Random Ramblings

Due to the various building works last year, the 675 was laid up off the road. I had planned to wait until spring to get it MOT’d (safety checked) and get it back on the road. With the mild weather there is not time like the present though.

After riding the CRM/YZ for the past months, getting back on a true road bike was very very odd. The amount the bars moved for slow speed manouvering was scary, the brakes seemed weak (but aren’t), the throttle rather responsive, the clutch immediate and the raw accelation, grin worthy.

I did manage to remember how to ride it, the battery worked, the engine management didn’t light up like a christmas tree and it gained an MOT. Triumph did a beautiful piece of engineering with that bike and I remember why I own it. We need some better weather but its ready and waiting :).

Last Monday with it being a bank holiday I was invited out for a trip to the other side of Alston, starting from Allendale. I’ve wanted to ride the lanes over there for a while and this was my opportunity. I didn’t fancy setting off early in the morning in the dark and trying to find fuel in Allendale so I took the bike in the van to the starting point. On the way, I found the conditions were getting colder the further inland I went and approaching Allendale, there was one junction where it was gently snowing with snow lying on the ungritted sections of road.

I managed to get there on time and eventually everyone was ready to set off. Everyone left apart from me and one other, I was playing my tail gunner role since I had a copy of the route. It was quickly clear we wouldn’t be going anywhere whilst Stewie’s chain was lying on the ground. Stewie has a reputation for breaking chains but not getting away from the van is a new record. Eventually the others noticed we weren’t there and came back and we managed to get the chain repaired. We were off, really this time.

I have a reputation of not doing so well on ice covered tarmac so I’d decided I was going to take things very carefully. I was on the YZ which isn’t really the ideal bike for those kind of conditions having too much power and totally knackered tyres (a dead mousse distorting the front and no tread on the back comparatively speaking). Sure enough as soon as we’d done the first lane we were onto ungritted country roads covered in a thin layer of sheet (black) ice. There was one nasty off camber T junction covered in ice which I did not enjoy at all. Coming around a corner I then found a piece of road with a couple of tight turns over a bridge, all covered in ice. This would have been bad enough (but manageable) but one of the group was lying in the road, as was his bike. Thankfully I wasn’t carrying much speed but even then there wasn’t any chance of stopping on the ice, or steering around the obstacles. At this point it helps to remember the kind of vehicle and its capabilities. I quickly concluded my only chance was to ride onto the 12″ strip of verge between the road and the wall and whilst that was covered in snow and heavily banked and undulating, chances were I would have enough traction to stop. Thankfully this proved correct. Ben got himself and the bike upright and we set off again. At this point I went past a couple of the group stopped halfway up a hill. There was too much ice around for me to fancy stopping too. I spent the next couple of miles of tarmac going slowly wondering where they were but they caught me up just as we found the rest of the group.

At this point I realised we were approaching Alston and were onto some trails I know. I only ever seem to see these ones in winter when they’re covered in ice and they’re heavily rutted making riding an interesting challenge. Rather than head into Alston, we bypassed it and did an interesting piece of trail which included a steep uphill section. Unfortunately one of the group was stopped half way up which meant everyone else had to stop. That person decided not to attempt the near vertical climb at the top and let someone else take the bike back down and take it at speed. I decided to just attempt it from stationary at the half way point which proved tricky and resulted in stalling the bike multiple times. The rear tyre’s condition wasn’t helping as it was just slipping. I was wary as the exit was onto a road with a parked car in the path if you applied too much speed/power. The first attempt ended up with the front wheel up, only to have the bike slide backwards back down it with me unable to grab the back brake, only keep the front locked solid which isn’t a fun experience. I made it on the second attempt.

After the next trail, the group had disappeared. My GPS appeared to indicate the route was left so I followed it, only to realise I was heading in the wrong direction and the tracks were confused on the map. I turned around and found two group members looking for me. One U turned and headed back the way they’d come, the other continued past me. I sat in the middle and wondered what the heck I was supposed to do! We go that sorted out and found the rest of the group but I missed out on one of the trails. We then arrived in Alston and refueled. We were still on trails I’d done before but not for a long time. We wound our way up to Hartside Cafe, beyond which I’ve never ventured on green lanes. On road bikes, this marks the point the entrance to the Lake District and I’ve been there many times on tarmac though. We started down some very interesting lanes. There were a lot of muddy ruts and I was having a lot of difficulty keeping the YZ going in a straight line at any kind of speed.

We came across a group of horse riders (on tarmac) and slowly followed for a while until they pulled over onto some grass at a junction. The rest of the group went through but I was slightly behind having had trouble restarting the bike after stopping. As I approached and was about to pass, going slowly since I know how tricky these situations are, one of the horses reared up and set off down the road. I came to an instant stop despite the ice patches and waited as the rider controlled it and brought it back to the grass. At this point the horses were clearly getting nervous and it was spreading between them but I was able to carefully but quickly get off up the road past them, hopefully allowing the situation to diffuse. I can see these issues from both sides and I hope the horses/riders weren’t too upset.

Next up was a road with a sign about a ford being washed out and impassible. To us this was interesting, we’ll see. Upon arrival, it was clear there was a *lot* of fast moving water going through the core channel and it had been roped off with warning tape. We couldn’t see any indication of depth and some of the group thought it was possible but I was of the opinion it was too deep/fast and after some discussion we reached that consensus. It’d be interesting to see it in summer.

Periodically, Ben’s bike was cutting out, likely due to the cold and some form of carb icing type effect. It was frustrating as he’d have to sit for a while, then the bike would work just fine again. It was also proving a pain to kick start. I can sympathise with this after experiencing how draining kick starting the CRM was when I first started. At one point he’d dropped it in the mud and couldn’t get it started and was obviously worn out so I gave it a go whilst he recovered a bit. It started first kick, I know how annoying it is for someone to do that :/.

At the end of one lane, we had a bit of confusion over the exact route to take with it turning out to be a drop down a hill, over a tiny stream, then through a much deeper ford crossing. On the drop, I managed to get a large tree branch stuck between the mud guard and the front wheel for which I had to stop and disentanhgle it. This isn’t simple on a steep slope but I eventually managed. I only saw the last member of the group going through the ford but it was clear Ben had fallen in. I was given several pieces of conflicting advice about the best route over including mention of a large piece of old road which may or may not be in certain bits of the river but wasn’t visible from where I was on the other side. Great. I set off through and about half way, it was clear I was riding on a piece of flat slab (old roadway?). So far so good but they’d said there was a problem? Sure enough, all of a sudden it became cracked, pointing upwards and then stopped with a deep drop (1ft+) off the end. At this point I accelerated a little and attempted a small jump off the end, as best as is possible off a slime covered piece of rock in water. Thankfully the bike then landed upright in the properly deep water with both wheels and I could quickly power out the river. Apparently Ben had attempted something similar but had lost balance coming off the slab, needed to put a foot down and slipped off. Far too easily done. We emptied out the drowned bike, then towed it to get it started.

We then had to stop in a village and wait whilst once again Stewie had to repair his chain. By this point we were running well behind schedule due to the stoppages and general slow progress made. There were some lovely relatively unused lanes we passed through. One memorable moment was coming to a shear decent, probably only a couple of metres in height which took some nerve to plunge the bike over. Again I was cursing the condition of the tyres on the muddy bits and couldn’t carry any speed.

By this point time was against us as it was going to be getting dark. There certainly wasn’t time for a lunch stop and we pressed on. We winded over the A686 (heads to Alston) taking some interesting lanes although I was still fighting tyres and going slowly. We then went up a trail that leads to hardside cafe which I’ve heard of but never done. I think I made the biggest hash of it I’d made all day, being unable to get traction anywhere even vaguely muddy. I ended up stalling and having to drop the bike into ruts to find stone to get momentum up the hillside. There is a steep climb at the side of the trail here and one group member did attempt it but only got halfway. The trouble then is getting back down safely. I decided not to bother given my experiences so far that day (and experiences of steep climbs going wrong on other occasions).

We then headed over to Garrigill at which point I hit reserve fuel (eek!). I did warn the rest of the group and thought Alston for a top up might be wise but Steve thought we’d make it back ok (he and another group member hit reserve too). We took the road over the top to Nenthead. I know this road well for various reasons and know that if there will be snow/ice anywhere, its on this road (17th highest road in Great Britain). Sure enough the whole thing was sheet ice. Making it the hill was bad enough. Once at the top, you then have the problem of getting down the other side. The only way I could do it was on the verge, being very mindful of the deep holes and drop offs (up to 6ft) in the verge. I was surprised to make it down there without some kind of incident, I was going very slowly/carefully. Apparently Steve did drop his bike at one point (I didn’t for a change!).

There was one more lane and then it was tarmac back to Allendale. At this point I ran out of fuel entirely. Thankfully Paul came back to look for me when I disappeared and using a water bottle, I was able to share some of his fuel, enough to get me back to the van. Meanwhile, Stewie had also run out and was towed the last couple of miles.

Despite the issues, it was a great day out, one of the days I’ll look back on with fond memories. I really enjoyed it and look forward to exploring more trails in that area when there is a bit more daylight.

“We are unable to quote for house insurance since our records show you are within 50m of water and are at risk of flooding”.

Well, yes I am within 50m of water. Its called the North Sea, its clearly visible out of all my front windows. What isn’t being accounted for are the sea defenses, a lower and upper promenade and a road between me and it, not to mention the cliffs. A hint about the height of the cliffs is the “High Point Hotel” just up the street which oddly enough is built on “High Point”.

Not quoting based on the risk of coastal erosion I could understand (although with the sea defenses here its extremely unlikely and they’d protect the road) but flooding?! I guess its possible bits of Norway might fall into the sea and cause a tsunami but thats about what it would take…

Its traditional for the local trail riders to want to escape into the countryside during the Christmas holidays and this year was no exception. Last year we had snowfall which made it all the more interesting but its been relatively mild this year so far. We met at Prudhoe to realise the usual fuel stop was closed due to the bank holiday but there was another garage open nearby thankfully. We did the usual lanes around Slaley noting that the obstructed right of way which we’ve had long standing issues with and I mentioned in a previous post is finally being opened up on the correct route!

Before long I noticed the last man behind me had disappeared so I turned back to find his chain had snapped (at the split link). I was starting to assist in the repairs when it was pointed out my number plate was half hanging off. Some rearranging of some bolts had it reattached in a different way and others had the a replacement split link fitted at the expense of a pair of my pliers by that time.

We came across a shooting party who were not pleased to see us and thought we shouldn’t be there. They were shooting from a public highway (illegal) and standing around with loaded guns on a highway (illegal) but it wasn’t worth risking a discussion with them.

I seemed to be having trouble on anything muddy with the bike sliding all over. At one point I started off down a deeply rutted trail and found the bike weaving all over. It got bad enough that I ended up stopping abruptly when the wheel ran into the side of the rut, hard. Its amazing what goes through your mind and how quickly it can think through things at a time like this. Upon consideration of the situation, I quickly realised there was only air on my right hand side and that was the direction the bike was going to fall over in. Rather than try and catch the bike when my leg did find ground (and likely break something), I evidently decided that escape was the best option so I dived off the bike. I rolled in the air, hitting the ground rolling on my shoulder, and right side. Something told me I had too much momentum to try and stop. I was probably remembering the motorcycle track day rider briefings where they warn you about trying to get up too early after falling off a bike at speed (wait for 2 seconds *after* you think you’ve stopped as you likely haven’t). The consequences of not waiting are described as “breaking off your sticky out bits”. I therefore let myself make another revolution at which point my speed was sufficiently reduced and I somehow made a relatively graceful transition to a standing position at which point I was laughing. The group stopped behind me gave my gymnastics top scores. The body armour did its job and I didn’t really feel any of it. The bike was fine having really just been laid on its side.

We wound our way over trails I’m starting to know quite well heading down the south side of the Tyne and ended up at Twice Brewed for lunch. Its great to see some of the interesting places we get to on the trails although its frustrating not being able to sample the beer! We headed back along the north bank and did some trails I’ve not been on for a while, probably not since I first joined the TRF. By this time is was starting to get dark and it was time to head home. It was good to be reminded of some of those lanes and there was at least one I never remember having ridden on before so it was an interesting day out.

One of the reasons I like the CRM was the availability of spare parts. It may be an 18 year old bike but it was ahead of its time in design and you could still get most parts for it.

After the last trip out, it was suspected the oil pump throttle cable was pinched somewhere causing the sticky oil pump action, likely after having had the tank off. I finally got around to taking the tank off and it was clear this was not the cause. Even having isolated the cable from the splitter box with the main throttle cable, it was still not moving freely. Even with the cable totally removed from the bike, it wasn’t clear why it wasn’t happy although there was a nasty looking stretch in the cable outer just as it exits the oil pump. Fiddling with the cable, a strand of frayed cable appeared at which point it became clear there was hidden internal damage. I got a little more forceful in separating some of the fittings and found it really was rather worn being down to a couple of strands:

I was lucky this hadn’t snapped, cutting off the bike’s two stroke oil supply. So, no problem, I’ll just buy a new one. Upon enquiry with the usual purveyor of parts for CRMs I was told that it was not possible to order one and they had no replacement, sorry. This was a bit of a surprise and apparently likely due to the Japanese Tsunami disrupting the Honda parts supply chain. The likelihood of them ever retooling to produce these parts again was remote. I really wanted to have the bike available for use over the holidays too.

Not to be stopped by something like this I went and took a look at my brother’s box of throttle cable components and found he had the right pieces to make a new one (new end fittings, cable, inner liner and outer). The end result:

Its now on the bike and should work as required. I’ve rerouted it a bit to avoid pressure like the original had. I also had to tighten the return spring on the oil pump since the it wasn’t fully closing the oil feed at closed throttle and is evidently weakened with age and probably the previous damaged cable. Longer term, the lack of spares for the CRM might start to become an issue as there are many things that can’t be copied as easily 🙁

[This happened back in September but I realised I never posted it]

I’ve promised my brother a try on a trail bike somewhere and things seemed to align to make it possible. Rather than a quick try, I suggested we just go for a run out. I’ve never been trail riding mid week before and never just with two bikes. This would also be the YZ’s second real trip out. What could possibly go wrong?

We left my garage just after the rush hour traffic died down and had the horrible fight through traffic to reach the other side of Newcastle. After a few more miles we reached the first trail, a nice uphill section which is “ideal” for someone who’s never had a bike offroad before. Chris did fine though. We looped over some further trails winding our way to Slaley forest. One of the routes there has had one end blocked up and we confirmed that was still the case. The local group is working on getting it fixed.

Since Chris didn’t want to destroy his road bike boots, I was trying to be careful where I took him. I couldn’t resist demonstrating the bike was perfectly capable to going through mud over the wheels on at least one occasion though.

We exited Slaley going through some water crossings which I got the bikes through, looped around some trails. At this point Chris was riding through the water crossings with his feet up. I did point out this was fine until you hit something. This is a lesson you learn the hard way though.

We then came back to Slaley from a different direction and then up onto Emberly Fell. This trail is seasonal and closed from 30th Sept for six months of the year so it was nice to ride it before it was out of bounds for a while. I think Chris found the mud/moorland harder than the rockier pieces we’d been on so far. He did have the bike stop standing in a rut as he went for a run. At least he didn’t have to pick it up :). I was also bemused at one point to be sitting waiting and rather than ride up to me, he took a detour though several bushes 🙂

From here it was up onto Blanchland moor, over the top into the next valley. I’d decided the best place to head was Hamsterly Forest, a dead end but good fun with no deep water crossings. We made it over the first part of the route, then my bike started sounding rough. Not good. At this point I realised I was out of fuel. We hadn’t made a fuel stop when getting to the other side of Newcastle like I’d planned.

So what to do? I did have “reserve” although looking into the tank, I wasn’t optimistic about how long it would last. The nearest garage was the one we were heading for in Wolsingham, quite a distance away and there was not one nearer. I’d screwed up by not stopping for fuel once through Newcastle and was still thinking in CRM tank range. All we could do was press on. I went into fuel conservation mode, stopping the bike when I could although since it had no kill switch and has to stall in gear to stop the engine, it was hard to coast down hills.

We continued to have some good fun with me riding into what looked like a little puddle that pretty much swallowed the bike. Fuel conservation was forgotten as I had to open it up to get out of that mess quickly, muddy water going everywhere. Apparently it was funny to watch.

The fuel ran out on the flat tops of the hills overlooking the valley that Wolsingham is in. I assessed how much was in the CRM and decided to steal some of its for the YZ in the hope we’d both make it to the garage. The easiest way to do this was simply to remove the CRM’s tank and drain it in which we did. I got over the flat bit, stalled the bike, then coasted down the hillside. I had enough fuel to ride the road to the garage and I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved to reach a fuel station.

After refueling we continued on to Hamsterly with Chris getting to see
some pretty nice landscape. The water eroded path we rode along contains
pretty scary drops, bumps, rocks and other obstacles and is a lovely
illustration of what those bikes can actually cope with. We reached the
far side of Hamsterly and had lunch.

The trip back was pretty much the route out but with Slaley cut out. It was getting quite late by this point and we needed to get back. On the third last trail of the day, Chris asked me what the red light meant. It was either over temperature or low two stoke oil, we decided on over temperature and the radiator seemed low on water. It should have been fine for two stroke oil. It was also smoking quite a bit. I decided to abort the rest of the lanes and head for civilisation and a garage. It did take water but not as much as we’d expected. I decided to head home and hope we made it.

As we drew nearer my house, the smoke was getting worse and worse, it was like a smoke screen. I was dreading what state the engine was in but at this point we might as well try and make it back. We got back, washed off the bikes and put them away.

I finally got around to a quick look at the bike to see what was wrong. Surprisingly after being left for a couple of days the bike had good compression and fired up first kick. The red warning light was still on. That means its the two stoke oil as it definitely was cold (or something was broken with the temperature sensing which is unlikely). I decided to check how much two stroke oil it had and pulled off the oil pump cover to disconnect the pipe to check there was still some in there. There was oil but the oil pump looked odd somehow, cue some staring at it. There was something not right, but what? I poked the pulley and it sprang back to closed position. Opening the throttle was indeed opening the oil pump but closing the throttle was not closing the pump off, the cable was sticking. Aha!, that would explain the problems. So the working theory is that when we put the tank back on we’ve somehow trapped the oil pump cable and its not returning properly, I’ve not checked into it further yet.

Chris did extremely well for a first time out on green lanes and whilst its a shame the CRM decided to act up, I don’t think it spoilt the day too much.

Saturday was the Northumbria TRF’s forest trail ride. This took place in Kershope forest which is right on the Scottish border in rather remote part of England with permission from the forestry commission to use their land.

I purchased a road registered Yamaha YZ250 a few months ago but its spent its time living in my hallway or half way up my stairs so far. Now my garage is completed, I was able to resolve the annoying squeak it was making (ended up removing some extremely worn rear brake heat pad/spacers) and could take the bike out and use it properly for the first time. When going to check the tyre pressures I discovered the front wheel has a mousse in it, a rather knackered one at that (which is why the tyre looked a bit flat). It was too late to contemplate doing anything about it and I decided it would probably suffice for the use I’d put it to for now.

On Thursday I joined a couple of others for a trip around the course to check the final route and see that ground conditions were ok. I remembered how to premix fuel, met up with others, did an intricate dance which involved different bikes in different vans and on different trailers and made it up there. The bike started first time which was more than Steve’s recently rebuilt YZ did!

One of the first things I needed to do was jump a bar on a gate and I managed to stall it with one wheel over. This was the start of a theme as my CRM can rev ridiculously low and still pull hence I’m not used to opening the throttle.

For the next gate I decided to try and ride around it and promptly got partially stuck in the ditch at the side as it was impossible to see how deep it was until you were in it.

The next forest roads were pretty much without incident. I wrote about an incline in one of the previous blog posts about this forest and we went up that. The YZ didn’t really notice it was there. I did stall at the top but even then, the bike cleared the steeper top section easily once given appropriate throttle. The ground was a lot drier than it had been previously and a lot less bikes had been over it but even considering that it was clear the YZ is a different breed of bike to the CRM.

Along the next road I went to catch Steve up and noticed that the front wheel went light in every gear which was interesting.

The next piece was a medium and hard group detour off the main trail where it quickly became apparent that it was a bit harder going. I managed to get stuck in a bog, stall several times and then fall down a bank and get the bike upside down. There were also several low pine branches to push through and I got pine needles everywhere including dragged along my neck :/.

Given our experiences (mine in particular), we put that section down as “hard” only and noted the requirement for installation of a pallet the next day to get over the bog.

Further on I was continually stalling in a quarry. We then found the route blocked by blown over trees and had to turn back and adapt the route.

Later we then came to a steep incline off the side of the trail which Steve demonstrated how to ride up. I gave it a go and made it up the first bit to the platform 3/4 of the way up but stalled before I could make the second steep bit. Steve looked dubious at this point but the YZ showed its true strength and despite no run up, clawed its way up the second slope. I doubt the CRM could have done that.

We made a detour off the tracks up onto open felled ground and I managed to get the bike stuck trying to turn around but eventually got myself unstuck and caught up with the others.

There was a lovely piece of trail over some other felled forest but I managed to bounce the front wheel off something hidden in the grass/heather which knocked me way off my intended line and then ended up riding straight into the start of a sudden 4ft deep drainage ditch. I was left standing on the ground with the bike down the hole only supported by the handle bars. Oops. We got it out but it needed a team effort. I wish I’d had my camera.

The final piece of the day was an interesting section which started with open fell, through a couple of bogs into the trees and then through under the trees and back out into a fire break and up a hill through potentially boggy greenery. Somehow I seemed to gel with this section and rode it in a vaguely competent manner.

By this time we were out of time and needed to head back for various reasons so we didn’t get to do a reccy of the second part of the course but that was the simpler part so not to worry. We loaded the bikes back up whilst being threatened by midges and headed back to base in a field near Hexham. A pleasant evening was spent around the campfire.

Friday was marking out day. Whilst my bike was up there, I was asked to passenger in a 4×4 land cruiser with the maps and signs and figure out what markings were needed at each junction. This was complicated by routes we couldn’t get the 4×4 down due to narrow bridges or gates we didn’t have the keys for. We were using stakes with signs with arrows on to mark out and the stakes proved a pain to drive into the rocky ground but we slowly managed and started working through the junction numbers. There was a team of bikes with us helping put the signs in.

It was interesting to talk to Sam, our 4×4 driver who takes the land cruiser around Africa with his sister.

Marking out took an age and by the time we came to lunch, it was late and I also discovered Sam needed to leave earlier than I’d expected. We’d only completed the route I’d done the day before by this point.

After lunch we changed pace and started just leaving the stakes and signs at each junction rather than helping put them in. This was to allow the 4×4 to get a move on around the course so Sam could leave around when he needed to. It all got complicated by more locked gates and the fact I didn’t have a route on the GPS for this section, just my paper maps but we started making good progress.

We did try and take the 4×4 up a trickier route and got stuck and scratched the side of the 4×4. Thankfully Sam had sand plates which got us out but I did feel bad about the scratches. I suspect it will be a talking point on his next Africa trip though.

With a quick detour into Soctland to go around the last trail which we couldn’t make it onto or along, we were back to the start and Sam left to pick up his sister and get to the wedding. I think he enjoyed himself and it was certainly a different day for me and a huge help for us marking out.

There were also teams working on putting out pallets on some of the boggier pieces of the route so we could try and ensure everyone would make it through.

The original plan had been to check out the course but we’d run out of time. I also realised I’d failed to leave some signs on one section but it was agreed we’d sort that the following day. Once everyone arrived back we headed back to the field (only 40 miles but 1+ hours away) and another pleasant evening was spent around the campfire.

Saturday arrived and we got back up to the forest. I teamed up with Steve and we set off to ride the second half of the route which was not confirmed as being marked out 100% correctly. We didn’t have a lot of time so had to get a move on and the YZ performed admirably. We reached a tricky stream crossing and I tried to do things a little too quickly and kept stalling, then dropped it in the stream. Having got out of that with a bit of help from Steve, I then dropped the bike onto a knife edge rock with my knee in the way a couple of metres further up. That’ll teach me not to wear the knee braces and the knee pads did nothing to protect against that kind of injury, ouch :/. Thankfully just bruised though.

After some issues working out the correct direction for the route we made it to the final section that needed marking and got that done, then completed the rest of the route without incident. We arrived back to find everyone had set off as expected.

We decided to head along some of the route to see if we’d catch people up but we didn’t and therefore just had a gentle trip around some of the first section with some of the helpers making it back to the start again to meet the first groups for lunch.

After much debate about whether a second lap would be possible, the time suggested it wouldn’t. Someone had blown up a 535 KTM with it blowing an oil seal and turning into a smoke generator so a team was dispatched to get the bike back to the encampment. We then decided to start the teardown so I set off with Steve to do it along with a quad and trailer to collect the signs. This worked ok for a while with me demarking the pieces the quad couldn’t do on the bike with a paper bag.

Unfortunately the quad wasn’t up to the trailer and had to turn back and we had to start doing things the hard way. The run leaders got back, caught us and started helping demark which speeded things up. A team split off to do the second section, I continued leading the first team.

I came around a corner to find one of my team members standing at the track side with no sign of a bike and the less said about how he’d slid it into the ditch the better I think, we’ll obviously never mention it again.

I got to go through the forest section I’d enjoyed again and the YZ made it look easy compared to the struggle some bikes had :). I stopped on the other side, took the tape down and tried to direct the following bikes. Nick passed me going in the opposite direction to where I was indicating saying “I know, I know” before rolling into a ditch. Some people just won’t listen…

It was then a back to the start once again and the day was complete. Everyone was accounted for, there had been the odd mechanical casualty, the odd person had come off too but nothing serious. Back at the field another pleasant evening was had around the fire. On Sunday I packed up and came home. Some people did go out on trails in and around Hexham but I decided not to push my luck given I was rather tired.

I think a good time was had by all and I’m grateful to Steve and Nic for organising it. I know the amount of work its taken them and hopefully did my bit to help out. I’m also quite pleased with the YZ. It is a bit of an animal, needs a bit of TLC in places (fork seals and front tyre for starters) but is good fun which is what I wanted.

I’m looking forward to the next trip out!

Anyone would think I give the CRM a hard life. To fix it to a mechanically sound state I’m happy with after its last outing its only needed new rear shock linkage bearings, seals and collars, new swing arm bearings and seals, new rear wheel bearings, new front brake pads, clutch adjustment, replacement of the kickstart mechanism (requiring removal of the clutch), helicoiling the oil drain plug, air filter cleaning and re-oiling and the number plate hammering straight. Hopefully the MOT tester will agree with my idea of mechanically sound as it needs one soon although I still need to replace the fork seals.

Its been a while since I wrote a run up, life just seems have gotten hectic :/. I thought I would try and get back into the habit.

Saturday morning saw six of us meet up near Prudhoe and head northwards. It was one guys first time out, another was doing some run leader training. Once I’d adjusted my distance from him to account for the notice he was giving of turnings, and the hard braking wondering whether to even attempt the corner or not was unnecessary, things were better.

The new guy did really well considering although the trickier muddy sections did catch him out a few times. Having a video camera means you can catch the action shots if you’re in the right place:

Watching him accelerate towards where the group was parked up, not realising the shallow water he was accelerating through turned into a deep ford had entertainment value when he got a face full of spray as his front wheel sank. Steve, back marking showed how to do it by taking it at a higher speed but with the front wheel raised to avoid the water himself.

Things weren’t too eventful, I managed to stall a few times in stupid places and get entangled with the odd dead tree. Nic was complaining about his chain sounding odd but nothing was spotted as wrong. We debated whether a certain trail would even be passable as the river had been eroding the path through. It was decided to take a look. The sight that greeted us was this:

A near vertical 14ft drop on the other side of the gate.

We managed to get one bike through by holding it against the fence by brute force. The barbed wire inflicted injuries received meant we decided against it for another bike. We therefore tried lowering the bikes down the bankside. Standing under a bike being lowered is a little scary but by the 5th bike we had this down to an art. Sadly whilst I’d setup the helmet cam with a good view on the other riverbank the video footage of this didn’t save to the memory card :(.

Despite being exhausted, we still had the major river crossing just after this to worry about. Arrival on the scene saw Steve struggling which is unusual. The entry to the river where a tributary merged turned out to be scarily deep. I watched four bikes make it through (just) and one fall in. I managed to fall into a deep section of stream trying to help them. I then tried riding it myself having found the raised sections of river bed but I spectacularly failed and ended up completely drowning the bike on the tributary. After pulling it onto the bankside, I emptied the airbox, removed the spark plug, we got the bike upside down, emptied the water out the exhaust and engine and wrung out the air filter. I then spent an age trying to start it, getting water on the plug, removing it, drying it, trying to start it, removing it, drying it etc., repeating the cycle 7 or 8 times. The other bike was going again by this point so we eventually decided to push it through the river and tow start it on the other side. It was noted that my rear shock linkage bearings had collapsed, I’d swear they’d been fine when I’d set out that morning but the back end of the bike now had 4″ of play in it. Not good. I decided to ignore this.

Nic offered to tow me onto harder ground, whilst he did this there was a nasty noise coming from somewhere. I didn’t have the option of stopping and the bike eventually fired up. I took it for a trip up the road revving it hard to try and get the engine to clear. It wouldn’t and I was getting seriously worried. I turned around and headed back to the group to find Nic stopped. His rear wheel bearing had collapsed with the effort of towing me. It has likely been going earlier in the day and towing me had just finished off but I did feel a little guilty. Nic opted to limp the 1 mile to the pub and lunch. I could barely get my bike to start, and when I did it wasn’t running right. Eventually I realised the choke was on, stopped and turned it off. Pulling away I ended up on one wheel as the engine was working properly again but my brain was still expecting it not to.

At the lunch stop Nic phoned for recovery, we ate, left him with a pint and continued on. We went down a lane I’ve never seen before and ended up at another ford, this time with a rock bed. My bike didn’t seem to want to work, stalling and being hard to find neutral on. Eventually I worked out the clutch cable was popping out the perch and improvised a quick repair with a cable tie. I made it through the river, the new guy made it most of the way but ended up pushing it out after loosing confidence 3/4 of the way across.

The next ford wasn’t too bad, it has a horrible drop in but turned out not to be too deep.

One of the remaining guys decided he was heading home as he didn’t like to look of the water in his gearbox oil so that left four.

We continued on covering a few more interesting lanes, the new guy had a spectacular trip off line into a field made all the more impressive by managing to stay on. One more little ford and a horribly muddy waterlogged bank and it was time to split up and head home.

Rather low mileage mostly caused by the double bike drowning and the vertical descent. After being drowned by bike refused to idle and was generally being a pain. I thought I could hear something metallic coming from the engine at times which is a little worrying. I’m hoping the idle problem was the waterlogged air filter.

My bike needs its kickstart mechanism replacing, an oil change, oil sump bolt helicoiling, clutch cable fixing properly and the rear suspension linkage bearings replacing at the very least before it next goes out. I can barely move today.

I recently discovered the MG’s fuel pump was dying, it has probably been on its way out for a while and it seemed to be a cause of the bad running experiences I’ve been having with the car. Certainly after changing it, the car felt great.

I went on Friday to an impromptu camping trip to the field at Hexham I frequent and decided to get there with the MG. It was obvious 10 miles into the trip the car was not 100% well as it wasn’t pulling up hills the way you’d expect it to. It was behaving very differently to how it has done in the past though and I decided to continue on. It was as if it was running out of fuel, if you gave the engine rest time, it would run again.

A theory formed in the back of my mind that there was an obstruction in the fuel system somewhere. When replacing the pump there was a *very* healthy flow syphoning itself out the tank and I’d checked the pipe to the engine bay so the area of suspicion was small.

Having made it to the field I spent the evening relaxing around a campfire watching films on the big screen. Saturday morning we started the jigsaw puzzle someone had brought in their van. By 11am we had the engine fitted and it was running around the field. Well worth a night sleeping in the van as the owner put it!

Having had that success, I had a look at the MG and concluded it was possible a pipe joint to the fuel filter just before the carbs was restricting fuel flow. I obtained a new piece of fuel pipe from a motor factors in Hexham and took the car for a test drive. It was popping a lot on the overrun and not revving very well high up the range but the fuel starvation issue didn’t seem there. I could help feeling something was wrong but there was little I could do there and little I could point at to as a specific problem to fix.

Next up was the daytime entertainment which was going to be a trials course since there was a trial bike there and it seemed rude not to. Whilst trying to find interesting bits of the lower steep part of the field to use, someone looked at the fenced off overgrown ditch at the side and an idea formed. There were suggestions it would be quite a project and take a few weekends to clear sufficiently to get a bike into it but after a couple of hours it was looking good. The ditch was seriously deep with some very steep sections but I was assured this was perfect trial material.

Sure enough, we got the bike down into it, and eventually back out again. This photo is a photo of the exit:

I’d taken a CR80 through it and didn’t do very well as I was too mechanically sympathetic, lost momentum and then things went really badly. Getting the trial bike up the section proved to be my favourite moment of the day, particularly when I scattered the spectators when I cleared the top of one section with the bike practically vertical. I did stop, still on the bike, although I did have to pull it out the side of the track :). I then made it through the hardest bit of the course with sympathetic use of the throttle. Those bikes have amazing power delivery.

Beer, more video, food and it was time to leave this morning. I packed up and headed into Hexham from the field over some pretty impressive hills which the car coped with. It was then onto the A69 and homeward bound.

As I approached Newcastle, the gauges were puzzling showing higher oil pressure than normal at high revs and the water temperature was lower than I’d have expected. Slowing down as I reached the western bypass, there was a lovely backfire accompanied by oil smoke out the exhaust. Not good but not unknown for this car. I went onto the Western Bypass but immediately pulled off as there was obviously something seriously wrong. Pulling away onto the roundabout junction I’d stopped at proved interesting with backfires and lots of smoke and I then hit some traffic lights on stop. At this point I needed somewhere to park urgently, took evasive action and cut across two lanes of traffic and into Wicks car park as the cockpit was now also filling with black smoke coming from the air vents. It smelt like burning oil and I didn’t think it was on fire but there was always the possibility. On a positive note the gauges did suggest there was still oil pressure.

Upon stopping and opening the lid on the smoking hole, er, I mean the bonnet, the first thing of note was the blown rocker cover gasket and some oil misted over the engine bay, second was the noticeably lower oil level and thirdly the lack of water in the radiator.

So that’s a Suspected Blown Head Gasket Report.

I suggested to the RAC they should send recovery, not a patrol but they have to confirm it can’t be fixed roadside and insisted it was done by the book. Thankfully I had one to read with me.

The patrol guy arrived and wouldn’t believe my diagnosis until he heard it started and decided that I “might be right”. He suggested towing a car of that age the 10 miles home risked ripping the front of the car off and I agreed so I had another wait for the flatbed.

Its now outside the house and when the wind dies down enough to not risk the bonnet being blown off, I’ll compression test it for fun, then take the head off and see how bad the damage is.

I suspect the fuel starvation on the way there set it up for the failure, the higher speeds kept it going on the way back but the slow down into Newcastle triggered it to finally let go. I just hope the block/head aren’t damaged by blowing gases between the cylinders.

Update: The wind died down and I took the head off. The head gasket was intact and not the problem and there was also plenty of radiator water present. The view with the head removed:

In case its not obvious to anyone, piston no. 4 should not have a hole in the middle. Time to take the engine out and put the other one in I think :/.