Anderton Boat Lift

 

This will not be a long report – or contain any Ride pictures – as you will see why later. (Rob's put some pictures of the Boat Lift in so you've got something to look at.)

The weather was, for the time of year, quite pleasant when I set off and I arrived at the meeting point in plenty of time. Soon after, Mark, Peter, Richard and Derek turned up, so we were a merry band of 5 setting of in the balmy (OK, 8c) morning.

The ride over was great – the route is one I will do again – apart from the odd hesitation from my bike. I initially thought it was due to a sensitive throttle, but it got worse until, after about 30 miles, it just cut out. Oops! Not what we needed. It started straight away and we carried on – for about 100 yards, then cut out again. So we had a conflab and decided to abort the mission. I was 36 miles from home and I thought I’d give it a go.

So, sat-nav reprogrammed, I set off with Richard agreeing to follow me home, just in case (what a nice person he is!). Apart from two occasions when it cut out and re-started straight away – both times when I was speaking on the radio (was this a clue???) – the journey home was uneventful. The heavens opened as we hit the M60 near Rochdale, but we got back OK.

After a brew and some pumpkin and apple pie, Richard set off for home and I went into the garage to do battle. I thought it might be something to do with my wiring, so, after checking the rectifier output (14v at 1500 rpm, so no issues there), I pulled it all out and redid the lot – Autocom, heated jacket and spares for the heated grips now all go through a relay and a fuse box. A quick ride showed all seemed OK – but a full ride will be the acid test!!!

So, that’s the last official ride of this year. We may have an Adhoc one before Christmas, but it depends on the weather.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

Alan.

 

Alan's Report