Hartside Cafe

To Hartside Café and Beyond!

Ah, at last! My favourite ride of the year is about to happen. And what a cracking day for a ride too! [For those who don’t know, Hartside Café is a fair way North of Manchester, but the roads to get there are superb and usually not too crowded.] So, breakfast eaten, I got the bike out and set off for the start point nice and early.

When I arrived at Haslingden, there was a small crowd outside McDonalds and a few others standing around the bike. John came over with the bad news: “The A65 has just been resurfaced and there is a Lorry fair on the A6 over Shap”. Bugger! So, much thinking about alternate routes, I came up with a plan – Stick to the original route. So we did.

By the time we set off, I counted 20 bikes and 5 pillions all prepared and raring to go. At precisely 9:30 Manhoc time (which meant about 9:45 really), we set off and bimbled over the A56 and onto the A59 to make our way over to the A65 and back roads to Morrisons in Kendal for our first stop. The resurfacing was not a problem but there was one later on that I had not considered.

On the way, we passed Devils Bridge, a well known biking stop. Of course, half the crowd did exactly that – and stopped. Luckily we had radios and after some “persuasion” from Phil and John, we all carried on (another 15 minutes delay). What we didn’t know at the time was that one of us had seen John gesticulating to carry on and had done just that, but with the wrong group of bikers. It was only when he got to Hawes that he realised his mistake. Oops. But no harm done, he met us at the café.

Meanwhile, we had stopped off at Morrisons for the first of the brews (and a small cake, of course). “Do we need to fill up again” I kept being asked. “No”, I replied, “We will fill up at Alstom, which is 108 miles after the last fill up”. We only had one who ignored that and decided to fill up here “just in case” – I won’t mention who, but that was another 5 minutes wasted.

But, we were soon on our way and hitting my favourite road in the UK – the A6 over Shap. It was great. There was very little traffic – no sign of the lorry fair – and I was able to “make progress” and really have fun. As did everyone else, I understand. That was soon followed by another great road – the A686 up to the café. Here, Phil and I were joined by a mad Goldwing owner and his pillion. A brand new (63 plate) bike and he was scraping the silencers to keep ahead. It was exhilarating and great fun. But all things come to an end and we were soon at the café. We waited for the rest of the gang and then went in for some lunch.

A glorious day, good views, nice food, great company. What more could anyone want? Well, more biking roads , of course. And that is exactly what we got once we set off. We filled up at Alston (as promised) and then headed down the B6277 to Middleton-on-Teesdale and Barnard Castle. 30+ miles of great roads. Interestingly, it was mostly downhill. Which was weird until you realise that Hartside café is 1900 feet above sealevel.

We had another stop in Barnard Castle as it was getting really hot by now. The next part of the route was across to Richmond, Leyburn and then Ripon. We nearly lost two bikes who missed the right turn off the A66, but Rob was there to catch them.

Once again, great roads and very little traffic. Another stop and a quick visit to a local Costa to use their loos (you should have seen the scuffling in the queue – not British at all). Then, the last stretch back to the A59 and home. Of course, we set off and there was one – “I need some petrol”. A quick check of the Sat-Nav and there was a supermarket nearby. So we shot off there and he filled up. [This is avoiding the tale of the checkout guy insisting we remove our helmets – which most of us refused to do and so they lost sales].

The remainder of the ride was a little more gentle and we nearly encountered rain (we would have done if I hadn’t stopped for an impromptu wee) before the sun came out again.

By 7:30, I was home with nearly 300 miles under my belt. It was a fantastic day out and many thanks go to everyone who turned up (see the Sore-Ass points list for the list).

 

 

Alan's Report