IoM day 1

Well we successfully achieved the first objective, to get through the Mersey Tunnel to the ferry terminal. It was only a 45 minute journey but I’ve broken down twice in the tunnel (many years ago now) and I still have the heebie jeebies going through there on an old bike! 

I’ve still got a bit of a clutch drag issue when she’s warm but I’m managing to ride around it for now.

It was a pretty rough crossing and we arrived a little later than scheduled just before midnight, but by 12.30 I had my tent up and turned in for a decent kip. It was pretty windy though.

The following morning, I got the tent sorted properly and headed up to the grandstand to take the customary photo in pit lane and then signed on as a marshal.

Rather disconcertingly, I found I had a big oil leak from the oil filter cover. Of course, this happened in front of a couple of Swiss guys admiring the bike! I didn’t want to just wrench it down tight in case I stripped a thread but when I looked at it properly it had indeed just shaken loose a touch and was fine once I cinched it down tight.

It will be my first time marshalling - hoping to get my 3 “novice” sessions done this visit so I can make a fuller contribution if I come again in the future. I must say that I was very impressed with the goodie bag 🙂.

In the afternoon, the wind was still very gusty so I vouched not to put a lap in over the mountain but stayed low and sheltered. I headed out to Murray’s Motor Museum for the umpteenth time! What a fabulously chaotic place to spend an hour. Nice to see a couple of Crusaders there.

Then I carried on to Fairy Bridge to pay my respects, say hello and ensure safe passage round the Island. Not that I’m superstitious or anything…

In the evening I wandered up to Braddan to sign on for marshalling but 5 minutes later the session was cancelled due to poor visibility for the helicopter over the mountain.

So I headed back to the campsite and, as the wind had died down a bit, thought I’d try and get a lap of the circuit in. It was very windy and pretty foggy over the top but good fun and another nice milestone to tick off. 

We also passed 200 miles since the rebuild and 30,000 total miles on that lap, so it ended up being quite significant 🙂 She does feel like she’s starting to free up a bit. But also there is a fair amount of oil leaking from the head / valve cover area so definitely looking forward to doing an oil change and re-torquing of everything sometime soon.

Settled back at the campsite for the evening, I made something to eat and then headed over to the bar for a pint and a bit of a natter with my neighbours - a young couple on an AJS 650.

Anna P’s first trip to the Isle of Man

We now have 139 running in miles under Anna’s wheels and (touch wood) she continues to run nicely. I’ve done a couple of fettling bits to her over the past couple of weeks; most notably adjusted the gear change to hopefully improve selecting first and neutral when I come to a stop and I also fixed a small oil leak that was due to a small bolt having partially stripped its thread. A helicoil and copper washer seem so have cured that.

Anyway, now for the BIG TEST. Once I had some confidence in her, I wanted to take her over to the Isle of Man, just because I love being over there on a bike. When I looked at booking a ticket for a few days, it only cost me about an extra tenner to go during the Manx GP practice week. Well, it would have been rude not to …! So I’m on the evening ferry from Liverpool this evening (Sunday) and come back on Thursday evening. I have volunteered to marshal for the 4 practice sessions I’m there for, which is a new thing for me, but mostly I’m just looking forward to getting plenty of miles in around motorcycling heaven.

All ready for the off - I don’t travel light!

Wild Camping in the Lake District

At around the same time as I got the new Classic 350, my son started a new job up in the Lake District, so I'd been planning a journey up there for some time. It's a good few years since I've taken a bike up there but I love the little back roads in the National Park - exactly the sort of place where the Classic is in its element.

We decided to do a spot of wild camping while I was there, so the bike was well loaded up with both camping and walking gear.

I set the satnav for a "fun" route and looked forward to a full day's ride. 

After a couple of hours, we left the urban sprawl behind, heading through Garstang and Lancaster and then the hills of the Lakes started to come into view.

Another couple of hours saw us in Ambleside, where I stopped for a break and some water. 

We left the tourist areas behind, heading out into the small lanes towards Buttermere, but hadn't been going long before I came on a Road Closed sign and a diversion that immediately petered out to nothing! So began a very pleasant 45 minute ramble "following my nose" which was lovely riding but not very effective in terms of making ground! We covered some great forestry roads around the Langdales and Elterwater, before eventually picking up the route again at Grasmere.

From Grasmere we picked up the A591 along the shore of Thirlmere to Keswick before turning along the Derwentwater shore to Borrowdale and then over the very beautiful Honister Pass to my campsite at Syke Farm, Buttermere.

What a lovely site. The car park is separated from the camping area by a stream, giving the camping area a really nice calm atmosphere. This is no regimented flat field, but has tents perched on rocky outcrops and tucked away in little dips. Beautiful.

As I was going to be carting all my camping gear up a mountain the following day, I took my little 1 man "cycle-camping" tent. It cost me £20 from Argos years ago in an end of season sale and has seen me through many adventures. But it was VERY cramped with all of my gear in there!

There was such a nice view over the fells from the site.

Once Andy had finished work for the week, we met up for a meal and a couple of beers at the local pub, before an early night to prepare for the next day's hike.

The weather the next morning was perfect, with a good sunny couple of days arriving bang on cue. We sorted bits in the morning and then set off from Andy's during the afternoon, with our packs feeling very heavy!

From Buttermere we took a steep path up Whiteless Breast to the summit of Whiteless Pike and then continued along a ridge before climbing to the summit of Wandhope. The next climb was to the summit of Crag Hill from where there were amazing views all round us. We then followed the col between Crag Hill and finally climbed the path to the summit of Grasmoor. 

Altogether it took about 3 hours. As we crested Grasmoor, a fantastic panorama opened out in front of us: the Western Lakes; Isle of Man; Solway Forth and Scotland beyond and then the main Lakeland fells.

There was a pretty cold wind up there, but it died down to help with getting the tents erected and we soon had a brew on the go and a big pot of pasta for tea.

As the evening settled, it really got quite cloudy up there, and with that the temperature went down a good few degrees. We ended up in big coats, trying to stay warm. It really felt like the cloud was settled in for the night but then, about 20 minutes or so before sunset, it all lifted and we were treated to the most beautiful sunset that I have seen for a very long time - the photos really don't do it justice at all.

We sat around for a while noshing on some snacks, but then headed for shelter from the cold night and set alarms for just after 5am to try and catch a hopefully equally stunning sunrise. Sadly that was not to be - we glimpsed it through a very brief break in the clouds but then it all settled in again, so we headed back into our tents for another couple of hours sleep.

After a quick brew and some breakfast snack bars, we packed up and were just loading our packs onto our backs as the first of the day's walkers appeared on the horizon. Off we went on the journey back down, leaving not a trace of our presence. That was the first time that I have properly wild camped. It was a very magical experience up there and one I felt privileged to have shared with my son.

The journey down was equally hard in it's own way, trying to maintain control with heavy packs fighting gravity, but a little over 2 hours later we were sat in the cafe at Buttermere with coffee and cake.

After a shower back at Andy's, I headed back to the campsite and pitched my tent there again. Being a creature of habit, I opted for almost exactly the same spot! Being gluttons for punishment, after a late lunch we did a short (flat!) walk over to Crummock Water and skimmed stones in the sun while we put the world to rights for a couple of hours.

On the way back we stopped in at the pub for a couple of well earned pints and again had a fairly early night to recover from our exertions.

And so the next morning I headed for home, after such a lovely couple of days. The weather was amazing - if anything a bit too hot! I headed across Newlands Pass to Keswick and then followed the more direct route back to Ambleside, where I stopped off at the Youth Hostel there to catch up with my nephew over a coffee and bacon barm :-).

Then I started following my nose for a slightly more direct route home, but actually ended up going a bit too direct so that I unintentionally ended up on the motorway for a short while before I came off at Carnforth and picked up the A6.

(I had to reset things at Lancaster as the route wasn't coming up properly.)

I stopped at Glasson Dock for lunch - a place that I had often fancied seeing - and I was delighted to find that there was a gathering of bikes there so had a nice natter with a few like-minded souls over a cup of tea.

And from there, I just cruised home at a gentle pace, arriving back late afternoon.

All in all, a lovely mini-adventure. Great company; lots of magical experiences and memories with my boy; some amazing roads to ride on through the Lakes. What more could I ask for?

Sunny evening ride to Parkgate

 

A 34 mile spin out round the lanes through Puddington, Burton, Neston, Parkgate,

Thornton Hough, Wollaston, Hooton and then home down the A41.

Anna’s first day out

Having built up 50 or so "confidence miles", I felt comfortable taking Anna out on a "proper journey" - to the Middlewich Classic Car and Bike Show, about 25 miles away. I went there for the first time last year, taking Gloria the Honda 250G5, and it was a lovely low key day out. See here for that adventure.

The weather forecast for the weekend was pretty shocking and attendance hadn't been great on the Saturday as a result, but I decided that we were going on the Sunday, come what may! I had a back pack with an array of tools, just in case. That proved to come in handy when she sputtered to a stop after about half a mile!

A quick aside: On the last ride out, I filled up with fuel and then noticed that the fuel cap washer clearly wasn't doing it's job, as there were dribbles of fuel appearing all over my new paintwork 😧. I quickly mopped it up but it had clearly done a little damage around the filler neck, which I have touched up and doesn't look too noticeable. During the refurbishment, I'd made a new cork washer for the cap but it was quite coarse cork I had and clearly wasn't doing it's job. Anyway, I ordered a new proper washer from good old Hitchcock's and fitted that. 

Back to the journey - I opened the cap and a big vacuum hiss was released - a classic case of fuel starvation! I noticed that what I thought was a rust spot on the cap was actually a rusted up vent hole. Out with the tools and my trusty Swiss army knife, I poked that clear and then also one on the inside of the cap, refitted it and she started up fine and then ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.

We took the back lanes through Cheshire. I'm still running in and limiting things to about 30-35mph for the first 200 miles, so the lanes are firmly in her sweet spot at the moment.

It took an hour or so to get there, including a short break to let her cool off a bit. As we arrived and parked up, I noticed that one of the rear indicators had vibrated loose. Fortunately, everything was held in place by the wire so I quickly took the rear light off and reassembled everything before too many people noticed 😃.

The show was pretty well attended despite the threatening weather and plenty of people took a bit of interest in Anna, who was the oldest bike on display for most of the day. She didn’t win any prizes but that has never been the intention with this restoration. The original aim was:

 

"So my thoughts for the Crusader have been that I wanted to end up with a presentable old bike that I could happily roll up to a classic show on and display, safe in the knowledge it would never win a prize for best in show, but also that I won't be afraid to sling some camping gear on the back of and head off to the Classic TT or on a weekend camping trip."

 Objective met by not winning a prize!!

During the afternoon there was a fly past by a Lancaster bomber, which never fails to impress.

As it got to late afternoon, I packed up and headed for home. Another delightful journey across the lanes and we ticked off the first 100 miles just before we got home. The list of "niggles" to sort is getting shorter with each journey. In particular, the clutch seems to be bedding in and making the gear changes generally easier, although I may still pull the side cover off and give the gear change mechanism another tweak at some point.

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