750 2-up miles in a day

motorcyclenews.com Used Bikes Editor Angus Farquhar went off on an endurance test of his long-term test Yamaha FZ6 on Tuesday (Nov 8) to see how well he and it coped with 750 miles in a day.

And he did it with a pillion on board. Farquhar started from Peterborough and headed down to do a lap of southern England from Dover along the coast to Axminster in Devon before taking the quick route back home..

And after 21 hours on the bike he finally made it home at 4am this morning (Wednesday Nov 9).

He called in with updates and pictures from the trip throughout the day, see below for the whole saga.

4:00am: And he’s made it. Despite coming home ‘The quick way’ it more than five hours to get back from Devon to Peterborough.

“There were just so many 50mph limits on the M4 that we couldn’t make any decent progress. And when we did manage to get going it was so bitterly cold that we kept having to stop to warm up, despite multiple layers of thermals.”

“We only finished four hours behind schedule, which I don’t think is too bad. Trouble was I didn’t factor in enough time for stops or the weather. And I definately didn’t plan for having to double back looking for a lost bag [see below]. Next time I’ll know better.”

8:00pm: Just after leaving Southampton the rain came down… “It was so heavy we couldn’t see a thing. It was just lke someone was throwing buckets of water over us. It took us two and a half hours to do the final 80 miles to Axminster because I just couldn’t see where we were going!”

4.35pm: Angus has just contacted us from Southampton to comment that both rider and pillion are suffering from a lack of rear cushioning, but are now back on schedule. With 350 miles covered and motorway sections ahead, the only problem is whether they can walk when they get home.

2:00pm: With 250 miles covered and the roads opening up, Angus is in Hastings, thankful for great weather to make up some time.

11.35am: We haven’t heard from Angus for a while, so we give him a call and find him taking an early lunch by the Marina in Dover. He’s a little behind schedule after two key hold-ups – 1. Going across country from Haverhill to the M25 proved a mistake – the road is riddled with 30mph limits. 2. A bumbag-pillion interface disaster.

Angus explains 2: “Marissa’s (his pillion on this trip) bumbag fell off – which held her wallet, keys, phone and everything… We weren’t sure exactly when it had fallen off so had to start retracing our journey.

“We were extremely lucky. Some kind soul must have found it in the middle of the road and they left it on a bollard in easy view from the road. We only had to go back 10 miles before finding it – intact!”

8am: First stop after 55 mile ride down A142 and A14 to pick up pillion in Haverhill. Time for a cuppa before getting going again…

7am: Ready to leave home in March, Cambs… the sun’s just up and it’s dry!

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