My 2023 Motorcycling Year

2023 has been a rich and varied year for motorcycling!

January

The Crusader 250 was in her final stages of the mechanical restoration and could finally be fully assembled for the first time to apply for her original registration number to be recovered.

 February

The wiring was all finished and we went for the "first start"!

 

 Painting of the coloured bits started in earnest.

 My registration number recovery was approved!

I got out for the first ride of the year on Gloria the Honda 250G5 - a nice bimble around North Wales for a couple of hours. Then followed that a couple of weeks later with a longer journey down to the National Motorcycle Museum in the Midlands, followed by an overnight at Tamworth.

 March

I bought my first ever new bike - a Royal Enfield 350 Classic, as a modern reliable ride, and particularly in anticipation of a big adventure coming up in May.

Sadly, that meant that Gloria was put up for sale and she went off to a new home in Northern Ireland.

April 

The long running in process started, with a couple of journeys down to Stafford and Tamworth.

 The Crusader's paintwork came on a treat.

 May

Rob and I had our big adventure, across to France then Belgium for the Spa Classic racing. The Classic's running in miles were finished on the way home.

 June

Crusader paintwork was finished and final build completed. We had our first ride together!

Paul passed his bike test and we had an evening spin out to the Ponderosa Cafe followed by our first camping trip on the bikes over to Oulton Park.

 July

After building up 50 or so local "confidence miles" on the Crusader, we had our first proper adventure to Middlewich Classic Car and Bike show. Note the rear indicator hanging off!

August

Two big adventures this month. First was a trip up to Buttermere in the Lake District on the Classic 350, to visit Andy and do a spot of wild camping on the fells.

Swiftly followed by the Crusader's big test - a fully loaded camping trip over to the Isle of Man for the Manx Grand Prix, which she coped with admirably.

I have a loose arrangement, whereby I can sensibly manage to have 2 bikes "on the road" at any one time (mainly due to storage constraints!) and one in the process of  restoration. Well, with Gloria sold, thoughts turned to the 2023/4 Winter project. So this month, a 1981 Moto Guzzi 500 arrived at the Shearer Home for Lost Causes to be recovered from her "off the rails" hipster brat bike experience and be converted into a middleweight touring bike.

This was her in her previous existence - not nice!

 September

The Crusader's initial running in was pretty much now complete and we had another overnight camping trip to display at the Malpas Yesteryear rally.

October

Another big one for the Classic this month! Paul and I did the Snowdonia 360 route over 3 days.

November

Probably the last ride of the year - a local trip up to my sister's place to take advantage of some late Autumn sun. And hopefully inducted another future motorbike fan (my great nephew) :-).

The restoration and repurposing of the Moto Guzzi has started with most of the missing parts now having been procured and refinishing of the many black bits under way.

 December

I was quite distracted by working on our bathroom refit but stilll trying to keep some restoration activity going on. Lots of painting and starting to look at the seat recovering.

In the middle of it all, I caught COVID and was laid low for a week, but I celebrated recovery by adding some shelves in the Bike shed for all of the "require no further work" parts to be stored! Very motivating, as the pile grows, and starts to free up much needed space in my tiny workshop.

It was also my birthday and I got a truly "life enhancing" present off my lads😀

 

Some Autumn Sunshine

It had been over 2 months since Anna P’s triumphant return (!) from the Malpas Rally, after which I had given her a good clean and then tucked her away in the shed.

The weather hasn’t exactly encouraged me out recently but today was bright sunshine with no rain forecast, so I thought I would get her out for a short 30 minute spin across to Heswall to see my sister before she goes back to Australia.

I pulled her out of the shed (Anna, not Denise!); tickled the float bowl and she started second kick 😃. Well, I can’t really wish for better than that, can I?  

Togged up in a few layers to stave off the cold, I kept to the A roads rather than lanes, as many around us are still flooded and muddy from all the recent rain, and had a lovely ride there and back. The ride back in setting afternoon sun was considerably colder than on the way out. 

My nephew’s son was also there and I think I managed to recruit another one to the motorcycling brethren- he was very enthralled with the old beast!

Snowdonia 360

Ever since Paul had passed his test and got his bike, he'd been itching to do a camping tour. We've done loads of cycle camping over the years but this was new. It’s the Classic's turn to come out and play this weekend - I don't think Anna would have thanked me for having to chase down a 900 Kawasaki for three days!!

The plan was to do the Snowdonia 360 route. As it's name suggests, 360ish miles around North Wales, centred loosely around Snowdonia. We had to do another 45 miles or so out to our nearest point on the route in Conway, so it ended up as a planned 450 miles over 3 days, making a nice and manageable 150ish miles a day.

Day 1 saw 158 miles on the quiet roads along the North Wales coast and a circuit of Anglesey. The weather was great and the roads fairly undramatic, but with lots of glimpses of things to come tomorrow! We ended the day with a BBQ and beers on the campsite.

First stop for coffee and cakes in Conway

Campsite just outside Newborough on Anglesey

Day 2 saw 145 miles through Snowdonia; around the Llyn Peninsula and then down the coast to Barmouth, ending up in an idyllic camp setting on the coast near Tywyn. The Llanberris Pass was a real highlight for me - I've wanted to do that on a bike for a long time. Such spectacular and varied scenery.

Llanberris Pass

Aberdaron

It was nice to finally ride across the toll bridge at Penmaenpool. I've seen it a few times now travelling up and down the Mawwdach Estuary cycleway path to Barmouth and it's always felt like it wanted to pull me across and explore the other side! Well worth the extra 50p each it cost us!

Great riding and weather, though the rain started shortly after we arrived at Cae Du Campsite and got the tents up. When I took my boot off, I found a 2” long slug had hitched a lift from Anglesey in the toe - eurgh, it was swiftly evicted!

It was a very spectacular setting for the campsite though, ranging out along the coast and facing directly out to sea. In the right weather, this would be an amazing place to stay but we couldn't really make the most of it.

The rain stopped for a couple of hours during the evening which gave us time to ride down into the nearest village for a very average pub meal and then finish the evening with a beer overlooking the sea from the tents. Then the rain and wind set in so we retired to our shelters for the night.

Day 3 saw us complete a final 156 miles from Tywyn back to Chester, to make a total journey over the 3 days of just under 460 miles.

It was fairly windy and light rain when we woke, so we packed up and set off early, aiming to stop for an early coffee and breakfast stop. As it happened, being Sunday, we couldn't really find anywhere open until we reached Dolgellau, but were then rewarded with a splendid fry up and a couple of coffees.

The weather was a bit drizzly for the first hour or so but then fine for the rest of the day. We had more open, faster A roads today back up through central N Wales and you could really see Paul easing into his comfort zone after 3 days on the bike.

A feature of today was that the Wales-wide reduction of 30mph to 20mph limit kicked in. I can't say that I found it a great hindrance to go a bit slower through the villages to be honest, though there was lots of griping on the media about it, predictably.

As we were leaving Bala, we came across the sort of meat-heads that were complaining about their liberties being infringed by having to go at the speed limit. A convoy of about 20-30 hugely impressive (!) supercars, ranging from run of the mill Porsches up through Ferraris to McLarens etc was formed up on the road leaving Bala. About a mile after we passed them, we could see the convoy catching us in our rear view mirrors. We turned right shortly afterwards onto a small road up and across the moors and unfortunately that is exactly where they were headed for. It didn't take long for us to get swamped after a series of ridiculous overtakes. After I saw Paul nearly taken out by one of them I though "enough is enough" and pulled up onto the grass verge at the first chance. The whole thing was ridiculously dangerous - I saw at least three overtakes approaching blind right hand bends that could have been fatalaties if anyone had been coming the other way - I assume the locals know about it and avoid the road. Paul gamely saw it through and I caught up with him a few miles later. I suspect that I had a much more enjoyable journey across the moors than he did.

The rest of the journey was smooth and uneventful. We stopped off in Conwy for a final pot of tea and cake, stumbling on a Macmillan Coffee Morning event, so the cakes were enormous. We decided that, once we hit Mold, we'd take the main road (A55) home as the quiet route really took us through some industrial backwaters. It's one of those rare bits where the busier road is nicer than the quiet road. So before long I was waving goodbye as Paul peeled off for the Wirral and I headed back to Chester.

All in all, a great few days. We coudn't have wished for a better weather window and the Snowdonia 360 route is a real cracker - well worth doing.

I think that could be the last decent adventure of 2023 - but maybe not.