Once a biker – always a biker
By TMX Archives on 11th Sep 08
This week JD asks what makes us feel good every time we get on a bike...could it be an age thing? SO I'm giving this Triumph Speed Triple some serious beans through the Yorkshire Dales and I'm hanging on
to the tail-pipes of MXer, storming hill-climber and ace mechanic, Dave Rowlandson, who knows how to ride a bike and no mistake. Dave sweeps past a wagon exiting an open right-hander, I do a quick mirror, signal, manoeuvre, snick down a gear, wind-on the gas and howl past. Quick under-arm check in the mirror whilst still cranked over mid-corner and "What the...'' as the mirror is absolutely full of a gnarly Yamaha LC350 being ridden like a demon by, what's the best way to protect the innocent here, a former British motocross champion – from Scotland!
Quarter of an hour later we pull over for a brew in the amazingly motorcycle-friendly Yorkshire market town of Hawes to re-live the blast.
"What is it about motor bikes,'' reflected Vic (Doh!), "That makes you feel so good every time you get out on one. You never, ever tired of motorcycles, the novelty doesn't wear off. There's just something about bikes that excites us just as it did when we first rode one...”
He's absolutely right – and I have absolutely no idea why – but I'm glad we do!
Where does this come from? Well, a couple of weeks ago, three to be exact, this
column mainly comprised a hearty pat-on-the-back for the Kendal Classic club for the tremendous amount of work they put into making their Nostalgia series of events such an incredible success. As a quick recap, they have turned what started off as a simple Sunday ‘scramble' for Pre-65 and Twin-shock machines into what is now effectively a week long festival of motorcycling – with all its rich history. And I did promise to tell the tale of the LC350...
Thanks to Peter Remington, a stalwart of the Kendal Classic club, Triumph Motorcycles had sportingly supplied half-a-dozen demonstrators for the club to loan out for the week and ‘Rem' offered me the chance of a run out on the Wednesday, with the run starting off with a wander around the Lune Valley, near Lancaster, before heading east into Yorkshire and Scott Trial country. There was a motley selection of bikes from well turned-out, sturdy (but slow) old British iron plus a selection of other tackle working its way through the years up to and including the brand new Triumphs.
I contrived to make-up a quartet with Dave and Martin Rowlandson and our famous flying Scot for the dash to the Hawes lunch break and was left gasping at what our man and his old ‘Elsie' could do. The LC then sadly began playing-up a bit (refusing to go slow, it only wanted to go fast!) so our quartet became a trio as Dave and Martin shepherded the sick stroker back to base.
After lunch it was back into line for me and, with the rain beginning to fall (what a summer!) we headed off towards Grinton, Reeth, Marske, Healaugh and all those villages and place names that scream Scott Trial. We made a few deviations from the set-route to instruct those who didn't know, just how much ground the Scott covers, to take-in and point out sections like Surrender, By-Pass, the Grouse Moor, Grand Canyon and Whaw Bridge.
Then it was off to Tan Hill, (with a brief pause while a lad sorted out his Norton Jubilee when the sparks went AWOL) which is the pub touted as the highest in England and which you might have seen on telly
lately on a run of adverts by a well-known double glazing company. And before anyone says anything, we were only drinking coffees! We were glad of the double-glazing though, and the real fires burning smokily in the bar. Outside the cloud was down, the drizzle well set-in. This being the middle of summer when we should have been outside toasting in the sun, watchin't sheep out on't moor!
It was a bit of a drag having to go back out, but that's what we did to splash our way back home with the roads running like rivers. A soggy refuelling stop at Kirkby Stephen was the only break before the rain suddenly stopped so we swung left down to Sedbergh and back across the M6 to the starting point at the Heaves hotel, south of Kendal.
What a cracking day!
And as a post-script, the LC Yamaha just about made it back to Dave Rowly's Sapphire Motorcycles base at Staveley where Dave quickly got stuck in, diagnosed faulty coils and not only did he find the exact items in his second-hand bins, he fitted 'em as well. Salt of the earth!