Gaffers Gallop 2013 - The Route!

Well, here it is.  This is the latest route plan for the journey compiled after many hours switching between Google Maps for the present day road numbers and the 1950s AA Members Annual Handbook and of course, the Cub Bible for the details of where Turner and his crew actually went.  If anyone has any local knowledge of the roads and areas that we'll be using, please get in touch as we may need your help with getting through or around towns and cities, and if you spot that we've listed a place or a road that didn't exist in 1953, drop us a line to gbc AT thecubmag.com.  If you should fancy tagging along for all or some of the way, again, just drop us a line to let us know when and where you plan to meet us.

DAY 1 Sun 6^th Oct – morning leg

ROCHE 11:40 > following as much of the old A30 as possible to Redruth > Penzance > LANDS END (lunch @ Land’s End Hotel)

Afternoon leg

Return to Roche on same route > A389 > Bodmin > A30 > Launceston > A388 > (unclassified) Lifton > Bridestowe > Meldon >B3260 > Oakhampton > Ramsley > A382 > Cheriton Bishop > Tedburn St Mary > Five Mile Hill > Tedburn Road into EXETER

Overnight stop TBC. Photoshoot @ Imperial Hotel approx ETA 18:35

Turners mileage = 180

DAY 2 Mon 7^th Oct – morning leg

EXETER > B3183 > Jack-in-the-Green > A30 > Honiton > A303 > South Petherton > A303 > Podimore > A37 (Fosse Way) > Shepton Mallet > Oakhill > A367 (Fosse Way) > Bath > A4 Chippenham > A350 > A429 > MALMESBURY (lunch @ Old Bell Hotel)

Afternoon leg

MALMESBURY > A429 > Cirencester >A429 > Stowe-on-the-Wold > A429 > Ettington > A429 >LEAMINGTON SPA

Overnight stop TBC. Photoshoot @ Regent Hotel, approx. ETA 16:05

Turners mileage = 163

DAY 3 Tues 8^th Oct – morning leg

Leamington Spa 08:00 > the following TBC Meriden > Triumph @ Hinkley > A47 > round Leicester > A46 > Six Hills > Bingham > A6097 > White Post > A614 > Ollerton > A614 > A1 > Blyth > A614 > Bawtry > A638 > Doncaster > A1 > Ferrybridge > old A1 > Wetherby > A168 > BOROUGHBRIDGE (lunch)

Afternoon leg

Boroughbridge > A168 >J49 A1(M) for 12 miles > J50 > A6055 > A1 > Catterick > Scotch Corner > A66 > Bowes > Brough > Appleby-in-Westmoreland (tea stop) > Penrith > A6 > High Hesket > CARLISLE

Overnight stop TBC. Photoshoot @ Crown & Mitre Hotel, approx. ETA 18:00

Turners mileage = 246

DAY 4 Wed 9^th Oct – morning leg

Carlisle 08:00 > old road along M6 > Gretna > B7076 > Ecclefechan > Lockerbie > Beattock > A702 > Crawford > A702 > A73 > Lanarak > A73 > Airdrie > A73 > Cumbernauld > A8011 > B816 > Castlecary >A803 > Longcroft > A872 > Denny > A872 > Stirling > Causewayhead Rd (A9) > B8033 > Dunblane > B8033 > A9 > Gleneagles > PERTH (lunch @ Salutation Hotel

Afternoon leg

Perth > A9 (old road where poss) > Dunkeld > Pitlochry > Dalwhinnie (tea stop) > Kingussie > INVERNESS

Overnight stop TBC. Photoshoot @ Caledonian Hotel, approx. ETA 18:30

Turners mileage = 263

DAY 5 Thur 10^th Oct

Inverness 07:00 > A862 > Beauly > Dingwall > A9 > Alness > B9176 > A836 > Bonar Bridge > A949 > A9 > Golspie > Helmsdale > Berriedale Braes > A9 > A99 > Wick > A99 > John O’ Groats > WICK

Photoshoot @ JOG approx. 12pm, photoshoot @ Wick approx. ETA 12:50

Turners mileage = 158

Day 6 Fri 11th Oct

Cubbie Towers - SLEEPING!

Salutation Hotel, Perth, backs the Gaffers Gallop!!!

On Wednesday 9th Oct, the Gaffers Gallop Gang will be sitting down to lunch in the OLDEST HOTEL IN SCOTLAND - aka the Salutation Hotel in Perth.  This is where Edward Turner lunched exactly 60 years earlier, so it will be fantastic to park the Terriers in the little courtyard and sit where the Great Man Sat to enjoy a hearty lunch in order to prepare and sustain ourselves for the next leg of the journey, which will be Perth to Inverness....263 miles in total on that day....

www.strathmorehotels.com/Salutation+Hotel/Home

Ken & MacSigns come on board.....

And it's another big thank you to two more kind supporters of the Gaffers Gallop - Brake Man Ken, who supplied some brake linings for two of the bikes and MacSigns in Edinburgh who have offered to personalise some hi-viz gear for us riders of slow little old motorcycles.  Pop over to their site www.mac-sign.co.uk for details of the work they can do - house signs, banners, vehicle signs and more!

More support for the Gaffers Gallop!!!

On the 7th day of October 1953, Edward Turner and Co, lunched at the Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury.  No idea what they had to eat but I don't think we need to go quite that far in the authenticity stakes!  Well the good news is that the hotel (which is the oldest hotel in England) will be our lunch stop too, on the exact same date, sixty years on.

www.oldbellhotel.co.uk

Just to update you on the route, we will be starting from Roche, near Bodmin on the 6th Oct at 11:40hrs and riding to Land's End, where hopefully there will be a spot of lunch waiting for us, and then we'll head up to Exeter for an overnight stop.  

Day 2 will take us from Exeter to lunch at the Old Bell, and then on to Leamington Spa (Turner arrived there at 16:05, I wonder how exact we can be in our timings!).  

Day 3 will be the second longest leg (246miles), from Leamington Spa (depart 08:00) to Appleby for afternoon tea, and then on to Carlisle by 18:00 for an overnight stop.

Day 4 and the miles will be stacking up, along with the saddle sores, and it will be Carlisle (08:00) to Perth for lunch, and then to Inverness for the overnight stop - apparently arriving there at 18:30.

Day 5 will see us (hopefully) depart Inverness bright and early, ride to John O Groats for some photos (12:00), and then complete the run by returning to Wick.

As mentioned in Old Bike Mart, we are still welcoming any Terrier and Cub owners who wish to come and do the whole route, or even just part of the trip.  If you ride any other bike, you can still come along and wish us well, wave flags, throw money and chocolate at us, hand us oil as we ride past.....oh, talking of oil....

Andy, supplier of Millers Oils, has kindly agreed to sponsor the 5 bikes doing the whole trip of 1008 miles.  He has plans to try a few experiments with different engine and gear box oils for the different bikes, in order to be able to suggest and provide a good choice of oil to the Tiger Cub or Terrier owner in the future.  He was shocked when I said I run Cubbie on 10/40 cheap oil from the supermarket.....

Someone who also deserves a special thank you for their continued support of the Gallop is Barry the Frame Doctor.  He has helped fix up Terry's frame and now he's been lumbered with a similar fix to Yorkie's frame.  Thank you Barry, your help is much appreciated, and don't worry, we won't tell anyone else your phone number!

So, after I set up the countdown clock to remind us all just how long it is until the Gallop, Muckle Flugga Man started to panic, ran to the shed and started cutting threads on his saddle springs, he fitted his new Mitas tyres to his shiny new rims from Greystones, marvelled at the shiny new head nuts that they sent too, and generally got a few more little jobs done to Yorkie.  I, on the other hand, took all of Terry's boxes of bits outside and tried to work out what I've got and what I need.  The list of 'need' isn't as bad as I thought, but one little task that's puzzling me is how I'm going to fix the tank badges on as there ain't no brackets and it's been painted up all lovely now.  Maybe I'll hand paint TRIUMPH on, instead?

Cracking shade of green, eh Grommit?  

2nd Best In Show!!!

Would you believe it!!  The Scottish Cub Fest won the award for 2nd Best Club Stand at the Lanark bike show!!  Big thanks have to go to Mrs BC for letting us use the garden fence panels, Muckle Flugga Man for helping me carry them and set them up, Scott Connell for bringing a great selection of bikes and making bike stands, and Stu for coming all the way from Doncaster to help on the stand and look after Edward Turner Bear.  Oh, and we mustn't forget all the people who voted for us - thank you very muchly.  Pic and further comment on the show to follow later - as per usual these days, my main computer is rubbish and although I have a Wifi signal on the netbook and the Awesome Fone, and Mrs BC has a connection on her computer, my pooter just doesn't seem to want to play.  If you go on Facebook and look up Gee-Bee Chick you can see some pics there.

Time to renew if you joined in July 2012

If you took out your subscription to The Cub Mag in July 2012, then it's time to renew!  To ensure you don't miss the next issue of the ONLY CUB MAG in the WORLD, please complete the Paypal invoice that has been sent to you, or send a cheque made payable to 'The Cub Mag' for the appropriate amount as detailed in the back of the mag - postal addy also listed in the mag.

ISSUE 6 will include articles on - - -

The Gaffers Gallop Special - profiles of the runners and riders, supporters and sponsors, plus the route details and timings.

Ex-Serco Martyn Adams talks to The Cub Mag.

Mike Estall's Top Tip - fix your wobbly ignition switch.

My First Cub - Aussie style!

Price Watch - keep an eye on those market forces

Controversial Cub - "the Cub was always around and about, normally with a flat battery, a 'tax in post' note in the holder and refusing to start...."

If you have any queries about The Cub Mag, please drop the Editor, Gorgeous Biker Chick, a line to gbc AT thecubmag.com

Life at Cubbie Towers

I bet you're all thinking that Gorgeous Biker Chick is just a lazy little thing, spending all her time painting her nails and idly flicking through picture books of Triumph motorcycles, nibbling chocolate and supping evaporated milk straight from the tin.  Well you wouldn't be far wrong, but generally I only get time to do those things for about 3 seconds a day.  Since the last lot of snow, the days here have been filled from start to finish with animal welfare.  With somewhere in the region of 80 sheep to look after, plus a pony and some fowl, not to mention the dogs and cats, it takes more or less the whole morning to put the feed out (especially if the weather is inclement at the time), lug bales of hay around, carry buckets of fresh water to the different fields and break the ice in the barrels and troughs.  That was the daily grind for the last few weeks, with Mrs BC and I wading through snow at first, and then mud, and now, finally, its drying up underfoot.  By the time we'd done all that, it was usually time for me to go to work - the paid version of it!  And then if you do a bit of maths, you can see that doesn't leave much time (or energy) to build bikes.

The first lot of lambs are now about five weeks old, but until last week, they'd been living in the steading on a full time basis because there just wasn't any point in putting them out in the fields, which were covered in a chilly blanket of frozen snow.  You will have heard many terrible news stories of sheep and ponies (especially in Wales) dying in the snow storms, and we're eternally grateful that we haven't lost any in those circumstances, but sadly we have lost two ewes due to the poor conditions, and last weekend we lost little Number 3 - a triplet lamb who was being bottle fed.  She tried to die once on us, the day after she was born, but we got her through that and thought she would be ok, but sadly it was not to be.

So for this weekend, the plan goes like this....tomorrow we will finish the base for another shed, which is being delivered and erected on Sunday, and at any time over the weekend, there are more ewes due to pop - just hope they can wait until Sunday!

So I haven't been able to do much in relation to the Gaffers Gallop, but I have, of course, been plugging away with the next issue of The Cub Mag (www.thecubmag.com) which will be available sometime around mid-end of April.

And I would post some pics of the lambs but can I get them from my Awesome Phone to the steam powered computer....no, you're right, I can't!!