Day 3 - Bye bye Isle of Wight…

Woke up again at 5:30am, room too hot and then in the early morning it got cold. No temperature control in the room just a small window open in the bathroom. Anyway, last few hours on the IoW were spent packing and riding around the island, getting confused at roundabouts which have sign-posts for East Cowes at two exits, probably a hangover from WW2 or just a blatant attempt to confuse the locals or tourists.

Waiting for the ferry I was joined in the queue by an islander on a custom Harley making his way to Winchester to visit family.

Time to say goodbye to the IoW, it's been a blast.

Next stop Sammy Miller's Motorcycle Museum, which is located just north of New Milton, Hampshire. A fairly straightforward route from Southampton on the A35. An ample car park, could probably fit all O55 Motorcycle Group members 😁

There was a Bike meet going on at the museum some members of the Dorset BSA Owners Group plus 20/30 others. First thing was to grab breakfast, before taking a look at the bikes outside and inside the museum.

Outside the museum was a trike laiden with English flags, several BSA's, a few Triumph's, and a Norvin amongst others. Inside the museum there were over 500 bikes, I spent 1-2 hours wondering around the two floors and several rooms of bikes and memorabilia. The first room had early exploratory bikes, some one offs, never to be built again.

A great museum that I could have spent hours walking around, but I had a long ride ahead so limited myself to a couple of hours. Took some great photos. All the bikes in the museum are fully restored/working.

Alas, the museum has no Norman's, a bit of a surprise really - a friend of mine works at Dover Transport Museum which has every Norman model except one. I asked the lady on reception who told me he Dad used to have a Norman and she would love to see them - Sammy had one a while back, a Norman Nippy, but it was uneconomical to restore so it was sold on.

From the museum, I rode down the A31 taking some (unplanned) country lanes, before joining the A35 down towards Honiton. A couple of stops offs on the way to take scenic photos and talk to horses, not that these country horses had much to say….

Part of the way down the A31, my reserve light came on, went looking for a petrol station, the next three were all on the other side of the central reservation. I finally found one after what seemed like an age but when I checked it was only 5 miles into reserve. Panic over, £24 to fill up, that'll keep me going for another 150 miles.

Met a few more Percy Pigs on the way, who i had to “thank” for moving to the left as i was filtering 😊

Arrived at Paignton sea front about 4:30pm, the hotel was suffering from the recent Crowdstrike issue, check-in took nearly 30mins whilst the receptionist tried to get the computer working!

My body was aching in places I didn't know existed, but my gel pants are working well and my bum doesn't ache, probably the only thing that doesn't 😅

A quick mileage update:

Starting mileage 35531

Day 1: 35721 190 miles

Day 2: 35794 73 miles

Day 3: 35971 177 miles

Total = 440 miles