Transformation Across The Pond

[N4teTheGreat]

Somewhat easier than converting the rider.

This brought up a point in my head, I've often wondered if I'd actually be able to manage driving or riding in a country where they drive on the other side of the road. The few times I have been a passenger in a car in London there have always been moments where I was certain we were all about to die before realizing that was the proper direction to turn / merge. I can't imagine that would go so well if I was at the controls, but maybe it is easier when you are actively engaged?

 

[flying_hun]

This brought up a point in my head, I've often wondered if I'd actually be able to manage driving or riding in a country where they drive on the other side of the road. The few times I have been a passenger in a car in London there have always been moments where I was certain we were all about to die before realizing that was the proper direction to turn / merge. I can't imagine that would go so well if I was at the controls, but maybe it is easier when you are actively engaged?

It's not as hard as you might think. It's harder than converting the bike because that's the joke - the bike doesn't convert at all.

That said, I think it's easier to deal with on a bike than in a car because everything is in the same place as you're used to here. It's also easier if you follow someone else, and just go where they go.

The places where it's easy to get tripped up are pulling out of a parking lot, or navigating either a 4-way intersection or a T-intersection because in both of those cases it's easy to resort to habit and end up on the wrong side of the road. In those circumstances, I just take a moment of awareness to think about what side of the road I need to be on when I navigate this intersection. The good news is that the vast majority of intersections you'll encounter in the UK are traffic circles/roundabouts, so there's no chance to get confused. The engineering of the traffic circle keeps you on the correct side of the road. If one manages to screw up a traffic circle - for instance, by going around it the wrong direction - one's riding has far bigger issues than what side of the road one is on.

There are other issues, such as overtaking, or dealing with a road without a center line, or even riding on the motorway where one has to break one's habits. For instance, when riding a narrow road and coming around a blind bend to find an oncoming vehicle in the middle of the road, one has to develop the habit of diving to the left to avoid them rather than riding to the right. That takes some focused reminding of myself the first few days I'm riding there.

The good news is this, having to accommodate this stuff is really good for your brain and really good for your riding. I've listed some of the obvious issues, but the more subtle ones are important too, such as dealing with adverse camber in righthand turns rather than left hand turns. For instance, in dealing with some of the narrow, bumpy roads I like to ride on, add in it being wet, and the road being awash in mud or sheep poop means that you have to accommodate the low/uneven traction in a different way you do at home. Whether it's where you set up for the turn, where you turn in, where you look, when you bring up the throttle, etc. I am convinced that putting myself through this discipline makes me a more solid rider. You should try it.

 

[flying_hun]

On Wednesday we would be meeting up with our fourth member, Ashley. Ashley lives down south, and would be leaving from his house, so we wouldn't be seeing him until mid-afternoon.

In the morning we got up to have a look at the weather, and it was very changeable. Our plan for the morning was to chase blue sky. That meant I'd take off on a heading that showed blue sky, and when we encountered rain, or even just threatening skies dead ahead, we'd just change headings towards where the weather looked better. This put us on some wild and tiny roads, some of which were barely more than walking paths. I LOVE this stuff!

A few landscape pics of the Dales.

This was far from the narrowest road we used this day.

We eventually met up with Ashley, also in Pately Bridge. In addition to the sweet shop, and the pie shop, Pately Bridge is a pretty little village surrounded by great roads, and if you go very much further towards population centers from here, traffic gets much heavier, so there are good reasons I keep coming to this place.

The other big news of the day was that I had been contacted the night before by a non-riding friend who lives in Yorkshire who insisted that I come for dinner. I told her that there would be four of us, and she said, "Bring 'em all!" Cool! So rather than another night in The Crown in Hawes, all of us made our way down to Giggleswick to join Alison and Andrew for roasted chicken and a bunch of veggies freshly harvested from their garden, and it was a lovely evening, and even the trip back to Askrigg in the dark in the rain was fun.

Friends. It's good to have some. arty

On the way there we had to stop for the obligatory photo of the Ribblehead Viaduct.

 

[kpke]

Gotta love the names

Giggleswick

Ribblehead

 

[flying_hun]

Gotta love the names

Giggleswick

Ribblehead

The Brits have a flair for place names. Due to my very mature sense of humor, I am particularly fond of Wetwang and Nether Wallop. There are others, but those always come immediately to mind.

 

[flying_hun]

The next day's route is one I always look forward to since my friend, Stuart Flack introduced me to it some years back. It's a road in the Lake District in the county of Cumbria that goes over both Wrynose and Hardknott Passes.

The map doesn't show all the messing about I did getting lost.

Why is that a big deal? This is the most technically challenging paved road I've ever ridden. Steep, narrow, rough, tight, exposed. All the fun stuff! Wrynose has grades up to 30% and Hardknott is up to 33% This road will keep you busy!

The roads are great until you get behind someone who can't drive and who won't get out of the way, which can be frustrating.

We celebrated our completion of the road with a little group shot.

Then it was on to one of my favorite pubs ever, the one at Wasdale Head. This place is way up at the end of a dead end road on west side of the Lakes. High fells surround it at the end of a long, narrow lake. But first we had to get there, and that meant navigating sheep moving pastures!

[YOUTUBE]PJPVw1RTKKo[/YOUTUBE]

Once there, we were welcomed despite our dripping clothes, and fed good stuff. The local brew, Wasd'Ale was excellent! This was also a place where being an American was a plus, as the bartender got all excited by my accent (as if I had any control over that)

I love the scenery there. It's got a Lord of the Rings vibe to it.

The day continued with off and on rain. I mis-navigated (big word for got lost), and we missed Honister Pass, but we did get a couple of others, including Whinlatter and Kirkstone before heading back to Hawes for another dinner at The Crown.

BTW, I failed to mention that in the midst of all of this, the Queen died. Very interesting to be in the UK during this huge change. Very interesting.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Spectacular scenery and those passes sound spectacular, my kind of roads. As for the queen, did you consider joining the queue? Apparently it was quite a thing!

 

[flying_hun]

Spectacular scenery and those passes sound spectacular, my kind of roads. As for the queen, did you consider joining the queue? Apparently it was quite a thing!

Riding in the UK can be more spectacular than I think lots of folks imagine. The roads can be crowded, which can be frustrating, but there are always minor roads that are less busy. No, I didn't consider going down south to join the queue. It didn't fit with my schedule.

 

[flying_hun]

A couple of more shots from our day in the Lakes. First, enjoying a coffee after lunch and before we headed back out into the rain.

And a shot of the bikes back at our base.

Yeah, I was a little outnumbered by the GS contingent.

 

[flying_hun]

Our last day as a group doesn't have a lot of pictures. The day started with good weather, so we swung by Bolton Castle (not to be confused with Bolton Abbey, or the city of Bolton, or even Michael Bolton...). I took a bunch of pictures, but they were all of the same thing, so....

There was a medieval music festival taking place. The funniest thing was the woman dressed as a medieval nun who was so focused on her phone that she tripped on the hem of her frock. Just the juxtaposition of costume and phone was about perfect.

We headed north from here with the thought of going back up towards Hadrian's Wall, but traffic due to road construction was abysmal, so we eventually gave up on that, and at about that time, the skies opened again, and it just pissed it down the rest of the day.

We passed the evening with a feast of Indian take-out back at the barn to wrap up our last evening. The following day, we'd head our separate ways - at least for now.

 

[flying_hun]

Saturday morning we all packed up and headed out. Chris and Ashely and Dom headed south and east, while I headed west, back towards the Lakes.

My friend, Stuart (some of you have ridden with the amazing Stuart) was not able to ride with us, but he wanted me to come see this place where he's working part time, an excursion steam railway south of Windermere, the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway.

I figured that it would be cool to see. I am a gearhead, after all. I didn't think I'd spend the day there. It was fun!

I texted Stuart when I arrived, and he was out on the train acting as a conductor when I got there, so he sent me up to the their workshops and encouraged me to look around while waiting for the train to return.

There are a lot more photos, most of which aren't particularly great, but I'm including this one because I grew up calling these things steamrollers, and this one is actually a STEAMroller.

There was a Rover car club meeting in the parking lot, but I didn't get any particularly interesting photos. When the train came back, I got up on a walkway that crossed the tracks to see it come in.

[YOUTUBE]azPp5XEP9ck[/YOUTUBE]

I had purchased a roundtrip excursion ticket while I was waiting for Stuart to return, and was looking forward to the ride. The last time I was on a steam locomotive, my dad was still alive, and he's been gone for decades. As it turned out, this was a special day because rather than running the usual sort of small switch engine that is normally in use, this day they were running one of the two mainline engines they own, a Fairburn 2-6-4, and everyone was excited about it.

It's a pretty engine.

After taking my ride, Stuart invited me to join him in the switch house as the engine was switching from one end of the train to the other, and he caught me taking a video of the engine coming past us to change tracks.

This is when he asked me if I'd like to ride on the foot plate. What? I didn't know what that meant. He said, ride in the cab with the engineer and the fireman. Oh hell yes! arty First, I had to put on the gear.

And here's the view while waiting to be ready to depart.

It's good to have friends.

 

[flying_hun]

I took some cellphone video of the experience. None of this is edited, it's just the video with no changes.

First, the dragon at rest. It's like staring into the fires of hell.

[YOUTUBE]K6Xlp8Z8oys[/YOUTUBE]

Then the ride.

[YOUTUBE]PraQ0t1I2CE[/YOUTUBE]

After we'd stopped, and getting ready to reverse it.

[YOUTUBE]oY5lqxy8dNk[/YOUTUBE]

Riding along having a chat.

[YOUTUBE]V1yus-PBnHE[/YOUTUBE]

Pulling out of the station.

[YOUTUBE]i-2JMig3Jtw[/YOUTUBE]

A couple of notes here. I was grinning so broadly throughout this experience, that I thought my face would cramp up! Secondly, when you see the engineer and the fireman with their heads hung out the windows, you'd be right to think they're doing that so that they can see. They also do it because it's hotter than the hinges of hell inside that cab, and sticking your head out brings welcome respite.

 

[kpke]

Absolutely awesome posts. Photos and videos are extraordinary. Thanks for posting.

 

[flying_hun]

Absolutely awesome posts. Photos and videos are extraordinary. Thanks for posting.

Thank you!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Very cool!

 

[flying_hun]

While I was out riding on the foot plate, Stuart swapped my ticket for one that would get me into the Lakeland Motor Museum, just down the road from the railway. The collection is impressive, thought it's crammed in kind of tight to the space so it's hard to get good photos. I took a lot more than these, but I was a little disappointed with the angles that were available.

First, an SS100. If you're a Jaguar fan, this is where it all starts. I don't think I'd ever seen one in the flesh before.

Although the MG-TC was the iconic post-war British sports car, and the MG-TD was the most common of the T's seen in the US, I was always fond of the short-lived MG-TF, the last of the pre envelope body MG's

They had a nice little selection of bikes that McPint has ridden in the TT, including the three on the left on which he won TT's.

And this one because I can never resist a V-4 Honda production racer.

Truth be told, I wasn't very patient with the museum. I was anxious to get back to the railway. Fun fact, early in my working life I was a production line worker in a railcar factory, and worked on the last order of cabooses made for Burlington-Northern. I come by my rail fascination honestly.

The one part of the museum I regret not spending some time with was the section they have dedicated to Malcolm and Donald Campbell. Speed freaks should know those names.

Not long after leaving the museum and returning to the railway, Stuart wrapped up his day there, then led me back to their new home in the Lake District where he and his wife hosted me for dinner. That was followed by a slog across the north of England in the dark. Dom and Ashley were at Dom's place in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and they invited me over for beers and to spend the evening.

 

[flying_hun]

The following day was a Sunday, and Dom and I decided to go out an play in the Yorkshire Moors for the day. We headed up through the Howardian Hills to get into the Moors.

There are all kinds of roads in the Moors. Fast and smooth (and often crowded) A roads, fun B roads, and a bunch of unclassified goat trails. It was the last of these that we were after. First things first, though. It was Sunday, and that means a Sunday roast!!!

First find a pub serving a Sunday roast. Check!

Next, get a pint and dig in! Double check!

Then we went looking for the little roads, with a particular desire to stop by Rosedale Abbey. The sign says it all.

I love this countryside with grazing sheep and dry stone walls and little nadgery roads.

Dom even took a brief video of me pulling away.

[YOUTUBE]X8FWrNU45wI[/YOUTUBE]

Then we had a fun and wild trip back to the East Riding. Most of the traffic was off the road by then, so the ride was very fun indeed. It was a good day.

 

[flying_hun]

My last major stop was to spend the evening with my brother-in-law, Eric, his partner Olivia, and my nephew, Ross. Eric is a major gearhead who has had many desirable cars. He currently has a GT3, and in the past he's had a Lotus Seven.

Eric and Olivia are great hosts with a beautiful home. Eric made us a tasty dinner which we washed down with my favorite English beer (Old Speckled Hen, thank you very much). During the lockdown, they decided that one lesson was to no longer put off dreams. Two of their dreams included owning a Ferrari, and going racing (not in the Ferrari).

The garage contains this gorgeous 360 (which I truly regret failing to video because the noise was amazing!) alongside the aforementioned GT3. First time I'd sat in a Ferrari in years.

Then we went to have a look at the Boxster he's racing in a spec series in the UK. The paint job is an homage to a 917 that raced in the 1970 LeMans. It's really something, and he's having a blast racing it.

It was great to get caught up with everyone. Ross recently graduated from university, and is trying to figure out what comes next. His older sister who graduated a few years ago is living and working in NZ, and Eric was showing me photos of his recent trip there.

And my time in the UK was winding down. Another great day ended. The next day, Tuesday, was my last full day in the UK, so I rode back to where the bike is staying, and Dom took me to the train station to ride back to Manchester to fly out the next day. One last pub meal before heading out. It didn't suck.

And I was home in time for my birthday.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Then we went to have a look at the Boxster he's racing in a spec series in the UK. The paint job is an homage to a 917 that raced in the 1970 LeMans. It's really something, and he's having a blast racing it.

see that 1970 Le Mans 917 once, and you never forget it.

el Porsche 917-043, conocido también como el coche Hippie …


happy birthday, brother …

 

[flying_hun]

happy birthday, brother …

Thanks, John!