After an hour of fairly pedestrian style riding along the A650 from Wakeyfield, through Bradford, I ride my steel horse into Keighley City at 10:05 on a beautiful but blustery Sunday morning. There's also a significant chill in the air but I'm tucked up nicely in some rather tasty Hein Gericke touring gear
. I'd had a look on Google Maps before setting out as I've never been to our meeting place before, and I find it tucked away on an industrial estate! As an ex wagon driver, I'm well used to these places but I'd never expect to find a police station on one! I swiped my card at the entrance and was relieved when the heavy metal gate began it's lumbering motion (nice to see I'm still employed!). As I moved into the back yard, I saw a couple of bikes parked up and I slow to a stop next to a pristine, brand new Triumph Bonny, no sign of any riders though, and I wonder if I'm to be doing the ride alone.
I'd had a bit of a go on the forum at Bandit about dragging his arse out and after a short time I was pleased to see a leather-clad character on a tidy 1200-S pull up outside. It could only be the mighty Bandit!
Introductions done, the first thing to happen was Bandit's lovely, blingy carbon fibre helmet falling off the bike onto the tarmac causing some scuff damage
.I felt for the lad, I really did, and I hoped it wasn't to be an omen for our impending blast.
So, we're off and after explaining that I'm still quite a new rider and fairly steady, Bandit suggests I take the lead. A beautiful sunny morning sees loads of bikers taking advantage of the fabulously rideable A65, unfortunately the Sunday drivers are out in force too and we resort to a combination of sitting in the traffic flow and picking them off one by one when the opportunity presented. Still, we make pretty good progress and I'm having a ball, especially as we'd inevitably hooked up with another group of bikers for some of the route. As mentioned, there was quite a snap in the air and it was blowing a gale too, I'm ashamed to admit that I did at one point switch on my heated grips (just on number 1) to combat the tingling sensation beginning in my little pinkies.
Arriving at Devils Bridge car-park, the first thing I notice is the bloody cafe caravan was shut!
....What's that about? However, there were plenty of other disappointed, hungry bikers there.
We parked up and had a look 'round the other bikes, some tasty machines were there like this Predator themed beast.
There's a few hours of effort gone into that!
Then there was the incredible Triumph Rocket! 2300cc of awesome power!
A careful examination of bandit's back tyre showed the lengths the poor man had been pushed to just to keep up with me!
I must be quicker than I thought!
But the real star was an absolutely pristine 600-S Bandit parked next to my sorry example of 2 wheeled hooliganism. We chatted with the owner who had machined many of the lovely shiny bits himself. I kid you not when I tell you there wasn't a square millimetre of muck on the machine....and the owner reckons he uses it year round. Mmmm, right!
I wish I'd got a picture of it, but I didn't, so you'll just have to take my word for it! (anyway, it would just taunt Bandit into a obsessive cleaning regime!) Here's a picture of the WYP Bikers club steeds instead....
None of those blokes are us by the way....before you go getting all excited
With the cafe being shut, thoughts soon turned to our stomachs and Bandit suggested an excursion into Settle for a coffee and a butty (it was bloody cold an' all, so hot food and drink was going to be an essential survival technique rather than anything else!)
An uneventful ride into the beautiful town saw us parked up opposite the Naked Man cafe, and another (nicer and much more orange) Rocket to put my beast to shame! Someone was saying that these things have so much torque, they're faster to 100mph than an R1! (wouldn't wanna try and get one round a corner at that speed though!!). Can you guess which are our bikes in this shot?
We got our bacon and egg butties and got chatting to a top bloke form Oz (living locally though) and his girlfriend who arrived on this rather droolworthy BMW....
...apparently this thing has close to 200bhp!
MENTAL!
Tummys full of lovely grub and coffee, we pressed on for the short hop down towards Skipton, this time Bandit led and by God his can sounds awesome from behind! (did I really just say that?
).I peeled off for Ilkley and Otley as Bandit broke right for Keighley. I couldn't resist a ride down through Harewood and on through Boston Spa to Taddy, where I picked up the road for Knottingley and dropped in to Squires cafe for a further cup of tea. Coming through towards Boston and I was royally wasted by 3 loonys on supermoto's. And when I say they wasted me, I mean these boys weren't wired up properly, the word mental doesn't even come close! I was amazed not come across at least one smoking wreck and twisted human body parts as I took it pretty gently in comparison.
Quite a few bikes at Sherburn, as you might expect of a nice Sunday afternoon....
A great ride out. A big thanks to Bandit (great to meet you too mate!).
Let's make a big effort this year and get some decent rides organised.
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