Taking a few days near Bamburgh in Northumberland. There is a really vile, cold east wind which chills you to the bone even when you are very well wrapped up.

 

 

 

 

Taking a few days near Bamburgh in Northumberland. There is a really vile, cold east wind which chills you to the bone even when you are very well wrapped up.

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="62041]62041[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

Any cod about?

Any cod about?

If there are, no one is bothering them. All the fishing boats are tied up in the inner harbour where the water is calm.

We have spent most of the day in the cottage after a freezing horrible, walk along the beach, and a walk down from North Sunderland to the shops for food. Easterly winds on this coast at this time of year bring pretty horrible weather.

 

Stunning weather the last few days, and supposedly for some days to come.

 

 

 

 

I've been out on both my bikes today and ridden them about thirty some miles.

 

Bit of a treat for the mid drive bike to be out for the last six months. My go to jump on bike has been the little Argos one since August when i got it, but riding the smooth Specialised with the BBS.01 today, reminded me how good it is.

Stunning weather the last few days, and supposedly for some days to come.

 

[ATTACH=full]62658[/ATTACH]

 

 

[ATTACH=full]62659[/ATTACH]

 

I've been out on both my bikes today and ridden them about thirty some miles.

 

Bit of a treat for the mid drive bike to be out for the last six months. My go to jump on bike has been the little Argos one since August when i got it, but riding the smooth Specialised with the BBS.01 today, reminded me how good it is.

Do you go faster if you ride two bikes? Which one goes on top, or do they take it in turns?

Been walking in what is just about the most remote part of Kielder Forest today. I took my French niece here last summer and thought I should take my partner since it is about twenty-five years since we were in this spot together. It is a hard walk these days with several miles of wild, trackless walking, but very satisfying to do it - and on such a nice day it was fantastic. There was no sound except the sounds of nature and our footsteps, as we crossed bogs, hills, felled woodland scrub and some on forestry roads which were like the height of luxury in comparison to long grass and tracks through some quite dense woodland.

 

We saw no one the whole day. Every time I have been here since i first found this spot fifty years ago, I have never seen anybody who I didn't bring into the place.

 

I reckon it is maybe the wildest place I know in England.

 

 

 

 

Glad to get home and to make a big chicken curry and have some beers.

Edited September 30, 2025Sep 30 by Tony1951

Nice thread, nice pictures.

 

Love the retro motorbike.

 

Thanks for posting.

Nice thread, nice pictures.

 

Love the retro motorbike.

 

Thanks for posting.

Thanks Waspie. You're welcome. Welcome to the deep North.

Very nice and great to get into the great outdoors.

But forgive me if im wrong, but the pics look slightly off, almost like the colours are a bit faded or washed out.

 

Maybe time to put your box brownie out to pasture

Very nice and great to get into the great outdoors.

But forgive me if im wrong, but the pics look slightly off, almost like the colours are a bit faded or washed out.

 

Maybe time to put your box brownie out to pasture

 

Yes that's right but it isn't a box brownie. It is a galaxy A53 - about maybe 3 years old.

 

I copied the images from whatsapp - maybe that washed it out, or maybe I should do a reset on the camera settings. I was trying to take pictures of aurora recently and was messing about with the settings for night time pictures. Maybe it's that.

 

EDIT:

 

Also I think the recent pictures were taken with some digital zoom on. I am no expert in photography so I don't know if that might wash them out. Not that it matters. They are just snaps of a day out in the wilds, not studio shots.

Edited October 1, 2025Oct 1 by Tony1951

Or maybe AndyBike has just got used to over-processed over-saturated images and wants them all like that?

Or maybe AndyBike has just got used to over-processed over-saturated images and wants them all like that?

I couldn't possibly comment. I was just pleased to be in such a wilderness place, where there was no sound but that of of our footsteps, and the river ,and the birds, and being miles from any other human beings besides ourselves. I didn't think the picture quality was that bad, but i'm just an amateur snapper.

Edited October 2, 2025Oct 2 by Tony1951

Taxed the Royal Enfield last week and have been bimbling about on it in the Tyne Valley and also at the Lake District. Here are some photos starting with this afternoon around my home locale:

 

Steele Rigg - Hadrian's Wall runs along the top of the eighty foot escarpment here.

 

Up on the Stanegate Roman Road

 

 

Borrowdale Valley in the Lake District where I was staying last weekend.

 

 

 

Been out riding the Royal Enfield again this morning. Nine degrees C, but bright with some sunshine. I can't imagine why I have ridden this bike so little since I bought it 2 years ago. It is pretty much brand new and not even run in yet.

 

A couple of weeks ago I did its first service on it myself rather than spend over 200 quid paying someone else to do the first oil and filter change and check and adjust the exhaust and inlet valve clearance. The hardest part of the job was getting the tank off so I could get at the valves. Modern bikes have electrics and several pipes to the petrol tank and some of them really didn't want to come off. All done now though and running as sweet as a nut.

 

I thought I should take advantage of the nice bright, chilly weather, and rode the Argos down to my partner's place where I keep my motorbikes in her garage and got out the Royal Enfield for a ride around. She wasn't there, but was minding one of her toddler grandsons in Hexham.

 

 

 

Went past Steel Rigg about two miles from her house ,and parked the bike for the classic shot of the Whin Sill escarpment with Hadrian's Wall passing over it. It was chilly sitting on the 350 without pedalling, but it was a joyous thing burbling along the lanes on the nice torquey single cylinder bike. After Steel Rigg, I went west on a very narrow lane and then turned north again to the southern edge of Kielder Forest. It is really Wark Forest down at this point, but the whole Border Forest just blends and the lines on the map are not visible on the ground.

 

 

I didn't go that far all told, just a bit under 20 miles. Too cold even in the bright sunshine. Also the low sun was in my eyes, so on returning, I stabled the motorbike and rode my Argos the two miles back to my own place.

 

The on off power switch on the battery case has given trouble ever since I got the bike. After a period, it always fails to switch off unless I open the case and wobble the barel of the switch. So after having three mini pork pies, and some tomatoes and tea for lunch at 2 pm, I opened the battery case for the third time since I got the bike (always for the same reason) to finally address the issue. It was never the switch, just the way the switch barrel was glued in. It was pulling the barrel over just a bit to one side and somehow this seems to have been stopping the external switch rocker from fully actuating. I peeled off the glue, pushed the switch out of the case slightly, larded up the barrel with Vaseline and pushed it back in. I think this will solve the matter permanently and hopefully, the Vaseline will stop water getting in.

 

Since the switch is upside down pushing up into the bottom of the case, there isn't a great chance of water running up hill into the box. Even so the battery is stuck into the top half of the case about 5 mm above the lower level of the casing and the BMS is on top of that, so I don't think I need worry too much about the BMS failing through water ingress and consequent fire risk from over charging. There is no way water could get up there onto the BMS unless the bike was dumped in a pond.

 

Don't take these points as an indication if dissatisfaction with the Argos purchase. I couldn't be happier with the bargain of a functional, quite nice little electric run about, sold new for £256. It is more than a year old now (bought end July - beginning of August 2024 and it still has an identical range to when it was new. The battery is so gently treated as regards discharge current with a controller which maxes out at 8 amps, that the batteries will last a long time I suspect. Charging is at a max of 2 amps. Battery format is 10sx3p. Capacity is about 8ahrs. No way is that cell pack ever over-worked and hot.

 

The bike has covered some 1500 miles approximately and I have replaced only the plastic (cr@p) pedals with nice quality, aluminium folding ones that I had on another folder, and I replaced the cable brake fittings early on with the Zoomtec cable / hydraulic ones that Saneagle wrote all about in his Argos thread. The pedal replacement was as a result of one snapping, but to be fair, the bike had been dropped onto that pedal when it fell over off its stand while parked on a too steep slope.

 

Nothing else went wrong yet. I'm pretty fond of it. I jump on it with a rucksack to go to the shops, ride along to my partners place, or go on a 25 mile round trip when the weather is nice... That 25 mile idea might be pushing it in winter mind you. Over 10 degrees C and its absolutely safe to go that far. Not so sure how far it would go at zero or below.

Edited December 3, 2025Dec 3 by Tony1951

I go looking for roe deer near my house a few times a week. If I follow the burn which runs past my house for about three quarters of a mile, and then climb up the steep east side of the valley (it is actually a cliff for some of it) I come to a place where all winter long I can find roe deer hiding among the steep woods. It's a bit of a struggle to get there because the track is barely detectable, scattered with big rocks and is very steep and wooded, but it is very rewarding to get close to these wild animals, so iot is worth the effort.

 

The video quality is pretty naf. My phone camera was set on 16Mega pixels and I used digital zoom to fill the frame with the deer. I will try again soon with the camera set on 64 mega pixels and see if I can get a better result.

 

Anyway - saw this the other day. Often I can find four of them at a time.

 

 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Tony1951

Or maybe AndyBike has just got used to over-processed over-saturated images and wants them all like that?

just noticed that bit

 

Nope, and no expert to be sure. I use an old Zenith, mostly in B&W.

100% manual, which is good when filming on top of a hill in a Scottish winter when its too cold for batteries to work.

 

I would however love to get one of these digital slr's, but i know very little about them and there is a lot to choose from.

'Till then im stuck with the Russian brick

just noticed that bit

 

Nope, and no expert to be sure. I use an old Zenith, mostly in B&W.

100% manual, which is good when filming on top of a hill in a Scottish winter when its too cold for batteries to work.

 

I would however love to get one of these digital slr's, but i know very little about them and there is a lot to choose from.

'Till then im stuck with the Russian brick

 

I'm surprised you can still get the film.

 

My dad was a great camera fan and he had one or two Zenith cameras. . If you thought those keilder photos were poor quality - you'll really hate themovie of the roe deer.

 

I have reconfigured the camera to run its full resolution. The pictures might get better, but there won't be any digital zoom, so subjects like that one will look rather smaller.

just noticed that bit

 

Nope, and no expert to be sure. I use an old Zenith, mostly in B&W.

100% manual, which is good when filming on top of a hill in a Scottish winter when its too cold for batteries to work.

 

I would however love to get one of these digital slr's, but i know very little about them and there is a lot to choose from.

'Till then im stuck with the Russian brick

 

Just looked at teh prices of the digital slrs!

 

Bloody hell - that's another extravagance I won't be going for. You'll all just have to put up with my cr ap camera phone pictures.

 

https://amateurphotographer.com/buying-advice/which-are-the-best-dslrs-you-can-buy/

More video of Roe Deer along the Haltwhistle Burn

 

 

I got myself into a bit of a pickle yesterday scrambling along the top of a hundred foot high river cliff along the Haltwhistle Burn trying to film roe deer with my phone. I should probably try and get a proper camera to do this, but being tight, I have kept on with my mid range Android phone camera.

 

I have a much safer way of getting to where the deer are, and normally use it. At the best of times, the route is steep and challenging to get up there, but yesterday, I randomly went a different way through the woods and up to where the deer hang out.

 

At one point I was on a five foot wide wooded ledge, about a hundred feet above the river. It wasn't even flat and I was struggling through scrubby bushes, many of which were rotten when I used them for hand holds. They snapped very easily.

 

At one point my monocular telescope got snagged on a branch, and fell off the lanyard it was attached to and it rolled towards the edge of the cliff... Fortunately it didn't go far and sitting on my arse, I slithered down and recovered it, cursing my stupidity in getting into this kind of mess on my seventy-fifth birthday.

 

The bottom of the cliff - a hundred feet below where I was.

 

 

So later in this debacle. I looked ahead and saw three deer about forty five yards off, just standing and staring. One of then moved out of shot pretty much instantly, but two does stayed around and I took a number of clips. They looked MUCH better through my telescope, through which I could see every detail. They filled the view and were exquisitely visible, but all I can share is the phone camera stuff. Here is one clip.

 

 

I love doing this, partly for the physical challenge of getting up there and partly for the fun of getting near to wild things like these deer.

 

 

Edited March 12Mar 12 by Tony1951