Another week another funeral, seem to be getting to that time of life. Bloody miserable weather for the trip too, my old original thread of coincidences and the weather still holds true. After a couple of weeks of nice sunny dry weather I spent 3 days in rain of varying intensities, usually the "just enough to smear you in sticky dirty wet road spray" variety without being heavy enough to wash off, cold and cloudy "its grim up north" stuff.
The cold weather caused another problem. Having previously painted the pannier support rail with Hammerite primer and paint and been pleased with the result, recoating the bit that had been wrapped around the rear wheel was less satisfactory. I think I just did not get the frame and the paint warm enough and the first coat looked more like sheepswool than glossy smooth. The second coat was better but its not pretty. Having found four 5mm allan bolts in my box of spare bolts i took nearly an hour of screwing them in and out of the mounting nuts in the subframe to get rid of all the shite in the threads. I then found the frame had bent slightly during its trip around the rear wheel but fortunately it allowed itself to be persuaded into position. Liberal application of Loctite medium thread-lock went with the very tight fitting bolts and the frame is back in place. Its stayed put for this weeks 6 or 700 mile jaunt
Arriving at the first fuel stop in Bodmin I discovered a queued out of the slip road Morrisons, a shut Asda and a Texaco that only sold E10. Unwilling to chance running out and getting stranded over the moor for once, I eventually filled with E10. Needless to say all the garages on the moor were open without queues as I passed. The E10 disappeared at just under 40mpg but that was probably more to do with the tank average of 81mph than 95RON rating. The 5-10% reduction in fuel economy since the Akra was fitted probably also contributed. I have not been able to justify or finance the cross country trip to BSD for a remap yet.
The next day I was chauffeuring my dad and sister on a 200 mile trip around the north west motorway network to get to the funeral in my dads S class. I do not like Mercedes. Its almost tolerable on the motorway but on country roads its a barge. Nor much fun on the crammed motorways around Manchester either.
The trip home was showery but after about 150 miles fighting my way into the teeth of a strong and wet SW wind I got pissed off and took to the A39. This proved to be a research trip to accumulate data on how slow people in North Somerset drive around. The Bridgewater to Minehead section is double white lined for most of its length as are most nice curvy bits of road around there so there are sweet FA overtaking opportunities. Not that I was going too fast as the top dressing (pour liquid asphalt and spread loose chippings then sweep up the ones that don't stick) laid during lockdown has mostly worn off, except for the lines where the asphalt nozzles dripped it onto the road. This makes many corners feel like either you have 2 flat tyres or getting your wheels stuck in different tram lines as the front and rear wheel track between different lines of chippings.. mmmm nice.. even better with a spread of mud from the local farmers to help the slip and slide . Eventually I stopped at Lynmouth for a bacon sarnie and tea. Riding up the gorge out of town was interesting. I know the road reasonably well after commuting to Hinkley Point a few years ago, but the overhanging rock and dodgy side walls of stone are now joined with some areas of road that are not just potholed but structurally failing. Wouldn't be surprised if it gets closed rather than repaired, won't be cheap.
The Morrisons in Bude only sells E10 fuel so carried on into town to find E5 at the other petrol station. A few miles later the 105,000 came up
The bike was clean before I set off, honest. The last mile to my dads house up the lanes, and North Somerset roads fixed that.
The "brake failure" light is on again so I assume there's an ABS fault somewhere. I can live without it.
