At Lands End

Photo: Richard "Tank" Turner

After six years of hauling a sidecar around, my 1995 900 Daytona Super 3 was beginning to beginning to make expensive noises and I thought it was time that the engine was given some attention. I took it to Les Mitchell at Tri-Moto in November 2008 and asked him to strip and rebuild the engine as if the engine was for his own bike.

Well, two months and over £2,000 later I had a bike with a virtually as-new engine that started first touch of the button and needed running in. Les told me to keep the revs down to 4,000 for the first 500 miles and then gradually increase them and as some gearbox parts had been changed, just motorway work would not do. I decided to take some time off work and go to Cornwall, specifically Lands End as I’d visited John O’Groats on the same bike in 2006. I thought that there would be plenty of spare rooms in B&Bs this time of year, but looked up some addresses and phone numbers of hotels on the route just in case - camping in March was not an option.

So it was off on Monday 16th March down the M25/A3/M27/A35, traffic was surprisingly heavy and running in an outfit you just have to go with the flow. I stayed at a farmhouse near Honiton on the first night and with a "full English" inside me set off for Lands End in the morning. The weather was beautiful, ideal riding weather, sunny, not too cold and clear skies. The A30 has improved a lot since I last went to Cornwall, most of it is now dual carriageway and the miles just flew by; soon I was pulling into the car park at Lands End.

I think in the summer you have to pay to see Lands End but this time of year the stalls are all closed and I just rode in. A visit to the Lands End/John O’Groats signpost and resident photographer was obligatory and some photos were taken.

A phone call to a hotel in nearby St Ives got me a bed for the night then, come the following morning, it was off back on the A30 heading East. I stopped at Chard on the way and phoned ahead to a hotel in Shaftesbury where I hoped to spend the night, as expected, they had a room and by 6:00 p.m. I was pulling into the car park.

After a massive breakfast I thought that I’d explore the town and in particular Gold Hill, made famous by the Hovis advert with the little boy pushing his bakers delivery push bike up the hill to the famous theme tune. Well, Gold Hill was exactly as seen on TV and most of the town was of a similar "Olde Worlde" type of construction, very pretty.

Anyway, after calling in on a couple of old mates in Bridport, I set off again East now retracing my route back home; I'd now clocked up 900 miles and was able to open the bike up a bit on the way home, looks like it's going to be a good summer!