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So having put the winter wheels/tyres on the Donkey the other day it was time to get them dirty. First thing I noticed was how much more 'lively' the bike felt after riding all summer on Mitas E-07's but it it was fine after riding about an hour of tarmac. First stop was by the gatehouse of the Spye Park estate.......... a and onto Heddington Steps which doesn't have any steps anymore, it's been totally sanitised , you could drive your car up there nowadays ? and then rode a couple of trails around Devizes...... and then up onto Salisbury Plain via the Redhorn Hill vedette. When the army are playing war there would be a red flag flying here and a barrier across the trail but no live firing today so on we go........... There are plenty of warnings about not straying from the byway, if you're stupid enough to do so you really are playing russian roulette.... and down to the tank graveyard which is good place to stop and get the flask out for a coffee.........

Now it was time to head for home so it was back up onto the Plain to ride tracks to Westbury and then tarmac back to Bristol. It started to get really breezy and you could see big showers in the distance but I managed to avoid them and made it back home dry

Yesterday, first chilly ride of the year

As we begin our adventure there is a sign located at the bottom of the gravel road that reads, "If you get lost today, will anybody know?" ? A small reminder that we are entering the backcountry and you should be prepared as possible. So off we go, trusting our Royal Enfield Himalayans will keep us riding. As we travel up and up the forest rolls by and the sound of Gray Creek hangs in the mist. What more could you ask for? Bubbles, that's what, and we have those too. ?

A vid of Tymie on a Tomos.

I decided that if I was able to continue working than I must be able to ride and that If I can;t ride then I shouldn't be working. the sun came out between rain clouds and though the temps were not high I peeled the cover of the bike, checked tyre pressures and went for a ride. The most difficult part was getting my left arm into my jacket wit the thermal liner in... Managed 100km and was just getting warmed up but needed to be back to send No.1 back to Uni. The rain clouds were moving south so I shot through a gap by riding eastwards. This was just outside chablis looking south and looking north. the trick was going to be staying in the gap between the two rain cells. I ran south untill i caught up with the rain from the southern cell around Joux la villeso cut back westwards (ish) along its trailing edge, crossing the route Nationale and the river Cure at Voutenay and turning more northwest around the western edge of the northern cloud mass. I got rained on for 5 minutes but nothing serious. by the time I got to Mailly la ville the roads were bone dry as it clearly hadn't rained here all day. I crossed the Yonne river on the 15th century bridge at Mailly le chateau I closed the loop by riding back via Champs sur yonne to refuel. route map: 100km, an hour and a half ish and no pain or discomfort in either shoulder or knee which is reassuring.

you'd have fallen out with the ex-pats here Pete they're mostly piss heads and wasters or complete tossers with too much money. you'd probably end up like me having nothing to do with them, at leat you could deny even being the same nationality, I have to lie...

There isn't much left to Luggershall Castle but it's worth a quick visit especially considering that it's free to enter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludgershall_Castle

So I carried on going south and then took a detour to the east and came across this............ Now on the Plain there are puddles that you can loose a bike in so I got off and tried to gauge the depth but in the end it was fine, there was only one hole in it and I rode through it safely. Then I managed to scoot around this one to visit another tank, I think you've seen this tank before but it looks sadder every time I see it ? So once I got to the Rollestone Camp I carried onto the first castle of the day via tarmac. Old Sarum is quite important in English history but I wont bore you with the details , you can find it all here........ https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/old-sarum/history/ Because of Covid-19 you can only visit now by pre-booking and then you have to turn up within your chosen hourly slot. Well I dragged myself around the site in my bike gear for 45 minutes but I'll go back another day with my wife in the car and wearing more suitable gear. I'll let the photos do the talking.............

I started a rumour you had died in a S&M accident. Now you have ruined it.

Superb @boboneleg.........you couldn't do justice to stuff like this just by putting it on FaceButt. It needs a forum to really display it correctly.

Opposite Old Sarum is a Roman road , parts of which you can still ride........ and near Firsdown there is even a bench on the byway so you can stop and have your lunch ? Then I did a couple more byways including Whiteshoot hill which was 'interesting ' going down on the wet chalk and then I rode the back roads to get to the second castle of the day.

In the outer bailey is the site of the original Salisbury Cathedral........... but from Old Sarum (Old Salisbury) you can see the spire of the present Salisbury Cathedral in the distance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral

There's still a bit to ride Tym if you know where you're going , we now can only ride 2% of the rights of way in England & Wales (Scotland is different, officially there are no rights of way for vehicles there) but it's decreasing all the time.

Could it be because you have a tendency to shoot at them Tym?

Well I did it, got a second mortgage on the house and purchased a Mosko Moto Nomad tank bag with the money ? Expensive yes, worth it, totally! I love it so far and now I have some molle webbing in my life! ?

.......the sound of a big Thumper!

Went out on some familiar back roads into Murcia province to put the Beemer through it's paces.......get a better feel for it type of thing. As I've said it's totally different to the Strom in all respects as it feels like a big dirtbike or supermoto.......rather than a road bike that looks like it can handle a limited degree of offoad. The upshot is I'm still very impressed with it......even took it in places I wouldn't have taken the Strom......and it handled it easily. Couple of Beemer Boys loaded with dustbins were holding me up......so I had to pass them! Not sure if they're aware that despite paying around €20K for the full Ewan and Charley experience, they were holding up and got passed by an A2 licence motorcycle ridden by an Old Age Pensioner! Anyway, I ended up near the abandoned village of Moralejo de Arriba so I took a few shots in there. After I left there, I wanted to top up with petrol.......but found that the filling station was abandoned as well. Looks like they left quite a bit of stuff in there too. So it's a treble dose of dark motorcycling......Abandoned Beemer Boys, Abandoned Village, and Abandoned Petrol Station! This has to be End of Days! And remember, you don't get this shit on Buttrider! Tell 'em @Tym

We're lucky here so far in that respect Alan. I fear some of the bigger towns will close down again, No 1 daughter is afraid that Dijon Uni is about to send them all home and install "distance learning" by computor. I'm afraid that having gone from Lockdown to zorking flat out so that others can have their holidays we'll be locked down again as soon as I am furlough'd in november... Thay wont lock down till then cos it's half term next week for 2 weeks so at least i'll get that. Now I just have to refuse the knee operation till early november so that I can get some riding in before hand.

This is my favourite time of the year for riding, but .......................... lockdown. ?

sorry I copied and pasted from farcepuke on my phone and as you know i'm a complete arse with all things computerised... what I should ave done was link it https://www.rideapart.com/articles/448215/yamaha-tenere-700-travel-spy-photos/

Our kind just can't help looting can we Fred?

That can actually can’t

To infinity and beyond LOL

That was the first one, the one you borrowed to go for the left at home ignition key. The best as well, the MK2 was not as good but had better ( so WMB ) told us, gearbox.

Great stuff, Bob, love those not too wet trails. Ideal for a 650

What Fred said, I know a bit about what goes on there as I used to deliver ordnance to the bombardment areas on the Plain.

targets i think Pete. I was on what was probably the only hill around there years ago watching jets fly over firing live rounds at targets there, it was pretty impressive

Tammy has one of these they probably are a good idea for when you forget your cellphone and...

Get a sidestand extension under the sidestand foot, Pete, job done.

You can be the rancid meat in their sandwich.

Autumn colours all over the place today.... ??

I did manage to drag myself out of bed and change the oil and filter on the 650 today, I also got the forks off flushed them out and refilled with new oil. It was a mess in there i fitted new fork bushes 2000 miles ago and this was the first oil change i think i should have done it earlier like you do with a new engine. There was literally no damping from the forks and thought i might have to strip the forks right down to see what's going on but the new oil has made a huge difference. This is a little story of why i wanted to check the forks out The last time i was out on the bike i was motoring along a mountain track i know well, there is a big dip from subsidence on it which i usually just fly over with no problem, there were some kids standing by the dip this day talking, they were up there on their little dirt bikes, great time for a pose i thinks so i kept the gas on going over the dip when i landed i just about bottomed out front and rear suspension as i normally do but this time carried on with a power wheelie as i rode along the track, must have looked cool from where the kids were standing. But on board the bike was a different story the 650 doesn't have enough go in it for power wheelies and what really happened was after compressing the front end it rebounded so fast the front end catapulted into the air where i was doing my best to keep on the the bloody thing and kept going so the kids didn't see the look of fear in my face LOL

That’s just really pretty, and your bike suits the landscape.

There's always that once Pete and that will probably be when the tyre goes down LOL

Keep it quiet Pete you don't want that racket spoiling the ride

Just remember Pete if your going to modify the side stand the bike needs to lean over enough so the bike don't fall over if any of the tyre goes flat overnight

less now than a few years ago, ut plenty work within the local tourist industry. I use the term "work" in the loosest sense... and a few more who work in the wine industry as the largest exports of wine from the Chablis vinyards are ( or were) the uk and the states, neither of which nationalities are renown for their willingness to communicate in a language other than their own so native speakers are employed by the big vinyards.

The return of students to universities is spreading it like crazy here. I expect to see a total lockdown again by the end of the month. Poor buggers are getting hit for online tuition, which they could do at home, and accommodation which they can’t leave. There also having to pay for prison food, like jam sandwiches for breakfast and Pot Noodles for meals. I wouldn’t blame them for breaking out and going home. It’s a bloody shambles.

Exactly, and a BIG monitor. ?

Bavaria. This castle was off to the left if I remember correctly. Had stopped to get some snaps of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle

I don't think he gassed them Tym. Think he was more of the "shoot them and dump the body in a ditch" type of guy!

Nice one Chris......I love the shots of the small towns and villages there. They're so different to here. Cos back in 2005 I wanted to go to France.......but I got outvoted 3-1 in favour of Spain.

Looks like Franco used that place to gas people.

Riding with another rider is the best you can do, I wouldn’t worry. Great video and what a gorgeous place you found!

Think it's 2.3 litres and every 10K kms Fred.

Well it was an adventure getting this beast back to Spain from the UK. Hemel Hempstead to Plymouth is well over 200 miles in biblical rain and there was so much water ingress that it limped the last 15 miles on one cylinder. Dried out on the 24 hours ferry crossing in some of the roughest sea conditions I’ve ever experienced but luckily I don’t get seasick. Docked in Bilbao 3 hours late so had a 325klm ‘sprint’ to the overnight hotel in Soria followed by a 622klm ‘dash’ the next day to get home. Just over 800 miles in all and man, that bike flies! Only took me 2 days to recover. ???