Posted by Got up Sunday morning, looked out the window – whoo hoo, the sun was shining, bike ride here I come.
We set off for Aylesbury and then out towards Bicester and then headed towards Wootton and then onto Burford which is a pretty little town in the Cotswolds.
The roads were dry and it was soooo great to be out. We passed a few other bikers who seemed as happy as we were to be out.
Burford’s High Street sweeps downhill towards the River Windrush and there are lots of cafes, restaurants and shops (of course not open at the moment). It is definitely worth a visit even when the shops are not open as there are lots of old buildings to look at and it is a nice place to wander around.
There was, however, one cafe that was open for takeaway and so a bacon sandwich and a large coffee were soon ordered. Phew!!!
After our coffee we set off in the direction of Stow on the Wold. The road out of Burford to Stow is brilliant especially if you’re on a bike. We were on the lookout for a petrol station though as Chris, who rides a Honda Firestorm, can only get 80 miles to a tank of fuel.
We made it Stow, which at nearly 800ft, it is the highest of the Cotswold towns, located on the Roman Fosse Way and at the point where several roads meet.
We pulled into a petrol station minus Chris. We hadn’t noticed that he was not with us and so one of us rode back to find him. He was at the side of the road with fuel issues! Chris managed to get the bike going and limp it to the petrol station we had stopped at.
Honestly, I’m not kidding you, when a car bonnet goes up or a bike tank is taken off, it’s like bees to a honey pot with men. They all have to have a look to see what’s under the bonnet (um… an engine…!) or to see what’s under the tank (I’m guessing it’s pretty much like what’s under the tank of their own bike but I’ve never looked so I can’t actually tell you). Needless to say there were lots of ideas floating about!
Being an old Honda, Chris manages to keep some tools under his seat (me, all I can get under the seat of my Z is my lippy and that’s if I’m lucky).
It turned out Chris has recently lined the inside of his tank as it hadn’t been used for a long time and had gone rusty, however some of the liner appears to be loose and got sucked into, now I want to say, the carbs here but to be honest with you, some more bikers had arrived at the petrol station and I got distracted looking at the bikes, oh, and getting more coffee!
Anyway, I can tell you that Chris did manage to sort out the bike and got it going again. He filled up the tank and we set off.
We carried on out through Stow on the A346 and headed towards Chipping Norton which is a market town in Oxfordshire and then picked up the A361 which is another great road which just seemed to flow nicely all the way to Bloxham which is a lovely village on the edge of the Cotswolds.
All these towns/villages are in the Cotswolds, it is such a beautiful part of the world, well worth a ride out to if you get the chance.
We made our way back to Bicester and picked up the A41 and stopped at On Yer Bike at Westcott for a pit stop. On Yer Bike is not open at the moment but we had some water with us and it was nice to have a drink and a stretch of the legs.
A really great day out, it was so good to be out again after so long of not being able to.
BK