Skip to main content

50-50 Challenge - 5E (1)

The Easter weekend has been pretty much of a washout as far a motorcycling is concerned.

The long holiday weekend is 4 days. Friday was raining all day. Saturday was little better and we did manage to get out with the dog for his walks.  Sunday looked better on paper but we had things to do.

So it all hinged on Monday. The forecast was for more heavy rain but in the end it turned out warmer. In the morning we did a bit of shopping and then had a walk with Reggie. Warm enough for a coffee outdoors.

So. To Challenge 5E.

Challenge 5E is for 50 rides of over 50 miles. It should be easy to do but we need to be able to get out and do it.

So today was the chance to get a 5E under my belt.

It was dry when I set off. Once again the dbpower unit was needed to fire Pepé up.

The idea was to go around 25 miles and then turn about. In the end I headed out of Hythe along the M20 and A20 to Dover and then up the A2. No great plan just a ride to get some charge in the battery. As I approached Canterbury the fuel light came on and the miles to empty display showed 0.

I detoured into Canterbury and up Sturry road to fill up at ASDA  (a Walmart company). I only got 17.34 litres in and that was a much as I could squeeze in. Fuelly calculated that at a mere 37.1 mpg.

The Rocket is supposed to have a 24 litre tank. So with 6.6 litres left I would have expected the miles to empty to be way above 0. After all. There was a quarter of a tank left! 

I had taken a photo at the start of the ride and again at ASDA. A more direct run home would see the 50 come up safely.

As it was it started to spit with rain as I left Canterbury but nothing more. The roads were greasy and the middle full of mud and other rubbish. So it needed more care.

In the end it was 55 miles once I got on the drive.  The last photo included the Challenge booklet or a print I did of the cover to save the booklet itself.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...

Screen fitted

Today I was working from home after the trains were cancelled and I came home from the station!  I did a bit of work, you can only do what is in front of you on the helpdesk software, and so  I had a late lunch and decided to have a look at the screen fittings. In the end, it was a 90 minute lunch and it is fitted. The four brackets have to be done one at a time, offering up the screen each time before tightening them in place. In the end it looks pretty central.  No time to test it today. That will have to wait until the weekend. Fitted! The instructions are pretty rubbish, and look like an eighth generation photocopy of the original drawing. Still, the photo on Skidmarx website was marginally better. My positioning looks a little different but it seems rigid. Only a test ride will tell if it is okay.

Bikers Loft 2

We were up reasonably after a latish night and the self cook dinner! Breakfast is included in the room rate and is also self service as well as self cook. I'm not used to eating breakfast and so opted for the continental style rather than the bacon and eggs style!  The rooms are pretty basic. I shared with Trevor and we had two single beds. A little re-jigging of the room ensured that there was a man-gap between the beds! Early suggestions for the Saturday ride out had been to the Wire of Death. An electric fence that was built by the German occupation army in 1915 from the coast at Knokke to the German border, and just inside the Belgian frontier. It was to stop Belgians escaping into neutral Netherlands.  Over the course of the war it claimed over a 1000 lives. Read more.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_of_Death I can't tell you any more as we didn't go!! In the end we decided on Ypres, only  30 miles aw...