Ride to Rivington Barn – Steven Fox

After the meeting in the Norman Jepson most members decided to go for the “Ride in the Park”. Ian Kay and myself due to other commitments decided to follow the main group for most of the way on the motorway and then turn off at Bolton and head for Rivington Barn. Initially the traffic on the M6 was stop and go due to a 4×4 with trailer tipping over onto its side, but once we passed this obstacle the pace was set at a steady 65 mph. In total 24 Goldwing’s in a staggered row which must have stretched at least 500 meters in length along the M61 was a sight to see. All the other traffic seemed to slow down when overtaking to admire the bikes with children waving from back windows. It makes ride outs all that much better when you are in such a large group and the feeling makes me feel really proud of being part of a great club.

Ian and myself were 2 thirds of the way back in this group when we indicated and left the motorway at Bolton hooting our horns and waving goodbye to the main group. We stopped at a petrol station as I needed to top up and then took a steady ride along A roads to Rivington Barn. The weather was slightly cloudy, but dry and once there we found “the barn” was that busy we had to park the bikes in overflow car park.

Once we’d parked up Ian was approached by a couple who had just acquired a GL1500 and the conversation turned to where best to get parts and tips so whilst he was engaged I decided to leave Ian chatting and go and get the drinks and bacon barmes (butties) which took 15 minutes, when I returned he was still talking!

Having come straight from our meeting I had Promotional flyers for the BLP and business cards so we set about spreading the word about BLP and the club. We also met a couple (father and son) who had a GL1200 deluxe and had a good chat about the bike in general giving him tips on getting the best out of his bike. As we were talking another GL1500 in red turn up and before we could get chance to speak to them they had gone up to the main bike area so we placed a flyer on their screen anyway. Later a family of 3 who did not own a Goldwing, but fancied owning one came over to look at the bikes so we invited them to sit on mine and informed them about the club and duly gave him a card (apparently his Suzuki Hayabusa is not the ideal bike for long daily commutes to work and feels heavier when sat astride it compared to my GL1500).

Obviously, another reason for visiting “the barn” is to see different bikes and I must say there were plenty to admire. Of note was a pristine Suzuki GT750 (Kettle), a Kawasaki Z1300, Yamaha XS1100 and RD350LC , plus lots of Harley’s, street pocket rockets and a few old classic bikes which made our day.

We spent about an hour in total at Rivington and then headed back home on the M6 north bound and then M55 towards Blackpool, were we parted company. In all a great day out.