Ulysses

My annual Halloween (birthday) outing yesterday. Joined by Brett this year in his mostly green Jimny Jalapeno. Day trip around Northumberland doing some of the trickier lanes that are unsafe to do solo. Great to see a mate and looks like we timed it well, just before the next lockdown Weather wasn't forecast to be any good, but turned out ok most of the day. We only got wet once, but did have some epic mud to get through in places. Even some pretty tame tracks suddenly become very slippery when its been raining.

A selection of pics from the day (didnt take many pics, but plenty of videos later):

1st lane along the Vallum (ditch/embankment) just below Hadrians Wall with some nice views of the rocky sill ahead

Gloomy skyline


Slaty ford, near Bellingham. A favorite lane with a lovely rock-bed ford to cross


Another near Bellingham, Rede Bridge. A very pretty spot for a photo and a brew


More gloomy skies, but still not persisting down


This pedestrian bridge at one of the fords has seen better days


Rivergreen mill was reported as having a 'Poachers Block', I was advised its an illegal blockage and should be winched out the way, when we got to it someone had already done so. Its an odd looking concrete thing thats means to stop 4x4s basically. Horses, bikes and pedestrians can go through easily, but a car would get hung up on it


Brett got a chance to use his new toy, a Ryobi battery chainsaw. Very effective thing and nice and quiet too


And there were plenty of Dave's favourite signs

And thats all the camera pics. Some from the phone:

Winching time. We had a problem with one of the lanes that needed some recovery for both of us. Turns out we were going the wrong way and the lane was washed away, hence why we couldnt see it. Theres more on this in the videos.


End of the day on Hexham for a refuel and home. Not to bad for me this time at around and hour and a half, but 3hrs for Brett. Dedicated


Today was wash and checkover for damage. Managed to crack one of the lovely wheel arches and also broke the mount for the steering damper. Both easy to fix. Also had a look at brakes as they were poor. No wonder when you see the pad is bare










and now for all the videos:


GOPR3109 Hole farm to Reed bridge


GOPR3110 Reed bridge onwards


GOPR3111 Great Bavington


GOPR3112 Walkmill ford


GOPR3113 Whitridge


GOPR3117 Glead hill 2


GOPR3118 Glead hill 3


GOPR3119 Glead hill 4


GOPR3120 Glead Hill 5


GOPR3121 Glead Hill 6


GOPR3122 Glead Hill 7


GOPR3123 Coldside 1


GOPR3124 Coldside 2


GOPR3125 Coldside 3


GOPR3126 Ogle


GOPR3127 Melton hall


GOPR3128 Chollerford steps 1


GOPR3129 Chollerford steps 2


GOPR3130 Codlaw hill

Missed a great day by the looks of it, yet to see winches needed on a trip....

A two hour lane, that will take some beating....

My gearbox is finally going to get sorted on the 9th. If you want to have a belated birthday celebration when the lockdown is over, I'll have a drive up for a day out.

sniper

Wait until you do Henryd

that looked like a great day

Was a white Christmas for me...









Christmas day outing to visit mam near Alston. Plenty cold enough up there!

and now some time off

so welded in an extra silencer to the zorst pipe. Was OK, but a bit loud for my liking, so decided to fit the extra small can ive had since I bought the rest of the bits. Makes a small difference, but thats all I wanted anyway.



Then on the test run to the shop the starter packed in and wouldnt respond to the usual roadside repair technique (hit it repeatedly). Luckily a kind passer by gave me a push to bump start it

Back home and after a dig about in the garage I managed to find a spare one I'd kept. Substantially easier to swap it with the bike throttle body setup than the standard jimny manifold too. All in and working a treat.



Final thing I didnt take a picture of was a set of new coil packs. It had been stuttering occasionally for a while. After checking all the usual suspects I took a punt on new coils and it seems to be working so far (finger crossed). Now runs really smooth at idle and nice through the revs too.

Next job is a respray of the bottom half of the doors. When I had welded up the holes from plastics I had used the wrong kind of primer, which then started to flake off in big chunks. Ive been coating any bare metal with some red hammerite so at least it doesnt rust away, but I need to take them off and re-do with the right stuff. Need warmer weather for painting though

Jealous!

1) You're out and about... I'm dying to get back out there...
2) You had snow!...

Thanks Dave, Luckily Alston area is (just) within Cumbria, in tier 2,BUT surrounded by Durham, Teesdale and Northumberland, all of which are tier 4 I think. My sis lives in Durham so wasn't able to come up to mam's for Christmas. It was me and mam, and a massive goose all to ourselves

I grew up in the snow line there. I went skiiing as a kid plenty in the winter round Alston area...
check out the webcam at the ski tow (in daylight hours): web108.extendcp.co.uk/yadmoss.co.uk/webcams/

Its webcam is also handy to keep an eye on when weather is suitable for the infamous Tynehead lane, that you have been down the once following me (a BTL lane ). There is also links to hartside pass and howhill webcams that show the road conditions at slightly lower altitudes.

Pile of photo's:

and more...