Motorcycling paradise UK. Long weekend in London, Bije Shed, Ace Cafe and the Isle of Wight.
Right. Okay. So, what we’ve been doing over a long weekend is we’re doing two trips. One with Austin and now one with Brendan. Okay. Austin was um into London uh to the bike shed in the Ace Cafe and that was his first long trip which is in this video. So, just show you a quick kind of daily montage of that trip and um and now we’re out with Brendan as well. and it just shows you what you can do in a weekend if you’ve got a a bike and you know you just kind of want to get out and about and see things. So the second part of it is we’re going back to the aisle of white. We were there a few weeks ago with Marcus. Um but we, you know, it was only two days so we didn’t see everything. So this time I’m taking Brendan and we’re going to do something slightly different today. So at the moment we’re literally waiting for the red funnel again. And in the background you can see massive cruise ships. It’s roughly the the kind of the same place we were last time and we’re just going to be waiting for the ferry. So um as you can see Brendan’s with us and um he’s on his first longd distanceance bike trip. So so far it’s meant to have been raining all the way down but been all right is it? Mhm. It’s taken us what 2 and 1 half hours to get here. So what do you think of your first long bike trip? It was all right. Uh the ride down was a bit bumpy though. Bumpy in what way? Like a bunch of plot holes and stuff. Ah yeah, there’s the roads have been deteriorating a little bit. Um not so much the motorways but the the town roads because of the dry weather and now we had some storms yesterday so it was a little bit rough but you know not too bad. So yeah, we’re heading on the ferry next and then heading over to the white. Um and we’re just going to see see what we come up with. I know you want to go to um the needles, so we’ll do that. But you want to do the chair lifts, but apart from that, we’re just going to do something a little different. Yeah. And today um in the distance, you can probably see the bike we’re on today, which is just behind the wall here. If I zoom in, it’s a trusty Honda again, just parked out of the way while we do this. The usual bike for these trips is the Honda. I mean, I can use the other two, but um it’s it’s just the most comfortable and also it’s got all the luggage with it as well, so it does help. And also, it’s just a good long-distance bike. So, anyway, we’re going to head off to the the ferry now. We’re going to probably grab another drink. Yeah. Yeah. And then get something to eat. Get something to eat on the ferry. Okay. He’s all he wants to do is eat. Look at Look, you know, there’s there’s nothing of him, but he just eats all the time. You know, it’ll catch up with him one day. Anyway, we’re going to head over to the terminal now. Okay. Yep. What’s this? [Music] That’s crazy. Hello. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Exactly. [Music] Okay, so we’re um at the bike shed. This is Austin’s first kind of run on the bike. Um basically it’s the first long distance run rather. He’s done a few short ones. So we come down to London to the bike shed near Hackne and basically it was also a couple of hours ride down really. Um he did really well actually. He’s quite comfortable on the bike and we’ve had a bit of a look around which is here on this video. As you can see it’s um quite a nice place to be. It’s very different. You ride through the kind of dining area into a bike parking only place. And um you know there’s there’s quite a lot to do including the barbles, restaurants, um themed areas to sit and so on. It was fun. What was going on the motorway? It’s a bit windy, wasn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Wasn’t too bad though, was it? Yeah. So, thank you. Wasn’t too bad though, was it? No, it wasn’t that bad. So, we’re going to go to um Ace Cafe next. Yeah. Yeah. But you probably won’t want to eat there because you already um It depends on how long we’re staying. If it’s like 2 hours, then I might get hungry. You might get hungry. I like two to three hours. Okay. [Music] There’s quite a few people from Belgium here on their bike, so they’re just having a bit of a a ride around. It’s kind of the opposite to what I do from um when I go on the trips to Belgium, etc., and through that way. I usually use Belgium as a stop off. But all of these big adventure bikes, I wonder how many people actually use them for touring, adventure touring, longdistance stuff, cuz um the Honda here um has been around Europe more than a few times and um is on its way to Turkey, for Asia in a few weeks time. So again, I wonder how many how many miles some of these adventure tours have actually done. Okay, so we’re on board the red funnel ferry and um just waiting to cross over to the aisle of white. Brendan is now stuffing his face, but Marcus did the same, so don’t worry about it. And then Austin did the same when he came out to the bike shed to stuff their face because that’s what you do. Um so yeah, he’s just having a red funnel breakfast and we’re just waiting for the the boat to depart or the ferry to depart. So it should be um good fun today. Although the weather’s a bit a little bit inclement, shall we say. It’s so far hasn’t really rained. It was meant to storm. I mean, we had storms yesterday, but every time we come down here to the aisle of white or this area, it seems to rain. Um, but you know, it’s one of those things. How about you? How about you? Enjoying your breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, now we’re moving very slowly. You don’t really know, do you? You know, you’re moving much, here. Very slowly. No. Yeah. So, you’re looking forward to getting over on the island? Yeah. Yep. Okay. What you looking forward to? The the needles? The needles. Okay. Anything else? The hotel. Um, I don’t know what else. What about the roads? Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool. It should be good. It should be a good day. It’s the first time you’ve been on a ferry, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. So, um it’s a bit different for you. You’ve been on planes and stuff, but this is very different. So, we’ll go go and have a look around and go upstairs in a bit when you’ve eaten and then just have a see what it’s all about. And again, we’re passing some huge cruise ships at the front and the windows. And you can feel it as it turns. Just like even the bigger feries when you turn against the tide, it gets a little bit bumpy. But yeah, should be fine. Um, one thing is we don’t strap the bikes down on this one. I forgot that from last time. Why don’t you have to strap the bikes down? Well, that’s it. We don’t strap the bikes down cuz I don’t think it’s rough enough. But on the um cross channel ones, they have to be strapped down cuz it’s very, very rough. What is the water like rock? Yeah, it can be. Yeah, but you know, we’ll see. Um, just hold up people, leave their bikes in gear once they’re uh down there, otherwise they start rolling away and my clothes. Okay, so yeah, so we’re just going to chill and chill out, relax for the next hour, and then hopefully we’ll be across to the Alawite very, very shortly. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All right. So, we’ve just um come along to what is a steam railway, but um in the car park, we’ve seen some of these old Morris Travelers um and Morris miners. So, just going to have a quick look at them. I think Brendan spotted an old classic police car. Yeah, it’s the blue one over there. The blue one. Yeah. Yeah. So, what do you what do you think of them? I think they’re cool. Yeah. Yeah. Um, would you want one? No. Too small. Too small. Yeah. But this is what cars used to be like. They were never as big as the ones we’ve got now. Yeah. Um, some really nice ones here though, aren’t they? Yeah. We got um Wow, they’ve been properly restored. Yeah. They’re really nice. Yeah. Somebody spent a lot of time and effort on these. It’s quite funny what you see and you find out in the station, don’t you? Yeah. Station car park. This is just all of these normal cars. You’ve just got the old ones. They’re all people. Then as you come around, you’ve got all these restored Morris miners or muggies. And um they’re not all one person. Muggy travelers as well. They’re quite nice. Yeah. Let’s have a look at the police car. Police car’s quite cool. Yeah. I don’t know how someone got hold of it. Don’t know if it’s in or it’s in colors. They’re quite nice, aren’t they? They’re nice inside as well. Yeah. Yeah. They they belong to all different people. Yeah, they do. Yeah. Part of an owner’s club. Yeah. 1,000cc. I’ve got bikes with bigger engines than that. It’s quite amazing really when you think about it. Yeah. You’ve got your 1,200. Yep. [Music] And and then further down the car park, we’ve got more. We’ve got another Woody Traveler there, which is nice. Somebody spent a lot of time on these. These are really cool. And it’s the van as well down the bottom. All kind of done out. It’s um it’s quite rare to find a van as well. So um most of these had rotted away a long time ago. So these have been really really well looked after. I don’t know if some some are original, some may not be, but um I think the van probably is looking at the patina on the bonnet and the wings. And then there’s um Morris, which looks fairly original, owned by the station house, which is nice. So, they seem to be very popular on the island. It’s a nice station house, though. See if I can get a bit more of it in shot. Yeah. It’s quite nice. [Music] [Music] [Music] California. [Music] Okay, so we’re at the Needles, um, which is a bit of a kind of theme park thing. I was here a few weeks ago with Marcus, but Brendan decided he wanted to go on a chairlift. It’s quieter than it has been because obviously it’s not no longer school. Oh, it’s the end of the school holiday season. Um, but to be honest, for the weather, it’s quite busy. um usual sort of arcade games, um shops, small shops, boutiques, gift shops, all of that kind of thing. And obviously there’s the entrance to the chair lift, which is what we’ll be going on shortly. And then we’ve got just around here, I think we’ve got cafes and restaurants and stuff, which um I think Brendan wants to drink or something. Um so we’re going to head that way. Well, I mean, years ago, this wasn’t here. This was just um well, not as big anyway. It was just a small area for the um excursions to the needles. As you say, you got hot food, ice creams, all of that kind of thing. And then a quite a large cafe over here. But it’s it’s fairly busy for this time of year. So, we’re going to pop into Marone’s for um a drink and then we’re going to head off down on the chair lift. There we go. And we’re off on the chair lift. So, this is Brendan’s turn on the lift. There you go. What do you think? Uh, it’s cool. And hi. Yeah. Um, yeah. Don’t drop Don’t drop your lid. Down there. Try not to. No, someone drop there soon. But yeah, again, it’s very very high. And as I say, it’s um it’s nice. It’s pleasant. It’s pleasant. And um the needles are in the distance just over there. That’s those rock formation right at the end of the cliffs. That’s why they’re called needles. Yeah, cuz it looks like an eel, doesn’t it? Yeah. Uhhuh. Kind of. And now we’re just going to go over the edge of the cliff. It’s It’s fairly gray. It was meant to be um a really horrible windswept rainy day, but to be honest, it’s been all right. It just had a few little bits of um rain which it is now which is just spitting now. So, you know, it’s one of those things. Can’t do much about it. And as I say, we’re just going to drop down the bridge now. Did you feel so good? No. So, it’s quite it’s quite breezy today. As you can see, the chairs are swinging about a bit. And um even you know we’re all swinging around a little bit in these chairs now. We’re being rocked from side to side. So trying to hold the boat straight but the stabilization’s taking it out. I’m going to hold on tight here. So, we’ll get you now. Right. Okay. Since we’ve been here last only about a month ago, there’s been a massive landslide. Look at it. So, it’s taken a bit of a beating from the sea. And as you can see, it’s um quite windy today. quite well. Yeah. Which is which accounts for the ferry crossing being a little bit bouncy today. But um yeah, it’s it’s it’s all right. It’s just nature, isn’t it? It’s just every every time you come to the place, it’s going to be different. And then if you look at the color of the rocks, there’s not many places where you have bright red rocks and bright yellow. Look at it. If you look at the color of the rocks over there, it’s something I didn’t capture last time cuz it was bright sunshine on the time and um it kind of washed the colors out a little bit, but you can see You can see how colorful it is. You got every color from white to black to gray to red, beach, everything. And you can see the water coming in and out. It was a very, very rough crossing for what it was. But, I mean, it was fun. So, we’re just going to take a bit of a wander and then hopefully we’ll be able to get back up on the chairs. [Music] So, we’re in Sandown. It’s still blustery, windy, and the sea is very, very, very rough. Um nice cliffs over there, but this is really nice on a nice day. But um you know, it’s warm. It’s 20°. It’s like really unbelievably warm, but very windy, very blustery. And um we’re just going to have a look around for just some food. There’s basically arcades, all that kind of thing. Apartments over there. you know, it’s not like it’s um a bad place to be because it’s actually quite it looks quite nice to be fair. Just apart from the weather, but we are in storm season now. So, as you can tell by the wind, it’s um very windy. I wonder how we can get along to those the pier and the arcades. Yeah. So yeah, so we’re going to have a wander around try and find some food if you can still hear us over the wind. So um yeah, let’s go and find some food. Okay, so we’re just in um the movements on the pier at Sando and it’s massive, isn’t it, Brendon? Yeah, it’s huge, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s like miles long. I’ve never seen anything so big. So we’re just going to walk through some of it. Yeah. And it basically you can see how this isn’t bad it is outside but it’s we’re enjoying ourselves. It’s good fun. Haven’t been here before. So we’re just going to walk through. Yeah. But not this place. [Music] Well, not this part of it. We were at a different Never. It goes on forever, doesn’t it? It’s crazy. Look at it. All right. Do you want to go in that? You want to go on that? Okay. See, I told you. Look. See, this is um over the sea. Now we come quite a way over the sea. As you can see, it’s um still rough. You can see it through the through the floor. A bit rusty. Yeah. No toilets whilst this break. It was a good thing we don’t. That’s good. So any we just keep on going, aren’t we? Um yeah, still trying to find food. Jeez, this place is massive. I didn’t think it was going to be this big. Ah, seaside cafe. Should we get something here? Depends what it is. Let’s have a look. So, we got um and Marcus would have loved this, I think, but got capp. Sorry. Jesus, there you go. You getting wet? Not really. Hey, we saw that in person. Yeah. Funny though on our way here. All the lightning um cars in your life. Look at that. Look at how rough it is. Wow. Look at the waves on the It probably doesn’t come across very clear on Well, it kind of does film, but that’s quite rough. Hang on, I’ll have a look in a minute. Yeah. So, this is going to be here at Belgium’s got to hang on to this cuz it will get blown out my hand cuz it is I mean your phone’s quite heavy. It probably won’t quite windy. Wow. Right. So, we’re on the pier just grabbing a bite to eat. Um, it’s been a long day, has it? It’s been good though, isn’t it? He got a bit wet on the last ride. Yeah, the bit we didn’t film because it was torrential rain as it could probably might be able to make it out the window. There you go. It was absolutely humming it down on the bike, wasn’t it? Um, we I didn’t put my waterproof gear on, so I only had my bike jeans. I got a bit wet. Um, Brendan, I made him have his waterproof gear on so he didn’t get wet at all. He’s quite quite smug there, aren’t you? Yeah. What? Smug. He didn’t get wet. Quite pleased. Unlike me. No. I got soaked in. I don’t care. They’ll get No, you don’t mind. Nope. No. He’s another He’s a born again biker. This one. rather be in a getting soaking wet on a bike than sat in a nice warm dry car. Mhm. But it was only to be honest it was only the last maybe hour ride across the island to where we’re staying that we got wet the 2hour ride. Yeah. We we dodged all the rain really all day from um the ride down from Cambridge to um Southampton completely dry. Nice. Wasn’t cold at all even early in the morning. Early in the morning was a bit cold. Yeah, early was a bit cold. You say I’m still got very wet hair. So, um but yeah, it was good. It was good fun. We did stuff that we wouldn’t normally have done uh especially with the bike um and filling. So, you did well, didn’t you? You enjoyed it. Yep. the the train station was a little bit it was looked nice but it was a bit of a let down but the Morris Miner cars were good fun. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it was a let down because they’ve closed it all really. Um Oh, there. Yeah. So, we couldn’t really go in. But we’ll try again tomorrow. See if we can get the trains. If not, it doesn’t matter. There’s always another time. But yeah, it’s good fun. I mean, we’re kind of um hungry now. Very hungry. Yeah. Yeah. So, um we’re just going to grab a bite to eat. Um hopefully the weather’s going to ease a little bit and we’ll go from there. All right. So, it’s morning. It’s a bright blue day. Um a lot better than yesterday afternoon when we had those storms. But to be fair, the day was actually all right. Um until the storms kicked in. But it’s um very different now. Very blue. So, I’ve just packed the bike up. We’re going to go for um a bit of a ride around the island to a couple of different villages. I think we’re going to try try Benbridge first and we’re going to go on the pier and have a look bit wander, find somewhere to have something to eat cuz Brendan’s hungry again and you Yeah, we’re both hungry. So, um yeah, we’re just going to dry out a little bit. As I said, the um weather’s meant to be quite nice today. Um, so hopefully hopefully it’s going to stay like this, but I’ve got a feeling but when we back on the mainland, um, it’s going to be a little bit a little bit wet still. I think we’re going to catch the rain that side of it, but it’s actually quite nice here. It’s a nice little place we stayed in last night. Very comfortable. Um and yeah, slept like a glog to be honest because it was um quite a long day. So I can’t remember what the name of this hotel is. Oh, Malvin House. So the next time um might come and stop here again sometime. Isn’t that right, Brandon? Uhhuh. All right. Okay. So we’re going to head off now. So, we’re going to head off to Benbridge and uh we’ll do a little bit of um videoing, I think, um just of the the local roads. So, um yeah, off we go. We’ll get packed up and off we go. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] This is what I was looking for. Okay, so we’re in a place called Sea View. Um, and you can kind of guess why it’s called that. Um, as you can see, there’s a lot of people out there swimming in the sea and in the distance jumping off rocks and just generally enjoy themselves. It’s about 20 22° already in the morning. You wouldn’t think we would have had the storms from yesterday, but it looks absolutely stunning. And uh if you’re into boats and yachts, this is kind of the place to be. It’s a nice quiet little village really. What do you think of this place? It’s It’s really nice. Um Yeah. Yeah. It’s not something you normally see, is it? And there’s a local airfield nearby. You can hear some planes sort of dive bombing about as well. literally practicing stunts for some reason. I don’t know why, but anyway, uh this is C view. Um absolutely gorgeous. And right in the distance, you can see some of the big container ships heading out into the biggest and busiest seaway in the world, the English Channel. And up in the sky, if I can get it, is a spitfire. That’s what’s making that noise. Yeah. [Music] Maybe didn’t get it on camera, but it it sounded like the Grace, I think, the the twin twin seat Spitfire. So, it’s our last stop before we head back to the mainland via the ferry. So, um we’re just in Cows. Um Cows is well known for yachts and sailing and boats and all that kind of thing. Um they do a massive cows week which is all about sailing once a year. And um this is cow’s the town which you can see is very much quite a pretty place really. It’s serviced by quite a few feries including this big red jet passenger ferry which is coming across now. Um but yeah it’s um really nice down here to be honest. And again, it’s it’s very very very water sports orientated and it’s quite pretty as well. The prominard’s nice. I say we’ve got the bike parked over there with the helmets on the bench. It’s very, very nice around here. It looks kind of I don’t know. So, it’s got a bit of a Mediterranean look about it and it’s um quite a nice place to be. So, next stop, Brendan, we’re heading towards the ferry. What do you think of cows? It’s really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Lot of expensive boats around, isn’t it? Yeah. And uh the prominard’s really nice, isn’t it? I mean, you got all of these nice buildings. Yeah. Mix of old and new architecture, cafe kind of culture. Uh, so what have you thought about the aisle of white so far? It’s really fun. It’s it’s it looks nice and it was just like a really nice place to be in. Yeah. Have you liked it so far? Yeah. Yeah. Would you want to come back one day? Yeah. Uh, you said you wouldn’t mind living here, didn’t you? Yeah. Yeah. It’s nice. But I think I think if you lived here you probably have to invest in a boat I think cuz um we we’ve had boats on the river cam but it’s very different to here where you got big open waters isn’t it? Yeah. [Music] So, next stop um is literally going to be the ferry terminal and then from there onwards um a bit of a free 3 and a half hour ride, isn’t it? About that backish kind of thing forward. Yeah. So, it’ll be fine. It’ll be good. So, um we’ll um head towards the terminal in a bit and then make our way back. Yep. Oh, and right in the distance, well, not that far in the distance. If I zoom in, we have a massive cruise ship coming in, I think it’s it’s anchored off there, waiting for the tide to turn cuz it can get quite cuz it can get quite shallow in these parts of the waters, but it’s not unusual for huge cruise ships to be um you know, around here. So, that’s it. That’s our trip so far on the aisle of white. So, the next stop’s going to be the ferry. [Music] [Music] [Music] Little [Music] [Music] No, nothing again. Okay, so this is the um bit on the way home now. So just grab me something before the long ride back. About 3 and a half, 4 hours or so, depending on traffic. So yeah, just having a bit of a break.