I’ve managed twice in the last 3 days to get out and enjoy this late spell of warm sunshine for a couple of short (ish) rides with a friend/near neighbour - Ivan - who is relatively new to motorcycling.
I’m really not sure whether or not I had a direct influence on him swapping his ‘brat’ style learner bike for a Triumph once the examiners had given him the right to destroy his L plates, but I’m pretty sure that the Thruxton I originally urged him to buy and an unofficial ‘tour’ he had of my T300s played a pivotal role in his eventual selection of his black Thruxton.
I’d always said that I’d be more than happy to lead him out for some riding experience once he’d passed his test and torn up his L plates - I didn’t want to do it before his test as I feared I might have unwittingly passed on the personal bad habits that I’ve undoubtedly acquired in 56 unbroken years of riding - and so we’ve been out on 3 or 4 occasions over the past couple of months when time, weather and (his) family/work/leisure commitments permit.
On Friday we headed east and out across the Somerset levels stopping briefly for a quick glimpse at Muchelney Abbey on a round trip covering just over 70 miles on mainly B class roads. No pictures, though as I forgot to pick up my phone! It’s an age thing.
Yesterday (Sunday) I had an appointment to undertake my first IAM ‘observed ride’ but I got a phone call on Saturday postponing the meet because the observer had double booked a family event and I agreed that should take priority. ‘Standby one’ on my thoughts of doing a write up of the IAM gig …
With the IAM cancellation freeing up a nice, sunny if not exactly warm day I thought I’d go and visit a friend and former colleague down in South Devon via a scenic route across Dartmoor but that trip, too, was instantly cancelled as he had short notice family commitments so … cue a quick text to Ivan and a frustrating hour trying (wholly unsuccessfully!!) to connect a Garmin Zumo to my computer and try to work out a relatively short local loop! I’m not at all well versed in sat. nav. technology and use - the TBS already had a mount installed when I bought it early this year - and I bought the ZUMO from a fellow forum member and have used it a couple of times to ease finding and reaching unfamiliar addresses locally but I really want to use the thing to plot out a route on unfamiliar, scenic roads that I can ‘research’ on Google Maps. All of this bit about sat navs, by the way, is an expedient to explaining the irony that some may perceive in the photos (hopefully) below of my Thunderbird with a fairly big sat nav sat on the handlebars AND a turn by turn route plan hand written on a piece of paper stuck to the tank with blue masking tape … Yer’ve gorra larf, ay yer? (that’s for any block cuntray members we avv!)
Any road up me duck - the route directions took us out - again on B and C class roads - but this time I routed us north into the triangle of rich, rural farm land that lies between the brooding hulk of the Exmoor Hills to the west and the slightly softer and greener uplands of the Quantocks to the east. I won’t bore you with specific details and I failed - miserably - to take photographs of some of the scenic delights in which we immersed ourselves on our 70 or so miles of pleasant riding.
We stumbled on a cafe for a brief coffee stop and Ivan managed to choke down a well stuffed bacon bap while I satisfied myself with a simple coffee … probably instant as it wasn’t exactly a gourmet/bijou outlet … which was enough to get us both back on track with a view to enjoying the ‘return’ half of the trip.
Our return route took us by Bishops Lydeard where we diverted briefly around to the West Somerset Steam Railway station in the hopes of seeing a steam train but - typical, I guess - we were 10 minutes late! What we were in time for, however, was an enormous roads police presence around the west Taunton area with patrol and ANPR cars haring around the place and, I think, even the eye in the sky! Not sure what it was alll about - perhaps an exotic county lines bust or just a road safety campaign (we could certainly do with one around here, driving standards are, generally, abysmal) but it wasn’t a problem for us as, with me leading and my IAM ‘experience’ coming up, I’m unlikely to be trying to outrun any patrol cops any time soon!
All in all, we covered around 70 miles and enjoyed some really good roads, some nice warm weather and some lovely views. I’ll try to get some more pictures next time but it’s difficult to contemplate disturbing the rythm once you’re ‘in the zone’ and enjoying the ride. That’s my excuse …
Ivan chowing down on a nice bap!!
At the coffee stop.