A Random Ride Pics Thread.... Post 'em up!

[Kiwifruit]

Some nice photos fellas. That's one of the good things about this place. There are so many great bikes that we enjoy, not just our 14's.

[jolly748]

@jolly748

Seems we share similar passions #34, plus l recently bought a Yamaha too   
The gsxr hardly goes out..... come to think of it neither does the 14 

Ha ha, i've one of those Exup thingys too! Andy.
IMG_0184 by Andrew Jolly, on Flickr

[Rynglieder]

22/10/2021 Bridgnoth (36 miles) & 30/10/2021 Clee Hill (60 miles)

The Z1300 is back!

It had spent most of the last 18 months firmly at the back of the garage and although it had been pulled out in late November 2020 for its MOT, it made sense to put it onto SORN as my area was still under lockdown and opportunities to ride it were limited even if I wanted to risk its very unreliable running.


There seemed no point in it just gathering dust in the corner so I decided to throw a few hundred pounds at someone to do a major service and get the carbs ultrasonically cleaned and set up again.

The ride home from the workshop bode well and once I arrived back home I was disinclined to just put it away again. Still not being absolutely certain of how it would be running I decided to go for the Very Short Loop which I use when I just have an hour and want to blow the cobwebs away. I took the loop in the opposite direction to usual as I needed to fuel with some premium fuel which I knew I could get from a supermarket in Kidderminster, given the general switch to E10 fuels I am not sure how the 38 year old Hippo would deal with running on stewed cabbage which seems to form the basis of new standard petrol.

I must say that I was very happy with the way it was running, I even let it cool while I had a coffee in Bridgnorth to see how it would behave on restart. All good, I really enjoyed the ride home although there was a bit of traffic in front of me and I had yet to get confident enough for overtaking on it.

The next opportunity to get out was a week later, during these shorter days it takes me a while to get motivated to go out and by the time I did the day was ebbing away but there was enough time to get out to Bridgnorth again but this time feeling a bit more secure I was happy to press on through Kinlet, on to Cleobury Mortimer and finishing at the summit of Clee Hill.

The Z1300 is a heavy old bike at low speed but not too bad when moving, I had good clear roads on this day and the six cylinders were singing to me again, all was well with the world.
Going forward I need to make sure it is used more regularly, I think it really does not like fuel sitting in the carbs going stale, so note to self – ride more!

[Rynglieder]

17/11/2021 Wellsbourne & Hanbury Hall (c.88 miles)

Another sunny day was on offer and having replaced the front tyre on the GSX it seemed an opportunity to make a start on some steady mileage to scrub it in.

I'd enjoyed to road out east that I had taken to Coughton Court a few weeks back so I thought I would do it again but push on through and past Stratford on Avon. Beyond Stratford I made my way to the Touchdown Café on the edge of Wellsbourne Airfield. I had been there once before with a few members of the old GSX owners forum, one of them had suggested it as an add on from one of the April Fools Meets at the Motorcycle Museum and it seemed as good a plan as any to revisit it. It still seems a popular bikers destination, there were half a dozen there even on a weekday.

I spent half an hour with my mug of tea on the balcony watching a few light aircraft come and go before I decided to move on.

There was still a bit of the afternoon left so I took more or less the same route back but took the opportunity to stop off at Hanbury Hall near Droitwich to take a few photos and indulge in a National Trust latte.

Not a bad couple of hours riding in the sunshine, a bit of a bonus for November.

[Hooli]

How is Wellsbourne doing? I heard something about it being under threat of closure the other year. Which I heard about on the XM655 support pages on FB.

[Rynglieder]

How is Wellsbourne doing? I heard something about it being under threat of closure the other year. Which I heard about on the XM655 support pages on FB.

I'm not aware of anything newsworthy over there, but it's not really my side of the West Midlands so I probably would not hear much.

It certainly seemed active enough during my visit but like everything else Covid may have been affecting activity over the last couple of years.

[Boa]

How is Wellsbourne doing? I heard something about it being under threat of closure the other year. Which I heard about on the XM655 support pages on FB.

I'm not aware of anything newsworthy over there, but it's not really my side of the West Midlands so I probably would not hear much.

It certainly seemed active enough during my visit but like everything else Covid may have been affecting activity over the last couple of years.

As far as i know it's safe, i popped in there late last year and was told so. Tbh, i can't remember the detail.

[Hooli]

That's good news, cheers.

[VladTepes]

I haven't been out for a fun ride for over a month!  really need to do that...

[Rynglieder]

31/12/2021 Berrington Hall, Herefordshire (c. 68 miles)

New Year's Eve and it looked like there would be a chance for one last ride in 2021.

It was to be a dry, dull day but not too cold for the time of year – nevertheless I was minded to take the GTR out and take advantage of the heated grips and a decent fairing.

The ride-out took me to Berrington Hall, near Leominster. It was another run down often travelled roads but despite the repetition I knew they would be roads that I enjoy. The days are too short at this time of year to travel far enough away from home and find much that is new.

Berrington Hall served up a walk, some photos and a decent coffee but it was not a long visit and the day could have done with being brighter for any decent pictures.

The ride home was by much the same route except for a short additional loop to take me to Tenbury Wells via a more minor road.

Nothing stunning, but every chance to get out in the winter feels like a bit of an achievement.

[Rynglieder]

20/01/2021 Much Wenlock Windmill (c. 45 miles)

Strictly speaking, it was not the first ride of 2022 as I had taken one of the bikes out for an hour earlier in the month, but it was one of those quick blasts where I never actually got off the bike until I was back home. I know I went to Worcester, down one side of the Severn and back up the other, but frankly I can't even remember which bike I took – I need a souvenir photo these days to aid my memory...

But it was time for another run and the Z1000 was at the front of the garage so that seemed the obvious one as I was not planning to go far.

My ride took me up to Much Wenlock where my idle browsing of Google Maps had revealed a ruined windmill that I did not know existed.

Just over an hour on the bike all in and a bit of a walk up a hill, at least it was a chance to blow the cobwebs away.

[GSXKING]

Great work on the ride routes and pics @Rynglieder .

You guys are fortunate to have so many historic sites nearby.

I remember doing a road trip and fitting in Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Bath all in one day it was sun up until sunset.

[Rynglieder]

27/01/2022 Erddig (c.150 miles)

Time for a real ride, one worth digging the GTR out from the back of the garage for.

A fairly decent January day was forecast, there was supposed to be a bit more sunshine to the north of me than the south so I started looking for destination options. A lot of places that I had been eying up are closed at this time of year, many historic sites seem to be weekend only until spring which limits choice a bit.

In the end I settled on Erddig, a National Trust estate on the outskirts of Wrexham. I chose to push up through Shropshire on the A41 which I had used last summer on my run to the Wirral, The sun shone as promised and I had a steady run up to the Raven Café at Prees Heath which provided the usual biker-friendly mug of tea.

After continuing on to the Whitchurch bypass I then took the A525 in the direction of Wrexham until I picked up the NT tourist signs for Erddig. The bike was parked up and the membership card waved at the entrance before I set about my customary walk. That done and fortified with a pasty and another cup of tea I set about my return journey, and this is where my nice day out on the bike started to unravel...

I joined the A483 just south of Wrexham and was initially making good progress down the dual carriageway toward Chirk when traffic ground to a halt. I spent about 45 minutes sat in the queue as a procession of ambulances and police cars shot down the outside of the line, occasionally creeping forward a bit as vehicles in front of me were presumably turning round. Eventually I found myself third in the queue approaching the bridge over the river Dee which was clearly blocked. The air ambulance was circling and I could see that given the terrain its only chance of landing would be the road that I was standing on – sure enough the police walked up the line and directed everyone back in the direction of Wrexham.

I left the northbound A483 at Ruabon with the intention of going west and cutting underneath the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – inevitably I was not the only one who had this idea and the road to the village of Trevor was heavily congested with the volume of traffic. The turning down into the valley below the Aqueduct was snarled up as HGVs totally unsuited for it were struggling to pass each other – I decided to give it a miss (the GTR is no fun to reverse up a hill if needed) and push on further west to Llangollen.

Llangollen was just as congested as trucks took it in turns to cross the bridge from either side, plus there were upgrade works going on at the A5 which further restricted flow. I'd lost a lot of time but I reckoned I should have an easy run home once I got back to Chirk.
And so it was – for a while... All was well until I left the A5 at Shrewsbury to take the A458 back home. Upon reaching the village of Cross Houses I found myself stationary once again and seemingly no traffic flowing toward me on the other side. Another crawl ensued and I eventually found myself confronted with the Culprit.

It seemed that a waste carrying wagon had shed it load on the westbound side of the road completely carpeting the carriageway with something that looked like ground glass or plastic. It looked as if every resident in the village was out with brooms or snow shovels trying to clear at least one side of the road so that the east-bound traffic could crawl past. The debris extended all though the village and started to thin a little at the other side, but it was far from clear – all the time traffic on the other side was throwing it up and I could hear it beneath my tyres and bouncing around under the bike's fenders.

With all of the delays I was now riding in the dark. I (and everyone else) was taking it very steady not knowing what we were riding on and we were often confronted by opposing traffic "off-siding" to avoid the biggest clumps. I became very aware that my visor was long overdue replacement; I can't remember the last time I did any night riding and vision was not great with the oncoming headlights. And so it went on, at the village of Cressage a police patrol was dealing with another large mound on a sharp bend in the village under blue lights and trying to direct traffic through. The torturous ride carried on to Much Wenlock where the problem cleared (and presumably had originally started) a total of eight miles from where I first encountered it.

Feeling the need for a break from the concentration of riding through it all I stopped at the service station in the town for a coffee and to ring home and let he wife know I was still intending to come back. I suppose if she was cooking fish tonight she could put it in the cat...

At least the final few miles were clear. I'd had a nice run up to Wrexham and an enjoyable visit to Erddig, but what a long day and sh1t ride home.

[grog]

Those crap rides just happen sometimes, all sorts of reasons cause them. Im sure weve all been there at sometime. Glad you made it home. Youre ride reviews are a credit to you Mate, i couldnt do any of your maps etc.

[Mick_J]

Has the Raven been renamed from Lynn's Raven Cafe on the Whitchurch bypass or is that a different one?
We used to go there quite a lot when we lived in Staffordshire, the breakfasts were legend.