Category Archives: Project: Honda CRF 300L

CRF300L: Tubeless Tyres 2

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CRF300L Index page
300L Tubeless Wheels 1
Tubeless Wheel Conversion index page

2 second version: I bought some tyres.

I’ll have spent a staggering £550 each on three handbuilt ‘MT’ wheels for my 300L, all so I can seal the rims and fit tubeless tyres for easy repairs and greater longevity. Oh well, it’s good to support the economy.
When it comes to tyres, people love to fit fatter but I aim to get the closest-to-stock size tubeless tyres that’ll fit the new rims. But as mentioned previously, the smallest available tubeless-ready, ‘MT’ rims are a size or two wider than stock 300L wheels which may mean wider / heavier tyres too. FYI my MT-type tubeless ready wheels will be:
Excel 17 x 2.50
SM Pro 21 x 2.15 (£50 cheaper than Excel equivalent)
Excel 19 x 2.50

Unsprung durch Technik
With wheels (not least pushbikes), unsprung weight (parts not supported by suspension, mostly wheels) exponentially affects acceleration/braking as well as suspension response and probably mpg and appetite. You know how I feel about mpg. Imo, efforts to limit rotating mass are worthwhile on a 150-kilo bike with only 28 horsepower. As I wrote while preparing the Him “… it’s why your Hoka trainers weigh only 320g [i.e: as little mass/inertia as possible to do the job]”. Adv riders go on about swapping pipes and ‘bars and batteries to save weight (while having to add it elsewhere), but tyre weight is rarely considered and can vary quite a lot.
My wider rims may weigh more, so might the slightly over-sized tubeless tyres. Overall, my tubeless conversion may barely save weight.

‘What tyres do you recommend?’
In line with EU diversity initiatives, I try and never use the same tyre twice. It’s good for the book, too. But when a mate donated a new Michelin Anakee Wild 120/70 R19, I thought I may as well go all-Wild, as I did with no regrets on the heavy Himalayan a few years back (left).

Barman, double hernias all round!

I was risking EU sanctions until I was reminded of my own words: a rear Anakee Wild to match the 19 comes no smaller than 130/80-17 but weighs a staggering 7.5kg – enough to give my poor Honda a hernia.

I don’t know if being a radial adds weight – apparently not according to this albeit contradictory article I found on the internet. And then I clocked my fat-tyre mate’s front 19er at a hefty 5.2kg – more suited to a CB500 than my simpering trail puppy. Barman, double hernias all round!

Back to the drawing board. Along with Kenda K784 Big Blocks, Bridgestone’s AX41 Adventure Cross (left) is a do-it-all 50/50 jobby I’ve been wanting to try. The advent of the AX41 a few years ago culled Bridgestone’s range of Trail Wings, some of which I’d have happily chosen for the 300L. What’s left in TWs are tube type and pitched as ‘retro’ (pre-Adv era) tyres.
Best of all, unlike Mich, Bridgestone do an AX in 120/80 17 TL (118mm wide – 1mm more than the stock IRC) as well as a nicely slim, 92mm-wide 90/100 19, plus a regular 90/90 21 at 85mm wide. These widths are all verified; you’ll find broadly similar AX41 width data listed here, but tyre weights are something you rarely find listed publicly, even in pdf online catalogues. I had to email Bridgestone Technik in the Netherlands who, to my surprise, promptly responded down to 3 decimal points:

  • BATTLAX ADVENTURE CROSS AX41 – claimed actual
  • Front 90/90-21 M/C 54Q TL – 4.428kg 4.6kg / 85mm wide. Inflated ø 696mm
  • Front 90/100-19 55P TL – 4.375kg 4.4kg / 92mm mm wide. Inflated ø 658mm
  • Rear 120/90-17 M/C 64P TL – 5.516kg / 6kg / 118mm wide

Nice numbers but as usual, manufacturers’ weighing devices seem to be calibrated sunny side up. Using the same scales, the rear 120 AX41 comes in at 6kg, still 1.5 kilos or 20% lighter than a 130 Mich Wild. My current rear IRC also weighs 6kg with tube – and such OEM set ups are often the lightest possible to eek out good performance figures from reviewers to whom longevity is not an issue. More numbers you say? The little used Mitas 4.00 18 trials tyre my 300 came shod with weighed 6.9kg with tube. And out of interest, I’m told the old favourite Conti TKC which I last used on a 660Z Tenere 15 years ago, weighs 4.1kg for a 90/90-21 TL and 5.4kg for a 120/90-17, but I recall they are quite soft or flexible tyres whiuch is why people love them on the dirt. As mentioned earlier, these tyres and tube combos work out heavier than the back wheel, at 5.4kg with a 40T sprocket and rim lock.

3.00 21 left and 90/100 18 right
Rear AX41 – same weight and 2mm wider

Meanwhile, the fatter 21-inch AX41 front weighs a true 4.6kg, 170g heavier than claimed and 200g more than current IRC with tube at around 4.4kg. The 19er is just what I was hoping for, it’s slim at 92mm and feels light, also at pretty much what Bridgestone say: 4.4kg. Height wise, unmounted the 21’s diameter is 27.4″ (696mm) vs 25.9″ (658mm) on the 19, at 38mm a bit less than the 2 inch/51mm variation you’d expect. And it only cost £83! Interestingly, all three tyres are Made in Japan. Not even Honda can manage that with a whole 300L!

Honda 21 wheelSM Pro 21 TLEXCEL 19 TLHonda 18 rearEXCEL 17 TL
3.9 kg 4.6 kg 4.4 kg5.4 kg5.6 kg
IRC 80/100 21
+ tube		AX41 TL
90/90 21		AX41 TL
90/100 19		IRC 120/80 18
+ tube		AX41 TL
120/90 R17
4.4 kg4.6 kg4.4 kg6 kg5.5 kg
Wheels (with rotors etc) and tyre weights. Spokes on new TL wheels are thicker

It’s eye opening that a set of wheels on a dinky, 150-kilo bike can weigh over 20kg, but they’re right at the coal face, dealing with all sorts of forces and impacts.
I think that on anything from 500cc and 45hp upwards, all this gram counting is unnecessary, but unsprung weight on a 300L matters. Will the seat of my pants notice the difference between a 7.5 kilo Wild and the 6-kilo AX41? Probably not without bluetooth telemetry, but I’d sooner take the lighter AX which still feels pretty rugged for a ‘250’ trailie.

Honda 300L fuel consumption: The Mileage Diaries

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CRF300L Index page

Updated December 2023

Average after >10,000km: 30kpl / 85mpg / 70.8US

100mpg? I don’t think so

Getting to grips with the CRF 300L’s fuel consumption I’ve learned this: while assuming GPS distances and petrol pump volumes are accurate. taking in instrument errors, it took >2000 miles to exceed a true 90mpg.
The best true mileage figure I’ve achieved is 96.5mpg or 34.2 kpl riding slowly with a group.

  • The digital speedo is the usual 8% over, like all vehicles, but with the AX41 17-er on the back the error is now 14%. So I’m only doing 100kph when the speedo shows 114. That’s quite a lot and, although it won’t make my bike any faster, I’ve ordered one of those speedo correction black boxes for 80 quid.
  • The trip odometer on stock 14/40 gearing with a stock IRC tyre read 2.5% over against a GPS over 200 miles. Around 3000 miles, in Morocco I re-verified with the smaller AX41s tyres and in kilometres and the error is currently 4%. So when the bike shows 104km on the trip, it’s actually done 100 (according to GPS). This affects true mpg figures.
  • The ‘average mpg’ readout is always optimistic up to 15%. Typically it shows upper 90s or just over 100mpg, but which can work out at 88mpg true once odo error is corrected.
  • When you optionally switch the mpg read-out to show ‘fuel used since last fill up‘, this figure is also inaccurate and not a reliable indicator of what’s left in the tank. When I tried it in the UK it showed 2.6 gal used (so 0.4 gal left in the 3-gallon tank). But at the pump, calculations proved there was only 0.16gal (0.73L) left. That’s a pint and a half in old money. Switched to metric, I tried it again in Morocco and both times on a ~12-litre fill up there was litre less left in the tank than indicated. In other words read-out suggested it had used 11 litres but the tank took 12 to fill, so there is less left than indicated.

And trying 99 octane E5 fuel didn’t seem to improve mpg or anything else. Mpg was the same as greener E10, but E5 costs 10% more in the UK. I’ll try another tank then revert to regular E10 or whatever I get in Morocco which is E5.
I’ve been told CRFs ‘loosen up’ once over 2000 miles and, following a fast ride from Dorset via London to Sussex, this seemed to be true. Or should I say, the E5 fuel I picked up in Poole seemed to improve the bike and the mpg suddenly jumped, though it had a new chain and tyres at this point too. It belted along comfortably at and indicated 70 much of the way, but perhaps it was just the unnoticed southwesterly at my back.

Nearly as good as it gets – a true 94mpg.

I’ve tried and tried to squeeze a true 100mpg in Morocco. After all, some 310GSs have managed that (usually with light riders) and I got close on my 250L once too. But I don’t think I’ll manage it riding relatively normally. One day I tried an unrushed 5-hour ride over the Atlas to Marrakech. The average kpl went up and up, topping out at ‘36.3’ or about 103 mpg (the highest reading I ever saw was ‘38.4’ or nearly 109mpg). I knew it wouldn’t be anywhere near that and sure enough the corrected figure was a merely 94mpg. But I did get over 400km to the 13.9 litre tank with 1.2 litres left, so that’s a max potential range of about 440km indicated (about 420 true).

It took me over six months to work out how to convert the speedo read-out to kilometres. Turns out all I had to do was R T fekin M carefully and implement the instructions therein (left).

Online fuel converter

Trip reading Tru trip Fill Lit ‘Readout’ True mpg/kpl Notes
109 107 5.6 ’90’ 86.7 / 30.7 Mitas, 45T rear, E10
226 221 11.8 ‘102’ 85.1 / 30.1 IRC, 14/40, E10
222 217 11 ’91’ 89.5 / 31.7 Near accurate avg mpg read out, E10
232 227 11.7 ‘97.3’ 88.1 / 31.2 E10
262 255 13.1 ‘100.4’ 89.2 / 31.6 E5, Dorset trails
222 216 10.3 ‘95‘ 95.6 / 33.8 E5, Accurate average mpg read out
138 7.7 – 81.6 / 28.9New chain, tyres, loaded. Fast M3, slow costa, windy Morocco
167 10.8 ’76’ 68 / 24.1 Windy motorway, Moroccan E5
191 12.7 ’77’ 68.5 / 24.2 Windy motorway
238 11.9 ‘97.2’ 91 / 32.2Pistes, roads to 2500m. Fuel light at 238 ml
216 216 7.16 ‘32.6’ 81.5 / 28.9 Southern Atlas pistes and road
384 368 12.7 ‘31.5’ 82 / 29 Over J Timouka, slow oued to Tata
277 266 9.2 ‘32.9’ 81.5 / 28.9 ABY, Mansoor, Wside
404 388 11.7 ‘36.3’ 94 / 33.2 Slow over Atlas, > 90kph
326 312 9.9 ’32’ 89 / 31.6Tali. Over Atlas, group
272 261 9.4 ‘30.5’ 78.5 / 27.8 Slow piste Timouka
320 307 11 ‘31.3’ 79 / 27.9 Skoura. Fast road, Saro piste
2722618.3‘35.7’88.3 / 31.4RAK over Atlas
3463329.738.196.5 / 34.2Tali, slow mtn roads
3213089.8‘33.9’88.3 / 31.4FZ, piste/road with group
2612518.6‘32.3’82.2 / 29.1Nekob, trans Atlas road, slow mtn piste
37436012.8’33’79.5 / 28.1Slow mountain pistes

300L – Dorset’s Great Western Trail 2

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CRF300L Index page
Dorset’s Great Western Trail 1

The other day’s inaugural run along the TET’s Great Western Trail in Dorset was unnervingly easy and enjoyable. I wasn’t wrong footed and barely put a foot wrong. Today’s westward continuation was going to be my difficult second album.
For more afteride bike impressions, see bottom of the page.

Rights of Way (skip if boring – E&OE)
The last time I looked into it, to establish the status of a right of way in England & Wales (Scotland is a write-off) you had to inspect a county council’s definitive or ‘master’ map (DM) held in its offices and viewable by appointment. This is why people ride wasteland, join clubs or go to Morocco. Now we have the internet county councils publish this map online for all to view anytime for free. Vehicle access wise, the map will identify the very few Byways (aka BOATs), as well as much more numerous Unclassified Country Roads, (UCRs) which I called ORPAs (‘other routes with public access‘, on OS maps). But according to this typical statement, the Dorset Definitive online map (example below) doesn’t have the legal status of the county’s official Definitive Map held in a glass vault in Dorchester Castle. So while you cannot fully rely on the online county master map, it ought to be more up to date than the latest OS edition and is free.
Perhaps the best online map for trail biking is produced and maintained by the Trail Riding Fellowship. It’s viewable at greenroadmap.org.uk where it says guests (non-TRF members) can register and view the map with limited features, but I couldn’t manage it. This is why we like the simplicity of UK TET with the GWT. One 3800-mile gpx download and you have enough to be getting on with.

Only one Byway in red, but quite a few ‘UCRs’ in light and dark blue, some of which join through.

These UCRs or ORPAs – shown on OS maps as small red spaced dots on 50k maps • • • • , or green on 25k • • • • – have been a bit of an eye opener to me just lately, still stuck as I am in the 1980s RUPP era, but ORPAs have been on OS maps since 1997 and RUPPs were downgraded or mass reclassified as Restricted Byways by 2006. All this has passed me by over the decades. Clearly I’ve spent too much time in the desert where, by and large, an RoW is determined by the terrain and you and your vehicle’s ability to navigate it.

UCRs might be sealed or just tracks, passable or otherwise, but providing they don’t dead end at some backwoods ‘dueling banjo’ meths compound (as I stumbled on the other day), you have the promise of a through route. So I can now verify that track I followed in mid-Wales the other week was a UCR and doesn’t even get any special annotation to the Powys Definitive online map. As DK and DW, a pair of intrepid travel bikers and TRF lifers clarified to me “In 99% of cases, you can legally ride a bike on a UCR“. When you view the Dorset GWT on an OS background, you can see it aligns with UCRs and the much less frequent Byways as well as regular metalled yellow ‘C’ roads.

An ORPA or UCR in Dorset
Mid-Wales kosher!

The TET gets offensive
The forecast was a bit shaky; I’d probably get a hose-down at some stage but would dry off eventually, given global climate patterns. I was planning on reaching Lyme Regis, about the same distance as the other day, though something about today’s route looked more challenging and maybe more typical of the GWT.

Maiden Newton to Lyme – only 36 miles. No biggie then…
I set off along the same trail through Sares Wood to Tolpuddle to make sure I didn’t make it up.
That’s more like it! I feel at home now.
I get in a tangle around Dorchester and then miss the road to Maiden Newton; I find I often mess up the nav when I half know the way; a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, grasshopper. To make amends I consider this shortcut down a hillside to Maiden, but at a gate I re-scrutinise the Garmin’s OS map and it’s only a Bridleway, which I confirm later on the county DM. Can’t be going there.
Back on the GWT, I turn onto my first trail, sorry – unclassified road. I’ve made the Garmin’s GWT tracklog green to make it easier to see.
I can do this!
I think ‘Public Route’ may be a kind of ORPA. Back on the asphalt, my front tyre seems to be making a lot of noise. It was 19psi this morning, not a pressure I run. There’s a lot of debris down the middle of these hedgebound, single track lanes. Have I got a slow puncture on the presumably crappy OEM IRC tyre? (Yes). I’ll top up at the next servo.
Many roads lead to Hooke. I wonder if houses in Poorton are cheaper than Powerstock? Hooke in the Domesday Booke
Hooke’s dinky, red sandstone church of St Giles. ‘Only’ 600 years old.
Unsuitable you say? Hold my beer!
I still find it hard to believe I’m allowed to actually ride ‘footpaths’ like this. I am what I am and I’m one of the sheeple ;-)
I emerge by a field where hidden ruts alongside a 2000-volt electric fence help concentrate the mind.
First gate of the day – good for the abs.
Here comes that weather.
I pass through Beaminster town with half an eye out for an airline, before burrowing back into the undergrowth like a motorised hedgehog.
Never seen a BOAT sign before. Encouraging.
Oh dear, what’s up now?
I’m knocked back by a couple of limestone rock steps on a stoney slope. It would have needed quite a launch plus some artful finesse – not a combo me or the 300L share at this time, thanks for asking. Alone, a bad fall could end… badly. The TRF call this lane an ‘old favourite’. Not me.
I don’t even think about it and walk the bike up in 1st, but it gets jammed on the bigger step, then the chain comes off. A bigger tyre with less air might have clawed its way up. Never had a chain derail on a moto but at least it’s not broken nor has cracked the crankcase (had that on a KLX once – ruined engine). Luckily, this time I left home with tools. I drag it back down – this is where old-school tubular rear racks pay off. I prise out the very slack chain which easily rolls back onto the sprocket. Did the derailing stretch it so much? Along with my imminent flat tyre and the darkening skies, I’m a bit unnerved.
Nearby there’s evidence that fourbies struggle here too.
This lane – Meerhay or Mintern’s Hill (50.825716, -2.733489) throws me, but there’s no mention of it online. Even coming downhill I’d think twice, but it must be just me and my age.
Returning to Beaminster, a delivery driver stops and asks about getting through. He knows about the BOAT and meanwhile, points me to a car garage in town.
I pop in for a shot of air, just as the clouds unzip, let loose and shake off. Aired up to 30psi to get me home, I pretend to fiddle with the GPS until the downpour passes.
I’m aiming to rejoin the GWT as it heads down to Bridport. At a crossroads I stop and tighten the chain with my new Rally Raid tool. It took 2.5 full turns of the nut. WTF? It wasn’t hanging off after a wash and lube two days ago. Is the Regina suddenly shot at just 1500 miles on this 28-hp donkey? Very odd, but better to know now than on Jebel Saro.
Beferned phone box. A sign of the times.
Beferned 300L. Not more of the psychedelic type, I hope.
Unsuitable …
… for XXL hay tractors
My mojo has rebounded so I continue west out of Bridport towards Lyme on the GWT. North of Symondsbury I come across a ‘closed road’ sign. Shame, it’s a nice track – Hell Lane in fact, as featured in ABR magazine a few years back.
It’s a ‘public route to a public path’ which must mean something legally.
Had I read the TRO more closely I’d have seen it expired last year. Specsavers, I know, but ditch the red sign already!
I try a way round to the north but I’m blundering around. This isn’t a moto RoW.
The chain thing and all the rest has worn me out so I scoot south to the seaside for a seafood snack by the seashore. Let’s try West Bay. I was hoping for calamari at a quaint 1770s cobbles and thatch Smugglers Inn – I get 1970s bucket & spade in batter with chips.
Little West Bay seems to be a bikers’ hang out.
Heck, they even have a Helmet City! The sweet smell of creaking leather…
Recognise that cliff?
Yep it’s ‘Broadchurch’. Remember all the hype over that show?
That night a nearby cliff slid down and made the news. That would have been a heck of a reverse tsunami.
A couple of weeks later, after a lot of rain, West Bay / ‘Broadchurch’ cliff, itself had a big rockfall.
Lyme in the far distance, one for next time.
I head home on backroads. It’s Chesil Beach! Never been there neither, here’s my chance.
Gravel; large amounts. ‘The origin of the beach is a matter for scientific speculation‘ says an info board.
Bit harsh.
Backroading homewards, near TE Lawrence’s grave, two roads diverged in a wood and I took the ORPA less traveled by. And that has made all the difference; I got home 4 minutes earlier. I’ve done 100 miles and I am now quite tired.

After thoughts on L
I’m getting a feel for the 300L off-road. No, really! The stock gearing feels spot on for this sort of riding; a full load might change that. But the fuelling is a bit on-offy in lower gears; good for engine breaking. I recall the WR250R (same hp) had the same issue and there were alternative, slow-action throttles or some such available. It’s an efi thing.
The stock tyres are good but I don’t think will prove very durable; iirc my CRF250L IRC rear didn’t even make 3000 miles in SW USA. As said, the Rally Raid suspension seems dialled in, or if not it won’t be hard to do so. I notice the throttle cables jam solid on full left lock as a result of the taller Renthals; to be expected for a stoop-free standing stance – without risers! Easy to fix or not that important. On the road it zips up to an indicated 60 – going faster needs a big yank on the handle; it’s a 286cc after all.
I do wonder about this 19er front business, but trying is knowing. In return for on-road stability I hope the steering won’t get too sluggish on the trails. I have a spare front hub which I was going to lace to an unbranded 19-er and flog, but I think now I’ll fit an SM Pro 21 MT (tubeless; and at £170, £50 cheaper than an Excel) instead. Then I’ll have a three-wheel full tubeless set up: 17 + 21/19. The 2.15 SM Pro MT is half an inch wider than the stock 1.60 x 21 which will mean a heavier, wider tyre that won’t help trail agility, but might aid faster, bend swinging stability and wear.

I’m still not fully satisfied with my seat bodge. It has a dip in the front so it’s either fully sat back (OK for high speed) or perched up front. This may be where they shaved it down to make it lower. It would be nice to have a fully flat seat to slide around on to spread the pain.
A mate sent me a pic of his normal L seat (left) and there is definitely more meat to it; he’s my weight and finds it fine. I could’ve got mine rebuilt locally in leopard skin metal flake, but decided to simply buy a new black OEM 2023 seat from Partzilla discounted to $105 (30% cheaper than a red 2021 seat). Add shipping and UK tax and that’ll be about £150. I ought to get most of that back for my low seat.

300L – Dorset’s Great Western Trail 1

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CRF300L Index page
Dorset’s Great Western Trail 2

This summer I find myself relocated in the English countryside far from London and with a usable trail bike, not some fraken-mutt. ‘Dorset’s good for green lanes’ I was told, but it didn’t look like it on an OS map.
As it is, I gave up on English green laning long ago, convincing myself that, certainly the southeast of the country was too congested for trail bikers to mix with ramblers, Nimbies, Just Stop Trailbikers and all the rest. I know well it’s the same limited access story – worse, in fact – with river paddling in England. A ride around adjacent mid-Wales a couple of years ago didn’t raise my hopes much either: beautiful country but more gates than Terminal 5 on a bank holiday getaway.
But we can thank the Trans Europe Trail (TET) initiative, based on the successful BDR project across the fabulous western US – some of which I’ve ridden and which may have been inspired by the legendary TAT. Supported by Adventure Spec among others, knowledgeable local volunteers across Europe have threaded together a network of TET routes which you might struggle to unravel yourself using maps. It’s all laid out on a plate and once figured out, TET releases 1000 of miles of trail biking adventures in the form on a free .gpx tracklog to stick in your digital navigation device. See the TET link above. Users send in updates and you can view this post as one. In a way it’s a bit my like route finding guidebooks. There’s also a Dorset TRF behind a private FB page (not all regional TRF groups are like this). I was happy to send a donation to TET.

A mile of track here and there seems insubstantial, but thread them all together and you’re in business, and the road sections give you a chance to recover. And compared to up north, ancient Dorset dodged the last Ice Cap and is thick with prehistoric trails most of which became today’s footpath, lanes, green or otherwise. It means there are enough footpaths and bridleways to share. I also suspect inland Dorset is helpfully overshadowed by its spectacular Jurassic Coast. Add no conurbations away from Poole/Bournemouth, no National Trails, outstanding medieval cathedrals, or even motorways. Things might be different in Devon and Cornwall.
Of course most of England won’t be like North Africa or SW USA where dirt trails can fill a day, but it’s the best we have and gets you out exploring your nearby countryside on your bike.

GWT southern arm

The Great Western Trail is one of two named TET UK sub-routes – an 800-mile loop reaching down from Wiltshire to Land’s End and back. It’s pitched at more agile trail bikes, not giant Advs.
It has a southern arm of about 60 miles from Poole to west Dorset. Being close to it, I set off from Wareham one afternoon on the 300L to see what I might find. I fully expected to encounter frequent or locked gates, road closures (TROs) and maybe even hostile natives unschooled in the legal status of green lanes. I could not have been more wrong.

First, I needed to fill up. The true (verified) mpg was actually 31kpl or only 88mpg. It’s not looking good for a true 100mpg
I’m trying pricier E5 this time. Some say it’s better all round, including mpg.
But 99 octane? I never knew there was such a thing away from a drag strip. No wonder the planet’s on fire.
A fellow L-head told me there’s a setting on the dash to show volume consumed since last fill; a more useful way of gauging range once you’ve verified your capacity (13.8 litres or on my Acerbis). Actually my bike seems only to display gallons, maybe because it’s set to miles, but my volume is 3 Imp gallons.

Is the bike running smoother and pulling better on E5, or do I just think it is?
Still, it’s nice to be bimbling along deserted backroads and heading into the unknown.
North of Bovingdon the tracklog flicks left up a wooded track.
It feels deeply transgressive to be riding here, and in sleepy Dorset too, not the North York Moors. Can it really be a right of way?
Looking later at a 50K OS map, red dots indicate ‘other routes with public access‘, or ORPA as I will now call them (below), along with the better known BOATs and RUPPs. Never knew that one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if like some of the latter, an OPRA does not necessarily indicate a vehicular rights of way. On the day, how can you tell? You have to hope the TET Linesmen did their homework and the status is unchanged.

A very pleasant 4km trail through the woods leads to the famous village of Tolpuddle.
Home of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, hard-up farm workers who, following a pay cut in 1834, formed a legal workers’ union but got trapped and 7 years transportation for ‘swearing a secret oath’. Again, you’d expect a story like this up north, not in quaint Dorset.
The TET takes a bridge over the A35 and winds its way along farm tracks.
Surely any minute now I’m going to get harangued by some angry bloke in a tractor?
My first gate. Here we go, I thought…
But what can be better than a lonesome track winding its way down a grassy valley, like a scene from the Hobbit.
Down the bottom some blokes reposing by a pond gave me a chummy wave. Later on, some dog walkers did the same. Where are the brandished fists? Have I unknowingly brushed against a psychedelic fern and slipped into a parallel universe?
The post office in Milborne St Andrew after a shave and a short back and sides.
Internet fact: Dorset has more thatched roofs than any other British county, with nearly 10% or around 4 per square mile.
I knew it was out here somewhere. This week there’s been much chatter about the Portland barge. The bloke at the MoT place was not impressed. Portland is to Dorset as Barrow in Furness and Windscale are to the Lake District.
I toodle along deserted country lanes which, but for their asphalt coatings, would all be BOATS, etc.
A semi overgrown shortcut. On an OS map this is marked as a yellow road.
It leads down to Piddletrenthide. All this Piddle and Puddle is Olde Saxon for ‘stream’ or ‘wetland’.
Piddletrenthide high street after I digitally tidy away unsightly cables.
Immaculate, postcard pretty villages like this are two-a-penny in west Dorset.
Interestingly, there is a misleading T-junction sign at the top of this road, but it leads to an unsealed BOAT on the TET which I suppose would flumox a campervan.
I pass through Cerne Abbas, home of the famous Giant.
You’d hope this is a pre-Christian representation or someone is going to be saying a lot of Hail Marys.
It was actually carved in the Saxon era.
A stony trail leads from Up Cerne up Seldon Hill. Along with ruts hidden in long grass, about as technical as it got. Hereabouts the trail peaks at 260m (850 feet) and joins the main GWT loop to Lands End.
I decided to wear my Moto 3 for the first time since my AT debacle, but next time I’ll wear the HJC so I look less Darth. This goodwill can’t last, can it? Obviously there is much to be said for bimbling along and silencers the size of locomotive pistons, but being alone in mid-week must aid tolerance too.
We walked this way one very hot day a few weeks ago. Also very enjoyable.
The rolling hills of west Dorset. It’s great to be out but don’t show this picture to Theresa May.
The L occluded by thistles and grasses. The bike is of course effortless to manage but around here I check the tyres which seem a bit hard. In fact they’re at a lowly 25/20; maybe I’m under-eating. The Rally Raid suspension is barely taxed. I do wonder how the bike will ride such trails with the fat 19er front I have in the pipeline. Nothing I’ll ride today couldn’t have been managed on an AT, GS, T7 or a Chinese 125 scooter, come to that.
My second and last gate of the day which has been a big surprise – or is it just mid-Wales that is gate crazed? Last year on the Glyndwrs Way I counted 70 gates in 15 miles walking. A sheep thing perhaps.
Wessex in mid-summer – not a gigafactory for miles (off to the left in Somerset, actually).
Unusually overgrown. I’m getting splattered with exploding seeds.
I reach a ruin and realise I’ve followed a footpath by mistake. The red tracklog line on my Montana is extremely thin and hard to see. I fiddle with the settings but can only change the colour to green. Later I find my answer:
Who may have lived here and where did they go? Why did they leave the place in such a mess?
Road signs from a Famous Five era. Many of Enid Blyton’s FF adventures were based on Dorset where she vacationed annually for decades.

Crossing the infant Frome near Cattistock and which meets the tide from Poole harbour at Wareham quay (below).

Wraxall Lane – another ORPA. It gets a little muddy; the CRF tiptoes through.

I pop out of the thatch and meadow wonderland at Maiden Newton on the A356 north of Dorchester and where this ornate ancient church catches my eye. It’s now nearly 6pm; 2.5 hours to cover 40 easy, fun miles. I’m hungry so it’s either buy something or ride home. I head back 25 miles. From Maiden it looks like the same distance along the GWT to Lyme Regis on the Devon border. I can’t wait to tick that one off and maybe inch my way west with what remains of the summer.
Who knew in 2023 I’d rediscover trail riding in England after 40 odd years! Sure no track is more than 2 miles to the next road, but old tracks are thick as ascents down here, and it’s not really about what’s under your wheels, it’s where they lead you. And as we know it’s the ‘Blue Highways‘ and dirt roads where adventures and discoveries are easiest to find. More to come.

Dorset’s Great Western Trail 2

CRF300L: Midsummer ride: saddle, screen & mpg

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Project 300L Index Page

You probably know that feeling at the end of a long day’s ride in the UK. You’re tired and butt-sore but the bike is warmed right through and after hours in the saddle you’re in the zone and fully at one with the machine, darting through roundabouts with a flick of the hips and tuned in to the hazards around you.

I left Dorset for the 130-mile ride to the ABR bike show armed for discomfort and a low average speed. The two-lane A350 covers half the ride and there was less than ten miles of dual carriageway on the whole run. Instead it was old-time motoring with frequent roundabouts, occasional traffic lights and small town bypasses, plus the odd individual who thought it best to keep under 40 just in case. Fine by me on a slow bike. With the 300L’s limited ability for decisive overtakes, I sat back and watched the mid-summer verdure inch by and the mpg creep up to over 100.

In just a few years the ABR Festival has deservedly become a hugely popular event. And as a regular speaker there, it’s also one of the best organised of its kind with loads of things to actually do and a switched on admin crew inviting some serious people, not the usual Adv-UK suspects like me.

Nearly four hours later I rolled into Ragley Hall much less crippled than I thought I’d be considering my diverse musculoskeletal ailments – aka: getting old. These were the benefits of an enforced slow place. Narrow saddled ‘two fifty’ trail bikes are notoriously uncomfortable over long distances but my one-hour presentation and subsequent chatting proved much more draining, not being used to that either.
I spent the night in a garden in nearby Upton and next day headed off towards mid-Wales to rediscover some of the backroads I’d walked and cycled on the Glyndwr’s Way last summer. At some point I’d need to head back for another ABR talk at 4pm. After yesterday’s ~200 miles, this time the thinned-down seat soon gave rise to that familiar discomfort, a feeling as old as all my biking years. But also one that’s fixable.

Lovely mid-Wales

Rhayader – Wales’ trail-biking Mecca, such as it is – proved to be that turn-around point, but rolling through the town, no cafe jumped out at me invitingly. So I followed a single track road out towards Abbeycwmhir on the GW and where a back way wound its way on to Llanbadarn Fynydd (GW) which I knew had a cafe.
Walled in by lush summer hedgerows, a narrow country lane turned to gravel which led into a forest. Is this a rideable trail I wondered? Why no prohibition signs or locked gates?

My Garmin is loaded with OS mapping which showed this was not* a green lane (‘BOAT’, etc). But it led less than two miles to Bwlch y Sarnau on the Glyn’ Way, a deserted hamlet at over 1000 feet whose name evoked pre-Christian Wales and where there was a self-service ‘porch cafe’. It also saved a long diversion, so unexpectedly I found myself outlaw off-roading in mid-Wales. How thrilling! There were a few MTB tyre imprints in the earth but nothing from a moto. Doing this is bad form and not something I’d knowingly do again, but in just a few minutes I reached Bwlch via a couple of gates. There was no one around, same as last year walking and pushbiking in this area.
* Turns out it was a green lane after all – a UCR or ORPA. Explained here.

Let’s off road!

At Bwlch cafe I chatted with some bikepackers having a brew during a three-day tour. This is such a great region for that as I found last year. But for legit trail biking, a quick glance at the OS map on my Garmin didn’t reveal many permitted green lanes much longer than what I’d just illegally ridden, In search of uninterrupted off-road adventures, that’s why I went to the Sahara in the first place way back in 1982.

Byways around Rhayader but read this first. Then again, there is always the Welsh section of the TET which will probably be quiet backroads with occasional off-asphalt excursions and doubtless a very nice ride across rural Wales.

By the time I’d selfied myself and finished my cuppa, the Garmin’s ETA back to the ABR show was cutting it a bit fine. Sod the mpg – I’d have to crack on!

Mamils & Saddle Sores
In getting lowered, my seat has lost some padding, and the slippery Cool Cover saw me slide forward on a downslope; a common annoyance with some bike saddles.
As a back up I’d packed my padded lycra cycling shorts which they say can improve moto saddle comfort, but first I pulled out one of two slabs of 20mm rubber foam (neoprene) last used on my Himalayan, and sat on it for the two-hour ride back to Ragley Hall. The anterior agony slowly subsided but the bare rubber was too grippy so I slid around inside my loose trousers which wasn’t so comfy either. Plus I couldn’t up stand to aire mon derriere as the pad would’ve blown away.

I rolled up to the Bridgestone tent with 10 minutes to spare and did my chat with Simon & Lisa (left), but apart from the fact that it was another lovely mid-summer’s evening, I wasn’t looking forward to the four-hour ride back home. So I decided to do something about it and set about shoving the foam pad underneath the Cool Cover. If it worked well I’d trim it all properly later.
It made me wonder do you want a grippy seat surface or not? I do notice grippy seat covers for trail bikes on ebay. It must be related to riding – active off-roading or low-energy road touring plus what you’re wearing too; how close a fit and the fabric’s own grippiness. With my baggy cotton cargo pants, the Cool Cover is slippery which can cause friction, but sat directly on the neoprene pad back from Wales, the grip was massive and I slide around inside my trousers which was as bad. I do seem to recall leather trousers which I wore for years helped prolong comfort, whether down to good grip on seat vinyl or the close fit.
Heading home with the neoprene underneath the Cover, the saddle was levelled off and I slid about less on deceleration. It was all round a big improved on the sore morning’s ride and a few days after I got home I trimmed the two pieces of foam to fit the 300L’s seat, glued them together and fitted them under the Cool Cover. The seat is now about 35″ (890mm), 14mm more than before (half being the airy Cool Cover mesh) but a whole lot more comfortable. See more bottom of the page.

Other comfort matters
Leaving Morocco in March, I retired my old X-Lite X551 after ten years. The vent never worked well (wrong angles for upright trail bikes), the sun-visor lever fell off years ago and after multiple removal and washing, the lining was coming adrift.
But I’m a longtime big fan of this type of lid so got myself an HJC i30 for about £110. Grey comes shiney not matt as implied online but so far so good. It fits snugly with quick-clip chinstrap, the sun visor lever is much easier to operate and the top air vent is more effective. It remains to be seen how long the lining fittings will last after regular washing. But the HJC not quiet or, to be precise, I’m a bit too tall for the 300L’s unadjustable screen and the buffeting makes a racket, even with earplugs. Crouching down puts me out of the turbulence but is unsustainable.

Back home I remembered I bought myself an MRA XCreen adjustable draught deflector (left) for the Him but ended up not needing it.
I dug it out, made sense of the instructions and decided to clamp it to the screen with a view to drilling and bolting it on if it proved effective or necessary (you get both options in the mounting kit). Articulated arms on adjustable splines lock it in position so you can set the optimal angle at a standstill. It looks like it ought to work funneling air up and over my head and looks better than the simple spoiler Touratech still sell and which I tried on my XT660Z 15 years ago. You can view my meticulously annoted Mileage Diaries here.

Other than that the ride back with just a refuel break was great. The pad under the Cool Cover soothed the posterior on what ended up being 500 miles of two-lane blacktop over two days. On a bigger bike I don’t think I’d have been that much quicker on these types of roads without lots of speeding and other risks.
I never rode my 300L stock but the Rally Raid suspension definitely keeps the bike in shape darting around roundabouts. I got in about 9pm, visor and screen thick with bug splatter but still with energy to pre-wash the bike with Muck-Off and lube the chain while it was warm. It all bodes well for the long ride to Morocco later in the year.

True mpg
The 300L has one of those handy average fuel consumption displays and my ride up to ABR saw it settle at 102mpg as I rode through the gate. Pretty good but this is an estimate. For the true mpg I evaluated the bike’s odometer error off the GPS over 200 miles. Result: the bike indicated 205.6 miles over a GPS recorded distance of 200 miles. Not bad but 2.5% over.

Somewhere on the ride up I topped up with 11.8 litres over a corrected (true) 221 miles. That’s 355km which divided by 11.8 = 30.1 kpl or only 85.5mpg (see table on the left) – over 15% out. On the bright side the two litres left in the 13.8-L Acerbis tank meant another potential 60km which gives a possible range of well over 400km. That will do nicely, whatever the mpg is. It sure is great not having to think about fuel twice a day.
The next fill up on the way home included the rushed ride back from Wales with the display now indicating ’91mpg’. I put in 11 litres over a true 217 miles, which is 350km. That was 31.8kpl or 90mpg. A lot more accurate and oddly, a big improvement on the slow ride up, despite the faster pace. I suppose a full tank’s worth at steady pace may have helped, or could the bike’s computer be ‘learning’, as I’ve read they can do? We shall see but I am still hoping to get a true 100mpg one day.

Update:
I set off to the Isle of Wight a few days later with the seat padded to full length and the MRA fitted. I soon noticed I was not dropping my helmet visor as soon as possible. With a guesstimated angle set at my eye level the MRA was working just right, shoving the windrush over my head, not into my face. Now all I heard was muted tyre and engine noise instead of wind and a steady 60 was much more tolerable.

Join not good

But fix one thing and another flaw becomes more apparent. My glued up join between the two bits of old neoprene was noticeable. Can’t be having that. I have time so may as well spend it trying to get it right.
I replaced it with a single piece of 20mm neoprene: a 250mm x 500 slab was 20 quid. Note, even with a sharp knife or scalpel it’s hard to get a smooth cut. Scissors are better, but anyway the grubby edges are hidden under the Cool Cover.