300 mile trip on wednesday....advice?

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Hi,

I'm picking up a honda magna v30 from newbury on wednesday.
The earliest train ticket i can get from here (newcastle upon tyne) is leaving at just after 10am and does'nt get me to newbury (berkshire) station until a little after 4pm .

Now considering the weather/traffic e.t.c. is it do-able to ride back from there at that time at night (would take 5 hours) or am i better off finding a place to stay down there? Maybe travel 100 miles then find a place to kip?

Anyone done much long distance motorway riding in this weather at night?
At first i thought it would be no problem,so i jumped in and bought the bike.Now it's not looking so easy

Thanks
Dave
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DRZ-400sm

[Bendy]

Personally, I'd find somewhere to kip then ride up the next day. Just cos it'll be an exercise in freezing misery at night, at least it'll be slightly less freezing misery in the daytime.

Is there no silly-late train or bus combination that'd get you to Newbury in the early morning? I know sod-all about trains but I'd imagine there must be trains from the north that arrive in London in the early morning for long-distance commuters, then get a different train out to Newbury and ride home in the daytime.

[----]

There is slightly earlier trains,but they want £112 quid compared to the later train which is only £50 quid! Hell of a difference in price

Any ideas on where to stay (somewhere cheap with secure parking)

How bad is southern traffic at that ime of night?Am i likely to be stuck somewhere,and any advice on the best-quickest route from newbury to the A1(m)....
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DRZ-400sm

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Weather forecast (as much as you can rely on one of those) is worse for Thursday than it is Wednesday. I'd be tempted to get a late train down on the Tuesday night if you can, stay in a Travelodge or similar and start the day with a bloody good fryup.

Then again, if you add the price of the train, accomodation and fuel together, how does that compare with hiring a van (which you can sleep in), or getting a courier company to collect it for you?
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[----]

Trains already booked for wed morning now.

I put aside £50 for fuel and the £50 for the train.
I actually have a bike trailer that i could use,but i heard a lot of bad things about traveling in london area(traffic),so decided to ride back for quickness.
It was a good idea at the time
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DRZ-400sm

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[map]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

...or he could absolutely hate the bike from his first riding experience on it
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Bendy]

[----]

Cheers

I was gonna go A34 to A43 all the way to te A1.It looks a lot easier on the map? Would that be a bad idea?
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DRZ-400sm

[mooserx]

i'd stay down there the night before, pick the bike up 1st thing in the a.m then ride home. 300 miles in the dark on the motorway will be a nightmare, freezin and borin.
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TL1000r-handful.

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The bike:

https://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL740/2931391/21046846/344640556.jpg

For being a cruiser type bike,it doesn't look too comfy
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DRZ-400sm

[----]

Cheapest i can get a travel lodge for one night is £50 quid.
It's about half that price here!

Oh well,theres sleeping idea out the window.Gonna have to brave it all the way home
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DRZ-400sm

[G]

Much as I disagree with cruisers ... You're welcome to use my sofa on Tuesday night.

I'm about 10 miles away from Newbury - there's a regular ish bus service that goes there.

I've been up to newcastle a few times with work (in a car) - generally seems best to do the M1/M18 etc thing.

Remember you're going to need plenty of warm layers etc... I'm shivering at the moment and I'm sitting in the office at work with a reasonable number of PCs chucking out heat at least!

[Mr Hammers]

See if there are any E-Tap motels near, they're the same as Travelodge, but only £30 something a night.
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A Guide To Powerbands

[Bendy]

Well, if you want you could collect the bike in Newbury and ride it to Bracknell ('bout 30 miles back along the M4), stick the bike in the garage and kip on my sofa.

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[firefox]

use a tomtom
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bye bye gti <^>( ' . ' )<^>
*officer* what caused the crash ? *firefox* you see that wall up there sir ?
*officer* yes what about it *firefox* i tooted my horn but it refused to move i had to teach it a lesson.

[Bendy]

[firefox]

[Bendy]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[Yarri]

When i was selling my bike i had to ride 40miles which would be 40 mins journey, it took me 4 hours to get there as most of the roads to there were closed for maintaince and the whole trip was 150miles one way...

So don't ride it in 1 day, just dont...
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Theory Passed: 23/10/2008 49/74 Bike Test Passed: 05/01/2009 1 minor
Theory Car Passed: 22/07/2009 48/74 Car Test Passed: 22/10/2009 2 minor
Few minutes of life of the biker could be more interesting then the whole lifes of many people

[G]

Ok, it was in the summer, but I several times did over 300 miles in a day this year. (The first time leaving at 9pm, arriving a little after 2am.)
There’s a few options for the journey he’s doing and I can’t see the major North/South arterial in Enngland being closed for maintenance .

Being confident filtering may well be very useful if you’re actually leaving at 4; you’ll get the full brunt of rush hour.

Incidentally, you’d also be welcome to stay Wednesday, but seems you’re set on giving it a go (and Bendy’s would probably be a better bet anyway).

If you want to do it on the cheap, you could always take along a tent, sleeping bag and mat. Obviously would have to take along some appropriate stuff to attach it to the bike too.
Can usually find an empty grassy field or similar to camp in most places in the UK; just come off the motorway junction and have a nose around until you find some where suitably secluded; shouldn’t be a big problem if you’re only staying overnight and is my favourite price; free .

[doggone]

Sort of compromise would be set off and see how it goes.
It's a quiet time of year so you could probably stop at a travelodge or something after a couple of hours without booking.

In practice once you get on the motorway, if it's not actually raining or snowing it will be tempting to just keep going.
It will be pretty quiet on a weekday after 6pm.