Ahh, another day, another MANHOC ride. Yes, it's that time again. And so, I was up, breakfast guzzled and on the bike in plenty of time to get there - and still beaten by Derek. Never mind, at least the weather looked to be OK.

We waited at the services while peopel turned up - including a newcomer, Sean and his son Liam, on the anniversary VFR. Welcome to both of you. By the time we were ready to go, there were 13 bikes and 4 pillions, so a good turnout for a days outing.

We set off in good time (only about 15 minutes late) and proceeded in a line up the motorway and off. The ride was good to start with and we were soon in the groove, buddy system working well and everyone enjoying themselves. Then we came to one of Garys famous turns - yes, up a 1 in 3 hill to a left hand turn. Oh how I wish I'd checked this before we started! But, no-one fell off and everyone got round OK (although there was a lot of muttering over the radio). Then, on towards Mythemroyd, through Hebden Bridge and up over the moors. The scenery was fantastic and everyone seemed happy. Even a missed turning (yes, I should have listened to the Sat Nav) didn't seem to matter and soon we arrived at Saltaire. Trying to park was interesting - the first place we came to turned out to be a private car park, we missed the obvious one at the Salt Mill and ended up in a small pay & display car park nearby.

Here, the chairman made the fatal mistake of not reading the board - now what part of "Charges apply Mon-Sat" do you think I missed? Yes, a waste of two pounds, but it did get a laugh!

Once we had parked up and Mandy had changed into her fancy footwear, we set off to Salt Mill for some well earned grub. "Table for 15, please" I said, having not counted heads. Oops - there were actually 17 of us. But we managed to squeeze everyone in and were soon munching chips, pizza, sausages, soup etc. Lovely. Once that was over, we had a little wander around and then headed back to the bikes for the next leg of the journey.

Off we go and were soon in the countryside again. Another missed turn meant we had to go on some back roads to get back to the route. Unfortunately, the road was quite bad - loads of potholes and we had to stop while Neil checked out is slowly deflating tyre - he'd hit a pothole and broken the beading. Some punctureseal was put in and he headed off for home, while the rest of us carried on up to Pately Bridge and across to Grassington and a nice pub. By this time several members needed refreshments for themselves and their bikes, so next stop after that was the petrol station at Gisburn. Then, home again just as the rain came down.

All in all, a good days ride - ended up at about 165 miles by the time we finished - and this was our route:

Of course, pictures came from all over (thanks to Derek and Tony for additional ones)