Day 9 Punctures and Weymouth

 I spent the day before today relaxing with a friend and finding a spring to stop my hand oil pump from being sucked into the tank.

When I left the aim of the day was to ride all the way to Exeter however just before I reached Wool I was riding through the lovely countryside felling like a very slow Lawrence of Arabia when I had another blowout. My new tyre had failed in the same way as on the first day and I had to swap over to my spare which I was luckily carrying. Unfortunately my spare tyre had a cracked side wall and wouldn’t stay on the wheel. This left me a little stranded and I had to find a way to get it fixed. Luckily I was meeting a friend in Weymouth who was able to meet me in Wool where I removed the rear wheel and tyre and took it back to Wareham where a tyre shop was able to put in a gaiter to hold the crack together so the tyre would stay on the wheel. I then got the train back to Wool where I put the tyre back on and was able to go to Weymouth. This all took most of the day so that ended up being the only lifeboat station of the day and I stayed with family on Dorchester which was a nice treat.


Weymouth lifeboat station

My makeshift workshop

On the train with my tyres



My oil pump spring


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