The Manchester Honda

Owners Club

Mining at Gt orme

It gets very boring saying it was a great day out - but it was - honest!

We started off at Poplar 2000 services. I wasn’t at all sure of the attendance since we had 7 of the regulars recovering from their Scotland marathon (read the next Golden Wing if you want the details). But in the end, we had 11 bikes and 2 pillions which I thought was excellent in the circumstances. We nearly had an extra 4 people join, but it turns out they were with another party (although I think I hooked two of them for a future ride).

We did have Nicola for her first group ride since passing her test. Phil was trying to molly-coddle her a bit but, of course, we ignored that and let her just “get on with it”, which she did.

So, on with the ride. Needless to say, it was MANHOC, therefore the weather was OK and getting better all the time. We set off in a light wind and a bit cloudy. By the time of our first stop, it was sunglasses on or dark visors. The Welsh roads were fine, no-one got lost and we soon arrived at Gt Orme for our lunch stop. Lunch (sorry, “dinner” for the Northern folks) was very pleasant. We all had the carvery (well, there was no other choice) and sat around for a while before the last push to the mine (the reason we were going - remember?). We all parked up at which point every one except Peter G and myself declared a great interest in the cafe at the top of the hill. OK - such is life. So, Peter any I went and “did” the mine (which was actually very interesting) while the rabble got back on the bikes for the last 1/2 mile to the cafe.

Once all that was sorted out and we had done the mine, Peter and I met the others at the top where we lazed around in the sunshine for a while. We even had an attempt at sunbathing (Val, you actually have to take your clothes off if you want a tan!).

Too soon, it was time to go. This meant navigating our way out of Gt Orme. That’s fine as long as everyone understands the buddy system and obeys it. Just saying “Well, I saw some of them in my mirrors, so I didn’t wait” isn’t good enough. [No name, no pack drill - but he rides a silver VFR]. However, mobile phones are very good and we all met up again on the outskirts of town.

From there, it was a 30 mile ride to a fantastic little cafe somewhere in North Wales. No idea where it was but they served really nice maple syrup pancakes with ice cream. Much merriment was also observed as we got to the counter just before a horde of sports car owners - so getting the best of the food.

The last few miles home were good fun. You can have empty roads if you avoid the holiday routes - I found some and had a nice “spirited” ride for a while.

So, enjoy the few pictures I took. And remember that manhoc rides are ALWAYS good rides.