Woke up, opened the curtains and looked out on pouring rain. Not a good start, so I went back to bed for a while. Next time I looked it was just a bit misty, so I thought it would be time to get up and head off to the meeting point. Breakfast was soon swallowed, bike out and I was off. New bike, unknown tyres and wet roads - an interesting combination over the hills.

I wasn't the first there - Colin and Kelvin were keen and waiting for me and we were soon joined by loads of others. In the end, we had 20 bikes and 4 pillions - the best this year so far. Of course, some turned up a bit late and Keith managed to get lost on the way to the start (but he can be excused that since he had never been to that one before). Tony managed to miss the turn but still arrived on time. The three Sore-Ass leaders all turned up, so no change there.

After a quick check that everyone knew where we were going and how to use the buddy system, we set off - this great convoy of bikes - and proceeded up the A56 to Clitheroe and beyond. All went well until a left turn when a few riders decided that following the bike in front was preferable to looking out for the marker man. Which is normally OK unless the bike you are following is not in our group - oops! We all waited (thank goodness for radios) while John and Gary tried to round up the stragglers - but it was too late for 3 of them who we never saw again (until they got to Blackpool and met up with us there). After about 15 minutes we set off again and proceeded to get caught up in a diversion which completely fooled my Sat-Nav system. But after some playing around, I got it to take me to Slaidburn over some very dodgy roads (sorry Steve) where we all regrouped before the next effort.

The road out of Slaidburn is wonderful, fantastic views for the pillions and interesting riding for the riders. All went well until we were on the last legs of the journey when the sat nav once again decided that goat tracks were OK (I may have missed a turning, but that is no excuse...). A few miles of that and I reprogrammed it again to just get us to the event. Much better. A quick blat down the M6/M55 and we arrived at the bike park.

Once there, we parked up and, after looking aJohns sticking back brake on his Gold Wing (yes, the disk was a trifle warm), we walked over to the stalls and refreshments. Not much going on apart from a band playing (heavy metal - what else) and the off shop. A quick drink and we started to split up. We met up with the missing 3 and some of us wandered off to find some fish and chips for lunch. Sitting outside the chip shop, we mulled over the mornings excursions and decided that it was a good run anyway. Once that was done, we had a last look around and gathered by the bikes for the journey home. A route down the promenade was discounted by Gary (too many traffic lights) so we carried on with the original plan to head for Clitheroe and a nice pub. Which went according to plan aprt from Johns stuffed animal falling off his bike. Keith went back for it and Gary got confused - so waited around for Bob to turn up. Meanwhile myself, Neil and Bob were enjoying ourselves on the twisties. We arrived at the pub amd just as Bob was going to go back and find Gary, he turned up. So that was alright then.

Drinks and convivial chat over, we resumed the ride home where I just managed to clean the muck off the bike before it started to rain again.

A good day out and some pictures to show what we did (thanks to Tony for some).