy on the road with plenty of tractors in the 23 degree heat meant by the time we got to the Holiday Inn in Hull via the road work diversions I was well tired but after a shower I was back in action ready for us to meet Alex for another good night on the town to include a Gin bar and real ale pubs with burger in the Weatherspoons. Good to meet Alex, and a fun night out. 

 

The following morning after a ride down to Barton upon Humber we both grabbed another Full Breakfast at the nature reserve and discovery centre right on the banks of the Humber overlooking the estuary we tracked south across the wonderful Lincolnshire Wolds to a lunch stop in Grantham before heading down to Melton Mowbray. Unfortunately the ride home wasn't that good, being a Monday it was congested with tractors and trucks  and my dash showing a temperature of 26 degrees at times it was quite arduous and I was pleased to arrive home tired and well cooked at around 6pm. However, all in all this was a great trip and really do recommend the North East, Northumberland for roads and scenery is sublime. The Border country of D&G is often ignored while racing to get to the Highlands so this trip was great to explore some more and get some long overdue touring adventure riding in too. 

Hex EzCAN .. fitted !

So recently the relay went faulty on my SW Motech Evo fog/running lights. I bought the LED lights with integral relay switch and wiring loom for my twin cam GS back in 2014 and since then transferred them to both LC GS’s. The relay was firing off the back of the accessory socket on the LC GS’s, this is at the front of the bike near the TFT and since the bike was under warranty meant I couldn’t get the relay positioned under the seat without cutting into the bikes wiring loom. Instead, back then I opted to tuck the relay under the ‘beak’ and use a clamp connector on the nearby accessory socket. 

Unfortunately, despite going to great lengths to wrap the relay in plastic some water still penetrated over time and the relay developed a current leak that drained the battery. A cheap fix would have been to rewire the light loom and replace with a new relay, but it still meant I had to cut into the bikes CanBUS system somewhere and risk invalidating the warranty. The most expensive solution for this would be to just go out and buy the BMW OEM fog lights and replace everything, but at £500 fitted by the dealer and knowing my lights worked perfectly well I started looking at other alternatives that allowed me to reuse the Evo lights and keep the Denali aftermarket light bar mount too.

 

 

The solution I chose in the end was to buy the Hex ezCAN device from Nippy Normans (£160). This small water resistant device not much bigger than an old style USB pen drive has four 10A output circuits designed for a variety of accessories and couples into the bikes CanBUS system without the need to cut cables and invalidate the bikes warranty. On the GS the coupling is via the RDC unit .. the Tyre pressure monitoring system under the pillion seat. Basically, you plug the ezCAN into the RDC unit and the original RDC plug connects to the ezCAN putting the device in series. Therefore, the CanBUS system has now been extended. You use software loaded onto a laptop to plug in via a micro USB connection to control and set each of the circuits to include the software ‘fuse’ ratings. By calculating the current draw from the lights total Watt value using ohms law I set up the red circuit for the lights. My lights are 15W each so, 30W / 12v = 2.5A. You need to add about 30% to allow initial spike in current at switch on so I chose to round up to a 3A limit. The unit can handle current spikes for the first second so this was adequate and works really well. I cut the relay and the handle bar switch out of the SW Motech wiring loom altogether, and extended the loom a little back to the ezCAN unit under the pillion seat by soldering additional wire on and sealing up with heat shrink sleeving. I retained the SW Motech waterproof connectors for the lights yet no longer need the handlebar switch to turn the lights on or off (as explained later) so no need to run cables around the handlebar anymore. The whole wiring exercise is much neater now with better weather protection.

I’m really impressed with the ezCAN unit, and CANBus itself. The lights can be programmed via the software to dim down at night and have two separate brightness levels, one for daylight running and nighttime. They are no longer simply on full for each. To switch current on or off the unit is programmed to use different existing switches on the bike e.g. for the red circuit I used for the lights the indicator switch cancel operation is reused so when pressed and held for 3 seconds toggles the lights on or off. Obviously there is no visual clue when riding (the indicator switch doesn’t light up) but the unit remembers the last state when the ignition is switched off so most of the time I ride with running lights on anyway. One simple option for the future would be to add a 10k resistor with small LED into the wiring loom as a visual clue near the front beak so I could look in and see if the circuit is live. It’s also possible to program the circuit to pulse when the horn is pushed causing the lights to flash as the horn sounds. Another programming option is to turn off the running lights when indicating in order to make the indicator light more visible to other road users.

A great product that works really well and made in the UK. I’m now looking to connect up other accessories e.g. wire my GoPro power, Phone and maybe buy a Denali Sound Bomb horn too

More info’ .. See: https://www.hexezcan.com/installation/r-series-lc/

To ride the Ring of Gwynedd!

Good fun on Sunday. Mark messaged me to join him on a ride he’d route plotted out to the Welsh seaside and back that would take us out to Aberdovey and on to Tywyn bay followed by Harlech and Penmaenpool near Barmouth with a return via Bala. He contacted Jason too and arranged to meet him in mid-Wales at the Crossgates Cafe bike stop, so a rendezvous time was arranged for 9.15 at the Diner in Leominster, followed by a ride out to Crossgates later. For me it started with a glorious early ride up to Leominster using that scenic route I love just after Tenbury. I was running a few minutes late and low on fuel and needing a full tank and can never understand how it takes me an age to get my stuff together and out on the road despite prepping the night before, but it seemed Mark was in a worst situation and had messaged me to say he’d overslept and would meet in 40 minutes or so. In the end we agreed to meet each other at the cafe too and by now I was enjoying a spirited ride out to Leominster in the sunshine. What I initially thought was low on traffic for a bank holiday weekend I found out at the OK Diner was ‘rammed’ with cars and groups of bikes all with the same idea, a bit like a scene from the ‘Wacky Races’ .. all of us fuelling up ready for the race out West and who could blame us after lockdown 3.0? I took a gentle ‘bimble’ through the timber framed village of Pembridge, briefly considering a stop at the dairy to get some more of that wonderful ‘Blue Monk’ cheese I love but deciding against stopping again just yet, instead joining the A44 keeping an eye out for the ‘Ant Hill Mob’ driving the ‘Chugga Boom’. There were certainly a few ‘Peter Perfects’ out today that’s for sure!

While waiting for Mark and Jason at Crossgates, I got chatting to a friendly couple I’d met before who had ridden down from Malvern and later saw a group of Ducati riders who were meeting for a run out in the sunshine. I must say the Panigale (pani-garley) featured in the above pic (left) had my vote. Without doubt the most beautiful looking machine and so too the 1198 next to it. Mark arrived first, followed soon after by Jason and after a slight change to the route allowing us to ride Jason’s option around part of the famous ‘Mach Loop’ we were well on our way with Mark leading out to Rhayader and onto some new roads I don’t think I’d ridden before. I did find Jason’s paper route in a water proof case as a GPS replacement a great idea. At least it wouldn’t keep recalculating every time we headed of piste, the old ways are often the best and good to not rely too much on technology today as I’m all for ‘winging’ it these days and exploring as we go. Jason was riding his FJR, a nice machine and a tidy ex-blood bike he’d bought at a good price in great condition. Really good to meet up with him again after such a long time and good to get the lowdown on his blood bike activities and IAM assessment. I’ve been thinking of joining an advanced motorcycle group this year and getting some training in, but can’t decide on ROSPA or IAM. At least I have a better idea now to try and find a group I like that suits me.

 

Our ride passed through Llanidloes and around the eastern edge of the Clywedog Reservoir. Good to see several Red Kites up close hovering around the waters edge and we all had few near misses dodging pheasants with Jason almost colliding with a young lamb wandering out on the road. One pheasant seemed to fly right under my bike and just as I thought I’d killed it, it flew off within inches from my head. Our lunch stop was at the beach front at Tywyn and we joined the queue at the fish and chip shop. I’m not doing lunch these days but took today as an exception ordering a mini cod and chips sitting in the sun to eat, chat and look out to to sea for a change. On the way out of Tywyn I did notice a huge queue for the famous honeycomb ice cream this time, unlike last time when it was shut due to Covid.

 

The coastal road up toward Barmouth is something quite special, and as Mark suggested is like the Welsh ring of Kerry. The sea in parts were azure blue with a series of stone walls surrounding fields from the coastline, it did remind me of our trip over to South West Ireland a few years ago. Very picturesque, as I continued to follow along at the rear to the wooden toll bridge at Penmaenpool. I do enjoy stopping and admiring this bridge. I was here a few years ago on my own and have wanted to come back for a while. It’s quite peaceful passing over it, and the surrounding area known as the Mawddach Valley and Estuary, a great habitat for all sorts of wildlife, I’d really like to stay over and explore on foot for a day or so sometime. 

Since time was pressing on we had decided to drop Harlech off the route plan and head inland instead. The run down to Bala and then on to Welshpool was fun and the sun was still shining with the odd cloud cover in parts by the time we stopped it was now past 6pm. The quick route home for me would be across to Knighton, Craven Arms and Tenbury etc, but Mark suggested we could ride down to Newtown and back to Crossgates to see Jason on his way down south. Despite the late time, that twisty run along the A483 towards Llandrindod Wells had my vote but not before phoning home and suggesting Helen might like to cook tea tonight instead. Thankfully she agreed and with the weather changing now we had a cooler, slightly damp yet fun ride down to the garage at Crossgates, rolling onto the forecourt with a mere 8 miles range left in the tank and my heated grips on full. I was getting concerned since every other petrol station I passed had closed by now and thankfully, although the cafe was closed the service station was still up and running. Myself and Mark said farewell to Jason (I do hope we get to meet up again soon for another ride), and off we both went for a bit of a blast home, taking it steady on the wet bends but having some more fun nonetheless. I arrived home just after 8pm to a ‘banging’ cottage pie and a nice bottle of Butty Bach to top of such a great day with great company. Many thanks chaps 👍😁.

When you have to ride, Ride! Don’t talk.

Ok so a play on words from .. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” ... the scene when ‘Tuco’ is in the bath and about to meet his fate, before pointing out how “When you have to shoot, Shoot!”. My indecision was similar, and undecided if I should go for a ride today. I kept talking about it, then couldn’t make my mind up and changed my mind several times, in the end the sun was shining so I just went for it, quickly plotting a simple route on my Navigator to follow the Wye river through that wonderful Mocas deer park estate to Bredwardine and then, after crossing the wooden toll bridge (free for bikes) into Hay before heading off towards Brecon turning off toward Builth Wells.

At Builth I ran the river run twice on the East side along the B4567 in a loop, tracking the river all the way following that stunning valley. The temperature now rising up to 15 degrees, what a great choice. At no point did I feel the need to put some music on, just listening to the bikes engine note humming along. At Builth I pulled up at the a Burger King next to a few bikes and ordered the smallest meal they did .. some chicken bite thing .. (tip don’t bother), before seeing the equally healthy Greggs opposite and stood chatting to a couple of chaps. One had ridden up from Pembrokeshire on his mint black Bandit 1200s. A few others joined the party including a couple on a K1600 fully loaded too. Later, I passed the Crosssgates cafe, the car park full of bikes as usual and took the turn off towards Knighton and on towards Clun. I spotted this old barn in Bledfa that looked interesting enough for a stop and photo. It looked ancient like it had stood there for hundreds of years. The roof slate was in a right state but the construction harks back to a time before brick and corrugated steel we see today.

 

While heading toward Craven Arms I took a left turn up to Clunton and did a loop around Clunbury up high along a narrow lane or two before winding my way near a small hamlet called Twitchen. Great being high on that ridge and I stopped to watch a huge Buzzard hovering not to far away. No fear of traffic up here, so I stopped the engine and admired the view from up high for a while before heading on home via the Bridgnorth road passing by the biker stop Cafe at Quatt. Definitely to shoot was the right decision, sometimes you can just overthink it, instead go for the ride .. I’m glad I did 😁.

Rollin’ On .. another ride, another Sunday

A couple of enjoyable ride outs this weekend in the warm spring sunshine. I started with a Saturday afternoon run out West to nip across the border down to Knighton and Newtown, just making it up as I go. I soon found myself riding back along that glorious Vale of Kerry (Ceri) and up to Church Stoke cutting across through Abermule and onto the outskirts of Welshpool with a brief stop at Buttington canal wharf before heading home via Much Wenlock from Shrewsbury. It seemed like hundreds of other bikes were out today too, including quite a few classics.

On Sunday afternoon after pre-prepping a tasty beef casserole I had left slow cooking in the oven, I couldn’t resist a few hours ‘laning’ around Tenbury Wells and stopping for a short break at the 13th Century St James church in the tiny village of Kimbolton (Herefordshire). The church and village are rumoured to be the last known sighting of Owain Glandwr, the famous Welsh Leader who attempted to put an end to English rule of Wales. I’ve often admired the church spire as you approach Leominster and close up with its rough cut brick facade it didn’t disappoint. A very peaceful stop to exercise a mindfulness moment, gazing out across the fields to the West while taking advantage of the relatively balmy 15 degree windless sunshine. 

 

At Leominster I chose the A44 back toward Worcester for a change, and had forgotten how twisty and fun that road could be before turning off at Knightwick and up the steep Ankerdine Hill past the Admiral Rodney pub and onto Great Whitley via Martley. A real sense of Spring with Summer on its way at last and the fields ablaze with the fragrant yellow colour of oil seed rape reminding me yet again of some wonderful trips away in Northern France. How I do look forward to a trip abroad sometime soon!

All the therapy you need ...

Finally, with an easing of  Covid Lockdown rules at last it’s time to head out on the ‘Perfect Vehicle’ in the Melissa Holbrook-Pearson sense and blow the ‘cobwebs’ away on a few sunny springtime weekend rides. Starting with Saturday afternoon I took a few hours ride around Herefordshire to re acquaint myself with some of those favourite roads and lanes. It’s been so long since I’ve been on my GS I really did feel ‘rusty’ and couldn’t get a smooth line through the bends to begin with. I’m either heading in too fast, or too slow or the wrong gear, but as I came back around toward Bromyard it all started to gel again. The quick shifter was my friend and this shift cam 1250 engine never ceases to make me smile as you get spinning up past 4 thousand revs it just takes off. As far as addictions go I’m hooked and having lost three stone in weight since last Autumn I can’t believe the difference being fitter makes while riding. Sure, I’ve lost a bit of ‘muscle memory’ too but with a few other life changes (new Job) after our sad loss of both Chris and Judy last year this latest lockdown has given me a renewed positive outlook ...good friends, family and motorbikes are all that matter ... of course!

 

Easter Sunday saw me head off toward the Welsh Border (no surprise there then). The sun was shining, it was warm enough with my liners in and winter gloves down to Bridgnorth, up to Craven Arms in Shropshire to find some new lanes around Lydbury North and then on to stop by the river at Clun. I parked up at the usual car park and sat chatting to a few other kindred spirits including a chap riding a very tidy Moto Guzzi Brevia. Without doubt the MG Twin Is a bike I really would like to own in the future maybe as a second bike, so too one of the later Triumph retro models after meeting the couple riding each of their own blacked out Triumph Street Twins. Very nice! 

 

While sat in the sun I couldn’t resist talking to the owners of those five well behaved Welsh Spaniels. Considering the owner was eating a slice of cake they were quite happy to sit and enjoy the sunshine too without fuss and were allowed to pose for my photo. Myself and Hayley have this real yearning for owning a dog these days especially after a recent visit to my Uncle to see his new Jack Russell puppy. Such ashame the Mrs is a cat person .. bah! 

So then, taking that road down toward Knighton hitting a few potholes I couldn’t seem to avoid (ouch) I was advised by my Guzzi riding comrade to avoid crossing the border and cut back along the lanes at New Invention which I did, and found a nice little route I hadn’t ridden before to Leintwardine, before riding back towards the Salwey Arms via Wigmore and more country delights. Motorcycles of all shapes and sizes were out everywhere, excellent afternoon, and back just in time to cook our one pot cassoulet and help Helen affix the brass plaque to the newly painted family garden bench in memory of Chris, one year on since his passing. A fitting tribute, to sit and have a nice cool beer in his honour after such a great ride.