Riding from Bedford to NW200 via Cairnryan ferry

[simonrh1]

About 330 miles each way
....on a 21 year old Ducati 749. Probably going to rain at some point.
Probably better choices of sports tourer

Trying to decide which will give up first, been nearly 20 years since i last went touring and that was on a TL1000S:
Wrists
Spine
Butt
Desire to keep stopping for fuel (although this might help with above)
Electrics
Mechanics
Motivation
Or something else entirely unexpected (possibly related to my other half on her bike)

[Alex9]

Motivation won't give up until you get back in England on Sunday I imagine, on the way there the roads get better and better and you'll see more and more bikes heading the same way.

For me it would be my hips, I have to stand up every now and again on a long ride or they get painful, and that's on an adventure bike!

[P675]

If you have the time, consider splitting it up over 2 days and take a more scenic route through Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines, Kielder. Imagine it will be quite boring and fatiguing on that bike on the motorway. I've got Midlands to Inverness in one go next week, can't wait

[simonrh1]

We have relatives out there so have established our preferred route over time up the A1, A66, M6, A75.
But sitting in an air conditioned / heated car with lumbar support is a very different proposition!
The run along the northern edge of the Solvay firth should hopefully be nice on 2 wheels if it stays dry

[Trevor555]

Please do us an adventure thread.

Does the Duke need high octane fuel?

If so, fill whenever you can up there.

Unless it's got better nowadays??

[simonrh1]

I confess i just run it on normal unleaded (ethanol content be damned). It has gotten too expensive to muck about with the posh stuff!

[Marquezs Stabilisers]

Lots of good roads where there's an alternative to the A75, especially if it's wet. I had a 2005 Multistrada which uses the same dash IIRC. Once on the M4 in very heavy rain I got a bow wave from a lorry, all the lights went on and the dash looked like a Christmas tree. After that the immobilizer never really worked properly again!

[Tam_Mullen]

simonrh1 said:

I confess i just run it on normal unleaded (ethanol content be damned). It has gotten too expensive to muck about with the posh stuff!

The 749 has a 15.5 litre tank, even if the difference was 25p a litre thats still less than £4 more than a fill up of regular.

[simonrh1]

Well, we left home 6pm in something approaching sun. 32 miles later we were at Peterborough and it started to rain until about mile 50. Grabbed fuel shortly after Newark before we had to leave the A1 heading for our digs for the night at 93 miles.
The other half was getting quite cold and apparently her cruise control doesn’t agree with my poor old manual cruise control’s ability to hold 74mph.

[alangla]

Beware the camera vans on the A75. Not unknown for two of them to be in close proximity, especially if they think bikes heading for the ferry are going to be lucrative.
If you decide to divert via the B roads that parallel it, they can be fun, but some of the craters are tyre wrecking for a car/lethal on a bike.

The ice cream farm at Drummuir just east of Dumfries on the B724 is good if it’s open.

[trickywoo]

Tam_Mullen said:

simonrh1 said:

I confess i just run it on normal unleaded (ethanol content be damned). It has gotten too expensive to muck about with the posh stuff!

The 749 has a 15.5 litre tank, even if the difference was 25p a litre thats still less than £4 more than a fill up of regular.

Yup. If you do 3k miles a year at 40mpg super will cost you £68 more. It will also get more economy as ethanol has higher burn rate than petrol. The actual cost is probably more like £50. A small price to pay for low ethanol and high octane.

[simonrh1]

We made it!
Left Newark at 9am and, all but for the briefest of stops for fuel and a sandwich, we arrived at cairnryan 8 minutes before the 3pm required arrival for the 4pm sailing. 45 miles this end and we are in our B and B. In terms of the bike it was actually drama free, she is a bit thirstier than my other half s bike so I was the limiting factor on fuel stops.
Had a bit of a mare in the last 30 miles on the A75 when a fuel stop at creetown saw me set off without lashing my bag up Properly and the outer pouch drooped on to the exhaust. So my decent beta 1/4 socket set and all my emergency repair supplies and chargers are all gone somewhere down the side of the Road. Some decent people flagged me down though and gave me back my leatherman that has real sentimental value (which was so hot it was wrapped in melted plastic and still baking hot).
Reached the conclusion that we re a good bunch: needed pain killers for my other half on the boat but there was no shop. A Scottish biker heard me asking about it and just gave us a load of ibuprofen and paracetamol out of his stash.
Some guys sitting near us had heard about the melty bag and loaned us a charger for the duration of the crossing to get some watts back in my phone now I am charger-less.
Departing the boat a guy on a vfr750 stopped for a chat as he couldn t quite believe we had come that far on that bike (he had a 999 but would never do this run with it!)
Could have been a lot worse tbh. Weather held which was good. Roads were relatively traffic-light. Only physiological issue was wrist getting stiff on throttle hand otherwise alright!
Getting home on Monday is a full stint though and that might be a different story as it is actually 420 miles home, I forgot that we aren t stopping on the way back when I did the maths originally

Edited by simonrh1 on Thursday 7th May 21:06

[loskie]

Marquezs Stabilisers said:

Lots of good roads where there's an alternative to the A75, especially if it's wet. I had a 2005 Multistrada which uses the same dash IIRC. Once on the M4 in very heavy rain I got a bow wave from a lorry, all the lights went on and the dash looked like a Christmas tree. After that the immobilizer never really worked properly again!

You could turn off A75 at Crocketford head over the very lovely hill road and re join the A75 at Newton Stewart.

Speed vans and CHIPS on the A75. Plus farm traffic and local retirees.

Kilnford Farm Shop at Dumfries.

[Alex9]

Your bikes are hard to miss! As I was looking for somewhere to park my eye was drawn to the kerb and there was a space just there!