Scarborough Lite July 2006
(Entrusted with this by Ian - must do it justice.....)
Meeting number 3 of the year, 2 more and a holiday to go. I love this club!!
QQlites are the biz, select, unintimidating intros for newbies and all round good fun! Ian's was superbly organised and as Maltby's Pharmacy was a sponsor of the event at Oliver's Mount he had freebie tickets for all attenders.
For me it all started when Huw had a misfortune on thursday losing his front mudguard to a loose wheeltrim. There was an anxious phone call fri eve but the suppliers of west Wales did the biz and "loaned" him a red one pending the arrival of a guard of the correct colour. He finally appeared at 3.00 in Biddulph which rather put paid to our planned practice boogie but hey, excuse for another get together on a recce for Frome? After a refresher we blitzed up to Birch on the M62 and met Jane Keith and Caroline who was venturing some quackery on her newly acquired gold Fazer. A cracking bike. We doubled back to the M66 and then rode to S'boro via Skipton Ripon and Thirsk, Caroline getting more confident all the time. Arrival at Ian's meant Huw and Caroline needed to be led off to their B&Bs and in reversing back on Ian's sloping driveway Caroline unfortunately dropped her bike. Hardly something the rest of us haven't done at one time or another!! Little damage apart from a bent brake lever but it can't have helped her maintain her growing confidence much.
Supper was at Ian and Jackie' s later when to my surprise Rod and Karen turned up. I don't know if I'd missed it in earlier mails. They rapidly settled into the usual Quack banter and happily our discussions about "Musical Differences" caused no breakup of the group! You can see why on Rod's mail of his broad taste iPod listing......
Caroline had elected to do the ride on saturday riding pillion and started with Ian on the Triple. The route reversed much of our ride in, as far as Thirsk anyway where we met Duncan again (Ian's quiet pal who came on the prev S'boro w/e). We also met up with JB GG and Andy in Masham for coffee before doing a fine B road from Ripon to Grassington across the moors past Pately Bridge. That bears repeating sometime. The A65 was a bit tedious to Settle - lots of double whites and traffic but lunch in Settle at the Old Naked Man was open air and the pies excellent. Onward to Ingleton then over the Moors past Ribblehead viaduct to Hawes and the regular Quack route of the A684 back to Leyburn. At Thirsk we turned down the A19 and then off - having had warning of possible gravelly bits - onto unclassified roads past Ampleforth slipping and sliding all the way to a farm shop at High Jervelaux for some monumental ice creams.
We rode onward to Malton, Caroline now with me on the TL, where the Lincolnshire contingent left us for a night on the tiles in Pontefract! (No accounting for taste) and the main group picked their way back to Scarborough. The weather had been pleasant and dry throughout tho cool up on the moors and the roads were not busy for the most part. A very enjoyable route and I find the TL is not a bad pillion bike either - especially with a Ventura rack for extra support.
"Tea" was at an excellent curry house in Scarborough to which Ian's pals Ed and Sue (Huw's hoteliers) came.
Sunday dawned blowy and after a leisurely start hearing the racing engines at morning warm up in the distance, we fired up our own and meandered through the town to pick up Caroline. Huw Rod and Karen needed to get home so we were a reduced clan. I always find attending big biking events confirmatory - makes me feel part of bigger brotherhood I guess. The bike park was an organised picture of serried ranks of bikes. There was security so luggage was safe and a helmet park to dump your stuff. We went to the paddock for a nose around the machines but as always it was vans and caravans that were most in evidence!. It drizzled slightly to add spice to the early races but as we worked our way up the circuit the sun came out and we were able to indulge in a bit of basking.
The racing was good with TT stars Lougher, Hutchinson and Martin out front for the modern bikes and there were some awesome classic bikes too not to mention the loonies racing sidecars. Sadly a sidecar passenger had been killed in a race the day before so there was a minute's silence before the first race. Your proximity to the racers at Oliver's Mount has to be experienced. How the health and safety culture hasn't got wind and stopped it yet I don't know. During the classic races there was the added bonus off a strong smell of burnt 2 stroke pervading the trees...... ooohh! Like sniffing the saltpetre out of party poppers!!
After the main event and having made our farewells of Ian Jackie and David, Ian's delightful little son, Jane Keith Caroline and I left and diced with hundreds of hooligans passing the queues of stationary cars out of Scarborough. Great practice for Caroline who was looking good and making the right decisions through all the filtering. The route down past Driffield to the motorway at Howden was unencumbered by oncoming traffic ? with the world cup final imminent, so we spent long stretches out on the opposite carriageway down superb roads with loads of vision. The motorway blast back over the Pennines was dull blustery and cold but tea at Birch services was surprisingly pleasant and I left the others who were going on to Liverpool, dropping south on a by now deserted A34 to get home at 9pm in time to see Zidane's disgrace!
Caroline gets home a different rider and with some minor work to do to fettle and make her excellent bike her own, and we all get home having had a great and varied weekend, having made some new friends and generally Quacked The Good Quack!
And to top it all, Huw won his ebay auction for a headless bass to take to Kent/France. Result!!
Thanks again Ian and Jackie for a fine weekend.
BB