Well I have finally got away for a day out on the bike - haven't done that since .......... well last weekend 

Early on Saturday morning the K100 grapevine alerted me to the fact that Smithy might be venturing out of the high country down to Gloucester for the day to attend a bike show and vintage motocross event. So I quickly made a couple of phone calls to see if any other inmates were available on super short notice to ride up - alas all were booked up so it was to be a solo run.

Wheeled the K75 out into the beautiful sunny morning, loaded a day bag of essentials, gear on and away I go northwards up through Maitland, Clarence Town and Stroud towards Gloucester. I alerted Smithy via text message to look out for me around lunch time. A quick reply with him suggesting that I send him a Glympse when I got closer and he would be able to locate me when I arrived.

By the time I got to Stroud I was a bit peckish and certainly needed a koffee (the night before had been the occasion of my eldest granddaughter's 18th birthday party - I was surprised to wake up not having turned into a pumpkin considering the late hour when we got home). While relaxing with the koffee I had a little wander around Stroud's main street and was reminded of the close ties we have with the people of the UK from our earliest settlement. See the photo of one of the signs.


One of the pubs.


The original Court House


Suitably refreshed I sent Smithy the Glympse and headed the K75 toward Gloucester. On arrival at the venue for the Bike Show Smithy was waving to me, phone in hand as the Glympse had done its job allowing him to watch me thread my way through town to the site.

Smithy's brother-in-law Wassa, another forum inmate, was there on his R1200GSA, so some good bike related chatting was in order. The vast majority of the motorcycles ridden in on the day were of the V Twin American variety with acres of gleaming chrome and not so much as a bug stuck on them anywhere. I can assure you all that my bike is not like that.
After lunch, a bit of a browse through the commercial displays and a look at the vintage motocross racing that was going on and it was time for Smithy to head back up into the high country. I wanted to be home by sunset so I headed home a short while later.
The motocross action amid the rolling hills of this region.


The three inmates bikes with Wassa admiring the insect collection on the front of my K75 which sadly hadn't had a wash after it's last outing.


On the way home as I passed through Stroud I again found myself thinking about the ties between Aussies and our UK counterparts so here are a couple of maps showing the towns of Gloucester and Stroud at opposite ends of the planet. It is pretty much in proportion too as the distance between them in the UK appears to be about 16 km and here in Oz it is about 50 km.




As always - great to catch up with the guys. About a 300 km round trip for me.
Cheers

Marie and I ran into Smithy today at Glen Innes Standing Stones.

Al

Thanks Gaz for sharing your Gloucester ride and for inspiring me today! Hope you don't mind a little post highjacking....

Having no plans for the day (after a day pottering around my new garden putting in bedding plants for the summer yesterday), when I woke this morning, bleary eyed, I logged on to the forum to catch up with things and was immediately inspired by Gaz's post and the similarities between the Stroud/Gloucester maps in both the UK and Oz. So, inspiration became a plan and I immediately knew what I was going to be doing today. 

The day started overcast, but dry and with temperatures hovering around 10 deg C - perfect riding weather. I rolled Heidi out of the garage and onto the gravel driveway. Quickly punching in some waypoints into the GPS and selecting "curvy route", I was off into the cool morning air. I had replaced Heidi's radiator earlier in the week (having developed a leak) and, although I had been commuting on her all week, I was keen for a longer ride to reward her for the time sitting in the garage waiting on me having the opportunity to fix her. 

Gloucester is only about 70 miles north of where I live, so a very easy day ride there and back, but it is only somewhere I have gone past and, even then, that has usually been on the M5 motorway. Today's route, whilst mostly staying on main roads, was to be far more scenic and enjoyable. Traffic was surprisingly light, but perhaps that was because it was still reasonably early and before all the DIY superstores and garden centres opened on a Sunday. 

I rode though Bath with minimal delay, remembering that the last time I had actually ridden to Bath was to see Garry & Ruth during their visit a few moons ago. As I left the city behind me, the sun broke through and the temperature steadily climbed. And then, what a fabulous ride, surrounded by lush green rolling countryside, interspersed with dazzling fields of the bright yellow of rapeseed flowers. The air was thick with the heady, sweet honey like perfume of the millions of rapeseed flowers and, with the clouds having given way to to blue sky, it really felt like a proper summers day. I enjoyed the clear, fast road with it's long straights and frequent sweeping bends and Heidi responded smoothly to the throttle and rolled easily around the corners. In contrast to the open fields, I also twisted through wooded valleys, with the fresh spring green leaves in the canopy overhead glowing as they scattered the sun light. 

As I rode, I reflected on various place names I passed - Pennsylvania (a bit of a state and somewhat smaller than I remember), Dunkirk (totally land locked - so how on earth did all those boats rescue the British army from there...and what were they doing there anyway?) and Badminton, famed for it's horse trials - I wasn't tempted to join the people heading towards the horse trials - on a day like this - one horse power is nowhere near enough! 

At Nailsworth, I left the main road and rode effortlessly up a road appropriately named "The Ladder" - a steeply inclined road with several tight hairpin bends, particularly enjoying the ease with which I could accelerate and pass the stream of sweaty lycra clad cyclists puffing and panting their way up the hill. The internal combustion engine was invented for a reason! 

Sorry about the bugs on the screen! There were many more splattered all over the front of the bike by the time I was done!

Soon reaching the top, the country side spilled out once again into and large area of heathland known as Minchinhampton common. The speed limit was set a little too low (40mph) for the road, but had cattle warning signs painted on the tarmac as the common land is used for grazing. 

I didn't see any of the cattle (perhaps they had heeded the warning?) but, with much of the common seemingly taken over by a golf course, there were plenty of golfers out on both sides of the road for their Sunday hack about. I kept a wary eye out for errant golf balls fling in my direction and lowered my visor, just in case. 

I didn't stop in Stroud, there didn't seem to be much point - there were no signs proudly proclaiming the association with the Stroud in Australia. I suspect that most people in Stroud have never heard of Australia! The road both in and out of Stroud was good enough for me, passing through the Cotswolds Common and Beechwood national nature reserve.

Before I knew it, I was rolling into Gloucester

I don't know Gloucester at all, but followed signs for the harbour side area, suspecting that it would be as good as anywhere to stop and stretch my legs a little.


I parked up next to a brewery...but contrary to the "open" sign, it was actually closed, so no chance of refreshment there.

..however, this watering hole on the quayside looked promising...

I wasn't the only bike in town, a hoard of scooters were parked up on the other side of the bridge to where I parked, but they were in a jovial mood and distant memories of animosity between mods (on scooters) and rockers (on motorbikes) as illustrated by the classic film Quadrophenia remained distant memories.


Love them or hate them, like us K folk, these scooter boys and girls are passionate about their souped up sewing machines.

I had an appetite, but not for fighting and the sun was clearly over the yard arm - well, OK, its a crane jib, but the sun was over it, so that was good enough for me so I ordered myself an all-day brunch and a pint of local cotswold ale and found myself a sunny seat by the water front.

and watched some dragon boat racing while I waited for my grub to arrive...

Cheers!!


Just as I had finished and was ready to go - the bridge opened to let a grockle boat out (grockle = tourist/day tripper) and my escape route from the Mods was cut off...but since we weren't actually bothering each other, it was just another distraction to a very pleasant stop off in Gloucester.


Heidi parked up next to the paddle ship "Oliver Cromwell"


My return home was pretty much the reverse route of my outbound leg and just as enjoyable. I had hoped to upload a video of one of the fast twisty sections coming back (without bugs on the screen), but was disappointed to find that the memory card had reached capacity before I got to that section of the ride again - doh! 

Traffic remained fairly light throughout my ride, which is amazing for a sunny Sunday, when everybody and his/her dog tend to get out on the road. The only slow part was going back through the city of Bath, where traffic had built up to it's usual chaotic state, but even there, with the help of bike friendly bus lanes, I didn't have much of a delay.


The day had warmed up to a very pleasant 17 deg C...reminding me that I really must remove the winter thermal lining from my bike gear before it gets any warmer! 

It'll probably be raining or snowing again tomorrow, but summer was great while it lasted!

Getting home, the sun was still shining...so, with Heidi back in the garage, I just had to have a nice, refreshing, hoppy, beer while I sat out in the garden and reflected on a fantastic day out. 

Thanks again, to Gaz for the inspiration first thing this morning!

Nice day out Paul.

For me this interchange of experiences is the best part of this great forum. Being able to read and see photos of other people's adventures from around the world and this is especially true if , like Paul & I, you have been lucky enough to meet in person.

Of course the wealth of knowledge about our bikes that the membership holds underpins the whole thing by allowing us to keep the bikes on the road to enjoy.

Cheers

What a wonderful post, bikes, blokes, beautiful places and a bounty of interchanges of experiences. Well done everyone.

Envious!

Thanks for the write-ups.  

Bill

ainsjac wrote:What a wonderful post, bikes, blokes, beautiful places and a bounty of interchanges of experiences..

Plus sausage, egg and chips with a pint of bitter! For me that was the highlight.

Thanks guys, two great ride reports.

PS Strange though how the sun can be in two places at once. Not often that happens!

Gaz wrote:For me this interchange of experiences is the best part of this great forum. Being able to read and see photos of other people's adventures from around the world and this is especially true if , like Paul & I, you have been lucky enough to meet in person.

+1 on that sentiment. 

What I failed to mention, was the back garden beer at the end of the day was drunk from a pint pot inscribed "Propeller Brewing Company - Halifax NS" and that also refreshed good memories of my time meeting up with Crazy Frog back in April 2015.

Got to love this forum for it's technical help and also the friendships it engenders - between those we meet and even those we don't.

Thanks Gaz and Paul. Enjoyed the read. Cheers

An amazing post from all. As I read the original posts and then saw the maps I was amazed that not only were the names used but the configuration north south remained the same.

We too got a great day here but not being so techy no photos yet.

A local bike run to support someone who was injured last July generated a turn out of we think over 300 bikes. A Kawasaki GTR with a side car on the proper side as in the left, a tow bar and a bike rack mounted on it carrying a wheelchair says it all. Inspiration for a few of us as we get older, the set will carry a Zimmer just as easily.

There was one solitary brick but a bevy of K1600 machines and actually quite a few K100 owners on their other bikes.

BAE will be interested because we did a loop from Cork west to Kenmare, Glengarriffe, Bantry, Clonakilty and by the time I got home I was over 185 miles up on the day. We got the sun for this and some excellent scenic curves, passes, mountains and more.

The forum and the K is quite amazing because it now almost seems on a lot of these that anyone on a bike of a certain age either lusted after a K, owned one or has one sitting on a shelf.

I have to confess I leave the K parked most Sundays simply because I get to use to other days when the only Sunday drivers you meet are the ones still trying to find their way home.