Had a ride out today

[nug]

Having not had a decent ride on the Big recently I decided to go exploring. I swapped a nearly new Pirelli MT 21 onto the front to replace my knackered Mitas. Glad I did as I found some pretty slick muddy lanes.
I had a quick look on Goggle erf to find somewhere to go poking around as I always like to have a place of interest to find rather than just riding aimlessly.

My aim was to find a place called Croxton Park which had the crumbling remains of the Duke of Rutlands hunting Lodge. Having seen this link http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/sho...q4eJ8TdWSo I was looking forward to finding the building and artifacts pretty much as seen in the pictures.

   

   

   

I found the place fairly easily via a green lane which had a small & very slippery track off of it which headed down a hill towards the Lodge. Realising it was a dead end I tried to turn round & head back up the hill to a firmer area to park the bike. It was so slippery I really struggled to turn round & was wishing I had somebody with me to help before I ended up with the bike on top of me. In the end I managed to turn & head up the hill a little to park next to a feeding station for the local critters.

   

The Lodge was immediately visible at the gated end of the lane. Unfortunately Sarah Beeny appears to have beat me to it & had started to renovate the property. All the trees had been cleared & scaffolding erected....BUGGER ! Having seen this I decided it wasn't worth trudging through a muddy field to look at skips & rubble.

   

Back on the bike & slipping & sliding back up the lane in the pissing horizontal rain which had been beating on me for the past hour.

Following my dissapointing find I decided to take a random route home on the lesser used roads & managed to take in a few nice green lanes which although very slick, were good fun on the Big.

   

   

After around 3 1/2hrs & approx 100 miles I arrived home rather soggy & covered in crap.....All good

[BigBob]

Looks like an interesting ride you had there mate, and it looks proper muddy as well. Looks like even M21s would struggle with it. Just as well I wasn`t with you, knowing how much I like to dive head first into muddy puddles
I`ve been out for at least an hour every day for the past couple of weeks and have found the roads to be utterly treacherous due to the combination of road salt and wet mud which has turned it into a horrible slime.
Yesterday it was pissing down and had been for quite some time so the roads were just wet, but a least they were predictable. What a delight!
I spent several hours splashing aimlessly through lots of big puddles somewhere in the arsehole of rural Suffolk :D

[nug]

I know what you mean about the slimy roads mate. Ours are shocking round here. The MT21 actually felt great from the outset & totally different to that Mitas front. It was pretty sure footed on the wet tarmac although I don't do anything daft in the wet. I was surprised how good it was on the lanes as well considering the weight (filled up in Grantham about 10 miles away). The mud was not deep but it was so sodden & slippery that I struggled with pulling away thanks to my knackered rear (tyre that is). Bike was loving it & rode as great as ever despite not having much attention since our last OTT. I will treat it to an oil change on the weekend as I have just got a new 20ltr drum of Vauxhall 10/40 for a very good price

[spendango]

Good on you getting out ,the weathers been shite here .We had another biker killed at the weekend after he hit some mud left by a tractor on a wet road and he fell off .26 year old with a 1 year old daughter !! the roads are shit at the minute maybe the biblical rain hitting my house side ways tonight will wash the salt away.Snow forcast for tomorrow hock: atleast i have the wee 4X4

[nug]

Bad news on the death of a young biker Spen. A couple of years back we had a similar incident which happened outside our home. No fault of the weather in this case as it was total rider error. A young family left without a Father & also the neighbours kids witnessed it. I think we had 3 deaths that month in a 2 mile stretch of road ! The standard of driving & riding in my County is shocking ! They call our roads dangerous.....no such thing. No road is dangerous until a human takes a vehicle on it.

We have got crazy rain tonight as well so hopefully it will wash the mud away that all the tractors have been chucking everywhere. I hope don't get any snow as I have sold my 4x4 & have got a 2wd yank pickup with zero traction !