Glad you enjoyed it! That monster goes ok doesnt it?
Its a pretty good route back from Hartside, the only bit I dont like is the bit from Devils on the A65 to Ingleton which is only about 5 miles before we turned off past the caves to the Viaduct and down into Settle. I can do the 100 miles from Hartside to my front door without really having to do more than a couple of miles on a busy road which is pretty good. Plenty of other routes up here if you fancy coming up some time? Have a ride up with Jon and Claire when they attend the next session of Dales b road training I am providing for them.
Excellent day out and great to see so many folk attend. Good weather and great roads. As usual I intended to talk to more people than I did. hope nobody thought I was ignorant.
The day didnt start to well in that I set off on the Multistrada and called at a mates who was coming along in his Caterham. Despite him assuring me he would be ready I turned up at his house and he answered the door in his y fronts looking like death warmed up. Had to wait for him to get sorted and then we set off. Had only got 5 or 6 miles down the road and I had a massive slide from the rear of the Multi which I thought was a bit weird as I had not noticed anything slippy on the road. The next bend the same thing happened so I pulled over to find a flat rear tyre
My mate sailed on oblivious in his Caterham so I sent him a text saying what had happened and I would see him in 30 mins. Got the Multi home as quickly as I dare totally shagging the rear tyre and dragged the 996r out and set off again only to immediately receive an important service call for work which I could not get out off. Luckily the customer is only half a mile from my house so I managed to do the job in less than 5 minutes without even removing my helmet
Turned up to mate my mate who by now was fast asleep in his car woke him up and off we set again now an hour behind schedule
Had to stop to fill up with petrol for the 2nd time in an hour and then matey announces he isnt fit to be out and is cold and has started to get the shakes
So off he goes home. Made up a bit off time though on the way up and got there about 1.20 which wasnt too bad.
Had a slightly embarrassing moment on the back road from Culgaith to Langwathby I had been dying for a pee for ages but had been trying to last til hartside but had to admit defeat and pulled over by a railway bridge. Turned the bike off and except for the birds tweeting away everything was totally silent. Stood in the grass verge and started to have my pee and at that very moment I heard voices and a moment later they appeared. What I took to be a mother and her young daughter out for a walk. Unwittingly I had picked my toilet stop within yards of the only pedestrians for probably about 5 miles
You know what its like? once youve started you cant stop. Had to keep shuffling around so as to keep my back to them as they had to walk right past me. Must have been unnerving for them to see this 6ft 4 bloke with an helmet on with a cloud of steam around him
Anyway I moved on before the police turned up.
...well done Mike, good shots coming down the hill, I rode with you all down as far as the big r/bout, did one lap of it and peeled back to ride the mountain uphill...
