First Service

 

So, with just 12 miles left to hit the magic 300, we set off in the sun on the 50ish mile journey back to the dealers in Stafford for her first service. 

After 12 miles, the 40 mph restriction was gone and I can now run the engine up to the heady heights of 50mph! But that 10pm makes all the difference, meaning you can ride the bike much more normally and naturally (albeit still not going into the higher areas of the rev range) whereas up to this point it has felt like most of the focus was on managing speed. A lovely run along a very similar route to the journey to Rob’s a couple of weeks ago. 

They wanted the bike there overnight so that the engine would be stone cold when they adjusted the tappets so lent me a loan car overnight and I continued on down to see Rob for the night then made my way back the next morning. 

The loan car was a well used Mini Countryman and what a perfect contrast between Royal Enfield getting the retro thing exactly right with the Classic 350 compared to BMW creating a cartoon comedy version of the Mini, that actually had (to me) no particular redeeming features. The dash reminded me of a cheap Amstrad hi-fi from the 80s! Nasty thing - I was very glad to give it back.

The return journey was equally as pleasant, though a bit less sunny. I can’t say that she felt radically different after the service, but I think I would actually be somewhat disappointed if things had deteriorated so much as to be noticeable after only 300 miles!

Running in

We did the first 54 miles on the delivery day while the sun was out, taking in my favourite roads around Wirral - Puddington, Burton, Neston and stopped at Parkgate and West Kirby for a couple of rests for the new tight engine. She lived up to my hopes and exceeded them significantly. Can't wait to get more miles on her as the weather improves.

A few days later, I needed to call in to see Andy before he moved up to start his new job in the Lake District, so we were out for another 40 or so miles, again around Wirral. Everything feels nice and I'm settling in to the slow plod of 40mph!

Just about 21 or 22 years separate these photos :-)

The weather deteriorated then for a week or so, but I was itching to get out for a longer run so on the first nice day I did a run to Tamworth and back to show the new bike off to Rob. I used the Calimoto app to plot a quiet route along the twisties, so it took a while but she is in her element on the country lanes and I wasn't often holding other traffic up.

We stopped at Wrenbury Mill lift bridge to let a canal boat by and it seemed like we'd been transported back in time!

A couple of hours break in Tamworth and then I headed for home. By this time we were approaching 200 miles and I started to just let her have a little more freedom as we worked through the gearbox - everything is feeling very smooth and restrained! 

I was in the saddle for over 5 hours altogether and felt pretty fresh at the end of it, which bodes well for our journey to Spa in a month or so. By the time we got back we were within spitting distance of completing the first 300 miles, so she is booked in to go back down to Stafford next week for her first service. It will be nice to have the freedom to go wild at 50 for the next thousand miles as we do part 2 of the running in!

New Bike Day!

Well today was birthday and Xmas all wrapped up into one! For the first time ever, I bought a new vehicle. I had been an ardent admirer of the new Royal Enfield Classic 350 since it came out here in 2022 - seemed to be exactly my type of bike.

For about 12 months now I have been mulling around whether I was better off having the '61 Crusader as a "true" classic bike or, for not a lot more money, swapping it for a modern version of the same thing, with lots of the feel and character but also reliability and modern brakes etc built in. But I have put so much work into the Crusader restoration that I didn't really want to let her go. In theory, she should be reliable for longer journeys, but at the end of the day she's a 62 year old bike and, more importantly, a 62 year old design. Having used the G5 for some extended journeys over the last year, I am very familiar with the feeling of hoping that you will get to the destination without incident. (We always have done, but you still worry, just because it's an old bike.)

Finally, I realised that the two things are very different aspects of the "hobby" of motorcycling, rather than alternatives. E.g. if I was into classic cars, I would probably have a classic for taking to shows etc and a modern car for enjoying driving adventures. Applying that to my bikes, I obviously needed to have my '61 Crusader for local runs out / taking to shows etc and a nice modern bike for my longer distance adventures!!

I don't have room for 2 classics and the 250 G5 was always a stop gap to give me something on the road last year, so she is currently for sale. The Finance Committee approved putting the money I get from the sale of Gloria towards a new bike. 

The only "modern" bike I was really interested in was the Classic 350, so I started looking around at nearly new examples. To cut a long story short, I was offered an exceptionally good deal on a brand new bike and some accessories, which actually ended up a bit cheaper than the second hand bike I was looking at! I snapped their hands off.

It had to be a stock Bronze Chrome version, which was my second choice of colour but actually having seen it out in the open I absolutely love it. I ordered some genuine Royal Enfield canvas panniers and frames to be fitted. (I actually ordered black ones but the dealer got it wrong and it turned up with brown. However, I think she looks way better like that!)

After a very long 2 week wait, she was delivered today by Roger. 

Here is the happy new owner.

I reckon those panniers look amazing!

So now I have to do the initial 300 mile running in period at a maximum 70kph / 44mph, which feels very slow but is made easier by the relaxed character built into the bike. 

Longer journey to the Midlands

I had a long overdue trip planned to visit the National Motorcycle Museum with Rob. The weather forecast was really good - no rain and temperatures starting to creep up. At just about 100 miles, it was a longer journey than I’ve done so far on Gloria but everything has been running fine so I decided to put my faith in her and give her a longer journey to stretch her legs.

We stuck to A roads - A41 south, then the A5 (the route of the old Roman road known as Watling Street) towards Tamworth and then the A38 down past Birmingham to the Museum which is just near the NEC. 

All in, it took just over 2.5 hours with a couple of short stops just to stretch my legs.

Rob arrived shortly after and we went into the museum to be met my hordes of men carrying pistols and rifles - there was also a “military” fair on there 😳. 

The museum is amazing. Over 850 British bikes on display and apparently at least one example of the more than 130 British bike manufacturers that have existed at various times.

It was nice for me to see an example of how my Royal Enfield would have looked when it was newly delivered to a dealer in 1961. I appear to have got most things right on mine and entertained Rob by turning into a super-geek, identifying a couple of areas where they hadn’t quite got it right. God, I never thought I would turn into one of those “types”!

We got to saturation point and couldn’t stand to look at anymore - fortunately as we were in the last hall - so we mounted up and took the back roads for a 20 mile spin back to Rob’s place in Tamworth.

So 120 miles today and Gloria didn’t miss a beat. My confidence in her has taken another leap forwards.

Monday morning we had a lazy breakfast and then I hit the road for the journey back. Slightly shorter at about 80 miles. The weather was gorgeous although it did get quite blustery for half an hour or so. 

I stopped off at the Lockside Cafe - one of my favourites if I’m passing through Whitchurch on the bike - and had a bite to eat and a coffee sat outside in the sun, watching the canal boats go up and down the staircase lock there.

So, another excellent adventure. We aren’t doing the Manx Grand Prix this year but have an even bigger adventure planned in May. This was a bit of a trial to see how confident I was in Gloria managing longer distances and she passed with flying colours, so we’re Full on with planning “the big one” now. Watch this space.

First trip out of 2023

The start of February 23 has seen the early indications of spring. Most of my time over winter has been spent working on the house and, more recently, a big push to finish the restoration of my 1962 Royal Enfield Crusader, but I've been itching to get back out on Gloria.

My son Rob was visiting the area for the weekend on his 125 Grom, so we took the chance to get out for a couple of hours around the lovely roads of North Wales. 

I'd been really slack, putting Gloria away after her last trip out sometime around October and hadn't drained the fuel tank, so I was half expecting some problems starting but, after pumping some fuel through on the starter and quickly cleaning up one of the spark plugs, she fired up and settled into a nice steady idle ☺ I put a dose of Redex into the tank to give any winter fuel build up a chance to clear.

I forgot to take any photos but we did a lovely 75 miles through two areas of outstanding national beauty, with a stop in Ruthin for lunch and to warm up! Gloria ran faultlessly.

Lovely stuff and can't wait to get out again soon.

Manx Grand Prix Adventures

My son, Rob, and I have been fairly regular visitors to the Isle of Man for both the TT races in May/June and also the Manx Grand Prix / Classic TT races in August, but it was 5 years since we both last went. So a plan was hatched that Gloria's first big adventure would be the 2022 Manx Grand Prix. 

Rob's daily rides tend to be big sportsbikes but, to keep things fair, he came on his little Honda 125 "Grom". The bikes turned out to be pretty evenly matched up to about 55mph, then the G5 still had something left in reserve. But the Grom's luggage capacity was nil and Rob had a huge backpack load on the way there and back.

Gloria was prepared and waiting as Rob travelled the 2 hour journey up from the Midlands to Chester.

We managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before quietly sneaking out into the road and setting off at 1am, bound for Liverpool Pier Head and the IoM Ferry.

Gloria made it onto the ferry without incident and was tied down with the other bikes for the 2.5 hour journey.

We got to the campsite at Douglas Rugby Club before 7am and very quietly set up our tents before snuggling down into sleeping bags to catch up on a couple of hours sleep.

There was supposed to be a practice session and the first race on our first day, but variable weather across the island meant that the racing was postponed and then cancelled. We had a great day over on the west side of the island though, heading out to pay our respects to the fairies before exploring around Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin and included taking in a couple of laps of the Southern 100 road circuit.

The "roads closed" time for Saturday racing was postponed by a couple of hours, so we took the chance to do a lap of the 37.74 mile course. We've done that many times over the years but this was the first time on smaller bikes and we both loved it being able to have a blast without ever feeling like you were riding beyond the bike's limits. Gloria had the upper expanses of her rev range tested out and passed admirably - made me laugh later when Rob referred to them calling a good thrashing an "italian decoke" when they are struggling to set bikes up at work.

Finally, we made our way to our first vantage point at the bottom of Barregarrow, a fast left hander with a vicious dip on the bend to unsettle the bikes. 

We watched the "practice lap" for Senior GP and Classic Superbikes followed by the postponed lightweight 250 race from here and then made our way up the lanes on the inner part of the island to get up onto the top of the mountain part of the circuit, at Brandywell for the Junior (supertwins) race. I find the variety of scenery on the course stunning and it was lovely being up there in the sunshine for the first race.

And to round off our "spectating from places beginning with B" day, we then made our way back down the lanes to Bradden Bridge. I adore spectating from there - it completely sums up the madness of the place, sitting on a stone wall 10' above the circuit, with an ancient oak tree plonked in the middle of the chicane, and a churchyard full of spectators opposite! To see, hear and smell the Classics racing through there is most definitely one of my real happy places in life. Rob is the 3rd generation of Shearers to spectate from there, as my mum and dad also used to go there in the 50s.

A wonderful day, with excellent riding, company and weather, was rounded off in the Rugby Club bar, where we shared a pint with a lovely French couple, Evelyne and Francis, visiting for the first time from Pau in the Pyrenees. What an adventurous pair, backpacking around England and Ireland (and wherever else took their fancy!) in their 70s.

Sunday was a non-race day and we did more exploring. We went up to the Grandstand and explored the pits; then went down into Douglas and were again struck by how bizarre the IoM is as a horse drawn tram trundled past our row of parked bikes on the prom.

While we were parked up, Rob spotted that Gloria was having an OCD moment...

We also did another lap of the circuit and I was chuffed that one of the photographers got a couple of good shots of us approaching and taking the Gooseneck, as we headed up onto the mountain.

We took the back road from Douglas out to Laxey and had ice creams on the beach and then made our way up to the Point of Ayre in the remote North Eastern part of the island where, for a minute or two, we were the most northerly people on the island!

On the way back, we swapped bikes for a while. The Grom was great fun - tiny and very flickable and surprisingly good acceleration for a 125, but I was glad to get back on Gloria 😁It did give me a chance to see what she looked and sounded like though while Rob was riding her.

The last day of racing was the bank holiday Monday. Three new vantage points for me today, the first being Ramsey Hairpin for the practice lap. One of Rob's work colleagues was racing (see next two videos) and it gave a really different perspective to understand the financial and time commitment that he had made to be there.

Next we moved a short distance up the circuit to the Gooseneck to watch the Senior race (which was where we had been "papped" the previous day 😄) .

And then for the final race we decided to head to Windy Corner on the way down from the mountain. It looked on the map like we could get quite close on the bikes and then walk the final part, but the last part of the track was on a goat track up the mountain! We ended up walking about a mile and a half in leathers up a 700' climb. It took us so long that we missed the first lap and just saw the second lap coming around, but then we also got to see the last 2 laps. Again, spectacular scenery and we were kindly offered a lift back down to our bikes by a couple of island residents in their Jeep.

That evening, we headed into Peel for fish and chips and then back to the campsite for a couple of pints of Bushys Ale. I found this plaque in the bar that they were selling and presented it to Rob in recognition of a fantastic few days!

So, our last day finally arrived and we had the morning spare before heading for the afternoon ferry. After packing up our gear, we headed off to Jurby Airfield where the VMCC had organised a race / track parade. As always, it was as interesting looking around the bike park, as it seemed that every visitor on a motorbike had descended there!

We then raced back to the campsite to pack the tents away and headed down to the ferry terminal, arriving with minutes to spare before the official check-in time! 

So, to sum up, a wonderful few days in motorcycling heaven. Gloria performed flawlessly, other than the iffy float valve that I've been working around and will fix in due course. In total, we did just under 400 miles and I really started to get to know her character and how best to ride her. There were some hills where some extra power would have been nice, but none that we couldn't make it up by changing down a gear and taking it easy! A lot of the time, it was me trying to ride her like the big bikes I've had in the past and relying on raw power!

Roll on the next adventure.

Day out - Middlewich Classic Car and Bike Show

I was feeling confident enough now to take a trip out to the Middlewich Show, just a half hour or so ride away on 16 - 17th July.

It was a lovely sunny weekend - perfect riding weather and I went up on the Sunday. Gloria rode beautifully on the way there, and I found that my work around for the weeping float valve worked well (apart from the time I forgot to turn the fuel back on and she started spluttering as she ran out!!)

There were some lovely bikes there from all eras and Gloria drew some admiring glances and sparked up some great conversation as always.

There were some great cars there as well - one that caught my eye was a Lada 1300, that I was amazed was still in existence, as they used to rot so badly. My sister had one that I took my test in and it used to break down with amazing regularity. It only just made it around my test route! This one hadn't been restored but had obviously been well sheltered for most of it's life.

And then there was a lovely display of old Minis of most variants. Who doesn't love an old Mini?

The journey home was equally as nice - one of those where you start to think whether there is a way to extend the route as you get towards home, so you can enjoy things for just a bit longer 😁. It was lovely to start to feel the confidence building in Gloria now, that she'll get me home from our adventures each time.