The Manchester Honda

Owners Club

Trainspotting

Woke up to think freezing fog. “Oops”, I thought, “Time for the heated jacket”. So, I dressed appropriately for the cold weather. But, as perverse as the UK weather normally is, it ended up quite nice - so most of it wasn’t needed. However, on with the story.

I arrived at Haslingden McDonalds to find a few bikes already there and folks tucking into a “hearty” McD breakfast. As we sat and chatted, more and more people turned up. By the time we were ready to go, there were 17 bikes and 2 pillions - not bad for a cold October. So, we got kitted up and headed for the road.

5 miles down the dual carriageway, I head the cry on the radio “Geoffs bike has stopped - it’s gushing smoke” - followed by “I think it’s on fire”. So, I found a stopping place and we all pulled in while Phil (TEC), Paul and Rob went to find out what was going on. After about 15 minutes, Rob came up. “It’s terminal, they’ve called the breakdown”. It wasn’t on fire, but it was pretty dead - most unusual for a VFR. So, we reconvened and carried on - with most of us ignorant of the cause.

The road to Leyburn was via Grassington. Normally a nice twisty back road, but today was full of slow cards, camper vans, caravans and all sorts of 4 wheeled carriages just designed to slow us down. But eventually we got past them all and had a few miles of free running bends to enjoy. It was over far too soon and we arrived at Leyburn railway station and waited for everyone to turn up.

It was here that the real reason for Geoffs breakdown was revealed. I’m not sure I should tell the world - but I will anyway. When he’d filled up before the start, have a guess which pump he’d gone to. Yes, it was the diesel pump. Oops. In fact, it was Lyn who discovered this fact when she found the receipt and noticed the text on it “diesel”. We called them when we stopped and apparently, their garage smelled strongly of diesel.

Anyway, on with our story. One person had ended up in Leeming Bar (I have no idea why) so a few went off to find him. Paul C had to go back so we ended up with about 10 bikes. There was very little enthusiasm for actually riding on the trains, so some of us sat in the railway cafe and had some lunch while the rest wandered into town to find a pub lunch. While we were there, the train came in - it was a diesel  rail car - which seemed somewhat appropriate. So, we took some pictures and then went off to join the others.

The journey home was great. We went back via Hawes and Settle (good roads, very little traffic) and stopped off at the Woolen Mill cafe in Settle for a final drink and chat. Once that we finished we went our separate ways back home.