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

[Johno]

Thanks for your support Kiwifruit.

Winners are grinners. Now let's let this thread get back to random rides and Irish can go sulk somewhere else. 

[Rynglieder]

Thursday 15/05/20 - Wigmore Castle & Ludlow

I've been itching to get some use out of the bike and although the lock-down was partially lifted on Wednesday it was looking like Thursday was going to be warmer, sunnier and altogether better for a run out with the camera.

The GTR was chosen from the garage and before I had even pulled it out I knew that the first job would be to check the tyre pressures as it had been laid up pretty much since its MOT in December. Sure enough, as soon as the monitoring system got out of bed it started warning me about the front tyre but I was already headed for a supermarket in Kidderminster to get it sorted out and fill up with some fuel (which seems amazingly cheap at the moment).

From Kidderminster I took a familiar road that passed Tenbury Wells and beyond to the junction with the A49. At this point though I crossed the A49 and continued west into some uncharted territory. Now, you probably know by now that I like a good ruin and the destination for today was Wigmore Castle which I had selected from the English Heritage site as being unattended and accessible at all times. Wigmore was reached by a series of minor roads which were enjoyable enough to ride although I did seem to get more than my fair share of horse boxes, tractors and quarry wagons which dulled the speed a bit. On parking up in the village I found myself outside the small village shop which served up a fairly decent coffee from its machine which was a bit of an unexpected bonus.

The bike was re-parked in a less busy location and I took the 15 minute walk through the village, churchyard and up the hill to the remains of Wigmore Castle. The castle is not what you would call the most impressive of those in The Marches and has been largely reclaimed by nature but nevertheless it was nice to wander around to take my obligatory exercise (which is why the government were releasing me from house arrest after all).  I pretty much had the place to myself and after a quick smoke it was back down the hill to the bike.

The return route was via the outskirts of Ludlow where I parked up at the top of Whitcliffe Common to take a couple of pictures of the view over Ludlow's castle and town before heading back for home. My intention to ride back over Clee Hill was thwarted by a rod closure so in the end I returned pretty much by the road that I had taken my outward journey on which was a slight disappointment but did not really take anything away from the fact that I had been back out on two wheels again.

It looks like I am not going to be back at work until the end of June, so hopefully this will be the first of many opportunities to go exploring again.

[Hooli]

Busy place the Marches, back in the day.

[Rynglieder]

Busy place the Marches, back in the day.

And at the moment still a dangerous place for unwary Englishmen who may stray accross the border - The Welsh government still have the Wicker Men ready for us 

[Hooli]

We can get them back if we see them in York, on a Wednesday afternoon and we have a longbow to hand.

Or something.

[Rynglieder]

16/05/2020 White Ladies Priory, Shropshire

I was only going to take the Z1000 out for an hour but was enjoying myself so much I strung it out a bit.

A run through some local minor roads that I don't usually touch took me around and to the north of Wolverhampton where I parked the bike up at the start of the footpath to White Ladies Priory.

Like Wigmore Castle which I visited a couple of days ago this English Heritage site is unstaffed with free admission anytime during daylight hours so there were no social distancing issues to worry about; a lady playing with her dog and a couple of lads sat passing the time were easily avoided even though it is a tiny site.

After half an hour with the camera I was back on the bike and this time I chose a series of "A" roads to complete the circuit. When I reached Bridgnorth I found myself reluctant to take the direct road home (remember those days when you were a kid and your mom was calling you in for your tea but you just didn't want to stop what you were doing?) Instead I followed the Severn valley southwards for a while until felt the obligation to return to domestic life.

This is just about the right length of run for the Z1000 and the little Zed is great fun on minor roads -as long as you are not too far from home so that you can hear your mom calling 

[Rynglieder]

Tuesday 19/05/2020 – Minster Lovell & Evesham (140 mile round trip)

After dropping my daughter to work (I'm not happy with her being on public transport at the moment) it was time to take advantage of another furlough ride with a couple of short walks thrown in.

It was the turn of the GSX1400 today, the bike is easily comfortable enough for this distance and with a warm and sunny day in prospect I would not be missing a fairing. During its lay-up it had been polished and waxed so it was time to show it some sunshine.

My route took me south in the direction of Worcester before swinging east, passing Evesham and taking in the hairpins of Fish Hill near Broadway. From there it was a cruise through the Cotswolds before finally picking up the A40 at Burford. From Burford it was just a handful of miles before I turned off for the village of Minster Lovell.

Today's destination (again, unrestricted access to an English Heritage site) was Minster Lovell Manor, the ruin of a large house on the banks of the river Windrush in West Oxfordshire. The bike was parked up in the lane leading to the church and it was a short walk along it and through the churchyard to the remains of the manor. There were more people around than I was expecting, but not so many that wandering round and keeping two metres apart would be a problem. A few shots were taken with the K50 and then it was back to the bike.

I had considered a circular route to get home, but I had enjoyed the roads that had taken me down there so was more than happy to return the same way. It was largely single carriageway roads with good opportunities for safe overtaking of anything that got in the way.

On the way back I stopped off in Evesham. It is a town I used to visit regularly but in recent years tended to pass by. Again I had the chance to get the camera out and take a few pictures of the older buildings as the place was fairly free of shoppers and people generally cluttering up my shots.

I've heard some people griping about those of us furloughed from work "treating it like a holiday" but my conscience is pretty clear, I have been dutifully staying at home throughout Aril and early May and what I am doing is not bringing me into contact with anyone. Added to this, in normal circumstances I would be touring France this week and next anyway. I'll hopefully be taking advantage of a few more rides out before I get the dreaded call back into work.

But for tomorrow I have a lot of flies on my visor to deal with...

[KoZi]

A few shots from Saturday ride - about 250 kms 

[Milts]

@KoZi
              Liking the way you are able to magnify the image by clicking on your photos 
where as other peoples photos don't.

               Maybe someone can expand on this? (sorry about the pun )

[Hooli]

@KoZi
              Liking the way you are able to magnify the image by clicking on your photos 
where as other peoples photos don't.

               Maybe someone can expand on this? (sorry about the pun )

Kozi's pics are uploaded elsewhere & linked here, hence they work like that. Pics uploaded here don't seem to do it as the forum reduces their size to save on storage space.

[Kiwifruit]

Some great photos guys, thanks for sharing 

[Rynglieder]

Thursday 21/05/2020 Shrewsbury, Ellesmere & Whittington

Another furlough day ride out – I may as well take advantage of the spare time and good weather.

Under strict rotation it was really the Z13's turn out today, but although the old hippo is starting up with a bit of coaxing she is not running right, I'm pretty sure that there is not always the full six cylinders making a contribution to moving her bulk forward. She will have to stay in the garage for a while and I need to look into getting a top end service sorted out.

Instead, the GTR was pulled out again and just over 120 miles were covered, but it did not really seem like it. I think that it is because I used roads so often travelled in the past and I didn't really get the sense of breaking new ground. The start of the trip which covers Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury was certainly nothing new, but I left Shrewsbury on the direct road to Ellesmere which at least was something fresh. It started out well until halfway along I caught up with a quarry wagon which was occupying three quarters of the road and the last few miles into Ellesmere were spent looking at its backside.

There's plenty of motorcycle parking at the edge of the lake at Ellesmere so the bike was left for a few minutes whilst I wrestled a coffee out of the machine in the petrol station just along the road. Coffee and cigarette finished, I set out for the A5 near Whittington.

Today was going to be a "ruin free" day, but when I reached Whittington I could not resist parking up again and spending a few minutes around the castle with the camera. Strictly speaking it is shut due to the Covid situation but the owners (a charitable trust) are allowing people to access the grounds in return for chucking a quid into the pay and display machine which I was happy to do.

The run back down to Shrewsbury on the A5 was pretty swift affair as was the ride down the A458 to Bridgnorth. As I say, it is a road well travelled so I'd seen it all before – not that it was a problem, it's just good to be on the bike.

Like my previous visit to Shropshire I was reluctant to go directly home from Bridgnorth, so stayed to the west of the river Severn taking in Highley, Kinlet and Bwedley before a final fuel stop in Kidderminster and the last few miles home.

There's not so many flies on the visor today, that's the beauty of a bike with a decent screen.

[Rynglieder]

Saturday 30/05/2020 Sutton Scarsdale Hall

Not such a good day on the bike today – the normally ultra-reliable GSX decided to throw a wobbly...

I'd decided to head north for a change, I may have said before but it always seems a waste of precious riding time to spend the first hour cutting through the urban midlands to get out the other side. Sure enough the day started with something like a commute until I broke free of Walsall and progressed to Lichfield.

From Lichfield I had an enjoyable run through fairly familiar roads taking in Ashbourne and up to Matlock which whilst not as busy as I have sometimes seen it still had a fair few bikes parked along the road running alongside the Derwent. I'd normally have stopped here briefly but being mindful that the police can still be funny about "gatherings" I carried on ploughing my own furrow to the centre of Matlock and from there travelled roads that were new to me through Clay Cross and on to my first intended destination of Sutton Scarsdale.

I found my way to the ruins of Sutton Scarsdale Hall, the roofless shell of a once grand manor house and enjoyed half an hour in the sun with my camera. Having had my fill of it I returned to the bike with the intention of perhaps carrying on to another destination in north Nottinghamshire – it was a bit later in the afternoon than I had intended, but I felt that I had the time on my hands.
Turning the key in the ignition resulted in – nothing. There was a quick sweep of the needles as I turned back to the "off" position, but several attempts at trying to switch the bike on went unrewarded. A quick check of the battery connections suggested a little play in the negative lead although it looked as if it should have offered a reasonable connection. I tightened it up with the Plasticine screwdriver supplied in the tool kit and this time the bike responded as it should to the turn of the key.

It looked as if there was no real drama after all, but I started to become a little cautious and decided to point the GSX toward the motorway which was not that far away and head directly home from there. The bike was running perfectly down the M1 and A42 so I thought that I would perhaps leave at Ashby de la Zouch and take the old road from there to Tamworth as it would offer more interesting riding.

As I approached Tamworth problems started to resurface; the bike started to "miss" or momentarily cut out, the needles kept dropping to zero and I was losing the LCD displays. I managed to get safely parked up in a residential access road whilst I had another fiddle with the battery connections. It did then fire up again and run nicely enough to get me home although the digital clock had obviously rest to 12:00 suggesting a total electrical power loss. It's parked up in the garage now, someone has offered to test the battery for me, but I suspect that the answer to the problem may be elsewhere.

The run through Derbyshire was great but the other parts of the day I am more than ready to forget.

(Bigger picures for those that want them throgh here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rynglieder/albums )

[VladTepes]

You certainly have some cool stuff many hundreds of years old there.

I could post a pic of a  sharpened rock but.....

[Notty]

You certainly have some cool stuff many hundreds of years old there.

I could post a pic of a  sharpened rock but.....

Bet the rock is older Mike !!