Slowlycatchymonkey

Cold but nice enough for a quick spin, definitely snowmobile suit weather though ?

No chance of China without a guide. Rode in Tibet 2019 (which for anyone not interested in global politics is ruled by China) and the control exerted by the govt is quite a surprise. Guides are obligatory, map pages had to be removed and destroyed, multiple military check points on a single road where they go through your bags yet again, on tarmac road you have to slow to 5mph for gantry cameras (I assume because their number plates are so tiny it wouldnt be able to pick up the number plate above that speed), your route has to be pre approved and then you can only stop for fuel at the places they have said you can and can only have the amount of fuel they calculate you need to keep you on the pre approved route which is brought to you in a jerry can so you don’t take more than necessary to get to the next stop. Still worth a visit though, the guides and the Tibetans are lovely people! Tajikistan is an unusual pick what’s the draw to that one?

Not anymore! Heyho, we were lucky enough to catch the tail end of an ideology some employers had that you look after your staff. Similar to the military, accommodation was provided, housekeepers kept the place working and changed the linen and you worked all the unreasonable hours necessary whilst doing precisely what you were told when you were told to do it ? Why they couldn’t find another use for it I dont really understand.

Good way of doing it. You want everyone to enjoy themselves- tricky balance in a group that big!

Talking of abandoned places I really want to go back and have a gander in one the student nursing accommodations we had. Is was a beautiful mansion built by a philanthropist for use as an orphanage. We were the last cohort to use it finishing in 1997. The govt then got into a row with the locals about using it as a home for paedophiles and its been left to slowly derelict since. Its still covered by hospital security staff but that doesn’t stop it rotting. It turned up on a few ‘abandoned places’ websites a while back, these pics are a good 5-7 years old, dread to think what it looks like now. Such a waste and quite sad if you knew how alive and loved it was.

Tym’s the one torturing us with it!

Maybe he just didnt broadcast the trespassing part?!

Because of the unusual position of the UK weather wise it has more tornados per unit area of land than any other country (as in number of tornados for the size of the land mass) but they are generally too weak to be noteworthy. We have at least 33 a year and outside of America hold the record for the largest outbreak of tornados. In 1981, 105 tornados in 5.25 hours. Not a lot of people know that... probably cos its not that interesting ?

Are you sure this ones not a porn bot?

So only out n back available ? How long will that take?

It’s all on the pricey side but tastes great (as it should at that price) and is perfectly cooked. Off set against not eating out for a year it was trivial, like being on holiday. Ask me again in a weeks time where to go for breakfast and I’ll be eyeing up the prices with a sharp intake of breath followed by “HOW MUCH?!?!” but yesterday it was worth every penny ?

How many miles is it if you rode the roads around the entire perimeter? Or perhaps I should say what is it in time?

They stopped selling spam in the 1970’s... I lie they didn’t but they should’ve ?

Its still hard not to spit your tea out at those prices ? My snowmobile suit went down a storm there ... not ?

That sounds a like a great bunch to ride with. What an excellent evolution. Its hard to accommodate such a varied group of riders and keep everyone happy. The hardcore want the hardcore stuff and the not so hardcore dont want to hold others up or appear soft! I went on a trip with a bunch of randoms (24 people in total) and I started off skill wise somewhere around the middle of the pack, all well and good I thought, a nice comfortable place to be, then they started dropping like flies (down to 12) and I was at the bottom along with a couple of others, its strange how it can effect you so fair play to anyone on that trip who kept going with off road gods like that making it look easy! The group of randoms left standing that I went with are keen to do something else and I can see it might develop into something along the lines of what you’ve described but Covid shut it down before it got going so now who knows. I’d still quite like it to happen though! Good to hear about the iPhone camera, due an upgrade in May and they say the 12pro max camera is excellent, it has different lenses and you can control shutter speed n all that malarkey. Cors I dont actually know how to manipulate any of these variables to take a good pic but I’d like to learn to take much better pictures and if I can do it without having to carry an extra camera thats even better!

TLDR- Not a lot to see here, you’re better off reading the Baja thread, thats what I’m doing next ? This ride report is the most lacking you’ll likely ever see under ‘Ride Report’s but its not my fault honest.. well maybe it is but I feel innocent. The day started well, I pulled the blinds to see the sun shining through the window and even though my inadequate phone doesn’t show it in the pic I can easily see Wales across the water, even the wind turbines slowly turning. This is unheard of early morn because even on the sunniest days the sea mist takes time to clear and holds the temp down, often until midday. Not sure about the ‘pano’ setting on the phone, it seems to make the central focal point of the photo the cesspit, so here you go a pic of the top of the cesspit, you’re welcome. I checked the forecast and it was very promising. Skiving is now firmly on the cards. This type of weather which I love always gives me grief on the attire front because in the sun its lovely and warm, out of the sun its still only 6 degrees. Taking into account the wind chill on the motorway I plumb for the subzero skimobile suit- not a wise choice ? Mr Slowly says he’s going to come along and we decide to turn it in to a test run for the longer days in the saddle on the LEJOG trip end of May. Seeing how long it takes before aches turn fun into pain, what the timings of preemptive breaks will be, getting Mr SCM familiar with using sat nav while riding, figuring out what works when we ride together over longer distances and any bike changes that might be needed. Easy peasy. Whacked together a chunky chilli in the slow cooker so the ingrates dont bother me at lunch time because “Im hunnnngreee” made a large flask of tea n some sarnies and feeling like some multi tasking genius who’s won the lottery we head off to the Wye Valley. But priorities n all that so first a wee dap up the motorway for breakfast at Lockside. Not biker breakfast prices but to hell with it, this is the first time we’ve eaten out in over a year. If you’re ever in Bristol and want to flash the cash on your brekky this is the place to go. Odd location but classy enough to serve Bloody Mary’s with your fry up! This is where my ride report goes down the pan. I review the helmet cam footage eagerly anticipating something worth of seeing only to discover that in-spite of spending a lifetime deciding its optimum positioning (skyline perfectly horizontal, what I’m looking at dead centre of the frame, helmet encroachment minimised) I hadn’t realised just how not upright I am on the bike so I have a lot of footage of tarmac and my speedo (which is not something I can post on a public forum ?). It just doesn’t adjust up or down. A schoolboy error maybe but they dont mention that in their sodding fitting video on youtube! We head over the bridge where I do my best impression of a flip top lid in the hope of getting at least one bit of footage to put on here but in the interests of not closing the bridge with an accident only a complete moron would cause I give up. I’m navigating quite badly and miss both opportunities to make it onto the A466. Where we went next is a mystery to me but it was sunny and felt great to be over the bridge again at last so who cares. Stop to rejig the sat nav and have a great ride over to Usk, then Monmouth and back down through the Wye Valley before heading over to Frome until the sun refused to reappear from behind the clouds and we headed home again. Ooh exciting a pic at the petrol station cos my husband is enamoured with his new helmet- me not so much but of course I said its lovely! ? The only ride report worthy pic taken from the “ABSOLUTELY NO PARKING, you will be clamped” sign just before Tintern Abbey. The risks I take for you ? The cloud cover that refused to break just outside Bath despite the ‘sunny all day’ forecast ? And home again. A little icing on the cake to discover the miniature weeping Cherry Blossom tree we planted last November for one of our dogs burial (yes we were that sad about it) has against the odds grown and already produced its first little blossom. Distance- not that far 150 miles but a lot of B roads which is exactly what LEJOG will consist of and out for about for 7 hours. A good first long ride together celebrated with beer and chunky chilli. All in all an excellent skive. A bonus item- while we were fuelling up I watched Mr SCM automatically stop talking and his eyes swivelling about as soon as he heard a motorbike engine, long gone are the days of him saying to me “you’re not listening are you?”.... because he is now too ... gone man, solid gone... ? Dunno why this pics here twice, tried removing it but it wont let me.. TECH SUPPORT HELP.....

You’ll find it again or should I say it’ll find you. Everyone has slumps in motivation to do things, sometimes when shit happens for a very long time but from my point of view if you dont force it somehow one day it just reappears. Then Africa will be yours and I’m sure a rollicking good’n itll be ?

Thats a great write up of a very entertaining trip. Thankyou so much for posting it ? Its so well done I’m left wanting to burst out of lockdown and never sit down again ? Fantastic views. Are those pics taken on a phone? They look too good to be a phone. Do you do this trip type of trip regularly?

Not quite as bad as calling a motorbike clothing line ‘John Doe’ ?

Yer getting the Fat Boy in and out of a garage with awkward access is why my dad wanted to get rid of it. Pulling it backwards at an angle is the thing I struggle with most. I suppose thats why its part of the test here, I stood still so long to recover after pulling my bike backwards in arc on my test the examiner thought there was something wrong ?

Anyway @Pedro what’s your dream bike trip?

Not sure how hills came into the equation and of course some peeps can handle heavy bikes or Harley Davidson would have ceased to exist. Simply the heavier the bike the harder it is to push and no matter how careful the planning at some point you have to push. In or out of a garage, back into or out of a tight space, it happens and depending on where you live it can be regularly. Now I may be a kermit the frog armed female but 250kg I can push, 350kg I cant. The lighter the bike the easier it is thats physics. So a lot of peeps look at 350kg and understandably think no ta!

If he’s not comfortable to travel somewhere then he is the limiting factor on us travelling together. Acknowledging what someone else is and isn’t currently comfortable to do isn’t based on assumption. I dont expect or want anyone to travel to places they don’t want to go (people who do things they dont want to aren’t a lot of fun) but after a bit of experience he may well change his mind and I’m happy to show him and if it doesnt float his boat Ill go on my tod. Easy.

Don’t really get what your saying Pedro. He’s the kind of dude thats happy to be shown things. I’m not gonna push and he’s not the sort to be pushed. But there are different levels (or perhaps ‘ways’ would be a better word) of travelling and ultimately where we travel together and where I travel alone will be dictated by what level/way he’s comfortable with.