September holiday 3

The next day Robin and I set off for the MZ Riders Club national rally, held this year at Porlock on the north Somerset coast. It was a bit of a dull ride until we started following our noses through the lanes of Somerset. We stopped at a lovely old pub in the village of Crowcombe and I was amused by the provision for smokers in the rear yard of the pub, very inventive!
We stopped at a lovely spot later on, the Clatworthy reservoir on Exmoor. An impressive structure but rather difficult to photograph.
Nearing our destination we stopped at the top of Porlock Hill and admired the fine view.
I decided that as I was on holiday, I would get B and B for the time of my stay in Porlock. How's this for a great view? The photo was taken from my bedroom window, looking down the valley, over Porlock village to the sea.

A pleasant evening was spent with other MZ club members in the various pubs in the area.

September holiday 2

The next day we went off searching for more RBR clues in Mid and West Wales. Robin's youngest daughter came along with us this time. She is called Teifi (pronounced tie vee) after the river of the same name. After getting one clue we diverted off up a narrow road to take Teifi somewhere she had never been before, the source of the river she is named after. I took this picture from this road. Hills as far as you can see, magic!

Here she is looking down on the Teifi reservoir which dams the springs of the river. A lovely and peaceful spot.

We went on to Devil's Bridge where we had lunch at the steam railway station, got a Round Britain Rally clue on the outskirts of Aberwystwyth and then travelled down the west coast road to Cardigan. Here can be seen where the river Teifi flows into the sea.
Later on we stopped at some waterfalls on the Teifi in a village where the national coracle museum is (another clue) but it was closed by this time late in the afternoon.
We then headed back to Robin's house. Once on the main roads, the Trophy Sport had to be worked hard which caused problems with the carburation again. However, on the Heads of the Valleys road, it started to go a bit better. This is making me think that the exhaust silencer may be blocked and the heavy mileage being covered in a short time may be gradually decoking it. I hope so as a new silencer is a lot of money and the old and presumably original one is still in passable condition.

September Holiday 1

A few weeks ago I had a grand holiday, staying with my good friend Robin and his family in South Wales, touring around for a couple of days and then moving on to the MZ Riders Club national rally and AGM at Porlock in Somerset. I chose to go on my MZ ETS 250 Trophy Sport, which was good as gold I am pleased to say. I had to adjust the back brake which arguably I should have done before I set off and it did leak a little bit of oil, not bad for a 40 year old bike. I managed to get 2 Round Britain Rally clues on the way down and then stopped off at a pub for a meal somewhere south of Builth Wells. It was one of the worst meals I have ever had, sadly, so I won't bother mentioning the establishment. Pictured above is the bike in the car park of the pub, well loaded as can be seen.

The next day Robin and I set off exploring, searching for more RBR clues and looking at anything else we found to be of interest. First stop was the very excellent transporter bridge at Newport, recently restored to working order. It's a fine old thing, now over 100 years old and used to get traffic from one side of the river to the other. There is a good website all about it at

http://www.fontb.org.uk/

Our visit did not quite go to plan though and we were not able to take a trip across the river. I knew something odd was going on when I drew up to a pelican crossing right by the entrance to the bridge and had to wait for Batman to cross!
It turned out that members of the Father for Justice organisation had taken over the transporter bridge earlier that morning. Here are some of them, a mate of theirs, the Incredible Hulk was on top of the structure and so it had been closed off by police. While I can understand the frustration of a parent who is unable to see their child, I am not sure what this was actually achieving to help matters along. Virtually nobody was taking any notice of them, and I can't help thinking that any self respecting child who found out that their dad was dressing up as a superhero and making himself look an idiot and a nuisance would surely choose to keep away from them anyway! Still, it takes all sorts to make a world and I am sure the transporter bridge will still be there next time I am down that way.
Here's a view of the travelling part of the bridge upon which light vehicles and passengers cross the river.
And here is a view across to the east side of the river.
Afterwards we went to the charming town of Usk to get a clue and have some lunch, then went to look round the castle, which is in private ownership but for a bargain fee of a pound can be wandered around. Here is the fine view scross the town from the grounds.
Here is part of the castle structure, a more peaceful spot it would be hard to imagine, but I guess being a castle it was anything but at other times in its history.

From Usk we headed westwards across the valleys to get some clues the other side of Cardiff. We stopped off on the way at the Llandegfedd reservoir where it can be seen that Robin's 800 BMW dwarfs my little MZ! The view across the reservoir is rather pleasant as can be seen below.


We got the clues we were looking for and headed back to Robin's house, pausing on the hills somewhere near Caerphilly to watch the glorious sunset. A good end to a great day with perfect weather.

A minor disaster with the "Shed"

I chucked my MZ TS 150 roadster, affectionately known as the Shed, up the road on black ice last February. I was fortunately unhurt, just a bit shaken up and damage to the bike was minimal, just a bent footrest and a broken mirror. I had not fallen off for almost 14 years at that time, so no complaints other than why can't the council grit the road?

I straightened the footrest by jumping up and down on it and all was well. Until last Friday evening that is... I parked the bike in the dark on an uneven surface on the side stand near my favourite chippy. When I came out I went to put the wrapped up chips (to accompany a home made curry in case you think I am a total junk food eater!) in my tank bag. The bike was almost vertical due to the uneven ground and therefore decided to throw itself on the floor as soon as I touched the zip on the tank bag. This resulted in another broken mirror and a badly bent footrest again. I straightened it and rode the bike home, but the footrest moved far too easily for my liking. After curry and chips, I examined the bike and sure enough the footrest bar on the right hand was cracked through and about to shear off. The above photo shows what it was like. I had quite a job getting the remains of the footrest bar out of the bike frame as it was very tight and there was not much left to get hold of. By removing the exhaust silencer I was able to gain access with a large pair of stilsons which enabled me get the remains of the bar moving and then it was fairly easy to remove. I have used the footrest bar off the recently purchased 150 Trophy to get me back on the road and I have ordered a new one to put back on the Trophy.

I can think of more pleasurable ways to spend a Friday evening, but it was all done by 12.30 AM and I could then sleep easy. I can't leave jobs like this alone as they prey on my mind if I do not get on with them.

All character building stuff I guess.

Another day out in the Peak District

A few weekends ago I was invited out for a spin by my friends Diesel Dave and Sandra. Very kind of them and a good day for a ride out. The day did not start too well though as I could not get the disc lock off the Guzzi and had to saw it off which took the best part of an hour. While doing this I managed to catch the front left hand indicator with my shoulder and promptly managed to break it off. It's made of cheap, brittle plastic and therefore is very easy to damage. I was unimpressed, but as can be seen the day was saved with some very stylish bright orange duct tape! (As an aside the whole thing was a farce as I must have had a brainstorm, I was using the wrong key all the time and therefore wrecked a perfectly good disc lock unnecessarily. How stupid was that? I think I am losing my marbles....) I managed to catch the others up, by which time they had met up with another friend of theirs, Cath.
Here we all are having a stretch-a-leg in Hartington village, from the left, Sandra, Dave, Cath.
Soon after there was a mix up and Dave and I got separated from the girls. While he went off to rescue them I sat in the sun. The Guzzi is such a pretty bike in my opinion, it gives me great pleasure to look at it.
Here is a the view from where I stopped, very nice and relaxing. We were soon all back together again and we went to a place called Wetton Mill for tea, sandwiches and cake. It was a nice spot but very crowded and we were plagued with wasps unfortunately. We took a twisty route home and were back in time for a curry locally. A grand day out, thank you Dave and Sandra!