From Wales to Lincolnshire

Sunset to Sunrise tour 2022

Tallulah

You may remembera couple of years ago I signed up with Bikers 4 Macmillan to do a charity ride from Anglesea at the far western tip of Wales to Skegness on the east coast on or near to the longest day of the year. Well the ride happened this year having been cancelled for the past two years due to Covid.

I left home, heading for North Wales on Thursday 23rd June after packing the bike with my newly obtained Triumph pannier inner bags. Clothes in one, spare gloves & shoes in the other, while the top box carried all those bits & pieces that you usually pack just in case. That included a flask of water, another flask of hot water, a travel mug and a small pot of instant coffee. A first aid kit, some cable ties, a side stand puck, waterproof winter gloves and my disc lock. 

My first stop for fuel was around 120 miles in to the journey. I thought I'd better top the tank before hitting the M6 motorway as I suspected fuel prices were going to be the usual rip off. Well, I stopped at services for coffee & cake at Keele services and as suspected, the price of E10 petrol was 205.9p per litre. Was a bit pissed off as the garage I stopped at before getting on to the motorway was 206.9, and garages continually state they're not profiteering.

Day 2 saw me riding around the foothills of Snowden before heading off to Bangor to meet my parents for lunch (they were on holiday). A good lunch in a really friendly pub, then it was off again to overnight stop 2, in a place called Valley around 5 miles from Holyhead.

Day 3 was a somewhat different day. First stop was in Morrisons Holyhead for breakfast & coffee with a handful of other riders. Nothing of note really happened until we left for RSPB South Stack on the tip of Holy Island. Just as we were leaving, one bike failed to start, a Moto Guzzi Norge, which being Italian, decided that the torrential downpour last night, was a good enough excuse to not work. After around an hour trying to trace the fault, eventually the start button was bypassed and the bike started. Not that the starter button was the fault as was discovered later.

So off to South Stack with a tank full of Wales' finest at 194.9p per litre, where we waited... Sunset was 21:50 but as we had to get 97 bikes away to arrive at Segness before sunrise the following morning, a distance of 257 miles (413 km), the first group left around 21:25. Leading the ride was the organiser on his Moto Guzzi Norge, yes the one that had been hastily repaired earlier that day. 1 mile in to the ride we pulled over - there was a Moto Guzzi Norge that was suddenly no longer able to lead us anywhere. There had been a catastrophic failure of electrickery andf the bike ground to a halt. It seems that by bypassing the start switch, we'd not fixed it. From what I can gather, and I haven't had the full story yet, the bike wouldn't start because of the charging cirduit wasn't working. 

As he rode along the main road out of Holyhead, the lights failed, the engine management light came on and pretty much everything else reliant on electric went off.

 A quick change to the lead bike & we set off again. Around 20 minutes in to the ride the heavens opened but luckily it had stopped raining within 15 - 20 minutes & the rest of the ride was dry, if a little cold. We had three fuel stops, Flint, Uttoxeter and Lincoln where we stopped for around 30 minutes each time Tallulah filled up with fuel at Uttoxeter, I filled up with coffee at all the stops.

Of the 97 bikes that set off, 95 arrived in Skegness at around 04:15 on Sunday morning. Two bikes didn't make it, the Moto Guzzi who was eventually rescued by the RAC at 10:36 on Sunday, yes 13 hours later, the other was a bike drop at Uttoxeter. Battered & bruised, the rider decided to go home instead of carrying on.

At Skegness after a group photo overlooking the sea, it was off to a community hall for tea/coffee & a bacon roll all donated by local businesses for which we were asked to donate £1.50 towards Macmillan. After a 50 minute rest, oit was back on Tallulah and the final 40 mile ride home.

Tallulah performed as she should, no hint of misbehaving. Even the panniers & topbox stayed dry - actually there was one smapp issue, the front left indicator stopped working. A quick look at the first stop and it turned out to be the bullet connector had come loose. 2 minutes later she was all fixed.

We raised over £11,000 and there's still money comming in. As for Tallulah, it's the first time I've ridden her any real distance over a couple fo days. I rode her 160 miles home when I first got her & have had a couple of hundred mile days, but never any overnight stops, so I think I may have to plan in a few more at some point.

Tallulah is now resting in the garage, not washed, just unpacked with the panniers & topbox removed. As I'm going away for a few days while I have time off work, she's also had her chain put around her rear wheel & has been covered up. She had the last word though, she showed her displeasure at being left behind when I brushed past her to put a lock on Tabitha, I caught my leg on her footpeg and even through the cover and my trousers, the Tiger attacked & took a chunk out of my leg