Armistice 100 Ride Report
Saturday 10th, new Cyclops LED headlight bulb fitted, fluid levels checked and topped up as necessary, tyre pressures done, knocked up the rear preload for the extra weight of my daughter, top box on, tank bag on and contents sorted, spotwalla sorted, headsets charged and sat nav loaded with the route, ready to rock for 4am.... so early night....
Can’t sleep, keep thinking I have forgotten something, get up at 3 before the alarm...
Quick cup of herbal tea, suited and booted, off to Tesco to gas up for our start receipt, receipt obtained, Peterborough awaits, the run to Peterborough passes without incident, the Rex is running sweet and the roads are empty, oh and the Cyclops LED, totally awesome, I can actually see where I am going, next receipt in the bag and its off to Kings Lynn, all is good in the world........
Should have guessed it wouldn’t last..
5 miles from the Kings Lynn stop the sat nave flashes up low battery and switched off......arghhhhhh, ok I remember where the stop is from my last ride so I think I can find it.... I do.. gas up, get a receipt and we are up 15 mins on my estimated time, so lets investigate the sat nav, did i damage the wiring when i fitted the Cyclops? Off with the bikini fairing, nope, wiring seems ok, can’t find any obvious faults and haven’t time to waste, snip the wires and wire direct to the battery.... tank off, run the wiring down the frame to the battery box and hook it up, still not charging...... ok so i rekon I can find all my waypoints so put the bike back together and crack on, Lowestoft next....
The run to Lowestoft is uneventful but it is starting to get lighter and the sat nav keeps coming on and switching off again soon after lead me to think the problem is in the charging dock... give it a thump.... only bloody worked didn’t it... receipt bagged off to Chelmsford for breki and the next receipt..
And down came the rain.... and didn’t it... but this time I am wearing my off road winter kit and have the handlebar muffs on, my daughter similarly attired we both stayed warm and dry, reach McDonalds for a quick breakfast and on it again Brighton next.
More rain, couple of exciting moments in flash floods and the wind on the Queen Elizabeth II bridge was..err.. entertaining but was soon over, planned to stop at 11, couldn’t due to being on the motorway and in road works, safety first. Out comes the sun and we are soon in Brighton, another receipt in the bag. Horton next..
The run along the south coast had sporadic downpours and surprisingly heavy traffic, quick stop at my Nans old house in Emsworth, brought back lots of memories of my childhood and some not so good memories of recent events, moving on... Honiton and another receipt, toilet break and a snack and it’s onto Lands End.
Run to Lands End and more showers, lots of spray and the setting sun is causing some issues but the pace is good, feeling in a good mood but my daughter is starting to get fidgety, the Rex isn’t the comfiest of rides and it’s starting to leave it’s mark, on us both, but at least I have the luxury of having to concentrate on riding, starting to worry about my little girl now, (ok she is 22 but will always be my little girl) onwards.. The A30 between Penzance and Land End raised the heartbeat on a couple of occasions with carpets of wet leaves and rivers running down the road, grip was a little lacking but we stayed upright and pushed onto lands end, the plan was to get a ticket from the carpark machine, previous experience had armed me, this time I had plenty of change, on my previous visit a parking ticket was £6, height of the season, now in the off season it’s only £4 and £2 after 5pm, it was 4:58, I will wait... 5pm on my phone, bung the £2 in and it says insufficient funds...what? look again and the clock on the machine is 10 mins slow, sod it, gonna wait, take a couple of pics, 10 mins seems to take forever, my girl, Shannon gets the ticket and finds a pound coin so bonus it’s only cost us a £1... There is a geocache at Lands end, I grabbed it in my last visit so it’s a quick grab for Shannon then it’s push on to Exeter.
Good run to Exeter, again more showers but nowhere near as heavy now and traffic is light, getting proper uncomfortable now and Shannon is suffering too, thankfully it was an uneventful run to Exeter and much the same on the run to Gloucester services.... Gloucester services...how much for petrol???? You should be ashamed, so very ashamed £1.50 a litre... disgusting profiteering off a captive audience, had I realised I wouldn’t have bought any...
Gloucester services to Stoke on Trent..M5... how many speed cameras???? Jeeez did they get a discount for bulk purchase.... is this the future? Then the road works....30mph average speed cameras ... grrrrr .... M6, more speed cameras, more average speed cameras, get to the A50 grab another receipt push onto the M1..... more cameras more road works more average speed zones, another receipt at Leicester Forest East, homeward, last stretch, more road works so close to home.... Get to Tesco grab the last receipt and two miles to home..... as I turn onto the drive the garage door is already rolling up thanks to the better half welcoming us home.... Odometer says 1090 miles, tyre says 1047, hope fully I got it right and all will be good, so that’s my ride done, time to plan the next.....
spot...
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1be065bde4b065b670&hoursPast=0&showAll=yes