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They're a rather elderly pair of Carradice cotton duck front panniers that I bought in the late '90's. It must have been a very short-lived model, 'cause I've never seen another pair and can't find any reference to them online.
Ah right.
I've just ordered some Lomo ones to try.
£12 cheaper as a pair than the single Rhinowalk 6l bag I bought to house my puncture tools.
Lovely pics both of you 🤩
After completing all the within-reach TET I can do without staying out overnight, I took a break from the bike and have been messing around in the sea, catching bass from my Paddleboard and spearing my first fish with a snorkel and pole spear 🤣
Work has gotten a bit more serious too but I really do need to schedule a slot each week even if it’s just doing some skillz sessions around the local Common. Miss the braaaaapage.
👆 You've got an awful lot of green lanes down your way.
Not TET, but loads of routes you could put together.
Here's a few zoomed out.
Oh for sure. That’s what I’ll do over the winter etc
I used to put 100 mile loops together when I had my XT660z back in the day and much of that wasn’t what I now know to be TET .
But for me, half the fun of the TET is following a route someone else has created and being like “oh wow, that comes out there!” about places I thought I knew 😀
I’ve just ordered some Lomo ones to try.
I've not tried those, but I have a couple of duffel bags from Lomo and they're well made so hopefully they'll be good.
On the subject of Rhinowalk stuff, has anybody tried their 'pannier base'?
https://rhinowalk.com/en-gb/collections/moto-bag/products/universal-saddle-bag-mounting-base
Or the similar-pattern panniers?
I've not seen those but they look pretty good if you're not running the standard pannier racks.
I have a pair of medium Lomo panniers which originally I used with the standard pannier rack, but I have since removed that rack as I don't intend to use hard cases and they weigh a ton.
I now have fairly minimal and cheap bag supports from eBay that will work with the Lomo bags.
Better off road too. I like the look of that bag base though. The Rhinowalk bags are pretty nicely made. Actually a fair bit more expensive than Lomo who I've used for years as a kayaker.
Here's my eBay pannier supports.
By the way, I'm joining a ride around the Peak from Buxton Saturday morning with Grims Himalayan Facebook group.
Nice bunch of riders.
Anyone very welcome if they fancied joining. Unlikely to be anything overly gnarly, but it's the Peak, so plenty of rocks. 👍
Returning to the subject of the panniers on my crash bars, I still haven't found any reference to the Carradice ones, but I have found these, which look almost identical save for being made from recycled tarpaulin: https://upsobags.co.uk/product-category/bike-bags/potters-pannier-small/
ETA: And I've just twigged that they share Carradice's address, so that's probably not a coincidence! 🙂
They look good them, although the 'hanging' system definitely looks more suitable for a horizontal rear rack on a bicycle. The crash bars on the Himalayan are kind of all over the shop.
I've been spending too much money lately and have these to go on today 😊
Lomo crash bar bags, an Enfield Accessories gps mount thing and a Quadlock for the blower.
Hopefully it's fairly easy to wire the gps mount in. I plan to piggyback onto the wires for the horn.
Nice one 😎 💼 💼 📱 🧭
The Himalayan ride from Buxton has been cancelled because of the levels of rain and flooding.
Bit of a nightmare as I was halfway there, driving up to a campsite.
Localish one tomorrow then.
The Enfield Accessories gps mount is going to need some modifications unfortunately I think.
With the Quadlock mount on there, plus the vibration dampener thingy on it, my phone is right at the top, maybe slightly higher than the top of the standard screen so not ideal really.
Wiring it in, I had heard that many people will wire a USB port into the horn wiring but I tried that temporarily and couldn't get anything working.
I'm certainly no 12v electrical expert, but surely the horn only gets power when the handlebar switch is pressed, presumably completing the circuit?
Maybe you take the power wire from the horn but earth it to something besides the horn earth? 🤔 Just thinking out loud.
Anyway, I ended up taking a feed from the side light wires inside the headlight shell which felt much neater too. They are switched so only on when the ignition is on plus the USB itself has a little on off switch.
I'll have to fiddle with modifying the bar height later.
Time to get muddy 😊
If you go back to page 10 you can see what I did with the 5 litre bottles in the Lomo bags. It gives them enough rigidity to stop them flapping around when they're empty. Also stops you from having to undo the straps to make room for stuff every time you want to put something in there.
I still really need a Quad Lock, I was hoping for some kind of black Friday sale but maybe I should stop being tight.
I haven't been riding. Originally because of a hip injury that makes it really uncomfortable to sit on the bike but then a few weekends with family obligations. Before you know it the months are stacking up.
I definitely won't be going anywhere this weekend. I'm home alone with junior but also there's floods and closed roads everywhere. It'll be a bit dramatic out there I think.
Yeah, hence why our ride up there was cancelled. Looks pretty terrible. Hope everything is ok for you.
We're fine because we're on a hill but we're really close to some serious damage. Going out for a walk now that it's stopped raining to see what's going on nearby.
Well, that was a good ride out but maybe a little bit too character-building for me today.
I ended up making a route in Warwickshire and into Northamptonshire, down towards Silverstone.
I knew the ground might be a bit challenging here and there what with all the rain we've had and it being generally on the muddy side in middle England, but yeah. I think I was lucky to not get stuck again, and stuck badly.
Started off from home, with some nice lanes around Warwickshire. Muddy fields and cow poo.
Started down this ominous looking section. Lots of heavy grass, flooded ruts and mud.
After about the third one of these...
... I thought, nope. I need to be sensible here. I'm on my own and if I get stuck... I'm on my own.
So I started trying to turn round. Christ it was hard. There were basically 3 really slippy and deep muddy ruts that I was trying to turn the bike around on. It's just sooooo heavy and I was trying to drag the back end over towards me so that I could get it into the hedge, and then hopefully back out where I came from via a few more backs and forwards.
That didn't happen though. I slipped in the rut while I was pulling and the bike fell down, me on my back and the bike on my leg.
I genuinely couldn't pull my leg out. I tried pushing it off me with my free leg, but i just couldn't get any purchase.
I was trying to wiggle my leg in the mud and work it loose but my leg was kind of between the gap in front of the pannier bag and side panel.
I weighed up my options and didn't really have any. Absolutely exhausted and breathing heavily I took my helmet and gloves off and kind of thought, oh shit.
I did more heavy wriggling of my leg, turned over onto my front and pulled as hard as I could. My foot actually started coming out of my boot but eventually I was able to pull it through the muddy edge of the rut and get free, despite quite a painful pressure through my boot.
I'm bloody glad I got those mx boots now!
Sat for a bit, got my breath back and then got the bike up ready to struggle some more.
This photo is after I had turned round. I was between that trench and the one in the photo above it.
I managed to coax it through the middle of that with some momentum and paddling the ground.
Not enjoyable to be honest 😐
Marston Doles
Lovely little tarmac relics that nature was slowly reclaiming.
Railway bridges
This was a ford/river. The trail went round to the right and basically up the river about 100yds.
I didn't know it so had no clue how deep it was and whether there might be any massive 4x4 ruts, plus it had been raining so heavily that it was likely to be deep.
I gave it a miss and went up the raised path on the side.
Next I was into this long section I had done before. It starts off a main road, drops steeply down a hill on a gravelly track before skirting a field edge. This is a section where 4x4s are allowed and so if course it had some pretty horrible ruts.
There was a fairly clean line on the left that went on for ages but it had a tendency to suddenly go deep and gnarly out of nowhere. It's where I had fallen off before during the summer.
I started along it, all going ok, 2nd gear with a nice chilled pace. I was just thinking to myself that I was actually getting much more relaxed and competent in ruts.
Next thing, a big rut appeared and I went down! Picked up again and carried on.
I was choosing to ride the cleaner ground on the left of the main track which seemed much better, although it was a bit too close to the ditch along the side, so I was saying to myself to just chill and whatever you do, DON'T FALL IN THE DITCH!
Yup... I got cross-rutted again, fell left and rolled down the bank right into the flooded ditch!
Doh!
I quickly got out, soaked through my clothes on my left side, phone in pocket a bit soggy.
Got the obligatory photo.
This photo was just after a really horrendous section that I honestly didn't know if I'd make it through. After a lot of hauling and pulling I managed it.
Turned out the next section was just as bad.
My first problem, going through the gate was that I just couldn't leave my bike on its stand to go and shut the gate. Just kept sinking no matter where I put it.
Eventually found a spot where it was sinking slow enough for me to peg it back and shut the gate and get back to the bike at about 45 degrees 😂
This section was more horrible deep muddy ruts with nowhere to go at the sides, only through the worst of it.
I was trying to keep momentum and blasting through but the ruts were really deep and my pegs and gear change kept grounding out.
I got really stuck coming out the other side of one trench. Just couldn't move it. Just got off the bike and it stayed there, supported by the rut on each side.
I tried jamming logs under the wheel but couldn't physically get anything in there as the rut was so deep.
Got to the back of the bike, grabbing the luggage rack and with everything I had i just managed to lift the back end and shove it forward half a foot.
Just enough to start up and give it a bit while pushing.
After that, i was knackered. I'd actually fallen off maybe 2 or 3 other, inconsequential times so was doing a lot of power lifting which was tiring me out no end. I decided after that to just stick to the road and head home. No more claggy shitty lanes today!
Tank showroom at Brackley
Great day out, but not the wisest of rides for me today, on my own with a cold. 😬😂
The Scrambler 400 X is going to be £5595 otr.<br />Not really the same sort of bike is it?<br />Road bike with an off road look, by the look of it.<br /><br />
To an extent, yes, a bit of a green-lane bike. It’s certainly got me interested, especially at that price; the bike shop in town has a Trek e-bike that’s more expensive and that with the price reduced! I’ve never owned a motorbike, although my brother has had them since he was legally allowed to ride them, but I’ve had a liking for off-road styled bikes for donks, basically a mountain bike with an engine that I could ride a lot further and explore the little narrow lanes and BOATs/RUPPS that my neck of the woods has quite a lot of, and which some of the photos here have covered, across Salisbury Plain. I certainly wouldn’t be attempting anything like that last ride, kayak, I physically couldn’t deal with anything like that nowadays, I’d struggle attempting it on my old hooligan hardtail, and that only weighs around 30lb!
I’ll wait and see what sort of lump sum I get when all my pensions are finally glommed together, it would be a fun way of getting out without using the car, being able to take lanes that the car couldn’t handle, without needing a snorkel!
Also, I think it’s just a great looking bike, perfect for pootling around, I’ve no desire to look like a Power Ranger at my age! 🤣
Great write up @kayak23 👌🏻👌🏻 Sounded pretty hellish 🤣🤣👍🏻👍🏻
I sometimes feel like I’ve cheated myself out of ‘fun’ by going for the Voge and Michelin Trackers. Then stuff like your story jogs my memory 🤣
Getting trapped under the bike is one of the very real problems about solo riding that makes it more of an extreme sport than the terrain suggests!
I had it on my XT first time around when I was wearing dealer boots. It took every ounce of strength and determination to get it off of me and was what prompted me to buy the boots I still have.
It’s one of the rare times being a big lad helps maybe as I’m only wrestling something 1.5x my weight rather than 2.5 🤣🤣
Coming out the other end of my 2nd time with the Rona so not riding bicycles this weekend.
Thought I'd knock off a few more pictures from the photo challenge thing I'm doing.
Place in a Poem
Death in Leamington by John Betjeman
Film set location
The classic 1990 arthouse film, Three Men and a Little Lady
They used a country park near me and stuck a phonebox there for a scene in the movie with Tom Selleck
Brewery
Purity Brewery, Alcester, Warwickshire
Village water pump
A little two-spout job.
Kineton, Warwickshire
Nice little ride out for some air.
Stayed well away from any green lanes this time after last weekend! 😂
Jebus. How on earth did they make the tank so completely fugly?
Looks not too bad apart from the tank.
It's enormous but apparently only holds 17 litres, I think because it houses other gubbins underneath.
Screen doesn't look worth bothering with either.
Son#2 might be getting a 450,he likes the tank. 😆 👍
Pretty good ride today with Grims Himalayan group around Gloucestershire.
Wetter than the pocket of an otter but the gravel kept the mud manageable.
I dropped my bike [s] showing off[/s] manoeuvring in difficult terrain and snapped my gear lever.
Luckily someone was carrying a spare, else I'd have had to ride home in 1st!
Some Himalayans and some not Himalayans. (One was a Voge)
Toddington steam railway
Stanway - Riding up one of my favourite mtb descents in the Cotswolds.
The Slaughters
I've been in hibernation for the last few weeks during constant torrential rain, topped off with a family bout of norovirus. I'm in ruins.
But...time to fit new toys. I plan to make a bracket for this USB charger which attaches it to the plate behind the clocks but for now, I have an accessory bar and a clamp so I'm using it until I get it wired up and working properly.
This is what the space behind the headlight looks like. To be honest, I was hoping to see a big obvious red wire which I could splice into but it's a rainbow of multicoloured delights.
This is the feed for the Tripper. I might splice into this. Or, I might remove the tank and go further back for something more substantial. It looks like that's what they've done previously with the heated grips.
Any tips appreciated before I start cutting and burn my bike down.
I might (might) have a rare free weekend coming up and there's a few dry days in the forecast. Not sure what to head for but hopefully I can remember how to ride a bike.
Even if they’ve addressed the flaws with the original- it’s no longer got the classic British bike look 😞
Did it ever look like a Classic British bike?
If you stripped off all the crash bars and screen, it kinda looks like an off-road bike from an alternate timeline where monoshocks developed sometime around early 80's square tank triumphs, but nothing else, and you have to use the monoshock as an excuse to make the subframe/seat that ugly.
I'd still quite like one, but it's been strung up like a Pinata and beaten with all the ugly sticks.
Any tips appreciated before I start cutting and burn my bike down.
Not a tip, but an option perhaps.
I wired my usb port into the side light inside the headlight.
Dead easy. It's a switched wire so only on with the ignition and any splicing you do is nicely weatherproofed inside the headlight shell.
👍
I like that idea, I'll have a look.
I finished installing my accessory socket over the weekend. I've simply connected it straight to the battery (via a fuse) and run the wire along the top of the frame under the tank. That means it's permanently live, of course, but I like having a socket I can connect a charger to without removing the seat.
👆 Has the outlet got an inline switch?
I guess you just need to keep an eye out for if the battery is affected.
Got my bike with me this morning for repairs after snapping my gear lever at the weekend.
The trouble is, is that I don't use my welder enough so I think I hadn't got it set up well, hence the breaking at the weld.
It's just a 'cigarette lighter' style socket, so nothing to provide a drain unless it shorts out. I had the same set up on my old F650 (in that case plugged into the factory-fitted Hella socket down the side of the bike) with no problems. I use a separate USB adapter when charging. Although I've yet to check if that connects reliably with in-use vibration, and I may need to change the mounting angle of the socket if that's a problem.
Great ride over and around the Malverns today.
It is so beautiful round there. Went down so many tiny little roads that I would never in a million years have found myself were it not for the bike.
Some really good lanes there too with some great climbs on the edge of grip and a few fords, one of which that I've done before I declined today as it had a serious flow on it today.
Great day out 😊
Awesome mate 🤩 That looks brilliant.
I’m finding it hard to get motivated to get out on mine in these conditions I must admit.
My Tractor, Land Rover, Buggy and I are constantly wet and muddy at work- so the thought of getting another machine muddy on my day off isn’t mega appealing 🤣
I did start it today and let it warm up. It started on the button which I was most impressed with!
My Tractor, Land Rover, Buggy and I are constantly wet and muddy at work- so the thought of getting another machine muddy on my day off isn’t mega appealing 🤣
I know what you mean. Everything I do seems to involve getting covered in mud at this time of year.
Must get back in the boat! 😂
In an effort to provide some variation to the riding position on longer journeys, I've added engine bars and 'highway pegs':
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eQnPA2VFLwqaJKTX7YWAhkElhQrQhfoK/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eV7IN9onvRaMgZGjosO8d4_kEmNekb4o/view?usp=drive_link
Not test-ridden yet, though. Something for the weekend.
Another addition: Upthread I asked if anybody had tried the Rhinowalk pannier base. No one had, so I've done the decent thing and tested it for you, you lucky things!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ic7x0p3K5pc_oC7uL06Zy89f7QEfAII6/view?usp=drivesdk
I'd say that fits pretty well. Just need to add bags now.
Cracking ride yesterday joining Grims Himalayan Facebook group for day one of their annual Christmas ride.
They are riding from Rhyl to Chepstow over two days following the rough route of Offas Dyke path.
I just joined them for day one, from Rhyl to Knucklas/Knighton as I needed to get home for Sunday.
A bit of a convoluted faff to do it.
I stuck my bike in my van and drove up to Knucklas Friday evening taking about 2.5 hours. I left the van there, and then rode the bike about 1.5 hours in the pitch black on twisty wet roads with a horrible visor that wouldn't stop being misty or greasy or open to clear. Sketchy.
I stayed in a little pub hotel near Llangollen, trudging in with mucky bike gear and Motocross boots. I was too late for dinner and so had a few biscuits from the tea tray in the room 😂
Woke at 5.45am to leave for Rhyl. Too early for breakfast.
Pitch black again and despite cleaning my visor and rubbing in a drop of liquid soap, it was still horrendous. Mostly had to ride the 1.2 hours there with it ajar. Must get a pinlock insert to try 🤔
The sun coming up in Rhyl was beautiful and it gave the tacky amusement arcades of the sea front a certain romance.
Rhyl
Absolutely great ride with some really mixed trails and whoever ordered that weather in is getting a pint bought.
The route
I feel, mighty Rhyl.
Ten bikes starting. All Himalayans apart from one Voge and a CRF250 but I made sure to be unfriendly to them. 😉
1st of one or two gates.
The riding group are a full-English type of group. Not something I'm used to doing on mtb rides I've got to say 😂 We stopped at the Ponderosa cafe on Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen.
This lane is right behind it dropping down the valley. Somewhere in the distance in the photo is a Himalayan.
This trail would have to do until we got a better Offa.
The right line was deep. Turns out the left was waay deeper.
Very nearly made it but got stuck near the end. Feet slightly damp.
The sheep were seemingly oblivious to the watery action unfolding beneath them.
Picking up after a rut-induced off.
The rider had been really ill last week and was still recovering but didn't want to miss it. He had a bit of a coughing fit riding along in a rut, lost his line and down.
Just shows what a fine line it is riding ruts on heavy motorcycles.
Proud to say I was the first and only person to get up this section.
It was quite a steep track and had been absolutely ruined by 4x4s.
If you got into one of the side ruts it was game over.
I managed to sneak onto the central section and just so gently chug my way up, feet down, weight on the rear, trying to find grip until I reached this ditch at the top, lost grip, bike slid out and I dropped it.
After taking a photo, the first thing you must always do, I tried to lift it. This was the first time I've had that I couldn't lift my bike. The position it was in the ditch, and the ground dropping away behind the bike meant I just couldn't get any meaningful force under it.
Luckily there was about 9 people to help if needed😂 Only one was needed in the end.
The track got even worse above. Really deep cross-ditches and massive muddy ruts.
The decision was made to turn tail. There was no way we were getting all ten bikes up there.
I wasn't too overjoyed about having to ride the bike down the main climb rut again. I find downhills much more sketchy on a motorcycle due to the immense weight and shit brakes. But as it was, I just really took it chill and was fine.
After this it was more of the same.
The little tarmac lanes we were going down were nearly worse than the actual off road parts.
Thin ribbons of tarmac each side where cars had been, but each side, mud, mossy green and ditch verges.
One guy actually lost it on one of the road sections. I think he just crept over the edge with his front wheel into the verge. Probably doing 30-40mph.
I didn't see it happen but I was first round the corner in the aftermath.
Luckily he was ok but his foot was trapped under the bike.
Great day out. Might go and give the bike its overdue 6k mile service today, after a jetwash!
Excellent write up & photo's! @kayak23
Hopefully I'll be able to add to this thread soon (got my Himalayan in September but ended up in plaster a couple of days after getting it, wouldn't mind but it wasn't even bike related FFS)
Hopefully I’ll be able to add to this thread soon (got my Himalayan in September but ended up in plaster a couple of days after getting it, wouldn’t mind but it wasn’t even bike related FFS)
Oh no! That really sucks.
Yes, please share your rides here. Look forward to seeing it, and get well soon! 😊👍
Went out for a razz this afternoon to bag a few more entries to Grims photo challenge (Facebook group)
It's a nice way of putting a route together that you might not normally do.
This one isn't in the photo challenge but I was passing.
Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shottery, Warwickshire
A bit of indicator love needed after crashing my bike inside my van!
*Make sure it's tied down well folks. No, one strap won't be enough, even though it is only up the road! 😬🙄
One of the rear indicators was already taped together, and now this little incident cost me a front, so I decided to replace them all round with something a bit more discrete.
I found these crazy tiny ones called Oxford Atom. Little Led things that come with separate resistors (which you'll usually need if switching from regular bulbs to leds)
They really are significantly smaller than the OEM indicators.
Oxford Atom indicators
I had to make up some blanking plates out of aluminium to fit them because the original ones use a two-hole fitting and these fit with a single bolt.
Fitted them front and rear and although tiny, was pretty happy with their brightness.
It was a bit of a pain having the additional resistors and trying to hide them when wiring in. Kind of negates the benefits of a smaller unit, but there you go.
Original on left, Oxford Atom on right of picture.
Fitted them and went for a ride with the bro in law around some Cotswolds lanes. He was on his new to him KTM 1090, which he did really well on considering how slippery it was.
Anyway, with him following me, he said that a couple of times it had been really difficult to spot me indicating for turns and he had needed to brake pretty rapidly.
Looking at my tiny rear indicators, they had a few mud splatters which being so tiny, had pretty much covered the lenses.
Not good.
So, I managed to find some slightly larger ones on Amazon and to be honest I wish I'd seen these in the first place.
Only £13 and they are made from aluminium, have bendy stalks and also, they have inbuilt resistors! Great 👍
https://amzn.eu/d/62pXT7 n">Amazon indicators
They're still nice and small at 70mm long but that extra lens area will really help them be seen between regular wipes I think.
Evermotor indicator and an Oxford Atom below.
