August FJ tour (Scotland and the North of England)

[Millietant]

Another nice little holiday trip on the old FJ 1200.

5 days and just under 1,500 miles from the Midlands up to my home area in the North of England and the Scottish Borders with my oldest biking friend Kim, on his FJR1300 and his 2 sons (Dan and Lee) on their Yamaha FZ1 and BMW GS 1200.

Our daily rides took us into Teesdale, Weardale, Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Cumbria, Durham and North Yorkshire.

After meeting up near Sheffield, we headed north to Scotland via Barnard Castle, Stanhope and Derwent Reservoir, finishing up near Hawick in the Scottish Borders, where we made our base for the trip in a cottage owned by another long-term biking friend. After my 350+ mile ride, the day ended with a BBQ dinner outside in the warm evening sun, followed by a few beers and playing pool in the games room util midnight.

Day 2, we explored the Kielder Forest National Park, the Northumberland Coastal Route, Holy Island, the Cheviots  (a small mountain range) and from Stow to Hawick on the beautiful A7. Fortunately, I'd checked the coastal tide times beforehand and planned our route so that we managed to make the crossing to and from Holy Island during the low-tide period, when the causeway to get on and off the island is not flooded to around a 6ft depth. Unfortunately for Lee (on the BMW), he found that carrying 2 bottles of cider in his top box around bumpy, twisty, country lanes for over 150 miles, resulted in 2 half bottles of cider and the rest of it sloshing around in his top box, soaking everything else that was in there  . Another BBQ dinner in the sun, a few more beers and another round of pool until midnight left us all shattered and made for a less than early start the following morning !

Day 3, we took a run back north on the A7 to Edinburgh, before turning back south cross-country to Innerleithen and Peebles, heading west/south-west into Dumfries & Galloway along the glorius, twisty, smooth A72 and then southeast meandering to Moffat, where we turned east along the A708 St Mary's Loch "rollercoaster" to Selkirk and back to Hawick. Back in Hawick, we decided to pick up a Chinese takeaway for dinner, which surpringly completed the journey in our top boxes completely unscathed  . Dinner was followed by pool and card games, this time until almost 3am. There was pattern emerging here of later and later daily starts  .


Day 4 saw us heading south west around 10am towards Cumbria (again on the A7, but this time in the opposite direction) for a very scenic ride that ended up taking us along the A689 to The Nook Cafe near Alston, then down through Weardale, Barnard Castle and all around the back roads before heading back to Allendale, Hadrians Wall, Hexham and back up the A68 to Hawick. The day did not go without it's surprises (see later in the tale) and with the late start and the "fun" of the day, we didn't get back to the cottage until 8.30pm. Dinner consisted of left-over Chinese take-away (there was plenty), with a couple of beers and this time, just a movie (James Bond, No Time To Die) - I only made it about 10 mins into the film before I fell asleep in a very comfy armchair, apparently snoring through the remainder of the movie.

The final day saw us checking each of the bikes over for oil level, chain tension, tyre pressures etc, after we'd cleaned up the cottage and taken out the trash. We headed back south down the A6088 via Bonchester Bridge (another stunning roller-coaster of a road) to the popular Scottish Border crossing at Carter Bar, heading onto the A68 for 50 miles south then diverting via Consett to the East Durham coast. Keeping south through Teesside we then followed the "Helmsley TT" route (another section of tight, twisty, hilly...wonderful road) from Stokesley before heading for our lunch break at the top of Sutton Bank (another National Park area with stunning views and a beautiful twisting downhill road back to the rolling countryside south towards Leeds).
 
Not being able to really avoid some of the M1 motorway heading back south meant quite a bit of "filtering" through numerous traffic jams - which made me very glad I was on a bike - before arriving home around 6.30pm, having finished the last day covering around 370 miles.

The old FJ1200 performed flawlessly, covering ground every bit as eloquently as the three much more modern bikes and even returning the best fuel economy.
 
Brilliant weather, great accommodation and great friends made for a memorable trip.

Only 1 bike gave issues - the BMW broke down a couple of times on the 2nd and 3rd days, when the electrics cut out completely, but restarted each time after a bit of cable jiggling and bouncing on the saddle (leading us to believe it was a loose/corroded connector), before finally giving up the ghost completely, miles from anywhere in Weardale on Day 4. Luckily it was at the top of very steep hill, so it was free-wheeled down to the car park of the Pub at the bottom of the hill, where we stripped the bodywork off, determined to find the dodgy cable/connector. A hour of trial and tribulation ended with us finding the battery was at fault (internal part/connection failure), which necessitated a 60 mile round trip by the FJ, as I was the only one who knew where the shop was) to pick up a new battery for it. After fitting, the bike fired up immediately and ran flawlessly for the remainder of the trip.

The BMW's punishment was to be loaded up with three bags of rubbish/trash, duct taped to the luggage boxes at the end of our stay at the cottage, for the 1.5 mile trip down the dirt access road to the trash bins - the FZ1 also carried a bag, mainly because it kept us stopping every 130 miles for fuel .

If nothing else, this trip once again proved that the old FJ can still hold its own with much more modern bikes, decades younger - and yet again, she's been the faithful companion who managed to haul my 65 year old ass around a bunch of roads, at a comfortable speed that the youngsters on their newer bikes struggled to keep up with - and definitely in more comfort  .

Apologies for the bulk of pics following - they're in ascending chronological order through the trip.

[Waiex191]

Dean, you've always got the best stories and pictures - keep them coming!

[Firehawk068]

Looks like a wonderful trip.

It's on my bucket-list to moto-tour around Ireland and Scotland one day...............

[Millietant]

Looks like a wonderful trip.

It's on my bucket-list to moto-tour around Ireland and Scotland one day...............

Let me know if you do ever make it across this way Alan.

[Firehawk068]

Let me know if you do ever make it across this way Alan.

It'll probably be a minute, since it'll have to wait until I'm retired, but I will for sure!