South of the Border, not down Mexico way
- Thread starter Steve T
- Start date
Lord Vader
Well-Known Member
Nice pics Steve 
We do live in a stunning country,you just need to go out and see it 
We do live in a stunning country,you just need to go out and see it 
Lord Vader
Well-Known Member
The usual way. Bribed the border guards with alcohol and loose womenstanbloke said:How on earth did you get a visa ???.
Steve T
Well-Known Member
Well, I've done some single finger typing about wot we done the other weekend . . . . .
From the North-East they came, thundering down from the Glens into the hinterlands that make up . . . . Cumbria, and Yorkshire of course!
When LWR first posted this rally up I was not for attending, seeing as it was in the middle of the school holidays and it was being held in or near “Tourist Central” aka the Lake District! On a bank holiday as well!
But seeing as eldest sons “plus one” underwent a change of employment that meant he was unable to attend due to being sent to some obscure part of Euroland to work – Norway I think it’s called – I thought I’d make up the numbers and role south as eldest sons “plus one”
.
We met and headed south via the only really viable bike road south from our corner of the island – over the Lecht and down Glenshee. Much up and down was ridden, along with many side to side moments, such is the nature of the A939 and A93. Great start to the weekend, even if the first 50 miles were in wetness! Must be something about the hills to the north of Braemar, because we’d no sooner “topped out” on Glenshee and started down the hill towards Perth, than the sun made its presence felt. And thus it stayed in the sky for the whole ride south from that point onwards. Bonus!
Uneventful ride down past Perth, Edinburgh, Jedburgh, Hawick and Longton via many more bendy bits of tarmac. As a detour I decided eldest needed to experience the roads leading to and from the Hartside Café, which we did with much smiling of faces and leaning of machines into and around bends.
Our arrival onto the A66, approx. 10 miles from the day’s destination – Takoda camp site in Kirkby Stephen (KS), saw us at the end of a very long, un-moving line of traffic, being held up by a group of 5 vehicles that had a “coming together” some distance ahead, near Appleby. We plotted a back road route, using that “old tech” thing called a map, and had an uneventful ride via the lanes all the way to KS, with not a single U-turn required.
On arrival we were greeted warmly by Maria & Paul, as well as several other two wheeled campers who had already rolled in and pitched their canvas caves, ready for a weekend of blethering bollix and riding. I selected a spot in the main field whilst eldest paid his dues for the weekends camping, only to find eldest standing next to his steed with a worried-ish look on his fissogg. He’d left the ignition on whilst paying up, and on his return from said duty, the big white dirt gatherer that is his bike wouldn’t fire into life! Fugging great, curses Dad.
We pitch our tents then return to said white behemoth and apply some Honda magic electricity and get the “thing” running. It’s left to heat up, over-heat, cool down, then over-heat again before the engine is switched off. “Don’t even think about trying it again until tomorrow” were my final words on the matter, once we had obtained the phone number and location of a bike garage in Penrith. Supper that night was cooked by some nice ladies in the chip shop in KS – Mmmmm, fish, chips and mushy peas .
Saturday arrived after the over-night rains had stopped (the clouds must have tracked us from Morayshire), with luverly sunshine beating down on our little en-campment. The group ride for the day was heading towards the Lake district – a place I’d vowed not to go near on a bank holiday. A very nice short man had, before I’d left home, sent me a gps track or two of some local byways that could be ridden. I’d pushed some waypoints into my brick of a satnav, from the info I’d been sent, and so me & eldest headed in the other direction, looking to attain some altitude via less ridden routes i.e. no tourists.
Our first route was less than 8 miles from KS. First section was fine – flat, unrutted hard packed gravel and mud, with the odd stream crossing to wet the wheels. After a rather steep drop/climb into and out of another stream, the track became two deep 4x4 ruts with wet grass in’t middle and to either side. We waddled up hill to the next level bit, where we came across a conveniently placed sculpture.
Pictures taken, I took a look at the OS map and decided that our Annakees and Scorpian tyres really were not fit for purpose when faced with wet grass. So we rolled back down the hill and decided which trail to do next – Cam Rd it was.
Un-eventful ride to and up Cam Rd, only being disturbed by a farmer in the slowest moving land rover I’ve ever encountered! We did meet some walkers, who very kindly opened and closed a gate for us. No conflicts between riders and walkers to be seen here – moving on. At the end of Cam Rd we headed for a route that would take us Stalling Busk. This one proved to be a bit more of a challenge.
On approach we were faced with a steeply rising track that had several tight turns in it, from what could be seen the gate. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so we headed up, with me leading as usual. The track was nearly all large, loose rocks, about fist size, with the odd larger one poking out of the ground as we got up the hill. The turns turned out to be of the hairpin type, which made for an interesting run up, with 1st gear being a bit too enthusiastic, causing plenty of wheel spin and flying rocks, and 2nd gear led to too much forward momentum to allow adequate plotting of route forward! Much slipping of clutches ensued, but we got up without incident, both of us sporting HUGE GRINS inside our lids.
Once on top, the views were fantastic, with nowt man made being visible in any direction at certain points of the ride.
The only other riders we encountered on this track were of the pedal variety. Our encounter with this couple duplicated that which we’d enjoyed with the walkers earlier, with kind words exchanged and a helping hand with the gates over the top.
This track splits after approx. ¾ of the route over the top. We took the left fork and headed for Stalling Busk. Neil led the going down bit, so’s I could grab a photo or two.
Once back on the tar, we (my knee and me) decided that we’d had enough bumpy bits for the day, so tar was the order of the rest of the day, but not before some grub had been scoffed in Hawes.
Once fed and watered and having made many shinny bike riding types scowl at our mud and tundra encrusted machines sharing space with their shinny, shinny bikes , we took in some little roads that eventually got us back to Takoda, but not before riding up to the Tan Hill pub.
Great day out doing what we cannot legally do north of the border.
The evenings entertainment involved talking rides and bikes and then watching some boiler suit clad buffoon
on a DVD about riding un-supported to the Sahara!
Huge thanks to LWR for dragging the collective together for another laid back, enjoyable weekend with likeminded souls. And too the C90 crew for showing us all what real “adventure” is.
Steve T
nearly forgot to mention the KTooom - it started on the button the next day and at every subsequent buttn push there after!
KTMs - go figure
From the North-East they came, thundering down from the Glens into the hinterlands that make up . . . . Cumbria, and Yorkshire of course!
When LWR first posted this rally up I was not for attending, seeing as it was in the middle of the school holidays and it was being held in or near “Tourist Central” aka the Lake District! On a bank holiday as well!
But seeing as eldest sons “plus one” underwent a change of employment that meant he was unable to attend due to being sent to some obscure part of Euroland to work – Norway I think it’s called – I thought I’d make up the numbers and role south as eldest sons “plus one”
.We met and headed south via the only really viable bike road south from our corner of the island – over the Lecht and down Glenshee. Much up and down was ridden, along with many side to side moments, such is the nature of the A939 and A93. Great start to the weekend, even if the first 50 miles were in wetness! Must be something about the hills to the north of Braemar, because we’d no sooner “topped out” on Glenshee and started down the hill towards Perth, than the sun made its presence felt. And thus it stayed in the sky for the whole ride south from that point onwards. Bonus!
Uneventful ride down past Perth, Edinburgh, Jedburgh, Hawick and Longton via many more bendy bits of tarmac. As a detour I decided eldest needed to experience the roads leading to and from the Hartside Café, which we did with much smiling of faces
and leaning of machines into and around bends.
Our arrival onto the A66, approx. 10 miles from the day’s destination – Takoda camp site in Kirkby Stephen (KS), saw us at the end of a very long, un-moving line of traffic, being held up by a group of 5 vehicles that had a “coming together” some distance ahead, near Appleby. We plotted a back road route, using that “old tech” thing called a map, and had an uneventful ride via the lanes all the way to KS, with not a single U-turn required.
On arrival we were greeted warmly by Maria & Paul, as well as several other two wheeled campers who had already rolled in and pitched their canvas caves, ready for a weekend of blethering bollix and riding. I selected a spot in the main field whilst eldest paid his dues for the weekends camping, only to find eldest standing next to his steed with a worried-ish look on his fissogg. He’d left the ignition on whilst paying up, and on his return from said duty, the big white dirt gatherer that is his bike wouldn’t fire into life! Fugging great, curses Dad.
We pitch our tents then return to said white behemoth and apply some Honda magic electricity and get the “thing” running. It’s left to heat up, over-heat, cool down, then over-heat again before the engine is switched off. “Don’t even think about trying it again until tomorrow” were my final words on the matter, once we had obtained the phone number and location of a bike garage in Penrith. Supper that night was cooked by some nice ladies in the chip shop in KS – Mmmmm, fish, chips and mushy peas
.Saturday arrived after the over-night rains had stopped (the clouds must have tracked us from Morayshire), with luverly sunshine beating down on our little en-campment. The group ride for the day was heading towards the Lake district – a place I’d vowed not to go near on a bank holiday. A very nice short man had, before I’d left home, sent me a gps track or two of some local byways that could be ridden. I’d pushed some waypoints into my brick of a satnav, from the info I’d been sent, and so me & eldest headed in the other direction, looking to attain some altitude via less ridden routes i.e. no tourists.
Our first route was less than 8 miles from KS. First section was fine – flat, unrutted hard packed gravel and mud, with the odd stream crossing to wet the wheels. After a rather steep drop/climb into and out of another stream, the track became two deep 4x4 ruts with wet grass in’t middle and to either side. We waddled up hill to the next level bit, where we came across a conveniently placed sculpture.
Pictures taken, I took a look at the OS map and decided that our Annakees and Scorpian tyres really were not fit for purpose when faced with wet grass. So we rolled back down the hill and decided which trail to do next – Cam Rd it was.
Un-eventful ride to and up Cam Rd, only being disturbed by a farmer in the slowest moving land rover I’ve ever encountered! We did meet some walkers, who very kindly opened and closed a gate for us. No conflicts between riders and walkers to be seen here – moving on. At the end of Cam Rd we headed for a route that would take us Stalling Busk. This one proved to be a bit more of a challenge.
On approach we were faced with a steeply rising track that had several tight turns in it, from what could be seen the gate. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so we headed up, with me leading as usual. The track was nearly all large, loose rocks, about fist size, with the odd larger one poking out of the ground as we got up the hill. The turns turned out to be of the hairpin type, which made for an interesting run up, with 1st gear being a bit too enthusiastic, causing plenty of wheel spin and flying rocks, and 2nd gear led to too much forward momentum to allow adequate plotting of route forward! Much slipping of clutches ensued, but we got up without incident, both of us sporting HUGE GRINS inside our lids.
Once on top, the views were fantastic, with nowt man made being visible in any direction at certain points of the ride.
The only other riders we encountered on this track were of the pedal variety. Our encounter with this couple duplicated that which we’d enjoyed with the walkers earlier, with kind words exchanged and a helping hand with the gates over the top.
This track splits after approx. ¾ of the route over the top. We took the left fork and headed for Stalling Busk. Neil led the going down bit, so’s I could grab a photo or two.
Once back on the tar, we (my knee and me) decided that we’d had enough bumpy bits for the day, so tar was the order of the rest of the day, but not before some grub had been scoffed in Hawes.
Once fed and watered and having made many shinny bike riding types scowl at our mud and tundra encrusted machines
sharing space with their shinny, shinny bikes , we took in some little roads that eventually got us back to Takoda, but not before riding up to the Tan Hill pub.Great day out doing what we cannot legally do north of the border.
The evenings entertainment involved talking rides and bikes and then watching some boiler suit clad buffoon
on a DVD about riding un-supported to the Sahara!Huge thanks to LWR for dragging the collective together for another laid back, enjoyable weekend with likeminded souls. And too the C90 crew for showing us all what real “adventure” is.
Steve T
nearly forgot to mention the KTooom - it started on the button the next day and at every subsequent buttn push there after!
KTMs - go figure