Easter Monday Rideout 24th March 2008

The morning looked clear and crispy as I draped layers of warm clothing over my body, thankfully the snow from yesterday had gone. Now suitably layered I waddled to the garage and coaxed our shiny black 1800 Goldwing from under its cover and out onto the driveway, I climbed on, plugged in the ipod, waved goodbye to Julie as she tended JAFFA the horse, she felt “off it” today her neck was playing her up this weekend hence my solo ride today.

I dropped onto the A1 at Doncaster opening the throttle wide, the bike sucked in cold air surging forward up the empty old Roman road. I looked left and right, the sky was huge, blue and empty, oh what a lovely day to be out on the bike, tears ran down my cheeks as cold air rushed at me and stung my cheeks I dropped my visor and got comfortable for the short blast northward to Ripon market square.

The intention was to meet up with Barry from Appleyards on one of his organised days out. He would start from the showroom in Keighley at around 09.00 to meet any who fancied the day out. I intended to meet them in Ripon market square at our favourite bacon sandwich shop. Its Barry’s turn to buy!

Hungrily I hurried into the empty car park parking next to an unattended black and grey 1500, I walked across the square to the shop for one of their huge bacon “belly fillers” only to find it shut. Oh No! I forgot today was actually Easter Monday. I heard ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly’ resonate around the square, “Hey up buggerlugs he’s here” I said to myself.  Barry had brought 4 other bikes. The bikes pulled over onto the empty square the duo of wings quickly quadrupled in size, we shuffled around the bikes, I said hello to well padded bikers, and a traffic warden as she stood looking on before finally feeling the need to say “move over there, into the bike bay please” Out of the way of what! I mused, there only three or four cars sat in the square, it was Bank Holiday Monday hardly anything was open and it was too cold for window shopping. Honestly, you put some people in a uniform and they think they are “Numero uno” I turned away and chatted to an old boy who was a biker many moons ago and wanted to tell me what he rode when he was a lad. We stood around grinning then John started wiping his bike already! Someone threw an odd comment about his bike being dirty… it works every time!

Suitably stretched we rode out on the usual route along the A6108 towards Masham, I had come this way with Barry lots of times previously, today we were able to see more of the land as the trees were devoid of foliage, It was nice and sunny but still bbloody ccold! In the distance to our left lay the Yorkshire Dales National Park I saw the distant hill tops had a dusting of snow, it looked really stunning. Down here in the lowlands with the pre-spring browns and greens, it looked like a different country, the sheep looked really woolly white, (Denise shivered and eyed up their coats in envy) spring lambs played gaily with each other.

I sat at the back of our group of seven bikes, I was covering the back door again for Barry we commented about the stunning scenery he pointed out a few interesting places over the CB. It was going to be a lovely day if not a little on the cold side as we scooted along the roads at an easy pace. In front of me rode Ken Bates and his good lady, these two were very seasoned travellers I decided, looking at the abundance of stickers on their 1500, purloined from far away warm places. In front of him sat the white Snow Princess, a white clean 1800 rode by Nigel and Denise, then came Steve on his dark 1500 then Dave and his lady on a cool blue 1800 and of course at the lead was Barry and Tina on the latest bike from Applyards, if you cant bring the people to see the your products then take your products to the people!

We left the security of the lowlands and climbed high along a crest topping road, this was known to us as “The old tank road” It ran past some army ranges, light patches of snow lay either side of us, the temperature had dropped to two degrees, and it was colder now but at the same time beautiful.

Being in a car one would have hardly noticed the day as one sat snugly with oily heat blowing from the engine in front. One must surely miss the essence of the day cocooned in a tin box like this?  I noticed cock pheasants strutting along and the odd partridge hugging the ground a few yards to my right, beautiful but maligned Buzzards circling above, light brown feathers showed of their under bellies, a light crisp cold breeze cleansed over us. It was going to be one of those “good to be alive” days! Being in a car one would miss all this as one perused if one would need ones coat when the Tan Hill public house was reached.
We stopped at the last crest before Tan Hill, a twenty metre stretch of snow and ice lay compacted across the road, Barry tested it with his boot and waved people forward, people gingerly negotiated it, tottering on tiptoes wobbling and worrying! Dave tried for a soft bit …but it wasn’t! Steve had a go next and breezed across on his 1500. The York duo had a long look, Im sure I saw Lynne prod him forward. I gazed through streaming eyes at the windswept and bare land it was so clear you could see the A66 away on the horizon as it thread its way across the barren land towards Barnard Castle. Im sure I saw a polar bear, well this is Antarctica isn’t it? Soon everyone was safely across, it was my turn next, picking my line I proceeded across with my feet down… just in case. It was only twenty metres or so of snow and ice but none of us had much practice riding £18,000 of motorbike over this stuff!

We parked up at the pub and  dashed inside to grab a spot by the huge open fire, the little dog was convinced to vacate his spot by the fire, the chickens and house sheep were out manoeuvred today so hung around outside in the doorway. Denise contemplated visiting the toilet, she had one pair of jeans two jumpers and two sheep stuffed inside her bike kit, and she didn’t relish the struggle to zip up again afterwards. However, the needs of nature got the better of her and off she waddled. What the people in the pub thought as we chunky adventurers made our way through to the toilet…all 12 of us, was anybodies guess. All that could be heard was the Rip! Rip! Rip! of Velcro followed by a satisfying “AAAHHH”! My extremities had packed up and gone to warmer climes so it took me a while to get sorted….Girls you are so so lucky! Denise returned to the bar and was velcroed back together by our chuckling girls overseen by equally chuckling husbands clutching cups of tea. We all followed suit and secured our bits before moon walking out. Barry had us pose for the team photo. We had the frozen waste of Antarctica and the Tan Hill Pub in the background.

We heaved ourselves onto the bikes heading of line astern northwards  on the tiny one car track towards Kirkby Stephen, finally joining the A685 south onto the A683 into Sedbergh, travelling along this familiar road we came across a deceptive corner where I had a  “bit of a moment” months ago, it looked so easy from this direction, what on earth was I thinking off back then? We pulled over at the bike stop at Kirkby Lonsdale for a tea and burger, Kens young lad was there with his mates wrapped up tight against the cold, he stuffed a burger through grinning teeth in spite of the cold day quite a few bikers where here enjoying the day as much as us, we looked at the bikes chatted a while, inspected the toilet before moving on, this time towards Settle along the swift A65 and its cash collecting speed cameras. We fuelled up in Settle a as grey clouds began to gather again. Snow began to fall, on through Horton in Ribblesdale we rode the snow came whipped across us horizontally peppering bike and rider alike. The normally captivating Ribblesdale Viaduct was a mere row of distant grey smudges to our left, no posing here today!  Car folk were having tea at the tea hut and stood around lifelessly hands firmly stuffed in pockets and gawped at us through a tiny woolly orifice. We gave it a miss today and carried on to Hawes instead, we left the snow behind as we came to a stop at the café. Presently a small un-faired bike pulled in as we sat inside drinking tea, the two lads got off they stood knocking snow from the folds of their jackets I was looking at the trainers of the pillion rider who turned out to be Nigel’s lad again they were all iced up!. Along with his bike jacket he wore mucky white trainers, jeans and a helmet stuffed with several scarves, yet he wore the biggest grin, oh yes! I remember those days well, when just being out on the bike was enough!

The snow had been left behind to be replaced by the smiling current bun and its warming rays. Mother Nature warmed us, layers were peeled back we fairly skipped aboard our bikes; its funny how the sun brightens people up isn’t it? It was getting to the end of a great day; we split up as we head towards Aysgarth. Barry led his group peeling off towards Skipton. The rest of us bound for Ripon and the A1, I followed behind the two dark 1500s piloted by Ken and John, and I could hear Barry talking on the CB before disintegrating as distance got the upper hand. I peeled off at Kens beckoning and hit the A1 quickly heading south to Doncaster, a long warm shower, a bite to eat a quick kiss then off to work, Yes folks I’m about to start a week of nights.

Regards

Dave Sharp