my NW200 trip

thought i'd share my trip to the NW200 in 2009

Set off at 4pm to meet with a friend at Tebay.

as its bedlam on the motorway (and shit) we head down the A6 and join M'way at preston, boring ZZZZ

here's my bike set and ready



damn windy out there and when we reach tebay, my Mike (cb750F1) was complaining of weaving on the truck ruts, i had no problems.

When in Tebay and waiting for Dave (VFR750) I noticed either Mike's back wheel was in a dip or he had a flat, guess what, it was a flat. Mike was real pissed off.

Dave turned up and we went round the carpark to find someone to lend us a pump as we could'nt find any puncture.

eventually we gave up and Mike called the rescue.

Dave and I went on via the A6 to Carlise and then Dumfries to the B&B we booked earlier.

we arrived at the B&B at 10ish and mike turned up 2 hours later to tell us that the rescue people had a computer crash and his details were lost. So he waited another 2 hours for the rescue to turn up!! any way we did 150 miles and mike did 40miles and the rest on a low loader.

I can recommend East Brae cottage B&B (http://www.eastbraecottage.co.uk/) as Jim (proprietor) loves company and will do anything for you (within reason) he took us in the car the next day to dumfries to buy a new valve and inner tube (just in case). he has an air compressor in his garage which we pumped up the flat tyre and it stayed up even when the valves was taken out!! go figure!

after a hearty breakfast including haggis MMM!

we set off for stranraer. 20 miles down the road Mike's back tyre goes down and we stop at a local garage off the A75

Mike outside the garage



local is happy to take off tyre but he thinks "how can it be fixed?" he is a bit bemused when we produce an inner tube!!!



Mike having a "moment"



so we set off agin and get 10 miles from stran when , guess what, he has another puncture!! now mike has given up and is swearing, shit this and shit that! dave and I carry on and Mike phones Carole Nash again for rescue.

Dave and I waiting to board the Ferry, there are a lot of bikes an mine is the oldest one there by a mile/s



we board the ferry and its amazing how much you can get in a ship

I've lost 56lbs since this picture



we get on board and set off. this is a 2 hour crossing so take our boots off and empty the deck with the fumes.

Mike phones, he's not going home, the breakdown recovery chap is a biker and knows the ATS guys (who are bikers) and is adamant that he will get the bike fixed. so Mike is getting the later ferry and will meet us at Bushmills and Coyles house!!

the last punture was from the last garage leaving the remnets of the whole valve inside the tyre between the inner tube, what a nob!!

do we reach Coyle's house?, will anything else go wrong as we are on 30 year old bikes?

well the ferry docks and we all wait anxiously in the hold and told to start the engines... bloody 'ell I can't hear mine and have to use the tacho to see if its started!!

then we all file gingerly over the alloy decking avoiding the ribbing and metal cabling into a rainy Belfast.

The weather is appalling and the visor soon steams up and i get a fly's viewpoint via the rain drops on my visor!! this rain x stuff needs to be applied every 100 miles or so methinks and so I ride 50mph on the M2 with the visor up and avoiding the bikes and cars streaming out of Belfast!!

its 70 miles of this and the M2 goes to A26 then the M2 starts again from scratch and back to the A26 into colraine and bushmills.

we phone Coyles at Bushmills and he comes to meet us in the works van doing a handbrake turn to face our direction and after the pleasantries he leads us off at 60 mph in the dark on a very bumpy C class road

after a couple of miles we reach our destination, this picture was taken the next day.



and we get to sleep in the Coyles Wright racing wagon



after dropping off our stuff to dry out in the heated granny flat, Coyles introduces us to his lovely wife and two tiny daughters. Its hard to understand them with the broad NI accent and child like volcabulary but dave soon breaks the ice with stories of princesses etc.

Then its off to the club for the craic!!

when I say club, Mike told me it was a club so i brought trousers and a T-shirt and sketchers shoes.

Coyles takes us into the middle of no-where picking up a friend, trevor, who I nick name "clever trevor" and we approach a farm yard with a sign "ONLY MOTORBIKES ALLOWED" its a car/bike park full of harley's and hyabusas etc with tents all around and a take a way van parked in the coutryard.

this turns out to be an Illegal drinking den which Coyles is chairman. Dave and I feel like the guys in the film "wild Hogs" and I say don't touch the bikes dave or they'll fall over on one another!

I could see us legging it down the counntry lane with 60 hells Angels after us wanting a piece of our ass!! :lol:

here's the inside taken a day later!!



its turns out that these guys are the best you can meet. They's just talk to you as though you have known then for years and even better, there are a couple of live bands on, 1 young group (16 year olds with ma and pa watching and tutting at the all the canabis being consumed) and a trio who did covers like whiskey in the jar, ac/dc etc brill, loud and spot on.

I sunk a few pints before Mike turns up from the later ferry and he in turn starts buying the rounds. I can't remeber too much after that although I belive we got to bed about 4am!!

here's the "wild Hogs" slowly sinking in their seats



one character of note was an emaciated irish guy, with a bushy beard and smelled a bit, he was called Jesus Rat!! I kid you not. Aparantly he turns up to the party every year. This year, i was told, he was not as smelly!!!

Jesus was play fighting with another guy and a dude next to us say's "watch this" and as soon as he takes off Jesus's hat, the guy just stopped what he was doing and sort of calmed down. Apparantly this is the way to control Jesus when he gets out of control :lol:

I gets up at half seven with a cracking hangover and get outside to get fresh air and meet Coyle's who is going to the pits with his wife to set up the bike and gear. Coyle's mum comes round to look after the girls and I can't understand half of what she says.

anyway we are all up and ready for the NW200

to the races.....

we get directions to the general area and need to get to the paddock as we have pre-paid tickets and want to see Coyles.

As we enter portrush there's bikes everywhere and bikers are parking on pavements and any flat surface. So we panic and see a couple of spaces and grab them quick. we walk with the crowd and find a NW200 vendor who takes a few quid off us for t-shirts (very good quality) and we make our way to the circuit.

Turns out we're at the Metropole ( didn't see shed hermit and too late for phone #'s) so its a case of walking 2 miles to the paddock. we didn't get that far as the race was starting so ended up at Juniper chicane, which was a great spot and witnessed a few hairy moments as riders missed the apex and flew off the pavement.

a pikkie of the 250 race



I was pretty hung over and was glad of the wind, not sure whether to puke or swallow, in the end I managed to do neither and after the superbike race mooched over to the paddock area. whilst waiting (again) for the organisers to either start the race or cut it short I visited the VJMC tent and saw a Sparton, that's the same engine as the silver dream racer in a spondon chassis



apparantly the owner lives in Armarh according to Coyles and we stop there on the way home (later)

Eventually we get in the paddock area and the place is buzzing, and you can see the TAS suzuki area and HM plant etc, lots of freebies to be had and drunk!! Boy I needed the relentless as it just hit the spot for me.

Hangover has subsided and we go and see Coyles, here he is posing with his GXR1000



After there, Coyles was racing next so we go to near York corner to watch him.

Mike takes the pictures but they are too fast to track.

Coyles (#50) just about to overtake before York



The last race turns out to be the 125's and we headed back to coyles's paddock to off load our goodies for him to take back.

Then it was the long walk back to the bikes avoiding the drunks and watching the biker chicks going past. I even checked my "mirror" to double take a bird, the only thing missing was my bike and the mirror

as we get on our bikes towards portrush a load of ambulances go past and the road is closed due to a serious accident, I think 1 guy got killed. We all get back in 1 peice and get ready to visit the club again.

this time we got out early (1pm ) as we needed to get an early start to head back to Manchester the same day!!

the final installment coming soon.....do we get back?, and another of our bikes goes "off colour"!!

we're up at 8am sunday morning and its till windy as hell. damn we're riding into the wind.

Coyles missus cooks us a big breakfast and i end up playing "postman pat" and "we're going to the zoo" on a Pink guitar!! over and over again!!.

9:30 time to go, we say our goodbyes and set off to Armah (Where the Sparton was from) to fuel up.

Armah



we fuel up at a little petrol station



after fuel we start the engine......except for dave on the VFR the batteries flat and won't turn over the bike!! Dave panics, but we say bump start, but Dave wants non of it. So I get Mike on the bike (after taking off the tank bag) and we bump start the bike. It starts no problem and we tell dave to keep his lights off to charge the battery.

We get to Belfast no problem and there's no rain ...YET!!.

this is the scene that greets us at the ferry terminal



there's us near the rear right.

Dave wants to be at the back so we can bump start the bike and bump it back off the ferry at the other end.

It takes 1/2 hour to get on the ferry and it was looking like we might not get on as the crew were counting and re-counting the bikes, so we panic and jump the queue. ( we all got on, even a van at the end)

we tie down the bikes and one of the crrew says that they have a battery booster for Daves bike which relaxes Dave for the journey.

When we get to Stranrar it is teaming down and funny enough theres quite a few locals out with brollies watching the "parade" of bikes comming ff the ferry!! I saw an RD400 in yellow and we exchange a few words and wave each other off. I get fuel, dave stalls his bike ( bump again), than stalls it again ( Bump again!) and we;re off. The F#cking rain is bouncing and doesn't let off till Dumfries. my Boots have a lake in then, my top clothes are soaked through, only my legs are dry.

I'm freezing and the guys have a pop at me for not stopping earlier than Dumfries.

I just wanted to get into some KFC/McDons to warm up and strip off the wet stuff, rather than shiver in a pokey cafe!!

We find a KFC and dave finds a closed bike shop (scot-speed) which was closed funnily enough (twas Sunday Dave!!)

I proceed to strip off in KFC and no-one bats an eyelid, put me warm clothes back on and come up with some new water proof fashion.

Debbie Harry inspired clothing



Givi Tescobag socks (taken at home)



Saited and dryish, we set off via Gretna and head for Penrith keeping to the A roads, it starts raing again so we dive into the local Maccy D's

Penrith castle from McD's



we're looking a bit worse for wear now and looking at Mike I can only guess what I look like



after Penrith, we go to Tebay for fuel and coffee, head back on the A road to Kendal on some of the most amazingly smooth and traffic free roads and onto the A65. The rain has stopped and it feels much better and gives us the reason why we ride bikes and not drive cars!!

Dave lives in Leeds, so we say our goodbyes and Mike and I are knackered and just want to get home, so we hit the Motorway and dial in 70mph and we only stop once at Bolton west services.

I eventually get Home at 11:30pm, so thats 14 hours travelling and at least 10 hours riding!! My bike never missed a beat in spite of the weather!! and I only spent £70 in fuel for 620 miles pretty good mpg!! ( filled up 5 times going and 5 times going back @ £7 (7 liters a pop)

would I do it again?

well,I left the final part till a week later to answer this and I would say yes, but I would get the Birkenhead ferry next time or get a bigger more modern bike to cope with the distance.

Drewps

Sounds like a hell of a trip drew! One I'm sure you'll never forget. Good to hear the XS400 held up well! That's a lot of bikes boarding that ferry on the way home!

Thanks for sharing!

Wow, nice trip. Thanks for sharing. Gotta have some troubles or it won't be memorable!

eek! don't mention troubles when in Ireland!!


Really good fun and I missed it this year , but there was a terrorist bomb alert and the whole race got pulled after 1 lap!

thinking about the Manx GP this year full of classic bikes.

Nice cool story! Stuff I would like to do when I get older and don't have any kid in the house to take care of.

xschris said:

Nice cool story! Stuff I would like to do when I get older and don't have any kid in the house to take care of.

Click to expand...

I have 2 children and a very understanding wife

hahah.. love the last pic... you guys must've been ruined...lol
Would love to hit the open road on the tracker one day with a few buddies like that