A Venture out on Nelli the Clothes Horse

Since getting my little Benelli TNT monkey bike, Ooooh about a year and a half ago I have only covered 50.6 miles on her. This is to do with a combination of things. Firstly sorting out the God awful linked braking system and making it possible for me to use the rear brake from upon my bars.

Out on Little Nelli

 Originally Motech Motorcycles fitted a Brembo thumb brake at my request. However after a very short ride out I soon discovered I hated this set up. It offered no stopping power alongside a very redundant feel to the lever and the position for my thumb was a nightmare. Ern and I soon removed the thumb brake and I scoured the World Wide Web for another solution. Finally I came across something that I thought may work.

This was a short clutch lever, known as a Righteous Stunt Clutch. In order to have enough room on the bars I then also had to purchase a pair of Radial Adelin Brake Levers, Front and Rear. This allowed for more room on the bars and also gave me a rear levered brake.

My little motorcycle was now setup up something akin to one of my mountain bikes, however with a short clutch lever. Now I did say a combination of things. One of the other things was confidence. As I had initially headed out after years of not riding with a somewhat strange setup that I just did not feel comfortable or confident with, well it put me off going out. Hence my post title as Little Nelli has essesntially been used as a glorified clothes horse or somehwere to put stuff on before taking them up stairs.

I still hate turning right, however after trying out little Nelli today and taking her for a 60 mile'ish spin I do have to say I quite enjoyed my outing. Sure I have some niggles, mainly to do with my prosthetic leg, than the actual bike. I discovered when I sat on my bike my foot didn't exactly fit snuggly on the foot peg. I couldn't change the angle of my foot, otherwise when I did get off the bike my foot would be all wonky for walking. Oh and my socket has caused a rather annoying tear in my saddle where it is digging in. Biggest thing has been the fact I have been feeling like I have been losing suction of my seal in liner. So at certain points upon my journey I was thinking "Jeez my leg is going to fall off".

And so to my Mini Adventure. Well Ern gave me a hand to get Little Nelli out into our garden, you see she has been living in our hall at the bottom of our stairs. Man she is a heavy little thing, coming in at 120kgs. Once in the garden I gave her a quick wash and dry, then went about sorting the new mirrors I had bought for her last year.

Ern was going to take wor Baxter out so he decided to follow me along the road and we headed towards Burnhope, going via Wagtail Lane and the wind turbines. We pulled in at the Stream Valley place, there is a little car park and I got a few pictures. Baxter did not want to go for much of a walk, bless him. Yesterday he had ripped his dew claw off, whilst playing around with a stick and today, well he just looked sorry for himself and was keep holding his paw up, as if to say "hey I am poorly and need some attention".

The Ern

Baxter not to fussed about a walk today

Poorly leg

I left Ern and Baxter in the carpark at Stream Valley and I headed down and into Burnhope, riding through the village. At the cross roads at yon side of Burnhope I crossed over the road and went down the Peth Bank and into Lanchester. I decided I had better pop some petrol in my bike as the gauge showed I was down a few bars. Man it cost me all of £3.86 to fill her up.

Lilydale Pet Supplies, very friendly and helpful

From the petrol station I rode along to the pet shop, Lilydale Pet Supplies. My dad buys a few treats from here, now and again for Baxter, the staff are lovely, very friendly and ever so helpful. I actually rang the shop yesterday to see if they had any doggie bandages, so as I could wrap up Baxters poorly leg. The kind lady in the shop knew exactly who Baxter was and advised I pop to the nearby vets, as she was out of stock of bandages.  

Bike outside pet Shop

Anyhoo today it was my inttention to purchase some wild bird feed, as I had already planned to head up to Tunstall Reservoir, take a few shots and feed the various wild birds up that way. As I got talking to the shop assistant I informed her where I was going and about my blog. She was very interested and asked me to jot down my blog address. So if you do get to read my blog...."Hey thanks for the bird seed, the birds loved it and I really enjoyed the ride there and back".

Big Bag of wild Bird feed

Back on my bike and up the hill heading out of Lanchester. Not too long before I was heading down into Wolsingham, then along the road a bit, turn right and along the country lanes to get to Tunstall Reservoir. The area was quite busy, with a number of cars in the carpark. I could see there were quite a few fishermen, fishing from the bank sides and also a few people out on the reservoir in small boats.

Taken through my helmet visor

A Yorkie and a bottle of water to keep me going

Made some new friends

I found a quiet spot and began taking a few pictures/videos of little Nelli and of the birds as they came over once they discovered I had some food for them. The birds must get used to folk as a number of them you could actually hand feed. I loved the sound they were making as I fed them, kind of like they were content and saying "hey thanks".

Little Nelli

 

 
After spending an hour or so at the reservoir I was starting to get cold, it was colder than I had expected. So I decided to head home going via Stanhope and coming up Crawlyside Bank. This took me up onto the moors and from there I could head home. Coming home I chose routes that woulkd build my confidence. Things like right hand turns, stopping at junctions and round abouts. By the time I got home I felt pretty chuffed and that nagging doubt, that maybe I should just give up on motorcycles had faded away. 

Canny few people fishing today

Once we have a few nice hot days I will venture a little furher afield. Going to have to sort this socket out somehow though, as it is wrecking my saddle. I will have to see if I can now get my seat re-upholstered. Something harder wearing me thinks.