Mini Adventure to Bristol

My confidence in Doris is increasing the more I ride her. I'd arranged to call down to see my good friends Clive and Sue in Bristol - not seen them for ages, so it was great to have the chance to catch up.

The original plan was to go down there on the Saturday, stay overnight, then come back via Stafford showground for the Classic Bike Show. When the weather forecast slowly started to improve through the week before, I started to think I might get a nice last weekend's riding in before Autumn bites hard? But I was a bit concerned about taking Doris - it's a 4.5 hour, 175 mile ride each way (avoiding motorways) and she is an old girl after all! I was all for taxing and MOTing the VFR for the journey - it was No 1 son Rob's blind faith that persuaded me to use Doris - he kindly pointed out that she'd never let us down in the Isle of Man, so would obviously be fine!

So I went with it and set off in lovely weather on Saturday morning. The plan was to take the A41 down through Cheshire, then onto the A49 to Hereford; A466 down to the Severn bridge and finally a little bit of the M4 to Clive & Sue's at Pucklechurch. I was in no rush and factored in 2 or 3 stops to give the old girl a rest :).

Well my need was the greater for the first (loo) stop! But it was a good place to pull in - at the Lockside Cafe at Grindley Brook locks on the Llangollen Canal. I have now visited the cafe by canal boat, walking, cycling and by motorbike!

Anyway, the journey was pretty uneventful but really, really nice. I stopped for lunch at Craven Arms in Shropshire and then continued south - the roads getting nicer as I got further into the journey. The A466 was particularly good.

As usual, Doris performed flawlessly. On the way, it occurred to me that this was not only my longest journey on Doris but my longest single motorbike journey ever as far as I can recall!

Clive and I have previously done a few visits to the Isle of Man for the TT but his Triumph Sprint has spent several years under a tarpaulin while he was converting his house and building his garage. It was nice to see that Doris has inspired him to recommission the Sprint and we spent a pleasant hour discussing what he'd need to do to return it to it's former glory (not a lot really - the pitted fork stanchions being the worst damage). He has been set a deadline of TT 2013!

Clive took Doris out for a spin up the road - the first time I have seen her being ridden!

The return journey on Sunday was more eventful. First of all I passed literally hundreds of Harleys coming in the opposite direction - not sure where they had been but obviously some big event. Then I tagged onto a gang of "bros" heading my way! It took me 10 minutes or so to pluck up the courage to overtake them - I thought they might hunt me down and tear my head off for disrespecting them, but they all peeled off into Tintern Abbey tea rooms shortly after, for afternoon tea and scones I assume!

The weather turned quite cold and misty as I got nearer home. I had upped the pace a bit, as I left later than planned, but was still only doing 55 - 60 most of the time (I'd given up the idea of heading to Stafford). For a short spell on the motorway, I had her up past 70 for the first time, which was a lot more relaxed than I'd assumed it would be.

As it turned to twilight, I noticed that the headlight was only on the sidelight. I pulled over, and the tail light was also out. I was only 10 miles or so from home and it was too gloomy to start repairing anything at the roadside, so I used main beam and angled the headlight down a bit, then wound up the stop light switch so it was permanently on and took it easy on the rest of the way home. 

She never missed a beat all the way, but a couple of issues have come to light that need looking at: 

• the horn stopped working - probably just a tweak of the adjuster.
• the start button has got progressively harder to use - needs pulling apart and cleaning. That may also be the problem with the headlight and taillight?
• most worryingly, the base gasket is still leaking. Not enough to be a huge problem but disappointing. I will pull the top end off again at some point and use some original Honda gaskets with sealant to try and cure that.

All in all though, a great journey. Loving riding her, particularly the sound pulling away through the gears around 2000 - 4500 rpm :),  and I'm so pleased that she did such a long journey without major drama. Probably not much use in store before Spring 2013 now :(.

Postscript: When I came to try and fix the bulbs, the battery was flat as a pancake and wouldn't respond to a charge. It looks like it boiled dry - classic symptoms of Regulator/Rectifier failure apparently - i.e. too much voltage going to everything. Maybe that long faster ride home over heated it? Anyway, I'll order a new one (and a new battery probably :( ) and see how we get on. I hope the battery is the "sacrifice" and damage hasn't spread to other components like the CDI.

Wednesday - last day (boo hoo)

The wind and rain really whipped up again over Tuesday night but, thankfully it was pretty clear by the morning, which really helped as Wednesday was our last day, so we had to pack the tent and all the gear away - so much easier if it's dry!

Soon we were all packed up and heading off for the, by now, customary breakfast at the swimming pool.

Two races on the programme today - firstly the 500cc Classic GP/Formula Classic, then the  Supertwin/Lightweight Manx GP. The plan was to head out to Ballacraine and watch the first race from there, then follow the back roads round to Bray Hill so that we were nice and handy for the ferry after the race finished.

So out to Ballacraine. I remembered watching TT Practice from there many years back and not being really very struck with it, but I really enjoyed it this time - I think it was the slower speeds of the older machines and the great sounds reverberating off the old pub walls as they headed off down the exit.

How good is this video?.......

(credit - Mr Rob S :))

Rob was very taken with this group of nicely restored sports mopeds. 

I think they were Austrian from memory and really hope they came over in a van!

So we then followed the back roads to Bray Hill. I have never spectated from there and thought it would be too fast to enjoy, but it was magnificent. A great view as the bikes hammered down that, oh so steep, hill then bottomed out in front of us and carried the momentum up towards Ago's leap. Truly spectacular. We saw some nasty weaves there. A rider had been killed just up the road in practice and I think that was the start of it for him :(

Rob at Bray Hill (hairdressers!)

This photo really doesn't begin to show how steep this hill is....

Exit heading off towards Ago's leap and then down to QuarterBridge. 

In case you're wondering, the barriers are moved before the race starts ;)

This gives a better impression of the hill and dip.

LOVED hearing those 2 strokes racing in earnest again :) and the Supertwin class is really good as well.

This turned out to be quite a sad day - In the first race of the day, Ryan Farqhuar (who Rob and I have both followed for quite a time) won the first race, the 500 Classic. Then in the second race, his team bikes were running first and second, when one crashed out. Nigel Moore went on to take the win for Ryan's KMR Kawasaki team. Sadly, it was announced after the race that the other rider (Trevor Ferguson) had received fatal injuries in his crash. Trevor was Ryan's uncle.....  Unsurprisingly, Ryan announced his retirement from road racing the following week. He has nothing left to prove after such a successful career.

Sadly, the journey was now over and we had to head for the ferry. Doris continued to perform flawlessly (apart from stalling on the way up the ramp - I'd forgotten to turn the petrol on..... (blush)), and before we knew it we were home again. A fantastic few days away and she came through with flying colours. Now Rob is as besotted as I am!!

So impressions of the Manx v TT? Well I probably preferred it I think. It's chalk and cheese really, but the slower pace and classic nature of the Manx swings it for me. Will we be back next year? Definitely! In fact we are seriously looking at going for longer next year and joining the marshalling teams for some of it. Watch this space.....

But I think we'll do a homestay next year - I'm getting too old for camping in the rain!!