Rideout Report.

[JonB]

Well it's been a long time since I have had chance to write up about one of my rideouts. My last expedition was on the poor old moped which was probably a bit more interesting but anyway.

Was sat on the computer at about 5PM, robby said on IRC he was going out for a ride, kinda inspired my to get off my arse and treat my bike to some loving, so kudos to robby. So I looked out the window and too my surprise it was starting to clear up weatherwise, So I roughly draw up a plan of action of where to go and start to get kitted up, all ready to go.

Get the beautiful Bandit out of the garage and set out on my way, the first 15 miles being hugely uneventful with the travelling to Taunton on main road needed to be done. Got there and it was busy, well what did I expect really at 5.30PM on a Thursday? So mucho filtering and finally got on the A358 heading out toward Minehead. Now, I needed to get too Bishops Lydeard to get on a B road that is noted on the best biking roads website, so I went into Bishops Lydeard and looked around for the B3224 went through there about 3 times before I finally ditched my pride and went in a petrol station to ask for directions, now I constantly asked to go on the B road, but he kept telling me the main road, which as a biker, we don't wanna do, do we? So in the end I gave up and looked through a map by myself. Found where it went from, turns out it didn;t go from the village at all and in the end I ended up going through numerous country lanes, when all I had to cover was another 1 mile on the main road and find a massive sign with "B3224" written on it. These country lanes had been very muddy and this was the end result...

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18687

So off I finally got onto the B3224 and found out that this road really did live up to expectations! The first 5 miles where a bit iffy with having to meander all of the grit and gravel on the newly surfaced road, but after this the road was in pristine condition and the roads were completely void of any road traffic! Saw the signs for "Exmoor National Park" and I just ripped open the throttle, you could see for miles and going a steady high speed through the nicely sweeping corners was very well taken by this Bandit I am growing more and more in love with, it just feels so planted, no sudden movements just smooth cornering. I am starting to find the disadvantages of having 33BHP restriction, especially when wanting to accelerate hard up to a crest of the hill but the Bandit just has no grunt in top gear as the revs drop down, so more changing down of the gears to follow! The road just continued and it was just beautiful, then I find myself in a little race with this Black BMW, he was really going for it and would pull away on the straights everytime (damn restriction), but I caught up all the time on the corners and in the end I managed to get in a good overtake and loose him. I didn't even know this road very well, but the visibility was so good, you could anticipate most of what was going to happen, with additional braking if I was unsure.

So that was that gorgeous B road done with now onto a 6 mile stretch of the A396 from Tiverton to Dunster. Now I do like twisty roads, they are very fun but at the moment I am not quite enjoying the extremely twisty cornering, especially when a corner tightens up, which it does quite often on this road, also they were resurfacing so I couldn't go that fast anyway. But the ride was still pleasant and there was a nice hump bridge that led straight into a corner and it went very smoothly. One thing I have began to love about riding fast is when a road dips down and then rises back up again, giving you this "headrush" as the slight G's like on a rollercoaster have this effect on your head, it is just fantastic and there was lots of this on this road. Whilst on this road I found a little lay by and decide to get out the camera, that this time I decided to take along with me and take some photos of the countryside. First we have a view of the moors and the slight forestry that is present in Exmoor, it is such a beautiful place and I really advise you to go there if you can!

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18685

Next we have a picture of my bike, looking quite sparkly actually! Still looks beautiful!

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18692

Thought i'd take some random picture of about 6 horses, tis quite a pity that my bike currently only has 27 more horses.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18689

So next I got to Dunster and parked my bike up next to the Yarn Market and got off to take some more photos, whilst I was some 60 odd man came up to me and said "that's a lovely machine", I was like aye it is. He then proceeded to tell me that he has a Honda Superfour, which I was quite impressed with and advised me to go too lynmouth, which I have done anyway. Had a good little chat with him and took some photos. Here is one of the Yarn Market and my bike...

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18690

And here is a photo of the view down the village centre of Dunster and Dunster Castle up on the hill. I have been in there before, it ain't that interesting.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18691

So now for the final stretch of my random journey, this involved escapading onto the A39, the legendary Minehead to Bridgwater road, which is reputed to be one of the best in country, definitely is in the West Country. Had quite a hair raising incident when a police car had blue flashing lights on and was coming up fast behind me, my inital thoughts were "fuck, bugger, bollocks", so I slowed down but he zoomed past me, I find out why later on. So got onto the relly good part and Oh my! What a road we have here, although it is a main road there was barely and traffic, but the road surface is just impeccible, the corners are those sorts of corners that just make you proud to live in Britain and have the pride to ride on them. One corner leads into another. The death toll for bikes is quite high on this road, but I just took it easy and enjoyed the scenery of the Quantocks to the right of me and South Wales across the Severn Estuary to the left. Came down a hill whilst staring at Hinckley Point Nuclear station, what an eyesore.
After this I came out of a hairpin quite fast and this Lorry flashed it's lights and the driver told me to slow down, initally thought it was a speed trap up ahead but then I find loads of flashing lights and there we have it, 3 managed up cars on the side of the road, looked like a serious crash, 5 ambulances and you guessed it, that Police car. Just goes to show you are not safe in neither a Car or on a Bike.

Whilst On this road I got some various shots of Washford Station near Blue Anchor, this station is for the legendary West Somerset Railway, where steam trains still operate on this track...

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18684

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18686

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=18688

Realising I was running out of petrol and I had no cash on me I was very glad to get into Bridgwater, but none of the fucking cash machines worked did they? I was lucky the one at the service station on the M5 did, albeit charging me £1.75.

Overall a very good ride and the first I haven't been able to write home about, I hope you enjoyed it and if you feel I have wasted your time, the pleasure was all mine.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Josh|RD125LC]

The perks of living in the West Country eh Jon. Some lovely roads down here, as you described. Can't wait til I'm on a bigger capacity bike and I can do what you did. Just go out and chill, have a nice ride in the sun. When I have my 125 up and running, I'll have to come up to you one day and we can go riding somewhere. Wouldn't mind taking a trip back to Minehead, would bring back some fond memories.
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