Shropshire meet July 2016

Lord Vader

Lord Vader

Well-Known Member
Home again :cool:
What a brilliant weekend,exactly what i needed after all the stress from last week
I left early on thursday to meet up with pigugly, unfortunatly Deb had to work on Thursday :rolleyes2:
Little panzer ready to roll :D



Clocked over the 70k on my way up :cool: I bet a lot of people thought she would never see that sort of milage but thanks to my rigerous maintenance regime...... :D :D



Stopped on the way up as the view was just amazing.Somewhere in Shropshire :cool2:







Met Phil at the reception of the campsite,cool timing :D Tents up,time for pub :cool:



Phil 'i never touch the stuff' Henderson :thumbsupanim:



Spotted this while setting up tents.Anyone ever seen a rainbow on its side? Does anyone know how this happens? Neer even heard of it



Next morning



Phil and i went for a little bimble into wales.Oh my,this little Suzuki goes okay :eekicon:

Had a look at Elan Valey and some of the reservoirs











This place brought back some painfull memories. My panzer was stuck in the mud for a good few hours along this lane :eekicon:



you just can make out the lane on the right side :sad:



Full to the brim :cool:



Elan Valley





We had a word with his parents :D




Well,thanks everyone for showing up. We had a absolute brilliant timet time
Cant wait for the national :D
 
outrunner

outrunner

Well-Known Member
Well, the old man made it home about 2.45 after a stop for fuel and a stop for coffee and a burger. Great weekend among great mates, thanks to all who made it so. :thumbsupanim:


Andy.
 
austin

austin

Well-Known Member
We were only there fore half the weekend but had a great time: thanks to all there, and double thanks for the birthday wishes sung at full volume just after midnight. :thumbsupanim:
 
Ian Porter

Ian Porter

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Fantastic weekend, good to see everyone again

thanks for organising it Hobbit [emoji12]
 
C

cabbage

Active Member
Forum Supporter
boboneleg said:
Where's the photos of Mart on his easy-rider :cool:
Click to expand...

It was a quality moment as i pulled up outside the McVaders tent and flicked the usual suspects sitting there the v's, the 'who the f**k is this ?' look on their faces were priceless !! :thumbsupanim:
 
M

micksylver

Member
Forum Supporter
"Just got back form the mini-meet. Great weekend, fantastic company & sharp banter. Top stuff! I even had my own mini-adventure on the way home."

Oops! Posted the above in the wrong thread when I got back. :confused:
Probably should post all or part of the stuff below in a different thread too, but its all part of the story of my trip, so .....

I wasn't on the list for this as it was a last minute decision to go - kind of.
I have been looking to upgrade the DRZ to suit longer journeys - improve seat comfort, some way of securing luggage, accessory sockets, longer range fuel tank .. etc. I was part way there when I saw the mini-meet thread and thought "Lets go.", I needed a target to aim for.
Improve seat? - a Sweet Cheeks seat expander on order http://cycle-analyst.com/sweetcheeks
Securing luggage? - looked at loads of bolt on racks, but most had a really small loading area, and , in my opinion, were pretty expensive, instead I am using some long bolts, spacer tubes and repair washers to create tie down points in 4 places - 2 where the seat is fastened, another 2 through some spare lugs on the rear sub-frame :idea-013: . Any luggage should then sit on the rear of the seat and on the rear mudguard. Cost less than £10!
Longer range fuel tank? Expensive, wouldn't have arrived in time, and not essential for this trip. So maybe later?
Accessory socket? - Running out of time to mess about with this, but I have got a powerbank that is also a torch and a jump starter. If I pack that I should get away without needing to charge on the move.

Everything was in place by Thursday when the Sweet Cheeks arrived. So just packing to do and I'm off! Packed down into 2 x dry sacks and one waterproof backpack. The 2 sacks strapped down to the home made tie downs and feel secure. :thumbsupanim:

Set off Friday lunchtime and had a fairly uneventful journey to the meet. Apart from the speedo stopped working just outside of Shrewsbury! :eekicon:
Verdict on the Sweet Cheeks seat - excellent. Really made a difference. Pop bottles were mildly pressurized by putting empties in the freezer (lids off) for 10 minutes before sealing them. Then they pressurize as the temperature goes up. :idea-013:
Verdict on the tie downs - also excellent. No luggage loss! Which was nice :D

Friday evening chatting, chilling and catching up. Loved Hudders first words when I arrived, "Mick. It's been a long time, couldn't you have made it longer?" :lol:

Saturday, after a group trip to Tuffins in the Vaders' APC* for breakfast - excellent call thank you, I left camp to go visit some family who live nearby that I haven't seen in a while. One in particular is in the early stages of dementia, so I wanted to visit while there is still a chance that she remembers me. Had a nice chat with her, nice to know that its not too far on and she is getting some treatment for it. While I was out and about noticed that the starter was getting a bit weaker as the day went on :( , luckily I had my powerbank gadget with me so when it dropped out completely I could still start the bike and get back to campsite :ugeek: 1 start used.

Saturday evening - more chatting, chilling, some excellent food thank you, and a trip to the pub.

Sunday. Time to go home. Packed up and luggage back on bike in record time - for me! The joys of minimalist packing?
Problems: No speedo - set the satnag to display speed and hope it doesn't run out of charge too soon :thumbsupanim:
Lack of battery charge / no electric start! - use the powerbank gadget for starting, plan minimum stops to reduce chance of gadget losing charge, ride for max mpg to keep stops to minimum, and don't. Didn't quite work out as smoothly as I hoped - only got a mile from camp before I needed to switch to reserve - 1 was too slow and the engine stalled! 3 starts used. So had to find fuel soon and stop again! 4 starts used! But, as I packed the starter away, she stalled! Repeat start, 5 starts used! How many starts can a powerbank do? OK, now need to follow the satnag from Shrewsbury to Chesterfield while riding for best fuel economy. Made it all the way to Swanwick services in Derbyshire before deciding to risk one last fuel stop. Better to be recovered from somewhere rather than the middle of nowhere? Filled the tank, noting ruefully that the amount left in would probably have got me home :rolleyes2: , paid for the fuel and bought a snack. Then I pushed the bike onto the far corner of the forecourt to eat my lunch. Start from the powerbank? Yes! 6 starts used! Made it home from Swanwick with no further drama. Phew! :thumbsupanim:

So. great social weekend :thumbsupanim: :beer:
May need to put the long range tank on the back burner until after the speedo and charging issues are sorted. :rolleyes2:
Carrying a pre-charged powerbank is probably better than having accessory socket(s)
Either the hotter weather on the return trip over inflated the pop bottles, or I was too tense and reduced my own comfort!


Wow. Posts nothing for years, then won't bloody shut up! :lol:

*APC = Armoured Personnel Carrier, for those that don't already know and have persisted thus far!
 
Whealie

Whealie

Wing Commander
Staff member
Forum Supporter
I made it! The first time in ages I have set off and not broken down. My god was I glad.

It was fab to fall by and find a field full of friends. (Ian nearly did fall, when his bike's extended foot sank into the soft ground).

All the stresses and strains of life just drained away. I slept so much while away it was amazing (I didn't even know it was Austin's birthday because I was a asleep at midnight when everyone sang him happy birthday).

I decided to go without using motorways. This was a mistake. Getting out of London was 500m, traffic lights, 500m, traffic lights and so on. At Maidenhead the traffic lights changed to roundabouts and it carried on like that to Oxford. After Oxford it was nice free-running roads. On the way back Vader and I stayed off the motorways to Oxford then joined the M40 and motored home - a much more sensible combination (and more than two hours faster).

I had a solo bimble on the Saturday and then decided that sitting listening to the cricket on the radio would be a good way to relax. I decided to buy strawberries and white wine. I ran into the Vaders in the supermarket so they brought all my shopping back in the car and Debs and I sat in the sun necking cold white wine eating strawberries all afternoon. Vader actually went to bed for an hour and Andy sat there mumbling in Scottish about how crap cricket was (just because Scotland play in the English county system, rather than in international competitions).

Fab to see everyone and a bonus that Russ sold me his Garmin Zumo (I'd lost mine recently and they are now discontinued) so I didn't have to buy and fit any new mounts. Cheers for that DC.

Can't wait to see you all again at the National.
 
Ian Porter

Ian Porter

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Whealie said:
(Ian nearly did fall, when his bike's extended foot sank into the soft ground).
Click to expand...

technically I didn't "nearly fall off" as I'd already dismounted when the bike started to fall and I caught it, feck me that was heavy!!! :eekicon:

I'd actually completely forgotten about that

short term memory problems? me? where am I again? :-?

Whealie said:
Fab to see everyone and a bonus that Russ sold me his Garmin Zumo (I'd lost mine recently and they are now discontinued) so I didn't have to buy and fit any new mounts. Cheers for that DC.
.
Click to expand...

I was half expecting Russ to get home and find a confused Whealie on his door step having navigated "HOME" :lol:
 
Whealie

Whealie

Wing Commander
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Ian Porter said:
I was half expecting Russ to get home and find a confused Whealie on his door step having navigated "HOME" :lol:
Click to expand...
I was worried it might make me lie the bike down :thumbsupanim:

But then I have been pretty good at that without Russ's help.
 
Lowflyer

Lowflyer

Well-Known Member
Aha,

I see I must be influencing you two southern poofters :D


A glass of beer and TWO WEE DRAMS :beer:

Nice one guys, looks like you had a cracking weekend. :thumbsupanim:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top