The week of the Jubilee celebrations I decided to get on my GS and head on up to North Yorkshire for a few days. Helen had booked a Cottage in Thornton le Dale for a break away with her Dad, the kids would show up too at some point making their own way leaving me to plan a steady ride up on the Tuesday with Helen taking my clothes up with her allowing me to tour without panniers for a change. I prefer to avoid the motorway as much as possible so planned a loose route after taking the M6/M69 out to Leicestershire. A wonderful country ride skirting around Melton Mowbray to my first stop at the entrance to Belvoir Castle for a mug of tea and biscuit. I couldn’t see much of the castle but the vast scenes of wide open countryside made up for it, with some nice twisty sections as the road to the castle grounds rise up. I was unsure which way to go next, the weather was quite mild with a threat of rain, my intention to cross the Humber bridge into Yorkshire later, but first I had this long yearning idea to visit Lincoln Cathedral.
Always impressive only ever seeing it from a distance in the past, I mentioned my idea to the guy in the castle car park cafe who confirmed the city offered nearby Motorcyle parking, so on I went heading out near Grantham. As I approached Lincoln along some of those typical Lincolnshire flat straight roads surrounded by farmland, the sky turned dark leaden and I could see a great lightning storm with thunderbolts up ahead. It wasn’t long before I hit the deluge and a real storm it was too with rivers of water splashing over my boots. I briefly considered stopping for shelter, but investment in quality Goretex riding gear right down to boots and gloves made my mind up to continue on and let the kit do it’s job. I can’t say I was too happy about the thought of being struck by lightning though, I couldn’t recall if I’d ever heard of any stories of lightning striking bikers yet continued on with gritted teeth very much doubting these wet tyres would insulate me if my luck ran out.
The GPS took me up the hill to the Cathedral quarter, and as I got off the bike I realised the Goretex had worked very well, just a little damp on the collar and cuffs as I walked further up the hill and found a nice little cafe for a brew and warm up. Unfortunately my choice of words let me down and raised the eyebrow of the young girl on the counter when I asked her where the toilets were, and if I could have a serviette to wipe my helmet - doh, at least she saw the funny side! I did select a nice slice of Jubilee cake from her though, resplendent with a printed picture of our Ma’m on top. Seventy years in the same job .. wow I thought, I can’t even last ten without getting bored or frustrated, well done! I paid the £9.00 to enter the Cathedral after first trying my luck sweetening up the woman at the desk for a brief freebie walk around, but she wasn’t having any of it. A bit disappointing when you consider I was able to walk into Rennes Cathedral, Northern France last month for no charge at all, I guess the charge does contribute to regular maintenance costs though.
I spent quite some time walking around the cloisters outside and studying the medieval stained glass images on the north transept. Those roof arches are vast and It turns out there was a spire at one time too. The exterior carvings were fascinating and quite amusing in parts. They do tell a story and quite controversial by todays standards, I’ll leave you to work out what it’s all about but I marvelled at the size and completeness of the figures. They weren’t original, and quite new and as I understand the weather worn originals are now inside the Cathedral. I did wonder how they are carved, they must be done in sections but couldn’t see a join between them. What happens if the stone mason / sculptor makes a mistake? A slip of the chisel do they have to start all over again? Argh!
Late afternoon after I left Lincoln and crossed the Humber bridge coming in to Yorkshire, the sun came out and it warmed up quite nicely. I do enjoy riding that road from Beverley to Malton, specifically the B1248 that cuts across country and at one point as you get close to Malton the lane opens out with stunning views high up of North Yorkshire moors in the distance with the Howardian Hills to the West. At Beverley I did a ride around by the Abbey, the GPS will try and divert you around via the bypass but head in to town is far more interesting. The Yorkshire capital of food is Malton, but today the Macaroon shop will have to wait (as featured on Hairy Bikers) I wanted to get to the cottage in Thornton Le Dale where Helen, Hayley and Gordon were waiting with a table booked at the very friendly New Inn for fish and chips and a pint or two of real ale followed by an evening walk in the local park to wind down before bed.
In the morning I left the bike in the yard and we all took a short drive to Pickering to pick up our steam train ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to Whitby. My late brother in law Chris loved spending holidays in North Yorkshire and I have fond memories meeting him up here in Whitby for drinks and spending time in Filey with him when the kids were young. It was good to show his Dad his old haunts around Whitby with a visit to his favourite restaurant Trenchers for Whitby Cod and Chips. Yesterday, they had met up with Wendy, and her family with his Grandchildren to scatter his ashes at Robin Hood Bay, with a few drinks as a much overdue tribute, restricted last year because of past Covid rules. Today was nice to relax a bit and wander around with a fun Jubilee atmosphere admiring all of the bunting up at the station. A good day and even though the train back to Pickering was delayed we found much amusement chatting to folk while drinking a round or three at the ‘Waiting Room’ real ale pub. A little gem of a place I spotted early on but failed to communicate my finding well enough it seems, just as well I thought we may have missed the last train back.
Back in Thornton le Dale we all took a walk up to see the famous ‘Mathewsons’ family auction house from the TV series featured on the Yesterday channel .. ‘Bangers and Cash’. We are all fans of the show, about the local family auction business who specialise in auctioning classic cars and bikes to include ‘barn finds’. It’s quite an amusing show and reveals some old none existent marques and models from years ago including Ford RS, Jaguars, Triumphs and some classic motorcycles too. Quite a mix on the forecourt with an unusual ‘mini’ looking Jag I’d never seen before and round the back I spied an old Honda 175 leaning on its side. Out of interest a similar model with the same gold and white paint is up on e-bay recently for nearly £4k. That bike would make a great restoration project.
The following morning I left the cottage early to ride a solo adventure I had in mind through parts of the Dalby Forest and along the Howardian Hills passing through that wonderful road around Castle Howard. The weather was warming up nicely no rain forecast today and the sublime scenery had me grinning inside my helmet listening to some old rock tune I can’t remember via Apple Music. I took the road through Malton town then on to Helmesley, a favourite biker destination I’d been to several times before and it was there I pulled into a local service station to fill up, not really noticing the price per litre was over £1.78. After filling up the guy asked if I’d like a receipt, he must have seen my disgust at being done over at the pumps and said in a broad Yorkshire accent “bye-eck mate you should frame that, it’s the most expensive fill up you’ve had I bet”. I had to laugh… begrudgingly (northern git).
My plan from Helmesley was to ride that rollercoaster of a road up to Stokesley again and then cut back towards Whitby meeting up at a pub we had seen near Sleights, but I didn’t complete the run to the pub. After a cracking ride on the B1257 I pulled into the viewpoint at Clay Bank to admire the scenery and got chatting to a few bikers who’d met up, one coming from York on a Triumph, the other from Newcastle riding the new Kawasaki Z900RS. I do like this modern take on this original cafe racer, he was having a lot of fun with it grinning from ear to ear, I’d sure have one as a second bike, I love the retro look of them and always loved the original ‘Z’s’ of the early ‘80’s ‘Mad Max’ style with the cockpit fairing, looks awesome.
Unfortunately, the days fun on the bike ended there. As I pulled out of Clay Bank the tyre sensors alerted me on the dash that my rear tyre pressure was down from 2.9 to 2.0 bar. Also, for some reason as bad timing would have it my Quad Lock charge cable to my phone had failed and I had hardly any battery life left. I limped the bike up to the first service station in Stokesley and pulled up at the airline right next to a brand new GSA with German plates and spotted a screw embedded in the centre of the tyre. Fortunately, I managed to get a new iPhone cable at the garage and as always carry a charged portable power bank in my top box. Always the way the one time you really need a phone it’s dead, a lesson learned on a past trip in France over ten years ago when I lost my fellow riders and the phone died. The GSA guy (British) appeared from the shop and we mulled over my options, he suggesting I call BMW Assist or some other rescue service.
Being a public holiday in the UK I didn’t hold much hope for a tyre fix and sure enough after a few calls all of the tyre places and BMW dealers nearby proved they were closed for the day. I waved farewell to the GSA rider who was heading south back to get a ferry from Poole (eventually riding on to Munich), just as I got a call from a recovery guy who said he was a good three hours away and could only recover my bike locally. Faced with not getting my bike to a sensible location I decided to have a go at plugging the tyre using the kit I’d bought some years ago. I couldn’t remember how to use it and the paper instructions had become partly unreadable, but thankfully YouTube came to my rescue now my phone was up again and on the second attempt I’d successfully removed the screw and plugged the tyre. Fortunately, Helen called during this time and met me at the service station to follow me back to the cottage where a nice cold Cider was waiting and feeling of deep relief I’d averted sitting by the side of the road for hours.
We all had an evening meal in the New Inn where we caught a glimpse of the Evil Knievel charity ride, a group of forty or so bikers dressed in the white stars and stripe jump suit and matching helmet pass through from Wales with Mathewsons on their route. My thoughts were all about tomorrows ride home though, and if the tyre plug would let go. I needn’t have worried, my pencil gauge showed 2.8 bar as I set off for home in the morning avoiding motorways all the way back without issue keeping my eye on the tyre pressure sensor reading, thankfully it never dropped below 2.8 bar.
A great little trip that didn’t end as planned, just proves that if it can happen it just might. I’ve often been tempted to avoid carrying tools and ride minimalist and on this one I foolishly left my multi-tool at home thinking I wouldn’t need it. How wrong I was as I struggled to remove that screw from the tyre, but at least I had taken the mini compressor, plug kit and power bank with me. Lesson learned!
