Weekend Debrief

[SteveC#222]

Actually managed to get some biking in this weekend!  On Saturday I took part in the ‘Wolds Run’, an annual charity run through the Lincolnshire Wold’s in aid of the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance.  It’s really aimed at the Classic bike crowd, but newer bikes are welcome and as the XBR is over 20 now it must nearly qualify.  I arrived at the East Kirkby Aviation Museum (well worth a visit) at 11am to sign in and pick up a route sheet. There were already loads of other bikes going in and out when I got there..I was number 579!  The run takes you on a steady plod of around 50 miles through the most picturesque parts of the Wold’s. As most of it is on unclassified roads you don’t get much over 40mph most of the time ….the first 10 miles were especially steady as they were on single track roads which the council had kindly resurfaced with copious amounts of loose chippings a few days before the event  .  Got to the half way point, The Green Man pub at Scamblesby (Near Cadwell) around 12.30 for butties and a pint in the sunshine and check out some of the bikes before heading back to East Kirkby.  Once back we all got to go onto the airfield on masse and watch a taxi run by their Lancaster Bomber ‘Just Jane’ and a fly past by the Dakota from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight… fantastic stuff!  LOADS of really tasty bikes and some really nice classic thumpers.  Quite a few more modern singles too, several XBR/GB’s but I didn’t see any SRX’s.. where have they all gone?   I understand they were around 750 bikes taking part.. a record for the event and a good pile of money made for the air ambulance.

The rest of the weekend was the usual family stuff….well I’ve got to earn some brownie points if I’m going to get to the annual rally!!
 

[mini-thumper]

SteveC you luck man! I spent the entire weekend pissing about with the 6V electrics on a bike not really worth the effort. For the full sordid story see my rant in the Rant Section.

Maybe next weekend will be better?

Boyd

[johnr]

i went to scotland on the dr big, and snapped a chain coming down off glencoe on the a82. nowhere was open so i had to be recovered back to preston. not happy, the chain was only 2000 miles old, and has been fitted with an oiler from new, but it snapped on a sideplate. luckily not when i was absolutely tonking it 5 mins earlier. expensive hd o ring chian from a big name maker too. not happy at all.

[guest27]

A carry over from last weekend.  In my ongoing attempt to never get a bgike working I have started to tidy up the coachyard - it has suffered many years of Rog Steptoe.  Having tieded a lot of it - see some post elsewhere I am sure - I decided that the paths that had been laied were less than useful and that the reason why bits of the coachyard flooded was because someone at sometime had dumped a load of dirt in there and raised the surface.  Many barrow loads of dirt later and it was looking good, then I lifted the pahts - they were made by the peasent who ripped the blue brick cobbles out of the stable and laid a concrete floor (not me).  Having lifted the bluebricks I thought I would dig down enough to get them level with the 'new' level and lay them back - in more of a sweep sp the stable door can actually be used to get bikes in and out.

bit of digging and I have hit a cobbled surface - some 150 to 200mm below where I started, on a level with the hard apron (concrete?) around the coach house.  Have not uncovered much as yet and it seems to be in some disrepair and rather lumpy - maybe this is why there were layers of cinder, grit and gravel over it befor the soil and bricks I have been removing.  Dont know how far it runs or whether it is any good but I guess I will be digging for sometime yet....

So if anyone fancies a Thumper Club Timeteam we could discover the underlying archeology of a Victorian vicars coach yard.   

Pat suggested I get out more 

R

Oh does anyone know owt about restoring Victorian cobbles - they seem to be just small rocks and stones from the building but bedded in a yellow clay - dunno where that came from we do not do a lot of clay around here as far as I know.

[KirriePete]

Don't do it Rog!  If you're not careful you'll end up with something like this:

Secret Nazi Bunker

[guest7]

Don't do it Rog!  If you're not careful you'll end up with something like this:

Secret Nazi Bunker

Bloody hell! What a fantastic thread! 

I wish that
a. my land was big enough to hide away a secret German bunker
b. I had the time and money to excavate it

MArvellous
GC

[guest27]

JUst wasted too long reading the bunker thread - excellent another day without progress on anyting

R

[KirriePete]

Today I have mostly been getting rained on going to and from a MAG ride through Dundee.  Pished down going in to town, pished down coming home again, but dry for the run, so I suppose that's alright!

A fair few bikes turned up




The only other singles were 125's and one guy on a TT600, but Arfur wasn't intimidated:



(Sorry 'bout the timewasting Nazi Bunker thread - cracking good read, though - innit?)

[guest18]

Bu**er! I knew there was something else I was supposed to be doing 

Never mind, today I mainly helped swmbo teach Guides archery (swmbo is an instructor, I'm just a buckshee helper!).
Good fun and the rain wasn't *too* bad! 

[Richard]

Well I spent the weekend camping with 15 Scouts - Steffan came along as well.  Shooting this morning, assault course and hiking yesterday.

Walked them to the site above Llanddewi Brefi and walked them out again a few miles.

Decent camping with a wood fire to cook on, Steve was in his oils with that.

Now for a bath.

Richard

[squirrelciv]

Just back from a camping/rugby trip with my boys and their rugby team. Great laugh and new people to compare camping kit with too :-) Not too many mums in attendance, so the kids just ran about playing god knows what most of the day. Everyone went down to the beach yesterday (about 50 people in total) for dads 'v' kids rugby followed by all in baseball tourament. Walked into Saundersfoot for a chip supper (and a pint or too ) then back to base for a quiz and a few cans. 10 O'clock saw most of the kids and a few parents tucked up knackered.
Big cooked breakfast this morning before breaking camp then onto Narberth for the match. Llantrisant under 9's got a stuffing, but the under 10's (my boys' team) won 6 trys to 1.
Slap up grub in the club house then the drive home and get the kit put away. Ready now for a bath and a single malt before an early night. Yes I confess, I'm knackered.

[guest7]

I actually managed some riding yesterday, the first time in 11 days    I rode down to see a Busmar Astral sidecar that someone had tipped me off about. It looked OK and £20 changed hands.

After afternoon tea with the in-laws I returned home to cook a monster lasagne for some guests and a pleasant eveing was spent drinking wine and watching our respective kids play like demons.

Today was a quiet 'un, I got stuck into further tidying of the motorcycle garage and then I had a succession of visitors so this afternoon was spent drinking coffee in the garden, playing with the kids and listening to bikes ride past. During all this idle gossip with my visitors I heard a rumour that the Stalwart™ (Jethro) has bought a Hinckley twin.

After everyone left (and wifey returned from work) I finished off the garage and I'm pleased with my results, it should be much easier now to rebuild my GB500.

Tonight will be spent in a local public house in the company of bikers.
GC

   

[Steve Lake]

A quiet weekend....but productive...SWMBO has been away since Friday (back tonight) ....Her annual gardening trip with the Cottage Garden Society...this year I'ts the malverns and gloucestershire, so, to prove that I don't just laze about drinking beer watching tv and bu55ering about on the internet, i have been super industrious....spent severa hours tidying up the garden, and it looks a treat....when you've got 1/4 acre to look after it really takes SO much time to keep looking good....then there's the vegetable rack.....why I do it I just don't know....SWMBO saw a very nice looking wooden veggy rack in a magazine....sort of with 3 or 4 wicker baskets on shelves topped by a box with a lid ( bit like the old school desks), I stupidly said 'I could make one of those using some of that reclaimed hardwood stacked in the shed'.....doh! (the one in the magazine feature cost about £250!!!!)...that was last october, and since the new year I have been 'earbashed' regularly 'when are you going to start the veggy rack?'..... hopefully she will be pleasantly suprised upon her return, a lot of swearing, general minor hand damage and several broken drill bits later I have produced a pretty reasonable veggy rack, wood cost sodall (hardwood window and door frames chucked out by the glazing company next door to wher i work) brass screws and cups £4, brass hinges and brass handle £6, three wicker baskets £21 from homebase.....thats a result...
Early completion of that job allowed me to service #4 (oil/filter/iridium plug/chain off and wash and grease/grease cables etcetc....(all this prior to a run up to holyhead to the Northwest 200) and i great ride out to Hunstanton (favourite bike stop at weekends....probably over 100 bikes on the sea front at 4pm) and back by way of a shakedown...all seems ok....just need to tidy up/waterproof my riding gear......It'll be a bit sad...as I fully intend to sell #4 either at the NorthWest (i'll stick an advert on it wherever i park it, and will put it on Ebay, to finish after my return) or immediately after.
and I've really enjoyed that bike, for all intents and purposes identical to #1, funny how bikes can have such a different character...

Not as interesting as finding a victorian cobbled courtyard i think ( now if that had been in Norfolk then it would definitely have been flint) this house was built in 1803 and had a stock yard next to the house which was flint and would have made a superb base for my garage but the 'planners' made me put footings in to the reccommended depth!!! the bluddy house has quite happily sat on shallow (1/2 m) flint and marle foundations for more than 200 years!

pip pip

[robG]

Tonight will be spent in a local public house in the company of bikers.
GC

Do hope one wore ones best originals ,Bro .

Badass .

[guest27]

Aunt used to live in a 16C flint house in High Wycombe, when they extended it the planning man came out and isisted that the footings be taken out to 6' + to be safe, thus undermining the house footings by about 7'.  Having done this another planning man comes out - the boss this time, who throws a hissy-fit about how deep the footings were!!! - Luckly the house did not subside into the footings...

Was fun watching my cousins mate dig them out - he bought one the the over sized JCB's that were made for an order for the Shah of Iran and never delivered - looks like a std JCB on steroids. By this time all the hydrolics were well worn and the back-hoe would swing about a like a good-un and was almost impossible to control, unless you have been driving it for the last 20 years, this guy could run it down the old walls leaving a smear of mud and probably could open his sarnies box too.

Dug out more of the coachyard - seems that there are big patches missing - so I now need to decide whether to dump a load of gravel ontop of the lot or make good the cobbling - if so any ideas where I can get some granulated clay from?

R