A grand day out (in the lakes)

[sagalout]

I've been trying to do this trip with a mate for a couple of months, but a combination of shiftwork, family commitments, the weather and bike problems conspired to make it impossible to find a day. Well this week the biking gods were shining on us. 5 Day forecast looked excellent, both bikes running fine, I could get a day off to match my mates shifts and it was a friday, so no hassles from the other half

The route:

Due to only having one day to complete this trip time was going to be tight. The main considerations where that we wanted to take in some good scenery, have a mix of roads, do hardknott pass and find somewhere decent for lunch and breaks. Ideally we didnt want to do the same road twice where possible. We were starting off from Harrogate, and the usual route to the lakes is the A65. Now I dont really mind this road, but it can be very busy and we didn’t fancy a being stuck in a procession of traffic all the way there. So we decided to go via leyburn/hawes on the A684, into Kendal, up to Ambleside, then Keswick, take the A66 to the West Lakes then come down the road and turn off at Gosforth to do hardknott pass, back to ambleside then back on the A65, stopping at Devils Bridge. AA route planner makes it about 250 miles. The map below gives the route, although we skipped the A1 and stayed on minor roads from Ripon to Hawes.

https://213.225.133.189/mapping/image/GetMap?Ref=GB_public_Routes_Ftzlllcv_YtKc0J_32D3hQ%3D%3D


The bikes:

I'm on the CBR600FR. Its a 1994 parallel import but only got 18K miles on it. Had one or 2 niggles with it in the last month – knacked fuel diaphragm and regulator but seems to be sorted out now. Dave has a BMW 1200GS, bought from new with just 2K miles on it. This is the longest either of us has ridden in a single day, so it would be interesting to see how the comfort compared on very different bikes. Supplies were absolutely minimal. I do have satnav on my bike which I bought the other day, although not had time to wire it in so would have to try and save batteries where possible. Other than that the supplies consisted of the underseat tool kit, a mobile phone, wallet and a couple of mars bars to provide some energy if we ended up on Hardknott pass waiting hours for an RAC recovery truck!

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Set off:

According to the AA route planning, it would be 7 hours riding time. Add in about 3 hours of stops and we really wanted to set off at 7am. So after I woke up at 8.30 it wasnt the best start. The weather forecast had said sunshine all week, but typically I looked out of the window and the road was soaked and it was spitting. Still, we werent going to be put off this time, so we set off at 9.00am. Heading out on the Ripon road and then turning onto the Masham road I began to think this wasnt such a great idea. The roads seemed to be splattered with diesel everywhere and I could feel rear trye squirming several times. Still, there were one or 2 notable straights where we could let rip with the bikes, and the skies started to brighten. 20 miles in and the roads where really drying up. By the time we reached our first stop at Hawes the sun was shining and the roads were perfect. We made our first stop at the Penny Garth Cafe in Hawes. On a weekend this place is packed with bikes but I guess today everyone was at work. We had the most amazing bacon butty - a real belly buster, and got talking to guy with a black SV1000. His bike sounded awesome with race pipes on and it turned out he was going to Cumbria aswell, although he was taking the more direct route up the A65. He gave us some good advice about which way to go over Hardknott pass and apparently is going to featured an a program called Biker Britain next year, so we'll look out for that.

https://static.flickr.com/91/249923689_adec62add9.jpg

So we set off from Hawes on the A684. Now I'd been advised by a few people not to do this road. My old man reckoned it was full of tractors and lorries with no passing points. The guy we met at Hawes even said it was a really slow road and we wouldnt make our 1hr planned time to Ambleside. But I've got to say I loved it. Bend after bend after bend - it was awesome on the CBR, flicking it side to side. I'm not so sure that Dave enjoyed it quite as much on GS. He was hanging back a fair way but he'd get his revenge later on in day I'm sure. Its true that you cant ride the A684 all that fast, as many of the bends are blind and lined with dry stone walls, but as a slow/medium speed very technical stretch of road it was fantastic. We only hit a dozen or so cars all the way Kendal, which were easily passed on the few straights along the route.

The TomTom never lies and we arrived in Ambleside an hour later, 12ish, just as planned. Stopped off for a quick coffee at a pub in the town centre and started to think about Lunch. Dave knew of a pub at Wasdale head, a slight detour but worth the view apparently. So we set off on the road to keswick. Now I normally really like this road - fast sweepers, a few dual carriage way stretches etc, but today it seemed to be full of cars with few passing points. Never mind, there were still a few thrills. Stopped for some fuel at keswick then headed straight onto the A66. It was nice to get a bit of major A road blasting in after being on mostly minor roads so far. The A66 was fairly quiet, leading to triple figure motoring for long stretches. The GS is surprisingly fast on A roads – I suppose at the end of the day it is 1200cc – and gets to over 100mph very quickly with little or no gear changes. We then turned off the A66 onto the A595. This was probably the lowpoint of the route, and given more time we would have plotted some minor roads through winlatter pass etc but we needed a fast route to get to the pub for lunch. I find the west side of the lakes in general is pretty dull, and really this half hour stretch was mundane riding – probably not helped by the fact I was starving and just wanted a decent meal!

After what seemed like an age, the highlight of which was during which was a small race against a furniture truck being like in the film ‘Duel’, we turned into Gosforth and headed to Wast water. The scenenery here is amazing – really dramatic – with the water framed by this huge imposing hill/cliff mountain. We turned left to take a detour to the pub at the end of Wasdale head. The road here is single track running alongside the lake. There are loads of sheep just roaming around which slows you down more than the actual road. Passed a group of bikers coming the other way so if that was you ‘hello’ . The pub itself was nice – food wasn’t cheap at £9 for a microwaved steak and ale pie, but it tasted ok and was certainly ‘hearty’ in portion size . We rested there for an hour taking in the scenery and feeding the pub dog, before setting off for hardknott pass.

https://static.flickr.com/81/249923690_855c0fabdd.jpg

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Dave was a bit concerned about the weight of his bike and the fact that the BMW rear brake is crap. I didn’t realize how worried he was until we stopped at the foot of the pass for him to take a piss! I’ve done hardknott about 15 years ago in an old MG Midget with drum brakes. That was frankly terrifying at times so I was looking forward to tackling it again on a bike with loads of power and great brakes. The bike certainly didn’t struggle in that regard, but it was still quite challenging. There are some weird cambers on the road making it feel as if the bike was trying to throw me off the side, and some of the hairpins required full lock. Imagine the DAS u-turn on 35% incline on a rutted, potholed road where the cambers are all over the place and you’ll get the picture. Daves worry about the weight and having to do hillstarts was unfounded as there were no cars blocking our way, but he said first gear on the big twin was very lumpy at that speed, and his biggest worry was stalling it. Anyway, both bikes got through it unscathed and the down hill stretch was easy after that.

Piss break before the pass (you can just see it in the centre of the pic winding up the hill)

https://static.flickr.com/92/249923699_d942ce81ee.jpg

View from the top, looking back

https://static.flickr.com/85/249925316_cf7b0caae6.jpg

Dave on the GS at the top - Thinks he's just ridden the Road of Bones

https://static.flickr.com/85/249925317_117c85ca0c.jpg


We pushed on to ambleside, conscious of time as it was about 4.30 by now and we wanted to be home before dark (and before our wives started nagging ) and kept going aiming to get to Devils Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale for a quick coffee. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. From Windermere onwards it started raining, then got heavier and heavier. We had a good blast – what turned out to be the last of the day – on the dual carriageway after Kendal, again hitting well over 100 which was a good antidote after the speeds on the single track roads we had come off. The rain was relentless though and Devils Bridge wasn’t looking too attractive – nowhere to shelter and no bikes to look at so we pushed on to Giggleswick and stopped in a pub for a coffee. This had been a long stretch, over 2 hours in the saddle, and my arse was killing me lol. A quick 15 minute break and we hit the road for home. The light was starting to go, and coupled with the rain visibility was crap, especially over Blubberhouses on the A59, where we were riding through the low cloads. From there is a 10 mile ride into Harrogate and back home.

All in all a really fantastic day. If we could have spread it over a couple of days I would change the route, take out the north west part of the A595 section. We learned a lot about our bikes - after having a few niggly problems with mine its now given me complete faith in it again. For a 12 year old bike it never missed a beat, started first time every time and handled all the road conditions we chucked at it with aplomb. It was quick when I wanted it to be, but was happy to cruise at low revs and used less that £20 on our 257 mile journey. It was pretty comfy until the last 50 miles, which started to become a chore, although I’m sure the weather didn’t help. Daves beemer was immense, and every time I heard it set off I was reminded of the intro to the ‘Long Way Round’ DVD. I was surprised though that he was as uncomfy as me at the end of the trip. The seat obviously isn’t as comfy as the sculptured shape suggests. All in all though I’m happier with the CBR than I would be with the GS I think, purely down to riding position. I do fancy a litre bike next year though, and it may well be a twin. Perhaps an SV1000 or maybe an RSV. But in the meantime the little CBR is a great allround bike. Could just do with another couple of nice weekends before the end of the year  This was also the first trip with the TomTom rider and it was great. Took the stress out of a fairly tight time schedule - we couldnt afford too many wrong turns, and the batter lasted all the way until Devils bridge - over 6 hours of riding.

If anyones interested in trying the route, or portions of it, I've saved it in the AA site here, although as I say we changed it to avoid the A1:

https://tinyurl.com/q4tsw

[airpig]

Great write-up! Would love to do the lakes myself (on the same bike as yours!) but might have to wait until next year.

Don't know about you but even after about 30 mins of "cruising" my wrists start to ache. You did well m8!!
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Bikes are an addiction for which there's no rehab!!

[Blackrhythms]

Very nicely written! I could almost imagine being there!!
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[lee125]

cool write up and nice pics, hey im from kendal they are some nice roads
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cbt passed 01/07/2006 bike:92 dt 125 and 96 honda cr 250
theory:PASSED! A2 test:PASSED 08/11/2006 restricted to 33bhp for 2 years

[shaun_04]

Very good write up, and I have to say that Dave's GS looks great.

[_Will_]

Nice, its great riding twisties around some nice scenery.
Hows it feel gettin some miles under your belt
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Past -Honda qr50 | 2004 Peugeot Tkr s 50| | 1996 Yamaha XJ600s Diversion|

[airpig]

Hey Sagalout, you didn't happen to be at Squires yesterday, did you? Saw a couple of bikes with the same paintjob but wasn't sure if yours was one of them.

An old fella was on one!!
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Bikes are an addiction for which there's no rehab!!

[sagalout]

no mate, although Dave was there on the GS with his mrs. Think they were there about 1pm.

I'm not that old either lol (well thats what i keep telling myself!) at 33

Dave gets a real complex about the average age of GS riders haha. Every one we see is in their 50's, usually with a beard

[airpig]

Where's your usual haunt then?
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Bikes are an addiction for which there's no rehab!!

[airpig]

Was quite surprised on Sunday. I saw another 4 cbr's like ours but wasn't too sure of the years. Am always envious when I see another with complete fairings and not a patchwork quilt like mine!!!
____________________
Bikes are an addiction for which there's no rehab!!

[sagalout]

[Keen]

[ISLAND GIRL]