First Ride Of Month, September 2006

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Going back to planning the South China Seas Trip, I decided to sell my 23-year old Honda VF750 Motorbike to fund some of my spending money for the trip, but first I had to get it through its MOT test. So off I went up to the local bike shop for the test and that’s when it happened. The bike sailed through its test because basically it hadn’t done any mileage since its last test because it wasn’t reliable to take anywhere. Steve, the guy carrying out the test told me about a 11-year old Honda VFR that he had in the showroom and having rode one of these about 12-years earlier, I decided to buy it and so open up another opportunity for travel although initially I only intended to ride it occasionally but it wasn’t long before I wanted to do some touring and with this in mind, I joined the Honda Owners Club and had my first run out with the Three Shires Branch who meet near the M1 at junction 35 on a Monday evening.

The run took place on Sunday 3rd of September, called the First Ride Of the Month (FROM), being a regular monthly event that takes place on the first Sunday of each month. This months run was to take in the beautiful scenery of the Yorkshire Dales.

We met up at McDonald’s near junction 1 of the M18 near Rotherham at 8:30-am and the organiser, Chris outline the route and gave me a little brief on group riding etiquette, which I found helpful and common sense. Moving off the 5 of us on a selection of Honda motorcycles (2 Pan Europeans, 2 VFR’s and a NTV) we turned north onto the M18 and after a while joined the A1(M) north towards Boroughbridge where we left the A1 and headed towards Pateley Bridge and on arrival, a well welcomed pee stop for me. After a brief stop, with some of the riders changing into wet weather gear, we headed towards Leyburn via Lofthouse and Fearby. At Leyburn there was the opportunity to stretch our leg and do a bit of route planning. Departing Leyburn we were heading to the Tan Hill pub via Grinton. The first thing that I noticed was the large Red flags which signified we were on route through a MOD tank training area but we never saw any. We were fighting the weather on this leg of the journey particularly the crosswinds. Arriving at the Tan Hill pub was quite nostalgic for me as I parked my VFR in the same place exactly as I parked the hired VFR, some 10-years earlier. now it was time for my feed which I’d fetched along so while the others headed inside, I sorted myself out and joined them about 10-minutes later for a refreshing glass of water and another pee break. On returning to the bikes, the weather deteriorated further and the next leg of the journey was pure crap as we made our way down to Hawes my gloves were soaked through but fortunately I’d fetch a spare pair with me. A drop more water to drink at Hawes while the others opted for fish and chips then a pit stop for fuel at a petrol station that serves you instead of self service. Now back on the B6255 towards the Ribblehead Viaduct then turning onto the B6479 to Stainforth we now headed onto single track roads across to Cracoe and to a fish farm which was to be our last stop before the 70-mile leg home. The journey home saw us taking the northern route around Skipton and on through Ilkley, Otley, Pool and Harewood before joining the A1 south, just below Wetherby and a straight run down the A1 to Marr with 3 of the party splitting off onto the M1 just below Bramham.

The day turned out to be fantastic despite the weather and my only criticism might be the motorway riding is boring on a bike and I think I would have preferred to have let my Sat Nav fetch me home from Skipton using the avoid motorways option although the motorways and duel carriageways did get us up to the Dales fast.

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Photos

Route Planning
A brief stop just to double check the map

Tan Hill Pub
This place is quite nostalgic to me

Fish and Chips, The healthy option
Time for a little snackette

The five of us
From left to right: - Ray, Martin, Me, John and Chris

Comments

[Gary Jinks ST1100 pilot]

Honda ST1100
Good story John, Its nice to see other ST1100 Honda's touring the rest of the world. I really enjoy my ST1100. C-yal, hgj (ST1100)