S1000XR vs the Passes! 2 Day Road Trip Through Snake, Winnats & Woodhead

Join me on a proper 2-day road trip on my brand new BMW S1000XR, riding from East Yorkshire to Cheshire through some of the UK’s most iconic biking roads and scenery.

Day 1 kicks off with a stop at the award-winning Codfather chip shop in Wakefield for a proper chippy lunch, before heading west through the epic Snake Pass and stunning Winnats Pass. After a solid day in the saddle, I land at my Mum’s for an overnight stay, complete with great food, good wine, and the kind of company that makes a long day on the bike even better.

Day 2 sees me heading back home the scenic way — via the brilliant Woodhead Pass, wrapping up an unforgettable loop of northern England on one of the best road-focused adventure bikes out there.

📍 Route Highlights:

East Yorkshire start
The Codfather in Wakefield 🐟🍟
Snake Pass
Winnats Pass
Overnight stop in Cheshire
Woodhead Pass return route
🛣️ The S1000XR handled it all — fast sweepers, tight hairpins, and everything in between. If you love vlog-style rides, touring inspiration, and the best of British roads, this one’s for you.

🎬 Video drops Monday at 6PM – hit that subscribe button and come along for the ride.

#S1000XR #BMWMotorrad #MotorbikeVlog #SnakePass #WinnatsPass #WoodheadPass #MidBikeCrisis #UKBiking #TheCodfather #ChippyRun #MotorcycleAdventure

Right, welcome back to the channel everybody. I’m really excited today. This is a little bit of a road trip. You’re not coming doggy. You’re not allowed. So, this is quite exciting. I’m going out for a little road trip going up to Cheshire. So, I’m currently in East Yorkshire and I’m going up Snake Pass and a few of the lovely windy roads on this gorgeous bike. Got to put the seat on yet obviously. Um, just been messing about with charging points and a few other bits. Uh, unfortunately my luggage hasn’t arrived. So, I’m a bit disappointed that’s here on Monday. So, I’ve got my Creger bag. Just uh installed me water hydration pack. I’ve got a liter and a half of water in there. Um, chest mount, spare underpants cuz you need spare underpants cuz I am sleeping over tonight and I’m sleeping over at my mom’s in Cheshire, a little little town. Is it a town? Is it a village? So, we’re going to jump on the XR. We’re going to take some windy roots. I’m actually calling in at a chip shop that I’ve been looking at all the time on Facebook. It’s called the Codfather. I’m going to the Codfather in Wakefield. I’m going to try some of their amazing I’m not having chips. I’m just going to have fish. Fish and curry sauce. I know it sounds a bit weird, but trust me, it’s not. It’s beautiful. Um, and I’m not going to have chips because my mom’s cooking a real nice pasta meal. So, I’m really excited. We’re going to jump on the bike now and go get some fuel and get on the road. [Music] [Music] Right, we’re going right here. I’m really excited. There it is. The club father. Oh, please be open. Please be open. Oh, it’s open. You beauty. Here we are then. So, we’re at the Codfather award-winning chippy. I’ve just ridden for an hour just to come and see you guys to try your chips. I keep seeing it on Tik Tok and Facebook. I thought I’ve got to come and try it. And I keep seeing you, Liam. You’re like, you’re the star. You’re the star, my man. Oh, jeez. Right. Can I get a fish, please? Just one fish, please. Yeah. I’ve already seen you. I have. I’ve come all the way just so you’re you’re going to be on my video. Yeah. I’m going to get I’ve got I brought you a key ring as well. I brought you a key ring for me YouTube channel. Yeah. Right. There you go. So, you got to subscribe to the channel. Thank you. Can I order some food then? I don’t want loads cuz I’m off to Cheshure next. I’m jealous. You want one? I’ll get you one. I’ll get you one. There you go. Thank you. Come on, I’ll show you it. Come and have a look. So, that’s uh what they call an S1000 XR. Oh. So, it’s it’s a 1000cc engine that. So, it’s quite quite a fast bike, but you can sit in comfort and tour on it. So, you can go do a couple of hundred miles on it. And so, you could ride that. Mhm. What do you reckon? Thank you. What What do you think to it? You like it? Yeah. Yeah. It’s cool, isn’t it? Cool. So, is it vinegar first or salt first? Whatever. I pick up. I do vinegar first. But I think you guys do salt first, don’t you? Same thing. You know what? I think if you do vinegar first and then and then and then the salt the the salt sticks into the salt. You’re supposed to do vinegar. Salt. Vinegar. Get vinegar in. All right. Well, well, this is how I do it. So, vinegar first and then salt. So, this is what I’ve traveled all this way for. I kept seeing this on Facebook and I thought, right, I’ve got to come here and brought me here. What? Friend of mine brought me here. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, you’re the main man. This is the reason why I came to see you. So, you’re definitely on the video. You’re going to need star though. And you got there be a video on the next Friday. Next Friday. I’ve got one now. Right. I’m going to go just sit out there and just eat some fish and I’ll come back in and say bye before I go. So, how long you been here? How long you went to you? Uh, I’ve been working here for 5 years now. 5 years. Wow. Yeah. Wow. You are the star, you know, on Facebook. You know that, don’t you? Yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell you what, the fish is I’d say that’s one of the best fishes I’ve had. Yeah, that’s so good. Really nice fish. Yes, that was worth the ride that. So, I’m going to tap your your channel. You’re going to have a look on the YouTube channel. Yeah. Yeah. Can you remember what it’s called? It’s a M bike curses. You was cheating there. He was looking at my t-shirt. Right. I I better go. I’ll I’ll say bye before I go. I’ll come and I’ll say bye before I’m going to eat this and then I’ll come and say bye. All right. See you in a bit. See you in a bit. Everyone’s ever so friendly here. So this is um in Weightfield called the Codfather. And uh that was well worth the ride on the bike. So it took me an hour to get here. I went a little bit of a long way around. Um but yeah, award-winning Chippy, super super friendly staff in there. And honestly, the fish is unreal. Look at that. Absolutely beautiful. M Irish curry sauce. Beautiful. Right, I’m off. That was really nice. Really, really enjoyed that. Thank you. Hey, I’ve already put you on. See you later, mate. You take care so nice. You are. Do you like it? It’s uh I’ve got a new admirer. He likes me smell. And what have I got on? Creed. Creed. Yeah. Have to have a look at it. When you smile. [Laughter] Do you want me to come back then? I’ll come back and see you again. Yeah. I’ll bring my son next time. Yeah. He’ll he’ll want to come and say hello as well. Yeah. Yeah. He loves fish and chips. Right. Yeah. Really enjoyed that. Thank you very much, guys. Really enjoyed it. Really nice. I’ve got two and a half hour. Yeah, I’ll definitely come again. Two and I’ve just looked at your me. Two and a half hours. I’ve got an hour. Yeah, I’ve got an hour and a bit to a stop off. halfway. Um, winn pass it’s called. It’s like a scenic ride route and then stop there, take some pictures and a bit of video and then onto Cheshure. I see you. Nice to see you. You too. I’ll uh I’ll send you a link for the video. This will be out next week. Oh, cheers. And I’ll tell everybody to come and have some fish and chips here at the Codfather. It’s brilliant. Right. Cheers, guys. See you later. Can we have a photo of your bike? Of course you can. Yeah. [Music] Oh, great set of people in there. Absolutely brilliant. See you later, Liam. Right, let’s get on with the uh the journey. Absolutely fantastic. So hospitable and super super friendly. Get yourself down there. Um go go go check out all the guys at the copper father. They’re in Wakefield. was well worth the detour of uh an hour to go try the fish and chips. So yeah, big shout out to the codfather. Right, onwards and upwards. We’re going to go find uh Winnitz Pass. It’s a bit of an unusual name, is it? Winnit Winny Pass. So, we’re going to go find some scenic route and uh pull over and have a little look at the uh the apparently gorgeous scenery. I think I have been down there at some point in my life, but can’t remember. Can’t remember whether I have or not. So, we’ve got we’ve got an hour’s ride now, 39 miles to uh Winn’s Pass. There’s like a um an area where you can pull up and and there’s like a viewpoint. So, should be something for you all to uh enjoy. Here we go. Look at the beautiful views here. Wow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Absolutely beautiful. Look at this. Wow. Stunning. But wow. There’s an airplane up above. Now this this is scenery. It really is scenery and a half this beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Wow. Look at this. Just got to check me mic is on. Imagine if you’re um and it has happened to me before actually. Checking um your footage when you finished and your mic won’t turned on or connected. What a bummer. You lost all your footage again. A sight detour. That was worth it. That was definitely worth it. So, we’ve got another hour and 17 minutes and you can’t get any better views than what we’re looking at now. Absolutely amazing. Amazing views on this lovely, lovely Thursday afternoon. 20°. It’s just right. It’s just perfect. Mommy. Hello. [Music] You all right? Yeah. This is nice. You all right? Yeah. Yes. I’m knackered. It’s It’s going to go for a ride. I’ll tell you what that takes out. That really does. Right, got me gear off. Got some shorts on now. Absolutely red hot today. And I’ve just realized why I had me uh winter pants on, whatever you want to call them, trousers. They had the winter linings in. So, me legs were soaked. So, lesson learned there. So, I need to um need to remember to take them out in the morning cuz it’s absolutely baking. Right, I’m going to grab a glass of wine. Got some gifts for mom and dad. Look at that. It’s got grass envy. Can you walk on the grass or is it not allowed? It’s so nice. You can’t walk on. There you go. Come bearing gifts. Have you got these already or no? I can’t remember. Next nude. Oh, okay. And a key ring. You don’t need them now, obviously, do you? But there you go, mommy. Thank you, darling. Next nude. And oh, next nude. Brilliant. Brilliant. Go. James, are you tired, darling? I’m very tired. Yeah, that actually takes it out of you. I’ve been riding for um four and a half hours. He’s a wimp. Look at this. I’m being old civilized. I was just telling everybody I’d left the uh winter liners in my leggings. That’s why I was all I took my throats off and it was like all like wet and I was like, “Oh.” And I was like, “Oh no.” Like got these real thick winter liners. I I blame the parents. We turn them inside out. Never mind blaming the teachers. No, I’m just going to pull out the lounge in a minute. Yeah. So, did you enjoy it? Yeah, it was really good. Snake Pass was interesting and when it pass was interesting and well pass that was the one that I said to you, you’ve got to do that one. It’s it’s interesting. Yeah, it’s worth doing. J James asked me um if I was worried about him and to be honest, not worried at all generally speaking until he was coming to me today and then it’s like ah, is he all right? Oh, this is nice. We have gone. It’s nice. That’s from um a little vineyard in place called Torbs. Beautiful. Um when we went on holiday, tell us about the uh the wine mother. Um right. Well, when we was in uh France, we went to we stayed in this um Airbnb in a little place called Torbs and it was hosted by a guy called Fabris and his wife Geraldine. Really great couple, fabulous. And uh from there you could walk to the vineyard. So that’s what we did. We took a little walk out with uh me and Dave and Hannah and Nathan and uh and Noah and we went to this small vineyard and she produced this gorgeous rosé wine and it’s it’s really really lovely. Um I don’t know how how what would you say that she did did how many bottles? It wasn’t that was it. How many did you drink? I bet you drank 20 as well. Did you buy 20 bottles? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But do I didn’t think we were buying that many? Oh, it’s nice. It’s really Yeah, it’s cheaper to buy as well, isn’t it? Well, this this was um this was about 8 quid. Yeah. So, that’s the equivalent of a 15 20 quid bottle, I would say. Yeah. But it’s it’s just gorgeous. It’s really really really lovely. Really? It’s quite full bodied, don’t you think? Oh, you’re loving it. Full bodied. Full bodied. Anyway, that’s enough from the uh what do you call the wine person? Similar. Simile. Similar mummy. I’m simileier. Mummy. Yeah. Cheers, guys. So, hope you’ve enjoyed that little day out today. We’ll uh carry on the route tomorrow and uh I’m just going to enjoy some time with family now. Have a couple of these and a nice meal. I think mom’s prepared. I don’t know what you’ve cooked, Mom, but pasta. Pasta. A lovely crispy belly pork. With crispy belly pork. Very very crispy belly pork. I forgot I cooked it too long. And some nice sausages. And yeah, and some more wine. Excellent. Morning all. Bet you didn’t think you’d be looking at me lying in bed. I just woke up. It’s 8:00. Could have slept for longer, which is uh not like me. I’ll uh I’m normally up quite early. Been sat on the the bike for about 4 and 1/2 hours yesterday. Definitely could feel it when I got here to my mom’s last night. So, I had a few glasses of wine, but yeah, day two. So, we’re going to head back towards home. Um, it’s just a bit of a mini trip this just testing the water. I think we’re going to go pack uh back via Snake Pass. Let’s get up and have a have a coffee. Right, let’s see what what weather we’ve got outside. Oh, yeah. That’s nice. Is it right I’m saying you’re a Christian artist, Mom? Um, no. I’m an artist and I’m a Christian, right? And and often I make artwork that is very much um about um Christianity and I work out my own faith in it. Yeah. But also I do things like this. This was for um an exhibition in Scotland, not a selling exhibition. It was just um a showing exhibition and it was called Crossing Borders. Yeah. And the reason I did this is because I was quite struck by the fact that um birds are not restricted by borders. You know, we have to cross borders. We we get restricted by fire. We get restricted by water, uh mountains, birds don’t. So, and that this was called freedom to cross. This is my um granddaughter Emily. Not literally Emily. It was I made a cast of her face. Yeah. And subsequently, I’ve still got that uh mold that was Emily’s face. And I’ve done loads of um basically these uh masks, uh different colors, um yeah, different textures. But there’s the one in our house. Emily. All right. Yeah, it’s our bathroom. That one I like. Yeah. Every every single one is Emily. It’s all taken from the same cast. Yeah. Done slightly different. Loves Emily more than me. Yeah. Yeah. I love Emily the best. This was part of my final exhibition. It was um I mean this is 20 odd years ago now. But my uh my final exhibition for uni was called facing the beautiful and I’m trying to project this concept that everybody’s beautiful. So whenever you look at it the image is looking at you as well. Yeah. And saying you know you are beautiful. This is part of the uh explicitly Christian artwork. Right. And these are it’s a series of contemporary angels that I did. Yeah. So, if you look um going up here, these are all the wings. Yeah. And this is uh very much the angel face. Now, I don’t know where she came from um because she just came out of my head and I think that she’s got the most beautiful face ever. Going up the stairs, you’ve got the three faces of Christ. Again, specifically, let me go up so I can film it. specifically. Oh, that was me. That’s me as a baby. Um, and we’ve got a copy of this. Yes, you have. You have. And somebody said to me, you never ever see a laughing Jesus. And so that was the inspiration. That’s a nice Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah. This is again part of the um I can’t do what I want to say. This is part of the angel’s exhibition. I might keep that bit that I’ve kept you. I might keep that bit. So again, I just it’s so powerful. Again, yeah. Yeah, I like that. But again, this is um it’s Reuben’s descent from the cross. It was inspired by that, but again, a very contemporary kind of look. Have a look. Quick look in your studio. It’s relatively tidy. My lovely husband has made me this. New woodworking skills. So, I’m in the process of moving things around. But look at this guys. This here is what I was telling you. You sound like a vlogger now, Mom. Look at this guys. Look at this guys. Yeah. Look, that’s Emily. Oh, wow. This is the mold. Oh, is that the mold? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And I’ve kept it and it’s just it has served me so well. Excellent. Thanks for showing me around. Just having a look at some of these pictures in the uh the downstairs L. I must have been How old was I there, Mom? About 13. You’ll never get your bacon sandwich at this rate. This is the bit I don’t like about biking, you know? He’s like, “Oh, but they’ve got this in here and that in there. Where’s me key?” Yeah, you can’t just jump on and Well, you can actually, can you? But when you’re doing a bit of a trip, you you’ve got to make sure you’ve got everything. All right. I’ll I’ll let you know when I’m back. All right. Love you, too. I’ll reverse this back. I think as long as you keep it upright like that, it’s it’s Watch yourself. That’s going on me video. I’ll ring you anyway when I’m back home. Right. Cheers. Thanks again. See you later. Right. That was a fantastic stop off at Mom and Dave’s. Really, really enjoyed that. much needed rest. So yeah, as I was saying, this is day two of this mini road trip and it’s a bit of a wet the whistle for me to um tell you what I think to a bit of touring. My PA’s arriving on Monday. So, I’ll be really keen actually to get out and do another little overnighter and, you know, see the see the scenery in some parts of the UK and hopefully abroad as well at some point. So, a big thanks to mom and dad. Really enjoyed that overnight stay. Lovely meal. Few glasses of that gorgeous rosé wine that came all the way from France. Absolutely stunning. and uh had a slight slight headache this morning and I think that was due to um dehydration more than anything. Friends of my mom’s actually Robert’s Bakery. So I don’t know whether you see Robert’s bread in your local shop, big bakery there. Um been going a long long time. It’s big big outfit that this is what you see. You know, if you go on the motorways, you don’t see all this stuff, which is a real shame because most of the time everybody’s just too bloody busy, aren’t they? They just want to crack on and get to where they’re going, whether it’s, you know, work, home, holiday. Um it’s it’s it’s a shame because there’s some beautiful places like here Chisworth Darbisha and this is where the beauty starts you know there’s some absolutely stunning stunning scenery around here and this is why I chose to come back this way around because of all this and yeah it’s added on another hour and a half onto my journey back home but who cares you know when you’ve gorgeous scenery like this. Why do you want to be Well, I’m not in a rush. I’m not in a rush at all. So, we’re just taking a nice slow, chill ride back. And um hopefully, you know, you guys are enjoying this, coming on this little little journey with me. And uh we’ve got a beautiful time road as well here. Don’t know if you can see that, but this is an absolute dream to uh to ride on. It’s gorgeous. And that’s a bit empty, isn’t it? I mean, all the rain we’ve had. Look at that. Wow. Had all this rain and we’ve got a bloody a dry a dry reservoir there. Amazing. And there was a load of bricks smashed in there. So, this is the thing I think cars and uh I’ve noticed a few on the left here. There’s one there. Look. come uh they come around too quick and clip the clip the stone wall there. And that’s with this 50 mph speed limit in place. So, with good reason. It’s uh the speed limits on there. Just trying to find a nice suitable place to stop so I can have a little break, have a breather, drink me Red Bull. Just a little bit of energy. And I just can’t get over this absolutely gorgeous scenery. You don’t want to be going fast along here. So, I’m just going to pull in here and just uh have a minute. So, I’ve pulled over at the most windy I was going to say windiest. Is that even a word? Windiest. Honestly, it’s super super windy where I am. Pulled over a quick pit stop, had a can of Red Bull, and stretched my legs cuz I’ve been on the bike for about a couple of hours. There’s a strong smell of of urine as well around here. So, it’s not the the the best place to stop. And what usually happens is I’ll go a little bit further up and there’s another reservoir. So, I’ll try and pull over. There’ll be a beautiful place to stop. So, this is obviously a place frequented by lorry drivers on the night cuz there’s a proper smell of um wee wee. Anyway, we’re going to jump back on the bike. We don’t let a bit of wee bother us. Um and we’re going to go try and stop at the next one. But, it’s super super windy today. I’ve managed to avoid the rain now. The rain’s boogered off north, I think. But it was following me all the way from Cheshire, from my mother’s house to uh about here. So, what’s that saying? 20 5. So, another another couple of hours. I could cut it a bit quicker actually and go on the uh on the M1, but I’m going to carry on all the back roads because that’s what this little jaunt is about. It’s about going on all these back roads and enjoying myself. So, let’s just um have a couple of minutes. So, we’ll just chat about the the bike and what my thoughts are after riding this for 450 nearly 500 miles. Just nearly tipped over. What’s the bike like to ride? Well, for me personally, I think the bike is brilliant. It ticks all of the boxes. So, you’ve got you’ve got um comfort. Admittedly, it’s not as comfy as my old GS. I had an R1250 GS. The seat ain’t as comfortable. Both about the same weight, I would say, give or take. Um, this will be a bit heavier once I load it load up the PA, but both the uh this and the JS were about the same. But for me, this is a little bit more of an interesting dynamic because you have got sort of sports bike performance. if you need to uh you know open it up, it’ll it’ll go. It really will. So, you’ve got the best of both. The GS for me was it had loads of low low down torque compared to this, but this is more revy and and this is just my opinion, but it this is more fun to ride. So, you know, you can cruise along like this. 50 mph. Put your put your limiter on, not your limiter, your cruise control and um can relax a little bit and uh enjoy the ride. And then once you’re bored and you’ve had enough, you you know, you can turn it off and hit the twisties and open up a bit. And it handles really well. It really does handle really well. Anyway, what I wanted to ask you guys, where’s the uh the next trip? Where’s the next road trip? So, I want a one one night away, two day traveling from East Yorkshire. Um, my mom and stepdad recommended, where did they recommend? Northland. So, few guys can recommend a really interesting couple of days out. Nothing too too technical on the road front. So, don’t be suggesting really crazy places. Um, uh, you know, I like windy roads and and the like, but some of them on the on the Snake Pass were quite quite technical, I would say. Um, so yeah, drop a comment. Let me know what what what areas would be an interesting place for me to um travel. Right, I’ve just um diverted a little bit. So, I’m on the M1 North now. I’ve just um just shaved off about 50 minutes off the journey because it’s becoming peak traffic and all them back roads, I’ll be honest, were um getting a little bit tedious. So, I’m just going to jump on the M1 for a little bit and then head um east towards towards Hull and then obviously then onto home. Sounds so good. It really does sound good. And I just want that booger dresting cuz it’s restricted to 8K which um that’s when the fun starts 8,000. But that’ll be restricted in a week or two, I think, when it goes in for service. So anyway, that that concludes uh the two-day little tour. Let me know in the comments. Just uh a reminder of uh where you’d like like me to go and travel or where would you recommend. So drop a comment, let me know. I’m looking for two day two-day mini tours in the UK within about 3 hours of um of Yorkshire, East Yorkshire. I’ve enjoyed having you along with me and taking you on some of this breathtaking scenery. And a standout point for me was um meeting Liam at the Codfather in Weightfield. Top lad. Give him um give him a shout when you go in and see him. is a really really nice nice guy is Liam. Really really really enjoyed meeting him. And uh I’ll come and see you again soon, Liam. But that’s it for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed it, guys. And I shall catch you all very soon on the next video. Bye for now.