Day 10, sunbeams, more punctures and Lyme Regis

 Today I had arranged to meet someone from the Sunbeam club in Bridport and ride with him to Lyme Regis. I arrived early into Bridport and had a good look around at the market and all the antique stalls and had a delicious second breakfast/lunch. When David turned up on his model 6 he let me know about a friend if his with a stall in the market who may have a tiny spanner for adjusting my points and sure enough I was able to purchase exactly the right thing for 50p. As we left Bridport my bike was struggling up one of the hills and eventually gave up, losing compression. After sitting and letting it cool for a bit and squirting some WD40 into the bore, magically compression was restored and we were able to head on to Lyme Regis. Steep hills into Lyme Regis but no real trouble and we happened to bump into someone who used to work at Marston Sunbeam outside the lifeboat station. We then departed and the bike performed admirably up the steep hills. When we were enjoying the lovely roads around Branscombe I unfortunately had another puncture! Luckily there was a nearby pub where I was able to patch a tube and borrow a pump to get the tyre back up to pressure before having a well deserved pint. We made it up to the top of the next hill before I said goodby to David and his Sunbeam and I headed to the night’s accommodation.

A happy spanner purchase 


Lyme Regis lifeboat station 


The gentleman who worked at Marston Sunbeam


My repair 

All done!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Motorbike shakedown testing

Image
 To get ready for this tour I have been going on a few rides in the last weeks in order to find any major issues with the bike that crop up on the tour. I decided to make my first trip to Mersea island to visit the lifeboat station at West Mersea. Arguably a slightly too strenuous trip for a shakedown ride at about 110 miles for a round trip. Having only done small rides around the local countryside and only replacing small parts such as the decrepit original leather seat that was on the bike.  One part that was causing trouble on my small test rides was that the clutch plates would slip when kickstarted. This was 'solved' by tightening the clutch spring which did somewhat decrease the clutch slip. The bike performed admirably all the way to Mersea with no issues and one stop to fill up on fuel. This route also had the benefit of taking in the lovely (and flat) East Anglian countryside on the way. A view of the estuary from West Mersea However when I decided to head off the cl...
Read more

Day 1 (Blowout in Barnet)

Image
 On the first day I planned to leave at 14:30 in order to take in Teddington and Chiswick lifeboat stations with plenty of time to reach my cousin before dark.  All was going smoothly until, going down Barnet high street I heard a loud pop and quickly realised my rear tyre had blown out. I pulled up outside a cinema and hopped off to assess the damage. A slightly deflated tyre This was a breakdown I had been dreading as there was absolutely no reason I couldn’t fix the issue myself and I expected it to be an absolute pain to fix. Fortunately the wheel came out and the tyre was off without putting up a fight, unlike fitting the fresh tyres in the first place, and I was able to look at fixing the puncture. The hole in the inner tube The bead had completely separated from the tyre Unfortunately it was wasn’t going to be an easy fix, luckily I wasn’t far from home and my Dad was able to zoom down on his Moto Guzzi with the old original Dunlop tyre and a fresh inner tube. My saviou...
Read more

Day 2. Tower to Sheerness (6/4/22)

Image
 The petrol station I aimed for this morning was shut so soon found myself out of fuel in London. Luckily the nearest petrol station was only a ten minute walk and mostly down hill. I also bumped into a friend so they kept me company on my way over. The entrance to Tower RNLI Now that I was back on the road proper, I quickly arrived at Tower lifeboat station. Slightly confused to find it located at Windsor bridge though! A slightly more interesting pic with a view in the background  Next on the list is Gravesend lifeboat station. I turned up just in time to see the boat head out on call which was very lucky. The lifeboat station here is located at the end of the second oldest cast iron pier in the world. The oldest cast iron pier is next door, 100 metres up river! Luckily there was still someone in the station and they were able to open up and show me around quickly. A view of the pier from the side And outside the pier entrance  I then pootled on to the Isle of Sheppey j...
Read more