First camping trip

After the successful day trip to Hooton Show,  I'd been itching to venture a little bit further to build up a bit more confidence. An opportunity came up to grab a quick night away and I booked a campsite in North Wales at short notice. It was also a great opportunity to try out some new bike luggage and camping equipment that I had been gathering.

Nothing had been done to Gloria since the previous outing, so I was fully prepared to still be suffering from some rough running at low to medium revs but thought she'd probably be OK on open roads.

The bike luggage was an old Oxford tank bag that my son had re-donated back to me, after I had given it to him when I sold my last bike several years ago; an old work duffel bag for the tent etc and some old but unused Oxford panniers that I got off EBay, specifically because I thought they'd match the era and style of the bike.

All packed up and ready to go, I swung a leg over and jumped on the kick start - nothing! After lots of sweaty effort I pulled the spark plugs and unbelievably had another dead plug. Either the quality of NGK plugs is rubbish now (that's 2 duff ones I've had) or there is something happening that is killing them. However, all of the ignition side is new now so I'm fairly confident it's not the latter. Once a fresh plug was swapped in, she started first kick.

I subsequently read that it is not uncommon to get duff NGK plugs, which is not very helpful, so now make sure I have a spare with me.

I'd planned a route out to avoid the motorway like A55, so made my way through Chester and back out past the Airbus factory at Saltney and was soon onto the lovely roads up towards Llandegla. I crossed Llandegla Moors and then headed across the Nant-y-Garth pass towards Ruthin before taking a quiet road off towards my campsite for the night at Cefn Coch. I can highly recommend Clywdian Holidays site - just a small camping field for about 5 tents but amazingly good facilities, including a really well equipped camp kitchen if you are travelling light.

I quickly pitched my new tent - a Vaude Terratrio 2P which I had got as a retirement gift from my very generous ex-colleagues. A really versatile and easy to erect tent - only my second time after trying it out in the garden, but all was up and ready in less than 15 mins.

Gloria performed fine, apart from the rough low speed running I was expecting, and I am getting used to having interesting conversations with old bikers each time I stop! Most are very complimentary about Gloria's fine lines, which seem to be better appreciated now than when she was first around.

I had been intending to cook at the site, but was getting harrased by a bratty child (with an annoyingly unconcerned parent) from an adjoining tent, so I wandered up to the local pub half an hour or so away for fish and chips and a pint and then turned in after watching the sunset.

The weather was fine again the next morning and I got to try out more retirement / 60th birthday gifts - this time from my 2 sons. A jet boil stove system and ground coffee press meant that I had a fine cup of coffee and muesli for breakfast.

It warmed quickly in the sun, so everything was nice and dry as I packed up and reloaded the bike. Gloria's "loaded up" handling had been great on the journey out and was to get better and better today, as I got more used to riding her.

For the journey back, I mad my way onto one of my favourite bits of road; into Ruthin, then across to Denbigh before heading back across to Mold - beautiful flowing A roads through Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. I have ridden that route many times on much bigger bikes but never enjoyed the riding so much as on the 250. No pressure to perform or go at any great pace, so you could just focus on enjoying the journey.

The low speed fuelling didn't seem to be as big an issue today, but she is still not right so more work to be done there. 

From Mold, there was no simple way to avoid using the A55 so I sat back and cruised it at 55 and was soon back home. All told I had only done about 70 miles, but it was an important step in building up confidence - I had set out accepting that I may need recovering as a worst case, but actually I quickly felt that Gloria would get me home one way or another!

I've now got a bit of a list of further work to do to get her running really nice, but have gained some lovely happy memories of this first camping trip.