Monthly Archives: April 2016

It was that sort of day – brilliant sunshine from start to finish but still a nip in the air leading me to overdress as usual.

I set out on the Ten around noon with thoughts of heading by Sam-y-ling Tibetan Monastry to St Mary’s Loch but the thought of spending a few miles on busy trunk routes over to Lockerbie before things would get interesting didn’t appeal.

A circuit in Dumfries & Galloway got the nod and my first stop was by the church in St John’s Town of Dalry —

A park bench in the sun down the tree lined approach lane was no hardship and I soon removed the winter lining from my jacket —

as I took in the view across the valley where the flood banks were being rebuilt after serious flooding earlier this year—

A fine run over the hills on the Ayr road took me to Dalmellington where I hung a left onto the hill road to the picturesque little village of Straiton to find the fiesty local population are still fighting a tough battle against the ‘powers that be’ and the current penchant for Wind Farms on every bit of surrounding hillside that will catch a breeze.

No worries – the Buck cafe is still holding out and I was more than ready for tea and a scone at the pavement table in the sun when I reached there —

Suitably primed I caught the thirty mile hill road down to GlenTrool —

where I picked up the main Girvan road to Newton Stewart for a splash of gas —

A lovely way to spend a few hours on a special spring afternoon 🙂

Michelin tyres have usually been my first choice no matter which bike I have been riding and their Anakee 3 hoops are currently fitted to my ’09 660 Tenere —

I have tried other makes and been impressed with the Metzler Tourance but the wear pattern on the Metzler doesn’t rock my boat so last time round I fitted Anakee’s front and rear —

My friends at Oponeo offered me a choice of ‘soft’ or ‘hard’. Being a tightwad I decided to sacrifice some grip in favour of better wear. That front has had a bit of hammer on our grippy sou-west roads over the past two years and – unlike some – it is still wearing evenly.

It’s fairly easy to get out to the tyre walls front and rear and both have been known to let go at times when on her side.

Just little buttock clinchers so far – nothing too dramatic – unless we get on to the slimy stuff like we did today where the cleats fill up with mud and things can get a bit ‘iffy’ —

She stayed sticky side down on wet/dry and gravel washed roads as we ran up by Loch Ken and over to Clatteringshaws —

with occasional blinks of blue skies and sunshine helping to lift the mood —

but there was the occasional grey cloud threatening —

Thankfully the rain stayed away and some rock strewn forest roads took the Ten and I over to the picnic spot I was hoping to check out on the lochside in brilliant sunshine —

Don’t be fooled by the grass underfoot.for she was very greasy on top of the ground as we slid in there and mild enough to bud the catkins on the willows by the lochside —

All too soon a glimpse of darker skies to the north —

was enough to see this lightweight saddle up once more and haul ass out of there 🙂