2023….Another good riding year, in spite of a major change of plan!

Nov 23

Hi Folks, well its November already and its turned cold & wet, so that brings to a close another touring year. Seems only yesterday that it was early May as 4 of us set off for the first trip of the year to Wales! The plan was to follow that with a trip up to the Scottish Borders and Lake District and then the big one..a round trip to Corsica. That’s where it all went wrong; two of our group suffered unexpected medical issues not long before we were due to set off! One of the casualties was Bernard, the Corsica trip organiser, so it was agreed that we would postpone this great trip and do it in May 2024. The good news is we now have a great start to 2024 booked already! 🙂

NOTE: I am in the process of creating a YouTube video of the 2023 trips to include a mix of on-bike footage + phone video & photos and hopefully some of the drone video that Stuart took at the top of Bealach na Ba ( Pass of the Cattle). This post is therefore just a summary overview of this year’s trips. youtube.com/@BigJohnMoto

May 23 Wales trip:

This was intended as a warm up trip, so just three days riding, 650miles with 2 nights away; first night staying in Bala, north Wales and second night in Llandrindod Wells central Wales. We were a group of 4, Bernard, Stuart, Mick and me. BMW K1300S, Triumph Tiger Sport 1050, BMW R1200GS and Suzuki VStrom 650.

Day1 We rode through the Cotswolds, then skirting Hereford aiming for lunch in Wales at Crossgates, Powys. This was followed by 20 miles of the fantastic A483 north to Newtown; one of the best roads in Wales if you can catch it early afternoon when there is very little traffic! 🙂 We stopped for afternoon tea at Lake Vyrwyn and then took the narrow mountain road over to Bala. Before checking in at the hotel we did a quick loop towards Snowdonia to ride the brilliant B4391; what a road, open and fast..but with the odd sheep to watch out for!

We started Day 2 with a good loop through Snowdonia and back to Bala for an early lunch. Then riding south along the banks of Lake Bala aiming for Machynlleth, then taking the great switchback mountain road to Llanidloes in mid Wales. From there heading west on the fast A44 to Devils Bridge and tea at Two Hoots café. From there the mountain road via Elan Valley to Rhayader and on to our hotel for 2nd night in Llanrindod Wells.

Day 3 home via the infamous Devil’s Staircase and the beautiful Llyn Brianne reservoir.

The road from Abergwesyn to Ystradffin is approx. 20 miles of very narrow windy road through very scenic countryside, sometimes with a steep drop on the left with no barrier; passing places are few and far between. The road is remote and does not carry much traffic but it gets very tricky when on a downhill stretch you suddenly meet a massive logging lorry completely filling the road coming around the bend towards you! Exactly this happened..no way he was going to back up and no way we could back up on a road that steep and it would be very difficult to turn the bike around on such a narrow road. As luck would have it I noticed a small break in the fence up ahead which turned out to be to entrance to a sheep pen; just enough room for the bikes to squeeze into to let the lorry by!!

The Devil’s Staircase is an old drover’s track comprising a set of hairpin turns hitting a 20.1% of maximum gradient, running through the Cambrian Mountains. If you’re looking for an adventure..ride this road 🙂

x https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/wales/3989-abergwesyn-road.html

https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/wales/3989-abergwesyn-road.html

September 3rd – 9th Scotland trip…instead of Corsica!

So with our 14 day trip to Corsica unexpectedly postponed to 2024 the four of us fit enough to ride (Stuart, Steve, Rob and me) needed a replacement adventure; I offered to put a trip to Scotland together and it certainly turned into an adventure!!

7 days, 6 nights away approx 1600 miles; the route would take us up through the Yorks Dales, on via the Nth Pennines, then through the Scottish Borders, skirting Edinburgh and through the Cairngorms, aiming for Inverness. From there heading NW to join up with the NC500 at Tongue right at the top of Scotland, then following the NC500 down the west coast to Lochcarron, near Skye. The route south from there would take us via Glencoe and east towards Edinburgh, then through the Borders and Nth Pennines & Yorkshire, with our last night in Ilkley before hitting the A1 home.

The biggest challenge was selecting reasonably priced hotels that had 2 twin rooms available, the location needed to fit in with the intended route; not an easy task as it turned out at short notice in early September! The only way I could make it all work on our 4th night was to book Saucy Mary’s Hostel, just over the bridge on Skye. The accommodation would be a family room with 3 bunk beds, with a private bathroom down the corridor..and a sea view! Great price of £180 for the night. Well they said they wanted an Adventure 🙂

The good news is that we managed to pick a fantastic week weatherwise; it was the first time I’ve been to Scotland without rain! The sun shone every day and the scenery up in the Highlands and down the west coast looked all the better for it. The roads were a complete mix of fast A roads, sweepers and narrow single lane roads with passing places, one of which went on for 45 miles!!

Day 1 was a strange day; about 45 miles in the brakes on Rob’s old BMW K1200S (2005 I think) started playing up. It has a servo unit which went on the blink, which meant he still had brakes, but without the right amount of stopping power to ride normally. Should he turn round and go back, or ride on carefully and find a BMW dealer on route? He decided to carry on and ride carefully.

We stopped for lunch on the A1 just north of Doncaster; I was using my phone and some how left it sitting on my roll bag as I rode off!! I have a habit of checking phone and wallet in my jacket, but this time didn’t do it until we were back on the A1..I couldn’t feel my phone!!! As soon as there was an opportunity I pulled the group over and explained that I must have dropped the phone at the services lunch stop! Whilst thinking about what to do Stuart decided to call my phone and a guy answered; it turned out he was the guy in the yellow mini I had parked next to and had seen the phone fall off as I rode away and picked it up..he was travelling north a few miles behind us!! 10 mins later we waved the yellow mini down and I was reunited with my phone; talk about lucky!! 🙂

That night we stayed in Bishop Auckland; in the morning the sun was out and the sky was blue. Rob had decided to divert to a BMW dealer and would either meet up with us later, or make his way back home; rest of us headed north to Scotland.

At lunchtime we picked up a message from Rob, he had taken his K1200S to a BMW dealer near Bradford and they had looked it over; it was going to cost ££££ to fix and according to them the wheel bearings were shot and the bike should not be ridden! While the mechanic had been checking his bike Rob had a wonder around the showroom and found a very nice K1300S at a reasonable price AND they would give him a good trade in price on his unrideable K1200S..no brainer!! The deal was done and Rob rode off on his new bike to join up with us.

As luck would have it (in his case no luck) Rob stopped for coffee and noticed his rear tyre was covered in oil!!! The final shaft drive had sprung a leak and the bike could not be ridden further!! BMW were very apologetic and to cut a long story short they came to pick up his bike and supplied a R1250RT as a replacement so he could continue his journey; all of this meant that Rob had lost 3 days of the trip and would meet us at Saucy Mary’s on Skye which would be our 4th night away.

In the meantime the rest of us were having a great time enjoying the weather, the roads and the scenery 🙂

I’m saving the main scenery and NC500 video footage for the YouTube video, so make sure not to miss that when I post it! The Deer above is real ; Stuart risked his life to get some close up pics. The bridge is the famous Kylesku bridge north of Ullapool.

Our night in Ullapool turned out to be great fun; after dinner we discovered a nearby pub called The Arch with real ale and live music entertainment from a very talented, unique and totally crazy musician Ruaraidh Maclean. What an entertainer this guy is..between swigs of whisky to keep him going 🙂 He links his accordian up to a synthasiser

Check this out.. he really gets going after 60 secs + https://youtu.be/gi92JBgw7Xs?si=hCtLbFpklSxiUzSp

Its now Day 4 and from Ullapool to Skye on the NC500 and the sun is still shining and not a midge in sight 🙂

That night we stayed at Saucy Marys; the biggest challenge was remembering in the middle of the night to take the key for the bathroom down the corridor, and to leave the door to our room on the latch to get back in! We’ve done the Portsmouth- Bilbao crossing many times, 4 guys in a very small cabin, so 4 in a six bunk relatively large room (with sea view) was a doddle. 🙂

Saucy Mary was married to a McKinnon clan chief, it’s said she controlled the narrow straight between Kyleakin and Kyle of a Lochalsh by hanging a chain from her home, Castle Maol, to the mainland and charged a toll for ships wishing to pass; if sailors refused to pay, they had to take the longer, more dangerous route round. If they paid the toll, they were able to continue their journey in safe, calm waters and, as the story goes, Princess Mary flashed her breasts at the sailors. This is how she got the nickname, ‘Saucy Mary’.

Rob was waiting for us when we arrived, so we are now back to a group of 4 for our ride south.

Day 5 we are aiming for Hawick for the night; on route we would call in at Eilean Donan castle and later a well know bikers café at Queensferry, Edinburgh.

Day 6 to Ilkley via Kielder, Nth Pennines and Yorks Dales.

Our last night was spent in Ilkley, the perfect mix of real ale and curry 🙂

The guy in the black T-shirt with the glasses is “Knob head Tim”, he was sitting on his own, all the other tables were packed out..we gate crashed his table and soon found out why he got his nickname 🙂

The next morning we all rode over to the BMW Motoradd dealer in Shipley to pick up Rob’s new K1300S which had been repaired with a brand new final drive unit. Finally he was able to ride away on his own bike, which in spite of the hassle he suffered and missing the entire NC500 portion of the trip, had ended up as a good deal.

This trip was hastily put together following the postponement of the Corsica trip; turned out to be one of the best trips I’ve had to Scotland..its much more fun riding when the sun is out 😉

October 2nd- 6th Scottish Borders, Yorkshire , Nth Pennines & The Lakes..Nick’s first adventure!!

Nick is someone I met through work back in 1994, we have worked together in several companies since then; back in those days Nick had a Yamaha Thunderace 1000. We have kept in touch since I retired and last year he called me up to say he had got back into motorcycling after many years away and intended to buy a BMW R1250GS Adventure and go touring; we agreed that when he got it I’d help him take it out for a proper adventure ride. Sure enough, earlier this year he had taken delivery of his new bike. We managed to find a week when Nick could take a week off from his stressful global role with a large software company and I put together a 5 day trip up to the Scottish borders which would take in a complete mix of roads and scenery to provide his first proper biking adventure! 😉

Nick lives in Nth Lincolnshire and I thought it would be wise if we met up before the trip so I could get a feel of his riding ability. We met at BMW in Peterborough and went for a ride on a loop of some of the good back roads in the area. It was soon obvious that Nick was still getting used to the big GS Adventure and was somewhat nervous in the corners and would struggle to keep up at my normal touring pace. Our trip would serve as an opportunity for me to pass on some of the good stuff I’ve learned over many years and several 100,000 miles of riding motorcycles. Credit to Nick, he was well up for it and said “bring it on” 😁

Day 1 we met up just off the A1 towards Harrogate; from there the route would take us through the Yorks Dales, up onto the moors and finally to our first night hotel in Barnard Castle. The rain started mid afternoon just as we were into some of the narrow and twisty lanes leading to the moors; this was Nick’s opportunity to practice wet weather riding..somehow he managed to cope with some demanding conditions and we made it to the hotel, by which time he was very tired..well he did ask for an Adventure!!

Day 2 the roads were wet, but the rain had stopped..it started again later in the day! More challenging roads across the North Pennines and it was chilly. We rode up the west side of Kielder Water and on up to Scottish Borders and lunch in Hawick. There was quite a stretch of narrow moorland liberally sprinkled with wild roaming sheep..all part of the adventure!

The afternoon took us deeper into the spectacular scenery of the Scottish Borders, the route went through some remote territory with more challenging roads, it was quite cold as well and we had our rain gear on. This was a 220 mile day and by late afternoon we still had 60 miles to go to our next hotel at Moffat. I took a look at the rest of the route and could see that it was more twisty roads; there was the option to cut it short and make a 25mile dash south on the A708 from Selkirk to the hotel in Moffat. This turned to be a good move and was a great stetch of road to end the day with.

The Buccleuch Arms is well known in biking circles, its run by bikers, for bikers. When we arrived there were probably 20 bikes there. We received a warm welcome from members of the host family who originate from Zimbabwe; we were shown to our individual garages which would house the bikes overnight. I hadn’t specifically booked these, maybe it was special treatment as I had not been there before? Everything in the hotel is geared to bikers, its quite a unique place and you’re made to feel very welcome.

The main man is Dave who has a little dog called Blue; now I’m a cat person, but Nick is very much a doggie person and always strokes and fiddles with every dog he meets, including Blue. We then learned from Dave that Blue comes with him on touring trips in a custom built box which sits on the back of Dave’s 1250GS..the box has a hole in the top so the dog can put his head up, protected by a small windscreen to enjoy the scenery. In fact the next day Dave was off to the Pyrenees for a trip with his dog..whatever next!😺

It was raining in the morning of Day 3, so we would need to start with our wet gear on. The plan was to do a loop of the local Borders roads and then aim for Kielder and the Nth Pennines for our overnight stop at Greystoke, near Penrith. In view of the weather we decided against the loop, we could see the rain was forecast to get heavier further south on our route.

As we entered the Pennines the wind was strong; the crosswind on the road across the moor to Alston was really hard to ride against, thankfully the rain had stopped at the point. We had a late lunch in Alston and debated whether we should ride the loop of the Pennines I had planned, or due to the high wind cut it short and go straight to the hotel via the famous A686 Hartside Pass. The wind really did spoil the riding and the dark clouds suggested it was due to rain again soon, so we set off on the more direct route.

 Alston is England’s highest market town, the A686 road climbs via the Hartside Pass to a height of 1904 ft, from where there are magnificent views across the Solway Firth to Scotland. From the top viewpoint you can see Helvellyn, Great Gable, Skiddaw, and in Southern Scotland – Criffel.

On a nice sunny day this would be a great ride on a fantastic road with great views, however today we would ride it in a very strong wind and with driving rain!! Poor old Nick was certainly getting a baptism of fire on his first touring adventure!!

We were pleased to get to Greystoke and the Boot & Shoe Inn, our overnight stop. This was a really friendly old pub with real ale and home cooked food, just what we needed. Turns out that there is a strong connection between Earl Greystoke (Tarzan) and the village of Greystoke as the writer who created Tarzan would regularly visit Greystoke castle nearby.

The plan for Day 4 was to ride a loop through the Lake District, however the weather radar showed heavy rain sitting over the Lakes. It looked clearer over to the East so we decided to take the A66 and have a quick dash across to the Nth Yorks Moors instead and ride the B1257 : Stokesley – Helmsley, known as the North Yorks TT.

Unfortunately by the time we got to Stokesley it was raining again and it was necessary to ride the 20 miles to Helmsley at a sensible pace. The road probably could be a good ride in the dry if you got a clear run and not stuck behind slower traffic, but I’m not sure it deserves the TT nickname!

We spent our last night in Ilkley and repeated the real ale and curry night out that I’d had on the return leg of the Scottish trip a month before. No sign of “Knob head Tim” though😊

Day 5 started dry as we headed out to the A1 via Ilkley Moor. The ride south was uneventful apart from strong gusts of wind on the A1; Nick and I parted company at Blyth Services, leaving me with another 140 miles to home.

Well Nick had wanted an adventure and he certainly got one! He had coped well with everything thrown at him; narrow, twisty roads, fast open A roads, sheep, strong winds, country lanes with mud and leaves, and rain every day apart from the last day. He had ridden at his own pace and had become more confident as the miles went by and he got more used to the big GS. His next challenge?..cleaning a really dirty BMW GS! His solution?..pay a man to do it for him!! 😁 My solution?..booked in at BMW Northampton for an MOT the following week and they throw in a steam clean for free! 😉😁

So apart from a few 2 day mini trips in between, the three describe above were the main trips for 2023; even without the big annual European trip I still managed to rack up 7,500 miles this year. My trusty GS has now reached 67,500 miles in 7 years, an avg 9,600 miles per year! I have had it regularly serviced at Wollaston, Northampton and am now on the last page in the service book! Apart from a water pump failing in the first 18mths (replaced under warranty) the bike has been super reliable with only consumables like discs & pads being replaced. At 60,000 the rear ESA shock did fail; BMW say they are only good for 30,000! A new rear shock from BMW is £1800 + fitting; I had mine refurbished by Firefox Racing, Keighley, Yorks for £250 and currently going well.

So that’s it for 2023, another riding year done and a great 2024 to look forward to with the delayed Corsica trip all booked and ferries paid for 🙂 Thank you for following my biking adventures; I hope I’ve been able to pass on a feel for some of the fun and adventures I’ve had along the way riding my bike ! Stay tuned for the summary of 2023 video for YouTube which I’m just about to start, hopefully I’ll finish it in time for Christmas.