Random Ramblings

[Photos are on flickr]

This month’s TRF run was to be lead by Nic and therefore was looking like Alston. Someone mentioned Walna Scar in the Lake District being open to traffic and quite a challenge and a plan formed to head over to that side of the country for a change. I love the Lake District and have many memories of the place but I’d never tried green lanes over there so was keen to go.

On Thursday and Friday evenings I’d repaired the previous run’s damage to the numberplate and rear light, changed the rear tyre, fitted new chain and sprockets and lubed and fuelled it ready. I got up at 5:30am leaving for Hexham just after 6. It was dry when I set off but was raining after a couple of miles. I filled up with fuel in Hexham and then loaded the bike into Nic’s van to go the rest of the way over to the lake district.

We arrived at the meetup point near Tebay and the M6 ahead of schedule so had time for a coffee whilst everyone else arrived for 9am. Either of us set off into the lake district, initially on some trails that didn’t seem so bad. On the small loose stones, the new C02 rear really lived up to its design as a stone tyre and gave immense grip.

Things got more interesting when we came to the first major ascent of the day. The terrain was mostly bits of broken up slate rock but with significantly larger lumps around than I’ve ridden before.

I managed the first bit fine whilst others were struggling, but after a while my energy levels flagged, I lost the momentum and I ended up stopped. Getting going proved tricky and I tried to climb up the grassy bankside that some people were using to cheat the tricky rocky bit and failed. I ended up with the bike on its side resting on the top of my boot which was different. I got the bike upright and took a bit of a breather at this point.

Recovered, I tackled the next section and was doing really well, got to within 3m of a gate being cheered on by the others waiting there when the front wheel hit a rock and went off the wrong way meaning the bike ended up orthogonal to the trail and stopped. I had nowhere to put a foot down so ended up falling off the bike heading downhill, landing heavily on my hand. With a little assistance we got the bike pointing the right way and I got past the gate.

At this point we took a break and I took the first photos. We also talked about letting pressure out the C02s that most people had as they’re a hard tyre and we needed them to flex. Lower pressures meant increased risk of punctures though. Having been there for a short while my hand was visibly swelling which was a little worrying.

The rest of the hillside wasn’t so bad and we descended the other side and crossed the ford at the bottom. One bike stalled halfway through and wouldn’t restart but we managed not to drown any bikes. Further less challenging and very scenic lanes followed along with another ford, notorious for its slippy stones but again, everyone made it across.

I was last man and was sitting after a gate waiting for the person alongside just behind to pull away. I heard him do so, then saw his front wheel go airborne alongside me and then his bike stopped dead, he didn’t and he went flying as he highsided in front of me. The cause was immediately apparent as somehow he’d managed to get his footpeg caught in a reel of fencing wire which had firmly attached his bike to a nearby fence. Thankfully both he and the bike were fine.

We made our way into Bowness-on-Windemere and took the ferry across the lake which is the first time I’ve ever used the ferry by bike. Over on the other side we took some trails around Grizedale. On the first section of one of these I rounded a corner to discover a bike on its side and its owner in a ditch :(. The owner was sheet white and severely winded. After considering the options we left him in the ditch where he was and set about picking the bike up and checking it over which was fine. Eventually he recovered enough to be helped out and had turned a slightly better colour. He was certainly suffering bruising with the possibility of fractured rib(s).

He’d come off as he’d rounded a corner at speed, ran against the side of the trail and found a hidden rock which had caught his footpeg and launched him into the scenery. He was not up to riding any more trails but didn’t look seriously unwell or unable to ride roads so we got him and the bike back to a main road and sent him to Ambleside where we’d meet up with him later.

The next uphill section of forest had to be one of the most fun pieces of trail I’ve ever ridden. It was a mixture of mud and loose stone surface with sudden very steep short rocky steps which looked like they’d stop the bike but it would just ride up and over them if you gave a suitable commitment and carefully tweaked the line. You quickly learnt that changing lines was very risky and that even if the obstacle looked impossible, pointing the bike at it and carrying momentum worked best. It was amazing what the bike would actually ride over without complaint. I didn’t come off anywhere, I kept reasonable speed up, dealt with each obstacle as it appeared and never felt I was exceeding my abilities. Great fun :).

Throughout the day so far, one of the more experienced and talented rider kept telling us this was all easy and the Walna Scar was going to be the challenge. Giving the difficult we’d had on the first hill, this was making some of us a little apprehensive but we were up for trying.

We arrived into Coniston and out up the hillside at the back which marks the start of the trail. As an incentive, the lunch stop was planned on the other side of Walna so if we wanted to eat, we had a hillside to climb over first!

The hillside was indeed a worse version of what we’d already struggled on earlier in the day. We’d form as a group at the bottom of various sections, then take it in turns to get X distance up before falling off, stalling or becoming otherwise stuck.

My first incident was triggered by someone in front falling off on the line I was planning to take, I avoided them but 5m further up ran the front wheel into the bank side and ended up with the bike up on its end up a bankside. No harm done and looked good from below apparently.

We came to a scar which we had to thread the bikes through which proved a little tricky but not so bad. At this point I took more photos. Out the back of here, it looked like there would be a tricky section but it turned out to be fine, even the last rocky steep climb was just a case of keeping the throttle open and powering up it.

This then lead to a particularly long steep climb which even our talented rider got stuck on. At this point I gave in and let some air out the rear tyre as I could use any extra grip at this point. I awaited my turn and set off making it about half way and to the point our talented rider was standing pointing out the best line before going offline and having to stop as the alternative would have seen me off down the hillside.

Getting the bike back on track was fine. Getting going again proved harder, even with two of us. It was whilst doing this that the bike suddenly hit the power band and also gripped, launching the bike totally into the air. The two of us simply ran to get out the way and the resulting crash of the bike hitting the ground was heard by the onlookers below and echoed around the hillside. I was fine and an inspection of the bike showed a totally destroyed brake light and bent number plate but no other damage which was something of a surprise. We got it going again and around that section in a slightly different way and I made it up the rest of the section despite stalling once further up.

We were still being told the worst was yet to come so it was a surprise when the ground levelled out and we started downhill. Initially this was a gravel track which turned into slate stones again and the final 50m was tarmac as apparently that section had washed away recently. We were now back on roads and lunch was a short distance away and welcomed by everyone. Cumberland sausage seemed appropriate to me.

After lunch, it was back over walna scar the other way. Someone tried my trick of falling off sideways on the initial slate climb in front of me and I helped out. On the gravel section the CRM started showing temperature warnings. I stopped and it had a literal hissy fit throwing out coolant and clouds of stream. After a short break I rode it to the top where the main suggestion was to rev it more and keep the coolant circulating.

Going down the other side was easier than going up but involved going slowly as if you built up any speed you’d just slide and not stop. I was second last and kept an eye on the last man as I didn’t want to have to go back up. We all made it to the bottom, back into Coniston for fuel and to reinflate the tyres as some people had let a lot more air out than I had.

Some further minor trails followed but it was getting late and people were getting tired so we were heading back towards the vans. On a fun wooded trail I rounded a corner to see people standing around. I’ve captured the view I had in the photos. It was only as I was stopping that I saw the bike nearly completely buried in the bracken at the side of the trail.

Thankfully whilst his new plastics and stickers were scratched, the bike and rider were both otherwise fine. With the large tree in front and the dry stone wall further to one side, it could have been a lot worse. After taking suitable photos much to the riders irritation, we did get the bike out the ditch.

I was told at this point by someone who’d turned around and come back that there was a lovely little jump ahead with a safe landing. We set off and based on this, I did carry a little more speed over it than I otherwise would have done but I was thankful I’d not tried to use it as a jump when I saw the landing as it was all jaggered slate. Even with the small amount of speed I had, I was airborne and the bike shot sideways when landing, concerning the people behind as well as me but thankfully it was controllable. I rode the next bit of trail in spirited fashion as once again as earlier in the day, it was a flowing section which somehow just came together for me. The temperature warning light on the bike was intermittently coming on and off at this point.

The group now had to make a decision on what to do about getting back. The trail route back was back over the hillside that caused so many problems at the start of the day. Given the time and our state, we decided to head back the road way which involved 18 miles of the M6. By the time we reached the vans, my right hand was numb with the vibration from motorway speed. We found the rider who we were going to meet in Ambleside had got bored and come back to the vans, then decided to ride back home.

The bikes were loaded and we headed back to Hexham. There, we unloaded and I set off for home with darkness arriving rapidly. Careful readers may note a problem here which was certainly a source of concern for me.

With a further fuel stop I made it home and I had overheating warnings most of the way. I also wondered if I could hear bad noises from the engine but this could have been my imagination. I arrived back at 10:30pm.

It was a great day, I really enjoyed it.

The bike now needs investigation to find out why its overheating and repairs for the damage done. I’m a little bruised but will survive :).

This weekend saw an impromptu get together at the field in Hexham I frequent. I couldn’t use the van but my brother left his Impreza lying around which has a towbar and the trailer wasn’t in use so a plan formed and I arrived there with the bike in tow, albeit it rather late on Friday. A relaxing evening was spent around the campfire(s) and video screen which showed some of the videos from when we were out in the snow over the winter which I’d not see before (but the trips themselves were memorable).

That night I remembered I need to replace the airbed. The next morning the people who can’t cope with camping turned up along with a heavy rainstorm just as we were thinking of leaving.

Eventually we were ready and the rain has eased off into a drizzle so five of us left heading south east, mainly over trails I recognised. There was a particular trail I rode rather quickly (for me) and thoroughly enjoyed. Two people swapped bikes and this started a trend. I had a try of a WR250R and a WR450F which made an interesting comparison. The 250 felt like a road bike with a really smooth ride and felt happy handling anything but lacked power. I was following Steve riding it at one point when he suddenly took sharp left, moving over a couple of meters, then slowed right down causing me to nearly collide with the back of him. I was carrying momentum to stop myself sinking into the one long big bog and its unusual for my to catch him anywhere. The softer suspension had caught him out in the soft mud.

By comparison the 450 had lots of power and harder suspension but the four stoke power delivery just doesn’t do it for me. It had horrible vibration a higher speeds. I’ve often wondered how I’d get on with four stokes and now I know. Comments about the CRM weren’t as bad as I expected. People found it very comfortable and capable to ride and not what they’d expected from a 17 year old bike (by far the oldest bike there). All really very positive and people were pleasantly surprised by it.

On the way back coming through part of Slaley, I crested a hill to find a downhill rocky and water eroded section which I was carrying way more speed for than I’m used to. I tried braking but decided that wasn’t an option as the wheels we just locking up. I careered down the slope bouncing the bike off every big rock there, legs flailing around and how I stayed on I have no idea. It was kind of fun though. I quite enjoyed that whole section of trail.

After lunch at the Travellers Rest we went through a ford I know well and over some lanes back to the field. Once back, the various “toys” were then experimented with which including a trial bike, a minimoto and a CR80. I did try them but was a bit worried about breaking them to really try much with them. People took the opportunity to experiment with their own bikes too. I chose to have a play with the CRM and find out what it takes to get the front wheel airborne.

This was never likely to go without incident and sure enough, I quickly managed to get front wheel up, get the bike sideways and ended up bailing off it. Thankfully no damage to me and the damage to the bike was limited to smashing the remains of the brake light and number plate holder which was already in several pieces. I also bent the new numberplate but the new brake light was in one piece. I gaffa taped the light to the bike and decided this wasn’t going to stop me.

The CRM doesn’t really have the raw power to lift the front end just by accelerating hard, even uphill and over crests. I wasn’t really getting anywhere so I stopped again for a while. The next time I had a go, something mentally came together and I found that jamming on the front brake then accelerating resulted in an airborne front wheel with consistency and control. The small drawback with this approach is you can lock the front wheel up all too easily which I managed several times but thankfully I can deal with that happening and I didn’t drop it again although I came close much to the amusement of the spectators.

Having achieved my goal I took off the bike gear and relaxed. Later in the evening I wanted to fetch a golf ball using the bike so just jumped on without any helmet or protective gear and rather worryingly without thinking about it, had it near enough on one wheel just from pulling away. I’m going to have to watch this habit!

The evening was then spent watching more video on the screen around campfires and talking to people, a really relaxing time. I’m now home and mostly unpacked which seemed to be a real chore and I’m totally worn out. Injury wise, I’ve strained my left bicep and have a chunk missing from my thumb. I damaged them loading the trailer on Friday!

I’m grateful to Neil for letting us use the field, my bike control has certainly benefited from it and to everyone else who was there, it was a good weekend.

For one reason or another I’ve never been on a TRF run north into Northumberland in the Alnwick/Rothbury direction. Those routes are renown locally for their water crossings. The recent headline news story had made me wonder if that choice of direction was a good one but since that matter came to a conclusion early that morning it was no longer a concern, we met up near Prudhoe and off we went.

We were a group of eight with one guy who’d never been outside a field on a trail bike. He managed his inevitable off quite quickly but no real harm done to him (strained muscles?) or the bike and he got back on determined to continue. I stayed around the back of the group acting as sweeper and kept an eye on him. The initial part of the run was quite interesting to me as I’d never seen the trails we used and they were a bit different to ones I’d been on before with long grass, tall enclosing greenery and in one place greenery totally blocking the path which you just had to ride through.

I don’t seem to have done much trail riding this year and my riding was definitely suffering because of it. I nearly managed to drop the bike in the middle of the first big ford but caught it and only managed wet feet thankfully. Our new recruit had not considered we might be going through water, was not really attired for it and was rather nervous about the ford. He stalled halfway and had to push it the rest of the way but didn’t fall in.

I recognised the road we were on at this point, its one the Daytona knows rather well. Along there we had the first puncture of the day which was duly repaired.

We turned off that road and followed a trail eventually coming to a section of trail with warning tape. The reason was clear as a significant section of the bank had been eroded away leaving a 1ft wide strip. We made it through but had to wheel the bikes rather than ride them. I took the only photo of the day there but its poor quality, sorry.

Further trails followed and we ended up heading into Rothbury except the road in was blocked off with a significant police presence, no surprise there. Thankfully we were going the other way at that junction anyway. We looped around the top of the town through the forest and ended up in the next village over where we refuelled and talked a bit with the attendant about the events of the past few days.

We were trying to get to the lunch stop when we suffered the second puncture which was once again duly repaired. The next lane was through a field of lovely long grass so when a KTM lost a gear lever I wasn’t holding out much hope of finding it but it was on the gravel bit afterwards. We finally got a late lunch at Powburn.

It was starting to drizzle at this point but we sat outside under some umbrellas on the tables. Just as we’d finished eating the heavens opened with a torrential downpour so we waited inside until that mostly passed over. It was then more fuel and time to head back. We had hoped to get further north and sometime maybe I will but we were out of time today.

The trip back started off heading up Ingram valley, somewhere I’ve not been for a long time and had further fords but the river levels were extremely low and the ford crossings weren’t that bad. The deepest of the day (2ft?) had a bottom like loose cobbles which is different to any ford I’ve done before. I hit something half way over, got knocked off line but kept going. This meant I went over a large lump of dead tree in the water and missed the ramp up the bank on the other wide. The CRM happily climbed up the bit of steep bank anyway proving once again if you point it at obstacles and keep the power applied its amazing what it can climb over :).

The route back also ended up going through Rothbury, this time coming to it over the river from the south on the other side of the town which meant we went past the other side of the restricted area. Here there was media everywhere and someone in front of a TV camera doing what looked like a live interview next to the main road. They didn’t look amused at the eight bikes going past.

After this it was further tarmac with a few lanes and we were back to Hadrian’s wall and time to head home. It was a long day but I think the new recruit will be back again! I enjoyed seeing a different set of trails and hopefully will see the ones further north sometime soon too. Thanks go to Steve and the rest of the group for the day, the navigating and the good company.

On Thursday night I set off for a field in Hexham, arrived and set up camp. A pleasant evening was had around a couple of campfires.

Friday was marking out day. This was a repeat of the previous Saturday before but with marker tape for the junctions and checkpoint signs. Wark forest was straightforward and we met the forestry commission representative who was very friendly. Kershop forest already had markings in red/white so we had to switch to yellow/black which was hard to see. We made it back to the vans and then the campsite without incident.

The markup crew

Including comedy high vis jackets!

The bike was starting much more easily, had more compression and more power. Several people commented it appeared to be running better.

Another pleasant evening was had around the campfires with bike footage playing on the big screen and bbq’d food, watching various people arrive and set up camp.

Saturday morning arrived, the refueling station left at 6:15am and the first group (A) was due out at 8:15am. As with the best laid plans, they started to go wrong. The run leader did not show up. His KTM had a locked up front brake calliper apparently so he was stranded and unable to make it. End result was that A group was dispatched with C’s leader.

It was decided I was our best chance at leading group C of 10 bikes. As for a route, I’m still hopeless at both finding trails and joining them together but I did have the route from last year in the GPS so I could potentially do something which wasn’t all tarmac. My GPS needs its backlight to be readable and the external power is broken as the connector on the device is bust. I had it on the bike with no backlight purely to track where we were, not to navigate off.

Typical Northumberland with a slight misty haze

Regardless, we added a tail gunner I knew/trusted and off we went. We found our way to the first checkpoint with everyone present having made the required fuel stop and only one U turn as I was looking for the wrong gate and couldn’t see the GPS due to the sun so an improvement on last year.

At this point we were joined by the two from the refueling van having ridden in from the other direction so I was back to group E, cleanup detail. We were following, removing tape, locking gates and so on. It was dry and hot and very dusty so being there wasn’t actually a bad thing.

The group at one of the checkpoints

We got through Wark forest being led by Steve and arrived at Kershop. At this point I took over leading E group as Steve needed to sort out the refueling site and would catch up. We got a short distance into the forest only for me to get called back as we’d had our first mechanical of the day, in the cleanup group of all places. Investigation showed a front sprocket with no teeth left. After some discussion, we tightened up the chain, advised gentle use of the throttle and continued on collecting up the marking tape.

We arrived at the refueling site as planned and Steve never had caught us up. Everyone had arrived there except one bike from D group. Bikes and people were refueled and the broken bike was put into the van. Steve arrived and had only found one tape we’d missed. He went off in search of the missing bike, the rest of the group proceeded with the plan with E group once again doing demarking and being led by me since I knew the route.

A nice grassy decent. Would have been very different if it had rained!

We made good progress and came to the final forest checkpoint. The other bike was still missing. It was agreed that I’d take the remainder of E group back through Wark locking gates and Steve and Nic would stay behind on search duty.

We set off only to find D3 parked up next to a house asking about obtaining some fuel. Someone was dispatched to cancel the search and regroup so Steve and Nic rejoined us and as a group we headed off towards Wark forest. As we neared it, we caught up with the main group. We found B1 which wouldn’t start on the button and no kickstart. We bumped it down the hill towards the ford and I’m just pleased it started as otherwise he’d have got wet! 🙂

On the way back through Wark, we found mudguard and numberplate that had gone missing on the way up from one of the group’s bikes. Just before we arrived at the original checkpoint exiting Wark I had my closest near miss of the day as I went into a corner too fast and had the front wheel sliding all over with me flailing around too. Somehow I managed not to fall off.

My original plan for a route back had been Simonburn “proper” as I could find the start of that, then the route I’d used to get there reversed up Chollerford steps. Since Steve/Nic were there they led over the other Simonburn route. There are pictures of bits of that route in previous blog posts. I have never seen the ground so hard and the fords so low with water. After Simonburn, fuel and Steve+Nic were not interested in more trails but the others were so I took over the group from there and led them up the steps and back to the campsite. We were the first group back after Steve+Nic.

Another evening of banter, campfires, BBQs or takeaways, bike footage on the big screen and so forth went ahead at full steam. Some of my raffle numbers even came up!

Sunday morning came around all too quickly and I was undecided about going out but decided since the bike and gear were there and already filthy it would be rude not to.

Nick ended up leading a group of five of us to Hamsterly forest and back. The three other members of the group were two locals who’d just got off road bikes (one wearing jeans?) and a 70 year old from Norfolk (Dave). If I can do what he does at his age I will be happy :). I played tail gunner for the day.

The trip was good fun with a comparatively relaxed pace. We had to pull the bike off Dave a couple of times but he seemed to be enjoying it :). We passed a convoy of 4x4s who were having fun getting vehicles stuck. Personally comparing the capabilities of the bikes to them, I’ve an infinite preference for the bike. There was at least one maneuver I was lucky to get away with and some others where I was able to intentionally bounce the bike around in ways I’ve never had the nerve to before. The bike did fall over once, off the side stand as I was parking it.

The run ended with ever heavier rain and then I lost the group as nobody was marking a turn they’d taken. I was close to the campsite and thought they must have headed back so went there to find they weren’t. A quick phone call (phones work around there!) called off the search for me and they arrived back shortly thereafter along with many of the other groups who’d been out.

I packed up in the rain and headed home, unloaded the van and collapsed, exhausted having an early night. I’ve never managed two days riding before, let alone three so this is a new record. The bike behaved and everyone seemed to enjoy it. My thanks go to everyone who helped with the weekend.

Well, the piston arrived, I fitted it and rebuilt the engine. Compression was *much* improved. I tried to start it and whilst it tried a few times it then stopped entirely and was basically dead.

Taking it to bits showed no spark. Meter out and more of the bike in bits. Kill switch was fine, power was obviously being generated from the lights, tested the ignition pickups and no continuity to the ECU on one of them. That’d do it.

Found the broken wire where the cable was wedged between the airbox and the frame, fixed it, bike started first kick. At this point it was 11pm and I don’t particular want to upset the neighbours so I’ll leave a test ride until the morning. It was smoking nicely which was expected.

It looks highly likely it died due to the broken wire and not the piston which makes more sense. Nice to have found the piston before it disintegrated!

I just hope I’ve fixed the gremlins, the bike tests successfully tomorrow and I can play on Friday! 🙂

Its been a while since I’ve been out on the CRM due to work commitments and a variety of other things conspiring against me. I did however venture out on Saturday with some friends to prepare for something next weekend. The assumption I’ll make it out then is an optimistic but I’ll get to that.

For a while it looked like I might not have even made Saturday as I noticed the bike’s MOT had run out. Thankfully despite failing the first attempt on Friday, it passed second time around with some warnings about addressing certain things which I will do in due course.

So I found my way to the rendezvous at a place called Stonehaugh which isn’t even in the road atlas I had, complete with a motorcycle, fuel, two stoke oil, appropriate bike clothing and all seemed to be good.

We set off into Wark forest following a route which was familiar and my GPS recognised. There wasn’t as much water in the ford this year so it was much less interesting and the ground was a lot harder.

Wark forest became Kershop forest. We were mostly on forest fire roads and I continue to marvel at the way those bikes can glide over horrendous surfaces, over deep potholes and you can still maintain control over the direction they’re going at quite a speed. There was one horrible piece of track covered in some kind of different rock to the others which had the bike vibrating like crazy to the point I was checking the front wheel for a puncture.

After this we came to the section which I later learnt had been recently regraded, probably after a rally. The bike simple stopped wanting to turn corners which the front wheel sliding, locking up and things generally getting messy. Retrospect says I was simply going too fast for the ground conditions. Regardless it was an interesting lesson in machine control and I didn’t actually fall off at least.

We went through a few rain showers but nothing major which makes a nice change for that part of the world as it usually buckets down on me there. Attentive readers may remember a steep climb last year where I went last up after a large groups of bikes and had fun. This time we went down that same slope and it was much easier. Admittedly it was a lot drier too.

Upon leaving Kershop forest, the CRM started miss firing badly. This was after a ford but a shallow one with a concrete foundation so it shouldn’t have caused the bike a problem. At first I thought fuel and switched to reserve but no change. Up the next hill I was on full throttle misfiring like crazy as I caught up to where the rest of the group were stopped. One new spark plug later and it still wasn’t happy. No water on the ECU either and the contacts there seemed fine.

The bike was no longer revving and there was a nasty noise which sounded “top end” like although nobody could say exactly what it was. I also thought the previous plug possibly had tiny flecks of aluminium on it. End result, engine pronounced dead so what to do. Estimate 15 miles back through the forest or alternatively recovery from Scotland back round through Carlisle or Kielder which would take hours.

Since people were bored of forest tracks anyway, towing the bike was the obvious winner. The following journey had its fair share of fun moments, particularly as the towing bike needed the main track so I was riding the overgrown unpredictable bit between the two standard 4×4 wheel ruts most of the time. Downhill the tower’s engine braking meant they went much slower than my freewheeling so lots of braking was order of the day. Corners were particularly interesting as having no control over the speed you take them at is not for the faint hearted.

In the whole trip back, there was only one corner I disconnected the rope on, and only one other point where we stopped to make it single file past a gate. It included a return trip through the rocky ford where I did let the rope go a little too slack causing Nic to get a bike of a shock when it did tighten up but we made it out the river fine. I have to say a big thank you to Nic for the trip back, it was much appreciated and I suspect we both learnt some things about bike control, I certainly know I did. The rest of the group also made a great relay team overtaking and having gates opened for the main convoy to roll through :).

So we made it back to the vans, called at Battlesteads for some posher than usual food, then home. Once home I tried to start the bike but it wasn’t having any of it. I had some time before dinner so I took the exhaust off and peered up the exhaust port. Top of the piston was intact, front of the piston was intact, piston rings intact. The 1mm vertical movement of the top piston ring was not good however and indicated one way or another the barrel was coming off.

I did get the barrel off with the engine still in the frame with some creative engineering despite several studs coming out when they shouldn’t and having to remove some studs that I shouldn’t have had to.

The current situation is that the piston and top ring are obviously knackered. It looks like the ring has worn, allowed detonation to occur behind the ring and this has eroded the ring grove. The piston ring itself is also badly worn. How it didn’t catch down a port in this state I do not know.

Note the gap above the top ring

Note the thin section on the bottom right

I’m still not 100% convinced this would cause the misfire but it certainly needs fixing. The barrel looks fine, head looks fine and the exhaust powervalve moves but very stiffly. I’m wondering if this heated ring overheated the exhaust port and maybe caused the power valve to stick causing the misfire. I’m unsure how stiff a powervalve should actually be.

Will I get out again on Friday? I should be able to get a new piston by then so we’ll see…

Your Trumatic gas cab heater hasn’t been used for a while and won’t fire up. You trace the problem to the gas solenoid which operates using electromagnets to open sealed gas valves not opening to let gas flow. How do you free up the sealed gas valves if they’re stuck? If you have some rare earth magnets from an old harddisk, they have enough strength to do it. Don’t mix up the high and low jets as the resulting smoke looks quite scary. At least my brother might not have such a cold weekend now!

On Saturday there was a trip out organised, heading to Alston and I decided to tag along. I decided to ride to the first meeting point and set off into the fog at about 8am. Despite the visor being useless and my glasses becoming covered in water all too quickly, I made it there. Descripbing it as freezing fog was accurate as these photos of my gloves and jacket show:

Recently I’ve noticed that the front wheel on the bike was twisted and sat about 3″ to the left of the centreline of the back wheel. I’ve spent an age trying to find the source of this and found interesting things like tiny metal fatigue cracks in the headstock. They were not serious though, just a sign of the bikes age and the fact it will not last forever. The alignment problem turned out to be one fork leg 1″ longer than the other. This seems to have been due to an upsidedown spacer inside the forks and a service and fresh oil resulted in two forks of the same length. The only problem left is that my brain is now wired to ride a bike with its wheels out of line, not a straight one.

So I met up with three others and we continued on to the second meeting point via some lanes. On one of the lanes I managed to drop it, possibly due to the different handling. The GPS fell off but I noticed and collected it and there was no damage done. The green lanes weren’t too bad but you had to be careful the watch for the patches of ice. There was then some tarmac sections as we climbed the hillside and rose above the fog. This meant sheet ice on the untreated roads. The others were waiting for me to catch up having nearly slid on a nasty corner and someome was saying “I bet he manages to fall off on that” just as I came into view, lost my footing and put the bike on its side.

The mist returned causing visibility problems but the ice remained. Along a section of road I realised too late there was 2″ thick ice ahead and when I tried to avoid it, I picked the wrong patch to aim for hitting the edge of the block of ice instead of what I thought was tarmac. Apparently the mini tsumami I caused as I slid though the puddle next to the ice was impressive. I picked the bike up, got to the edge of the road and the bike promptly slid from vertical on the sheet ice again. Slippy? Just a little. No real damage apart from the now shredded waterproof trousers and the fact I was now soaked down one side. I put on the spare pair of gloves.

The others all disappeared, not daring to look back as at least one of them had nearly fallen off doing that. I eventually got the bike started and followed. A short while later I came around a bend to a steep give way junction totally covered in sheet ice. I wasn’t going quickly but there was no way I’d stop on that much ice so falling off again seemed like the safest option and I did stop short of the junction, albeit with the bike on its side. Again. On the plus side I was having trouble getting the bike going and was given a tip which really did help after it had been on its side.

The journey to the second meeting point continued, slowly and carefully and I made it there without any further incident. We suggested to the rest of the group that they might want to be careful although it was obvious they didn’t quite understand what we were talking about.

From this point on it turned out the worst of the ice was behind us as the sun was starting to make its mark. The way some of the rest of the group were riding, it can only have been a good thing. Personally, I was riding extremely slowly, determined not to come around bends to find sheet ice at an inappropriate speed, or follow anyone else too closely. The destination was Alston, the highest market town in England, a place known for its snow, ice, mist and general weather (as well as its nice tarmac roads for road bikes and its green ones which were the days objective).

The next few lanes were fine and eventually we were at the bottom of the trail up to Long Cross. This is an ascent I’ve mentioned before, steep, rocky and today, covered in snow and ice. I did make it about two thirds of the way up on the rocky route itself but after having the bike slip and slide a lot and with total sheet ice ahead, I joined the others and rode up the grass bank which was much easier. We found a gate buried in a deep snow drift next but this wasn’t much of a problem as you could just ride over it. After Long Cross we crossed the A686 the bike stalled and wouldn’t start. I bumped it down the rocky ice covered trail with little success. At the bottom I realised it was out of fuel so switched onto reserve at which point it started much to my relief. It was then into Alston for lunch. The usual Cafe was shut so we tried somewhere new and it seemed appropriate to have cumberland sausage :).

Looking back at the top of the ascent, little ice/snow here – Click to zoom the picture – lovely view of the mist and sky!

After lunch, Tynehead. Steve was grinning at the thought. There are ski slopes just above that trail. Its a really tricky route, requiring crossing several streams with the odd waterfall and several steep drops and whilst it was slow tricky work, we managed to get a fair way along past several obstacles. There is a section which consists of a path with a drop off the edge into the South Tyne and the lead up to this bit is a stream crossing followed by a steep climb up a hill where I remember stalling the bike before causing myself a few problems. Today it was 2ft deep in “old” solid snow and the rest of the path along the “cliff” was equally covered. A couple of people did try and get bikes up it but it was hard work and it was unlikely the whole group would make it. In the end, we admitted defeat and got to the main road a different way. This was probably wise given what I know of the route further on from that point.

An example stream crossing. Note the steep drop and waterfall below the crossing and the snow just where you don’t want it. Sadly the photos of the hill we couldn’t make it up haven’t come out.

The ski slopes!

Crossing a snow drift to head to Coldberry End.

Riding along the A689, there was 3ft snow at the sides of the road. Coldberry end was next to cross from the Tees valley into Ireshopeburn in Weardale. The southern face of this was covered in deep snow and it took a bit of ploughing through but eventually we all made it up to the top where the going was easier. Watching where others struggle helps a lot. There was a gate which people were having problems getting through. I took a run at it, kept moderate power on and made it through with sheer will power and a little help from conservation of momentum.

There was much less snow down the other side and I was riding on the snow filling one of the ditches at the side of the main track since the track itself was covered in patchy ice. I slowed and was making a move to get off the ditch as the main track was clear when the front end of the bike fell into the snow stopping the bike dead. I did not stop and flew over the bars headfirst. Something from school PE lessons obviously kicked in as I turned it into a forward roll and flipped myself back onto my feet, standing in front of the bike. From a distance, Steve had just seen my legs in the air and had come back, worried.

Where’s the front wheel? (Fuzzy, not much light, sorry)

After this there was an interesting lane with deep ruts filled with snow or covered in thick ice with odd snow drifts thrown in. I did slow and steady apart from the bits where I saw people having problems where moderate momentum was once again order of the day. The problem now was the fact that it was late and getting dark rapidly. We planned tarmac back from here but my fears about ice returned. This is the first time I’ve used the bike in true darkness and the bikes headlight is useless and effectively lights up the mudguard. What followed was a slow trip back to civilization as the fog returned. I was pleased I went slowly as I found one sharp bend with ice on it, and a section of road covered in 2″ thick solid ice. I was at the back but caught the group up in blanchland. I was slow at setting off and they left me behind though meaning I didn’t know which way to turn at the next junction. I took a best guess but eventually it became obvious I’d lost them. I didn’t have a phone signal so continued on and joined the A68. Heading along there I found the group again as whilst we’d taken different routes, we’d ended up in the same place. The group split up with me leading a couple of others back into Swalwell, Newcastle and home.

Some really enjoyed the day, I did in some ways but had a few too many incidents to be entirely happy. Its certainly a day out I will remember for a long time to come and as always, it was a learning experience. Today, I ache all over and can barely move but it beats going to the gym! 🙂

Since last week its snowed heavily. Logic dictated we should therefore
go out on the bikes again.

The sign says “Unsuitable for motor vehicles” – Rubbish!

As last time, the camera phone did well and there are pictures on flickr.

This time I decided to ride from home to the meeting/starting point which is 20 miles of tarmac. This turned out to be fine and I arrived on time for the meetup. The bike coped with the icy roads very well.

Eventually we set off being four in number at this point. We followed the same route as last weekend off up a trail that climbs the hillside. One of us, a relatively new TRF member struggled a lot on this section with him and his bike overheating and being difficult to start and it having no traction. It being 525cc and a MX bike variant by no means helped. I ended up going on ahead to tell the others what was going on, we U turned and took him back down. We then tried a simpler lane but he kept stalling due to the cold and in the end he decided to head home as he wasn’t enjoying it. A good call as if he struggled then, he’d have hated the rest of the day.

We continued on ending up at another residence and picking up two more riders, then we were five.

Upon departing Stocksfield on approach to a paved ford someone binned it due to ice on the road and nearly got soaked. He seemed to be enjoying himself though. Riding on a little further Steve pointed down a lane and suggested I go on ahead. Nobody overtook me which was unusual and I arrived at the next tarmac junction and waited. And waited. Eventually they turned up, apparently someone had to push his bike up some hill as there wasn’t enough traction to ride it. I must have rode up it but it didn’t register and I have no recollection of it. This was when the group photo was taken.

Moving onwards we now needed to cross a field thick with untouched snow. I had my doubts about it but as always, if someone can show me its possible, I’ll try. I found bringing up the rear at this point quite tricky as it meant following some elses deep rut in the snow. Creating them is hard on the bike, following them is hard on the rider as you end up bouncing foot to foot. In this case the back wheel did lots of spinning and the bike didn’t do much moving forwards. The bike temperature warning light came on, it made suitable hissing noises and generally was not happy. I let it cool off.

Things didn’t seem to be working as everyone was making much better progress than me through this field. Why? Good question. I stopped and let some air out the rear tyre in case it would give me some better traction. It might have marginally but this was not the problem. I’d been trying smooth engine revs, I tried pulsing throttle as an experiment. This is something I need to play with more and no doubt has its uses but didn’t do much here. I suddenly realised I was never leaving 1st gear. Trying to get some (any) speed up, and balance the bike long enough to change gear whilst riding along a twisted rut in deep snow isn’t as easy as it sounds but it didn’t half make a difference in this case. I’ve hence learnt a new way to torture the bike. Pulling away in higher gears actually worked reasonably well too.

Ahead, the others had been having fun whilst having a break with Nick demonstrating how to run in an engine. The fountains of snow were impressive, especially as he seemed the most nervous on the icy roads.

We moved onto Slaley forest itself. The first part of the route we’d taken last time where I got stuck in the bog wasn’t accessible as the gate was frozen into ice several inches thick so we bypassed that bit and onto the forest proper. I was at the back so I stopped and watched, making a note of where people were getting stuck. I then made sure I had more momentum and less mechanical sympathy for those bits :).

The bike continued to get hot and require rests which was fine with the rider. This whole section was badly rutted, you never knew what you were going to hit under the snow and hence feet down bouncing from foot to foot to keep it upright was order of the day. This zaps energy and tortures muscles, the strain was showing on us all at the back, two of whom are a bit older than me. After various breaks, they were struggling and it got to the point where it was hard work following them so I overtook. It also meant the rut I was following wasn’t as churned up.

I was pleased that I did manage to find bits where I could start to keep my feet on the pegs around this time too.

We’d covered no where near the distance we had last weekend but time was getting on and everyone’s energy was expended so we decided to head homeward. Lots of icy tarmac country backroads followed but the bike behaved itself well. In the forest the wheels had filled the spokes area with snow and every now and again bits would break off, fire out the mudguard into the air and hit the rider. This left the wheel unbalanced and at one point it was actually oscillating the front suspension which was a weird feeling.

With only a few miles back to the start point I noticed a whirring from the front end. Handling and brakes seemed unaffected so I assumed it was the current road surface. The bike then stuttered and died, distracting me to the more urgent lack of fuel. Switching it to reserve dealt with that but I didn’t want to lose the others so pressed on, thinking the noise was in my mind. The others returned home, I headed off to the village fuel station where I noticed the front tyre was now totally flat. I rode it up to Steve and tried to pump it up which failed. From here it was 20 miles of tarmac through the centre of Newcastle to get home. I therefore wimped out and summoned a van. I could have attempted to fix it but in the freezing cold it wouldn’t have been fun.

It was all good fun, albeit very hard work at times and very draining on energy. I’ve learnt some new stuff about riding on snow and ice, its amazing whats possible.

I was surprised to realise that I never fell off which has to be a record. Also, I only ever had to get off the bike once to resolve an issue (to shove the front end down a hole to join the rear in a different rut). Makes a change!

Over the holidays there was plenty of snow here both on and before New Years Day and there were weather warnings in place in Northumberland and North Tyneside with people being advised not to travel unless essential. Obviously when invited out in the snow on the CRM on Saturday (2nd January), I therefore said yes!

The camera phone did well with the photos for a change and there are some pictures of the day on flickr.

Setting off at 7:30am the roads weren’t too good but were passable, particularly once onto major ones. I was taking the bike to a meeting place in the Tyne valley in the van and was pleased I’d loaded it the night before. I put the many layers of clothing on and then tried to get the bike going which it refused to do. I was at the top of a steep hill and it took most of the length of it to bump start it but it did fire up at the bottom, thankfully and I met up with three other riders, two of them who’d travelled from Yorkshire.

200m of road and then onto the first lane which didn’t seem too bad. You couldn’t tell what you were riding on but the bike can cope with most things so it wasn’t a problem. Suddenly crashing through ice into a rut was an interesting experience.

Short bits of tarmac and more lanes followed gradually climbing out the Tyne valley and the higher you got, the deeper the snow. It was interesting to be riding through villages where people could barely stand on the pavements/roads – some gave us rather funny looks. We made it to one of the TRF members residences and then there were five.

The tarmac roads were as interesting as some of the lanes being covered in ice and snow in varying proportions. We decided going too far wasn’t sensible so headed for Slaley forest. At some point I managed to fall off in a field but nothing serious. Coming up to the forest I managed to sink the CRM into a rather unfrozen wet soggy bog and had to pull it out with some help some of the routes were variations I’ve not used before too.

When the leader stops and invites someone else to do the next bit you know its going to be interesting. Thankfully the skilled volunteer found a safe line through a rather badly rutted section. I took the lead for a bit and found it was actually easier riding the fresh snow that following the rut left by someone else.

We had wondered about going onto the exposed moorland beyond the forest and tried to do so where we thought the turning might be but the snow was too deep for our small number to plough through and be fun. It was also near lunch time and it started snowing at this point quite heavily.

The next long climb uphill was by far my worst part of the day as the bike would not go in a straight line and required feet down, bouncing from leg to leg the whole way up, zapping my energy. The following fire road was straight and level and proved interesting as the bike would not follow the rut in the snow left by someone else but would go along it with the rear wheel if (and only if) the front was left to run over the edge of the rut by an inch or two in fresh snow on the left side. I mentioned this to others and it was dismissed as the camber of the road but more on that in another post.

By this point vision was the main problem as the visor was covered in water/ice/snow and useless after about 5 seconds of riding. I left it half raised but this meant driving snow going into my face with my eyes only protected by my glasses.

Thankfully lunch followed (gammon, egg and chips) whilst it continued to snow and the bikes had snow on them upon exiting the pub. Given the time, the weather and the distance some people had to get home it was decided that we’d had enough fun for the day and it was time to make it homeward. The backroads we used to get back were the ever changing mix of snow, ice of varying compaction but the CRM seemed to take it in its stride.

All in all, quite an enjoyable day!