Wild wiltshire

Hey, I know its been a while since I've posted but I needed to find something to blog as Mark has had much more going on equipment wise and he gets all day behind a PC monitor to boot :)

with that out the way I have to first say thanks to Melvin and Martin who we met up with at the weekend for a play on the wiltshire byways, after meeting them on Adventure bike rider forum and decided to meet as we all lived so close.
 Melvin showed me how to drop my bike in style ;) I then did it several time on various serfaces, what uterly fantastic fun, I even stood up like a pro (til I offed that is ) only one slight damaged bit to confess to, bent my gear leaver but was bent back in no time to a more suitable position. The bema stood up to it no worries....could get addictive, may need a little scrambler ;) LOL A few photos of the day.........How coool!

Chain grief

Bought a replacement chain this week, after getting a siezed link in my old chain that appeared immune to all efforts to free it. Fitted it yesterday with help/tool lend from Wheelers in Shaw - angle grinder, wire new chain through, link, rivet and adjust. Sorted.

Co-incidentally I managed to grab a used Scottoiler off eBay for £20 this week too! Just needed a trip to Stevens in Trowbridge to buy a vacuum line t-piece for £3 and all ready to fit that too at some point. Happy days.

Off out on a blat today, so be nice to spend some time on the bike not just fixing it and commuting!

Numb Arse Solutions..

Looking at seat padding today, after our rear end issues over the Cornwall tour. With Airhawks just looking too expensive for what they are, I did some more web trawling again and figured on two options to try out..

First off is the tried and tested, old school solution.. sheepskin! haha I've ordered a pad from Lambland and I'm hoping the comfort and benefits outway the joke magnet effect it will carry along with it. We will see..

The other option in the running was the Putnams Inflatable Stadium Seat, working on a similar concept to an Airhawk. Sold by a company for people with limited mobility for about £10, it looks like a bargain, gets a few good reviews on bike forums, but has a few bad reviews on Amazon, so I went for the sheepskin instead. This also has the dubious advantage of doubling as a pillow too, but with the amount of baked beans we consumed on the tour, I think I'll give that feature a miss!

If all else fails, then I might have to DIY something from the works bubble wrap/cushion machine, possibly in combination with the sheepskin. :)

iPROMICE....

...To blog here tomorrow as it's turning into the mcoo show ;) had a broken pc though....all better now and on the case! x

Pasty Tour Pics

Sunset over Dartmoor and our sheltered camp for the night. The cheapest night, wild camping. Bit close to the road, but also close to an old pub, which we just happened to visit after successfully navigating around some rutting heffers. A short walk from a cool rocky Tor too, all in all a great first night stop off after riding to the south coast and along, via the Torpoint and Fowey ferry crossings.

View from the tent pitched at Henrys Campsite, Lizard. It was quiant, sheltered and close to the pub, but the shine soon faded when they charged us £18 a night, with all facilities costing extra on top! 20p for a minute of shower or 50p for charging a phone?! Some nice walks from this campsite, but we were glad to move on.

Two cheesey "we were there" shots, the first at St Michaels mount, where we irritated the beach guard guy to park our bikes on the slipway, and the second at Lands End.. or just outside, as we couldn't be arsed to pay the £1 bike tax for riding to the end of the road.

Quick stop at Bideford on the way home, for one last sausage and chips take away and to ease the numb arse cheeks. Next stop was Lynmouth for an ice cream while savouring the aroma of burning car brakes descending the steep gorge side roads. Then on into Somerset and across Exmoor for some more wild sheep and pony dodging.

.. finally a panoramic effort taken on Exmoor, overlooking the north coast of Somerset. Pretty much the final stop on the 170 mile blat home, with the exception of a self-congratulatory stop at the local Indian take away for a well deserved "welcome home" curry..

PANNIERS!!!

Sods Law, one of lifes annoying realities. 50 days after I ordered my pannier rack from Touratech they finally arrive, 3 days after the start of the Pasty tour! DOH!!

Anyway, still very exciting coming home to a large box with Touratech stickers on!

So after waiting for the apparently typical delivery delay, I reach the next Touratech obstacle in my path to touring nirvana - German instructions.

Thankfully, after a foolhardy 10 minutes of macho "I don't need no instructions" fumbling, I did a bit more trawling the web and find this site..

http://humphrey.myzen.co.uk/panniers.htm

Sorted. How to fit Touratech racks to a Transalp 650, in English. Beautiful. It also has a link to the German instructions in PDF, which can be copy and pasted into Google transalation for a rough idea of what they're going on about.

Am I impressed with the final result? Yes. Seems sturdy enough and I like how the top is flush with the seat and the rear also.

Am I impressed with the overall Touratech experience? No, not really. The guys at the UK office seem chipper enough, but the delay, lack of English instructions and not even a complimentary sticker!? Slack.

Only problem is: I now want to use them for a trip, but have all my holiday for the next 12 months saved up for the Morocco tour!! I feel some heavily over-equipped weekend trips and weekly shopping trips ahead!!

The M&P Marvellous Pasty Tour

We got back safely from our tour of Cornwall on saturday after 10 days of amazing riding, exploring and eating enough pasties to sink a Cornish trawler. It was an great tour, with near prefect weather, stunning scenery, no major problems and even within budget!!

View Larger Map

This is the route we took in the end, mostly made up as we went along, thanks to my iPhone charger failing before we even left. Bloody technology rubbish. So with sat-nav binned, it was old fashioned navigation all the way: sign posts, AA atlas, Sun directions (yes it was out, pretty much all the way round) and the odd local questioned for specific locations. Much more fun!

Most of the tour from a riding perspective was stunning, with particular highlights through the B-roads of Somerset, Dartmoor, the south coast roads of Cornwall and large amounts of the A39 back, including the rollercoaster roads of Lynmouth gorge and Porlock Hill. Fuel efficiency was good, especially from the Yellow Peril, with its single cylinder apparently sipping reservedly away at its petrol and being seemingly about 25-30% better than the T'Alp - although I do box at a heavier weight to be fair!

Seat comfort seemed to be the main issue with the bikes over the trip, with numb arse a common ailment. So Airhawk style padding is added to the wish list. P also had issues with the high winds on some of the exposed roads, catching the tent and dry bag luggage, so maybe some downsizing is in order when we look for a new tent to take to Morocco.

Comms worked okay, was good to have and used to good effect a lot, but the in helmet speakers did irritate our ears with the slight extra pressure. Also at our greatest time of need, when we got separated down the A303, it failed as soon as we were out of line-of-sight. We never did bother recharging them and by the time we rode home were glad of the lack of comms and hurting ears.

In total we clocked up..

590 miles

2 ferry crossings

2-3 wrong turns

zero breakdowns/punctures - hoorah!

zero accidents - despite several terrible elderly car drivers (mostly along the A39)

at least 10 yummy pasties - worst was definitely Newlyn Bakery

.. and a generous amount of Cornish Rattler and assorted ales..

.. good times.

Melksham 2 Marrakesh

Things are also progressing with the plans for our trek to Morocco next year too. Both of us have wrangled 5 weeks off work as paid holiday for around this time next year and we'll soon be booking ferries and will have passed the point of no return!

We've also decided to try and raise some money while we're at it. I figure that even if we raise £50 it'll be worth it anyway. We chose the MS Society..

.. because my mum was diagnosed with it a couple of year ago and it seems that some treatments may soon have profound effects in countering this debilitating disease.

Our fund-raising page is still a work in progress, but is here ..

http://beatms.mssociety.org.uk/netcommunity/Melksham2Marrakesh

Map of our route. We're hoping to clip Belgium on the way into France, then skirt the Alps down the East side of France. Cross the Pyrenees through Andorra, down Eastern and Southern Spain, cross through Gibraltar to Morocco. Then on the way back up, cross into Portugal and Western Spain before getting a nice relaxing (and well deserved) ferry back from Santander in the North of Spain.

That's a round trip of over 5000 miles!?! It'll be quite an adventure for two rookies, but nothing like diving it at the deep end, and all that..

Priorities will be safety, safety, safety and staying fit and healthy I think. Hopefully the rest will all fall into place..