Trev's Motorcycle Travels

Dorset County; October 2020

Gallery

White Mill

Hartland Moor

Lulworth Castle

Magnox

Ringstead Bay

Portland Castle

Swannery

Limekiln

Poor Barrows

Eggardon Hill

Wootton Fitzpaine

Lambert Castle

Pilsdon Pen

Evershot

Sherborne

Smith Arms

Maiden Castle

Woodsford

RAF Warmwell

Culpepper's

Milton Abbey

Okeford Hill

Fontwell Down

Larmer Tree

Crichel House

Another Ride Around Dorset

For obvious reasons my motorcycling has been a bit curtailed this year. The Blackbird is in the garage SORN'd and the CB1000F 'Big One' will follow shortly at the end of September with only a measely 500 miles added to it this year. The Big One is normally my first choice for May's Welsh National Rally but of course that didn't happen. Shame really as I had been doing that rally every year since 2004. It's my favourite rally so looking forward to doing it on the Big One next year.

It goes without saying that I like doing scatter rallies so I decided to come up with one of my own just for me. Another Dorset county ride through 25 locations. It didn't matter that I had done a Dorset county ride before. I just wanted some ride objectives and, in any case, this set of locations were different to the previous set.

With the help of Google and its Maps I came up with 25 suitable Dorset locations. Locations I could ride to and take a photo without too much trouble. I let MS AutoRoute 2013 optimise my route through the 25 locations. (Yes, I'm still using it because it's good and our road system doesn't change much.) It came up with a clockwise 'W' shaped route of around 220 miles. The initial stage of the route had me skirting the coast in an East to West direction. The roads were very busy especially around Weymouth and Bridport (where I took a shortcut through Bridport past Palmers Brewery). At Ringstead Bay there were great views of Weymouth Bay and the cruise liners going nowhere because of Covid-19.

The ride from Abbotsbury to Eggardon Hill was nice. Great view of Eggardon Hill Fort. However, despite the rain at the Dorset/Devon border, the more enjoyable part of the route was from Wootton Fitzpaine to home. Some nice roads, some new and some old favourites. Shame some idiots have pinched the signpost for Culpepper's Dish. I left home with my flask of tea around 9:15 am and finished around 6:45 pm with twilight fast aproaching. With a few diversions including a fill-up at Axminster I reckon I did around 250 miles. The Tracer went very well, although the clutch is taking a bit of getting used to as I pull away. Slipper clutch, traction control, riding modes? My latest accessory, a SW Motech tank bag, is proving very useful. I enjoyed the ride but having reached the grand old age of 65 and being a bit out of practice I must admit to feeling a bit tired when I got back home.