Suitably refreshed, we then set out on the road again for café number 2, the Camien café at Rochester, passing through some brilliant scenery along the way and some nice twisty roads. As we arrived, the café was open for business, so after a quick photo call outside, we went in and ordered teas, coffees, cakes etc. and Bill ordered a whacking great steak pie. We all sat outside at the back of the café to enjoy our elevenses and a few laughs, Bill meanwhile had done a quick calculation and reached the conclusion that the circumference of his pie equated to the sum of 3.142 points on the weight watchers scale, so he only ate the filling, leaving the crust intact and saving 2 points. Off we set once again towards café number 3, the Hartside Top café, once again passing through some lovely scenery and twisty roads. When we rolled onto the car park it was quite busy with loads of other motorbikes and folk milling around. We all went inside for teas, coffees, cakes and crisps and the weather decided to tank it down with rain outside, but never mind, we were all cosy and dry inside. The rain stopped and we all went outside and saddled up to head down the hill and towards Kirkby Lonsdale and Devil’s bridge. Frank led us on a very scenic route, down country lanes, through Sedburgh and finally onto the car park at the Bridge. Some of us had a nice ice cream and some of us enjoyed lovely, cholesterol loaded double cheese burgers, yummy, yummy. Bill was seen holding one of these but he categorically denied that it was his and said that he was only holding it for a pal whilst he took off his jacket.

After being suitably refreshed once again, we rolled off the car park and on towards our respective homes, me and Sue peeled off and took off towards the A59 while the other bikes headed through Caton and towards the M6.

It was a great day, with plenty of miles racked up; our personal tally was 365 miles by the time we arrived home. Many thanks to Frank for taking the ride, he did a splendid job, we had a lot of laughs along the way, and also numb bums when we got off the bike, but it was all worth it, the numbness soon wore off when the bike was stowed safely in the garage and an ice cold beer was enjoyed. More pictures from the ride out can be found here.

Frank has once again resurrected his famous three cafe’s ride out. The start point is 9:00 am at Forton (lancaster) Services on the M6 Northbound and heading up to Whitshiels Cafe in Langholm, then over to Camien Cafe in Rochester, down to Hartside Top Cafe and then over to Devils Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale. A round trip of approx 300 miles with some very stunning roads and cakes on the way. If you fancy taking part then please leave a comment to this post so that Frank can gauge how many cups of tea to order in advance.

Click here to see the full tour offer

Friday nights "best light bike" competition

The organisation of the Light Parade for 2009 has proved to be the most complicated to date. I wont bore you with the detail but it was certainly an uphill climb for those involved.  Thankfully everything is now in place from the accomodation, entertainment, police and the light parade on the Saturday night itself.

Latest pictures taken at Fleetwood Tram Sunday are now available to view on the Photos 2009 page .