Do bikers drink Earl Grey and eat Cesar salad?

When you think of bikers I bet, if over a certain age, the image of Easy Rider on Harley Davidsons springs to mind or, hairy blokes wearing denim jackets, club logos emblazoned on the back, leather jeans and racing loudly around stopping only to eat raw steak, drink snakebite and vodka! Those of a younger age might imagine Charley and Ewan in the Long Way Round; but whatever age you are, I bet you don’t imagine bikers drinking Earl Grey tea and eating chicken with a Cesar salad (ok, this was asked for in hushed tones!).  Well, surprise surprise, the latter is what you get with the modern biker. Ok, some of us may be hairy, we do wear jackets with the Wiltshire RoADAR www.wiltshireroadar.co.uk logo on the back though not compulsory, and we do all wear protective clothing.

Recently we took on a genteel ride starting at Sally Pussey’s pub (yes, we still snigger at this too) in Royal Wootton Bassett; heading down to Chippenham to pick up four more bikers via Brinkworth; then to Cheddar Gorge en-route to Weston Super Mare. Eight bikers all told; all on big bikes (Triumph being the most prevalent – just saying).  We did return via the M5 and M4 to get home in time for the rugby – well done the French and Irish! Come on, we must be nice to these guys if we want a good deal after Brexit!

The team meeting in Chippenham

Our first stop for coffee was at New Manor Farm Shop at West Harptree on the Wells Road south of Bath. Hot chocolate topped with cream and marshmallows and a flake! Crikey! Just what I needed – trouble is, no time for a snooze as we sped on our way in blustery gales through sleepy Cheddar gorge to Weston Super Mare.

New Manor Farm – suitably refreshed

Dropping into Cheddar it was hard not to admire the ancient rocks of the gorge which was formed from the melting ice age waters either side of us, almost, it seems, within touching distance. Not just us but many walkers were also out. We made our way slowly through this bustling little village following signs to Weston.

At Weston the tide was out as it nearly always seems to be but we arrived in time for lunch – talk about coincidence! Fish’n’chips! And, guess where the motorbike parking was? Right opposite Winston’s! First time a town planner has got this right!

Winstons fish’n’chips at Weston

This was a nice ride covering some 180 miles all told. The roads varied greatly in terms of size and condition. As did the weather! Wet and windy at times. Mild at others.

Lunch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earl grey and Cesar salad for lunch! Really? Yes.

The route down:

 

 

 

Driving after a stroke – pot noodle engineering!

Last year, I presented a programme on Swindon 105.5 titled “Driving after a stroke” and my guest was Eddie Ruskin.  Eddie suffered a double stroke at the age of 46, yet he has since made an incredible comeback, though not perfect. He became a Gold standard Advanced Driver within a year of his strokes; went onto becoming a Tutor (his first tutee obtained a Gold pass in her test); and also a top notch observer/instructor with the IAM group! I met Eddie at the Wiltshire RoADAR group where we have since become good friends.

As a follow up, I thought it would be a great idea to go and see Eddie at work.

Thursday morning I thought would be a good day to pop along and see Eddie at his business unit just outside Chipping Sodbury. I had to get to Chipping Sodbury and home again via a decent route which means avoiding the motorway at all costs. See even visiting a mate I need to find an interesting route.

Eddie’s company, Dynamic Mouldings Ltd (their logo is on these blog and web pages) has gone from strength to strength making fibre glass mouldings that are challenging to say the least. When others can’t, Eddie can. And he only has the use of one side of his body – an after effect of the strokes.

The team in action!

Housed in a small industrial unit off the A432 near Frampton Cotterell, Eddie is joined by his business partner, Robin Jenkins. Eddie showed me a photo of a motorbike project that they are currently working on for the Discovery channel – I’ve seen the design and it looks fantastic, but I won’t show it here! The motorbike as a work in progress piece is to the right of the picture above and will be complete in the next 10 days or so – hard to believe that’s for sure!  Everything is crafted by hand to incredible detail and accuracy. Old fashioned engineering and true craftsman ship at its finest.

Robin applying his skill to the fibreglass mould

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say coming from an electronics manufacturing background, I am more used to seeing a tidier workplace! But, working in fibreglass is a dusty old business and yes, it gets messy. The team do have plenty of projects on the go and when one is being painted at another unit down the road, they get on with the next project. Some projects, like the one below, take several years to complete.

Not an E-type like I thought it was!

Some projects, such as a dashboard only Eddie and Robin can get right. It took three attempts to achieve this mould which has been used several times to provide the client with new dashboards.

Eddie with a difficult mould

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, so where does the pot noodle engineering come into it? Rather than paying for expensive tins and bottles, the team uses old plastic containers. Could be yoghurt cartons, or pot noodle pots – anything to hold the fibre glass resin. The pot will be thrown away anyway so why not use something that has already been used. That’s good recycling sense!

Dynamic is a good word to use for Eddie. Dynamic by name (business) and dynamic by nature. I was certainly overwhelmed with the enthusiasm both Eddie and Robin have for what they do. My visit was a whirlwind of discovery looking at the variety of projects Dynamic Mouldings are working on – from ambulance ramps, birthing pools, wind mills, lorry panels, old cars to modern futuristic motorbikes. Made my workday look rather dull!

If there was ever a moral to noted this has to be the pick of one of the best. No matter what life throws at you, a double stroke in this case,  just get back up and do what you enjoy doing. If you can’t do that, then find something else to enjoy. Just don’t let life get you down!

As an end note, it was a nice ride through via some of my favourite roads. Coming back via Castle Combe was different though so a new bit of the country explored too!

Total mileage around 78. Plenty of places to stop en-route for tea/coffee/cake.

Chasing the rainbow!

Nothing to do with drugs! Honest!

Went back to the area of a recent walk, in the vicinity of Burford –  Windrush and the Barringtons with my good friend Richard George.

Weather started off nice and sunny, then it chucked it down on the way home. Great! Never mind, made it rather refreshing.

Some nice villages around here; amazing what we miss if we don’t turn off the main roads! Just along from Great Barrington, after the rain, this fantastic rainbow appeared in the field next to us. It was almost touchable, or so it seemed. No gold though!

Gold must be here somewhere!

After going round in circles, we stumbled across Windrush. Another pretty little village with a village triangle next to the church of St Peter I believe.

Windrush and St Peter’s church

Off home, stopping en-route for coffee in Jesse Smith Farm Shop and Coffee House,  http://jessesmith.co.uk/farm-shop-coffee-house/ for a cappuccino in Cirencester.

Only a short ride out, but nice to do! Lots more exploring to be done though – can’t wait for the drier weather.

Map of the route:

Watch out – Tiger loose in Oxfordshire!

And north Wiltshire too. Ok, so it’s a Triumph Tiger! Had you worried though.

After visiting my Dad in hospital, I decided on a long way home from Swindon and thought a trip to Uffington White Horse was called for.

Tiger by the Uffington White Horse

The route went up through Wanborough, straight to Hinton Parva, Bishopstone, Idstone, Ashbury, finally turning back down to Woolstone following signs for Shrivenham and then Highworth. From Highworth its back to the A419 and turning right down the hill all the way home!

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

“The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m (360 ft) long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington (in the county of Oxfordshire, historically Berkshire), some 8 km (5 mi) south of the town of Faringdon and a similar distance west of the town of Wantage; or 2.5 km (1.6 mi) south of Uffington.”

It is from the Bronze Age and around 3,000 years old!  There is an iron age fort up there too. Worth a walk round, especially on a day like today. The views are amazing! You can see all the way to Wales!

We stopped  en-route to take a snap by Westmill Wind Farm and Solar Park. Five windmills all told, no noise to be heard so not sure what the fuss is all about – ok they don’t enhance the scenery I agree, but……

Westmill Wind Farm & Solar Park

Nice warm-ish day of around 10degs, but gusty at times. Sun was out so I felt great!

This ride is a nice little ride, some of the roads are quite narrow and have grit down the middle. They are really ancient tracks with tarmac so be warned! There was mud in places from the local farmyards which made for a slippery patch every now and then. But, I think I’m lucky to live so close by to some wonderful scenery. We take it all for granted don’t we!

The route we took:

Happy days!  Just thinking about some of the place names, such as Idstone – I now need to know where that name came from!