Just got back from a great 4 day Easter weekend in the Scottish Borders, with Micky and 25 others......................many UKGSERS (so please feel free to add your words and pics here too
)
We stayed in Hawick at the Mansfield House Hotel, which we can throughly recommend with great hospitality, food and rooms
It made a very central base for the weekend
Travelling up on Friday, turned out to be very wet and with heavy snow drifts covering much of Teesdale and Weardale, with 5' drifts in places - but all roads were ploughed and clear, but it was cold
After Kielder and approaching Newcastleton in heavy rain, I was having a bad time and my bike felt crap - we pulled up in Newcastleton and John Spriggs noted my front tyre was virtually flat with only about 5 psi. Luckily we found a garage nearby and I pumped it up to 60 psi to try and make a dash to the hotel (plugging wasn't an option because the XChallenge has tubes)
The tyre held and I made it, glad to be there - to somewhere dry
Turned out to be a slow puncture, so just kept putting in 60 psi each day and all held for 650 miles - the puncture didn't slow me down much though
Saturday dawned showery and the 3 of us on 650's had a ride with some others around Dumfries and Galloway area covering about 200 odd miles - pic 1 is at Sweethearts Abbey @ New Abbey
Sunday - I led a ride with Micky and Sue, plus Gary and firstly we went over to St Mary's Loch, near Megget and it is one of my favourite spots in the UK
Pic 2 is Micky at the cafe and Pic 3 is St Mary's Loch
Afterwards we made our way over some great backroads via Lauder to Duns for lunch and a visit to the Jim Clark Room @ Duns, followed by a blast via Kelso and Yetholm back to Hawick
Today the forecast was looking wet, but we managed a dry run over Kielder, Weardale and Teesdale, then back over the Dales
Pic 4 is Micky last night at Dinner - thanks for a great weekend
I covered 652 miles on the XChallenge, despite a slow front puncture and used less than 10 gallons of fuel, so aeverage 66 mpg on the 650cc bike - very frugal and for those minor roads the XChallenge was the right choice, although the seat is an instrument of torture
)We stayed in Hawick at the Mansfield House Hotel, which we can throughly recommend with great hospitality, food and rooms
It made a very central base for the weekend
Travelling up on Friday, turned out to be very wet and with heavy snow drifts covering much of Teesdale and Weardale, with 5' drifts in places - but all roads were ploughed and clear, but it was cold
After Kielder and approaching Newcastleton in heavy rain, I was having a bad time and my bike felt crap - we pulled up in Newcastleton and John Spriggs noted my front tyre was virtually flat with only about 5 psi. Luckily we found a garage nearby and I pumped it up to 60 psi to try and make a dash to the hotel (plugging wasn't an option because the XChallenge has tubes)
The tyre held and I made it, glad to be there - to somewhere dry
Turned out to be a slow puncture, so just kept putting in 60 psi each day and all held for 650 miles - the puncture didn't slow me down much though
Saturday dawned showery and the 3 of us on 650's had a ride with some others around Dumfries and Galloway area covering about 200 odd miles - pic 1 is at Sweethearts Abbey @ New Abbey
Sunday - I led a ride with Micky and Sue, plus Gary and firstly we went over to St Mary's Loch, near Megget and it is one of my favourite spots in the UK
Pic 2 is Micky at the cafe and Pic 3 is St Mary's Loch
Afterwards we made our way over some great backroads via Lauder to Duns for lunch and a visit to the Jim Clark Room @ Duns, followed by a blast via Kelso and Yetholm back to Hawick
Today the forecast was looking wet, but we managed a dry run over Kielder, Weardale and Teesdale, then back over the Dales
Pic 4 is Micky last night at Dinner - thanks for a great weekend
I covered 652 miles on the XChallenge, despite a slow front puncture and used less than 10 gallons of fuel, so aeverage 66 mpg on the 650cc bike - very frugal and for those minor roads the XChallenge was the right choice, although the seat is an instrument of torture
)
