Easy,
Jasegee, Rich and 1040 meet on the M1 shortly before buzzing some Gixxers at about
160mph
| Stig volunteered to chaperone
a group coming in from the M1 and set off in bright sunshine. Two miles later,
he copped a fly in his eye at 80mph, in spite of his visor. Undeterred, he made
it to the layby by Junction 27 on the M1 to collect his flock. Who were already
lined up waiting for him. Stig reckons he was punctual and they were all early,
but we only have his word for that. Introductions made, by 11:15 it was time
to smoke. Stig was nominated to show the way, and headed for the A38 singing some
Gary Glitter tune in his head (something about the leader; we worry about that
boy sometimes). Traffic into Matlock was a bit of a nightmare. A combination of
slow speed and few passing opportunities meant it took about 20 minutes. They
headed for the meeting point at the Fishpond car park, and met up with Easy, Yoda,
Nismo, Plastic Scouser and others. Soon the rear of the car park was colonised
with Yamahas. Folks mingled and introduced themselves, bollox was talked and the
michael was taken, before the whole meet turned into a car boot sale. Everywhere
you looked people were swapping stuff and wrapping parts. Then it was time to
retire to the pub to settle some debts.After a quick pint, the sight of King
Rossi whupping ass on the TV was too much. Chris (Teego) asked if there were any
takers for a run up the Cat & Fiddle. Stig was straight in there: no pillion
today and he'd never ridden the road before. Teego led out through the back roads
known as the Via Gellia and as the pace picked up the group started to spread
out. Sweeping bends + quick straights = biker heaven. They'd agreed to meet up
at a petrol station for folk to gas up and let the tail-enders get past any traffic;
once they'd regrouped it was back out to play. Stigs says: "There
has never been such a spectacular sight as looking in the mirror to see a row
of bright headlights of fellow Exup1000.co.uk members... until we got to the bottom
of the pass at the traffic lights. I asked Kev (Yzfkev) to count the following
folk as I wasn't tall enough, and it appeared that we had gained an extra set
of lights - it was plod!" Messages were passed to Chris faster than
Stig getting to a full skip. Chris wisely headed for the next petrol station to
give plod a chance to clear off. As they pulled in, there was a YZF750, so since
it would have been rude not to make introductions, Stig gave the rider a card. The
Cat & Fiddle passed without incident, with some good speed and beautiful corners,
even though the pace was steady due to plod and nuisance traffic. The group stopped
at the pub for a while and the chance for some to take their smokes. Five riders
including Stig carried on to Congleton, a further 10 miles. The pace was... let's
just say enjoyable! Rendezvous back at the pub, then it was time for some to peel
off and head for home. The remainder headed back to Matlock. Over the tops there
were a few spots of rain, and Stig was starting to struggle to see due to the
amount of roadkill on his visor. "I had a choice, to wipe or not,"
he recalls. "So yes, I wiped - much to the amusement of Dave (Dave 59), who
was behind me. I now couldn't see a damn thing, and he knew it." Nonetheless
he made it back to Matlock and set about cleaning his visor properly - to the
accompaniment of helpful commentary about cleaning and polishing (wonder why that
was). At about 4:15pm it was time for everyone to go their separate ways, resolving
to do it all again as soon as possible. Big thanks to everyone who turned
up and made the day what it was. You can find all the pics from the day here.
| 
Thank
goodness Easy was riding a nice comfortable sports-tourer today...
|
Roll-call:
1040exup,
Dave
59, Easy,
Exup
Freak, Fzryam,
Fzted,
GazzaB_R1,
Jasegee,
Nel5on,
Nismo,
Plastic
Scouser, Rich,
Stig,
Teego,
Terryuk22,
Thunderacemalc,
Yamahagirl,
Yoda,
Yzfkev. Numb
Bum Award: Easy, 508 miles. The man's clearly not well in the head. Conspicuous
Bravery Award: Yamahagirl, for coming out to play with this lot! |
