Monday, October 24, 2011

Masham End of Year Big Meet

Helen and I went out on Sunday with the Lancs arm of the NUKB on a rideout to Masham for the end of year big meet. We met up with the North East and Yorkshire NUKB regions as well in Masham Market Square.

The weather forecast initially was for poor weather early on but it was due to brighten up later. For this reason we decided to leave late and not join the main ride to Masham and instead proceed directly there. We left home and met up with Debs at Boundary Mill in Colne. We then headed on the A56/59 to Skipton where we joined the B6265 to Helen @Masham Grassington. We stopped in Grassington briefly for a comfort break before continuing on the B6265. Just after Pateley Bridge we turned left to continue on the B6265 and soon arrive at our turning at Risplith. It said that the road was closed ahead but we decided to see whether we could get through anyway. Just after Grantley we found that a small bridge had collapsed and we couldn’t get past. However with Debs sat-nav we were able to take a small diversion to get around the problem. We then got back on our original route and continued on to Masham via Kirkby Malzeard and Grewelthorpe. We soon arrived at Masham and were pretty much the first group there, so we got our food orders in early.

Bikes @ Masham We left Masham at around 1:30pm on the A6108 heading for Leyburn, after passing through Middleham we soon turned left onto a cut through road to Wensley that by-passes Leyburn. At this point we joined the A684 and continued on that road all the way to Hawes.

We passed through Hawes and headed over to Ribblehead Viaduct on the B6255. We turned left at Ribblehead Viaduct as usual and headed back to Settle on the B6479. We stopped in Settle for a while to enjoy coffee and cake at the Ye Old Naked Man Café.

We then left Settle and headed back to Clitheroe via Wigglesworth and Sawley and then turned left and went over Pendle Hill and down into Sabden. We then continued on to Simonstone and then followed the A56/M66 home.

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Saturday, October 01, 2011

Helen’s 12,000 mile service

Today I carried out part of the 12,000 mile service on Helen’s VFR. I changed the oil and filter and also the air filter as per the service schedule. I also re-routed the hydraulic clutch pipe to try and give it a bit more freeplay on full lock. Due to her having the Variobars installed the clutch pipe does stretch a little at full lock, but I was able to get a few more inches of play on it. I still need to strip down and clean the brake calipers and also change the brake fluid. I will also look at adjusting the idle speed as the bike does run a little rough at start up. As my VFR has just gone over 24,000 miles I also changed the air filter on mine as well.

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