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They refurbished the train station and water tower aswell - looks kinda cool....

As an American, this is the only castle that I like to visit...

How many Suzuki DR's can you get in one garage ? This was taken about four years ago. I had two 650's at the time and was transferring all the farkles from one to the other before selling the older bike, on the right is the last 350 I owned (now gone but up for sale by the new owner).

But I made it - now sitting in my deeeeluxe hotel room at the Marriott with the air con switched to "freeze" and enjoying the magnificent view outside my room...

Finally pull into Lamar, CO for some fuel. Saw what had to be the biggest steam train ever . I'm 6'1" tall and the wheels were as tall as me....

Don't I know it. One day they're all lovey dovey, licking the salt off of your truck in the driveway and the next night the bastids jump in front of your truck....

It is a place of extremes; extremely hot right now but extremely cold in the winter. The rain stoprms, when they have them, are full of torandos and 3-4 inches of rain in an hour. Passed a lot of cattle and cattle trucks yesterday - nothing smells worse when it's 95F - will get some shots of them today on my way home.

Yeh......me too! That's why I've been tracking these abandoned stations! But to be authentic they need to have some original rails left like Seron!

There you go Tym..............

I agree, i love old train stuff!

My driveway in the 90's. Mine is the GS500, a simple bike, but it was fun on the coastal highways. ?

No - there's not really any towns of any kind; inhabited or abandoned out here. Just grass fields for miles upon miles. I rode a stretch of 200 miles and I think I was next to the same field the entire time.

And now the real fun begins; Kansas has about 2 road turns in the entire state, more State Troopers than you can shake a stick at and it's now 95 out. Great riding!

Only thing other than dry grass for miles is some windmill generators in the distance. Good place for them as the wind was a steady 40 mph all day today....

Hour or so later and I pull off the highway onto some dirt. Was gonna check out the trees, lakes and mountains - but there aren't any! Welcome to the eastern 1/3 of Colorado - whole lotta nuthin'....

.......but we've made it onto Page 1 of Google! There's only 6 sites above us now cos some have two listings........obviously the likes of AdvRider and ThumperTalk are in that bunch. But they've been around for 20 years.....not 10 weeks. So we're doing OK! Just need to get more new members in so put the word about wherever you can. Obviously the more movement we can get on here the less likelihood of us running into pics of @Pedro's disgusting food!

Up at the crack of 8:30 this morning and started packing the bike for a ride to Garden City, Kansas. There was a nip in the air though (ignore the date and time - I dunno hopw to set those). Stopped on the way outta town and looked back at Interstate 70....

On liquid cooled bikes, since 2013 or so, it's been a wet clutch that you access from the front of the engine.

A modern GS is not a bike you want to have problems with, that's certain, as things get expensive fast. However, my bike has done 60.000km last week and has never needed anything. It'll get new clutch plates, though, as I've been advised to change them to improve the gearbox smoothness and as preventive measure against oil contamination fucking up the engine. Plates will be 300€ plus fitting, which is easy compared to previous generations. It is frugal, I love the handling, the brakes, etc, and I really like boxer engines, no other engine I would rather have for the riding I like to do. Also, when I bought it I chose it specifically with two up touring intended, and there is absolutely no other big trail that can do that better than this bike, period. Would I live with a Super Tenere? Surely I would, and I would love that if I had one, and maybe it would last longer too. But I like riding my bike a lot more so that's what I do and just put up with the risk of fixing it.

We have similar problems with wild Haggis, nothing short of a. 50cal will stop them though.

Too big......they need to be around 60px. Resizing in an editor will kill the animation.

CASTLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had to replace a clutch on a D7 Bantam in 71.......think it cost about 3 quid! Which was probably more than the POS Bantam was worth!

That refurbished train station looks neat ?

The problem is they let the white bears go free with just a warning, while they drop the ban hammer on the black ones...

The GS500 was a bestseller in Portugal. Really a cool bike to have in it's time, maybe cooler than the bigger sellers XT600 and CBR600.

Bloody hell Ian, thank you for that trip through English culture

Congrats @Pedro That was close. ?

Couple of hours later and I'm at my first truck stop of the day getting fuel. Starting to warm up as well....

You're telling an American to ignore a castle?

You need to do better, fancy highlighting him with a stake and a piece of rope

Refresh the page and you'll see it now! Fame at last Pedro!

So today I wanted to get the little CRF out and go for a trail ride, there are some lanes to the north of Salisbury Plain that I haven't done for a long time so I decided to head that way. I certainly wasn't going to go anywhere to the south of the plain near Stonehenge as it would be heaving with hippies all trying to get there for the summer solstice . I got away by 08.00hrs and after filling the tank it was a 20 mile ride on tarmac to the first lane . Just a short byaway which was cut in half in the 90's when they built the A350 bypass around Chippenham..... and then onto the village of Laycock which is largely owned by the National Trust.... The local shop really needs to check the sell-by dates on some of their stock ? and then passed by Laycock Abbey which is well worth a visit if you're roundabouts.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacock_Abbey

So time to head for home mainly on tarmac but with a couple of old lanes on the way...... and finally Pete's favourite bit, where I show him whatthe days riding has done to my bike ...........

Back onto the Plain for some blasing along gravel trails.......... The MOD have done a great job of marking the trails........... and there's always the chance that you'll come across something they've left behind.........

Then I gained some elevation again with great views all around............ and found some more poppy fields........................

Now I was into some fairly easy stuff, so a chance to bomb on a bit....... and some tree covered roads as well............ and back to the overgrown stuff............

I carried on and dropped down off the Plain via this track which took me down to Rushall........... Then I made my way back up onto the Plain via this byway. There are lots of these sort of tracks in this area and they look fine and dandy but at this time of the year they hold a surprise. The grass is long in summer but what you can't see are the hidden ruts underneath, you can be riding along fine and then the centre rut grabs your front wheel , you take a dab with your foot to steady yourself and dab into thin air as your foot has dissapeared down the left or right rut. Lots of dudes end up on their arse riding these trails for the first time and then some water just to keep it interesting ..............

Now were climbing up onto the Plain............. Salisbury Plain is huge (by UK standards) and has tracks going everwhere but you need to understand that it's overseen by the MOD and they control where you can and can't ride , for your own safety. It is an impact area where live munitions and tank training are carried out, and it's a great area to ride as long as you obey the warning signs, your life could be in danger if you stray off the byways and permissive routes....... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Plain This is the perimeter path, it is a gravel track which skirts the perimeter of the Plain. But you can also ride the muddy track to the right or the grassy track to the left............

So onto the next set of lanes which were very dissapointing as the local authority has decided to tarmac them........... and now I'm heading for a couple of lanes that will lead to the Plain........... But before I get there I ride down this lovely old holloway near Potterne.......

I like it too. Don’t know about all that wet dirt on those tracks, though

Nice pics! The Abbey looks cool - love stuff like that.

Brilliant Bob.......I'm getting to like that Rally now! ?