Hotrod Hayride

Ok so I was a little worried about riding the bike down to the Hayride on friday - I had only done a few short rides on it, so not really a proper shake-down. So the thought of going 225 miles each way was a little nerve wracking!!

Anyways, all went well for the first 120 miles, then I heard a few clanging noises and discovered that my number plate bracket had decided to jump ship!!



It was bolted onto the end of the rear axle which is obviously a position high in vibration! I had strengthened the bracket with a triangular brace but it broke just off the side of the axle washer. Unfortunately though it came off on a road that had a big overgrown verge with a big hedge and ditch too. So after walking about a mile up and down this road  we failed to find the escapee!

This meant I had no number plate and no tail light/brake light! So as we were near Northampton, we found somewhere in town that would print me a number plate on the spot. I was going to try and tape the big yellow plate to the rear fender, but couldnt see a way of doing this safely and securely with just some tape, so opted to just keep the plate in my tank bag and hope any coppers would give me the benefit of the doubt.

Then on my Dad's brilliant idea, we located a cycling shop and purchased a battery powered red LED tail light that I could mount off the frame;



So I carried on like this, and rode it all the way back like this too! Pleased to say that apart from the rear end shaking to bits the bike worked well and reliably. Got a snap of the bikes infront of the pavillion as we were leaving;


Also managed to stay dry apart from the last half hour on the way home;



The bike needs a good clean now!!