Charlie & Wolf on a mission.

[Lonewolf]

A quick write up from a ride out Charlie & I had yesterday up to Hartside Café near Alston in Cumbria. It was such an epic ride out that the poor guy didn't get home until quarter to one in the morning!!! Now that's what you call a full days riding.

While I was waiting for him down at Get Geared in Leeds I took a swift photo of this HD.



Eventually we arrived at Hartside Café not without a bit of excitement on the A1 on route to Darlington.....I'll let the main man tell you all about that.

Charlie left me talking to someone who could out talk him.....and trust me that takes some doing! Charlie thought it was immensely amusing as I kept dropping hints about having to go but I simply couldn't escape this dude. At least an hour + I had to endure the rantings and stories of this chap from Gateshead.

Managed to get a few photos of some bikes up there at the summit as it was quite busy.







The stunning views once the clouds lifted.



Charlie learning about the history of the café.



One scary dude



Charlie just had a modest amount of lunch to put him on till tea. Two of these were his.



I promised Charles I'd try to get a half decent picky of his GTR on the way home, despite the fact that it was filthy when he set off...(shame on you) this didn't turn out too bad.



And finally, on the way back to West Yorkshire we stopped off at Devils Bridge looking for the two wise geezers, Roger & Geoff but they had deserted us, if they were ever even there. This is their exact spot they occupy each and every week.



We had a minor emergency while we were there which required the Police & possibly an ambulance after some chap possibly tried to kill himself or do something equally concerning. There's nothing more alarming than seeing a stoned, drunk person, who's a non swimmer jumping into deep water from a bridge and then shouting 'Help' as they're floundering to stay above the surface.

[Debs]

Very good Steve. 

[PRD]

Brilliant pictures but surely you could find somebody more attractive to photograph in the cafe!

[Debs]

Brilliant pictures but surely you could find somebody more attractive to photograph in the cafe!

[O.C.]

Lovely pictures as usual Steve, the guy with the scary appearance is /......well....scary 

I must correct you though, you may be surprised to learn that I'm not a regular weekly visitor to the Bridge, in fact I haven't been there for about a month, I know that Geoff frequents on a regular basis though, I don't know where he was yesterday....BUT....

Gill and I were at the Nostalgia Festival at Croft Circuit, the weather was stunning the cars bikes army displays and fly pasts were  simply outstanding...I'll post some pictures later 

And Charlie, guess what we were all treated to as a nostalgic fly past ??????....................................................

It was the Avro Vulcan XH558 'Spirit of Great Britain' ...in truth we left before it flew over the event  BUT as we turned off the Tank Road towards Leyburn it flew right over our car and was the most spectacular sight...so a great day out   

http://www.croftcircuit.co.uk/news/44/vulcan-nostalgia-2015 

[Lonewolf]

I forgot to add this photo.

[Charlie747]

OK..........Due to unexpected events I missed my lunch meet with Wolf at Lower Lode the other day.  As we are both slaves to the $ setting a meet and ride out is like playing Russian roulette with our respective dutys......................................So this ride out went something like this..........

Weekend before last.........
C You about next weekend ?
W Could be
There then followed a lengthy silence till this last Saturday morning
W you out to play tomorrow
C yep what's the plan?
Radio silence was then observed till 22.00hrs
W meet us in Leeds at 10.00hrs
C ok
Bugger I thought. When yer this good looking yer need every second of beauty sleep to keep yer looking young slim toned etc .....................as you can tell I don't get much sleep.

Sunday @ 0h God it's early hours found me removing the security blanket from the old war horse and fitting the avionics in my pre flight checks (big thanks to flat four who supplied relevant equipment)
So phone on and powered
It's Bluetooth talking to the helmet system........check
GPS on armed and now on new experimental mount .............check
Tank bag secure and wiring safe and tidy..........check

Lets launch............
Now on the escape road west out of Bourne..........all system go............squeeze that throttle to achieve escape velocity and BANG............experimental GPS mount fails, allowing it and sat nav to fall resting between headstock and tank bag............bummer. Less than 2 miles into mission and system failure.................
I pull over and remix offending item making mental note to self to modify on return..........
Now Leeds rally point is over 100 miles from me and to say that the dam thing fell off seven times by Grantham would be to embarrassing to mention ..........so I won't....
Emergency landing at Blyth Services saw me purchasing super glue from WH Smith............little bugger is now permanently fixed.............after removing glue from fingers re-launched to meet Steve at rally point

Steve as ever had planned an exacting route and schedule ...............
C where we going?
W Hartside
C where's that?
W not sure, up north, I'm just following sat nav
C I'll just follow you ok

So we head for the A1 north.......
While on route I was sitting in the nearside lane getting ready to move out to join Steve in the middle lane to pass slower traffic when white van man in CE52 *** makes his move without warning and in a cloud of black smoke he pulls out from the left lane to the middle one in front of Wolf causing a bit of braking..........settles there for 15sec before pulling out into the outside lane.............problem was that bit of road was full of 4x4 SUV as the Americans call them...........
There then followed lots of dust and brake lights, the smell of rubber and brakes as the 4x4 made defensive manovers to escape being the meat between van man and the Armco !!!

First time I've seen Wolf in Work mode !

So we tank up at scotch corner and head north coming off the A1 at the Darlington junction heading west ............what else can go wrong.......?

So we travel west and come upon a line of traffic travelling at approx 50 mph...........near the back of the line is an old BMW 5 series..............who over the next few minutes overtakes in to the path of on coming traffic not once but 3 times...........each time the oncoming traffic has to slow to avoid impact !

Hartside reached we enjoy harty food and company....................
Wolf orders lunch...........only to be served with the wrong meal.........hence extra food on the table for the third man................while checking out the bike park Wolf found a new friend and dumped me...........lol
It's true it took him over an hour to escape only being able to do so after the man had incriminated himself repeatedly and Wolf mentioning his need to leave for his work shift..........the man asked where Wolf worked.............so the Wolf told him....................never knew that a blinged up MT 09 went that quick as it departed only minutes after Wolfs comment lol

So let recap.
1 GPS falls off repeatedly
2 White Vanman nearly causes a pile up
3 Suicidal BMW drive
4 Wolfs wrong meal
5 Wolfs new friend

We continue our trip leaving the Hartside and heading to Penrith over some great roads and beautiful scenery........after the day we've had nothing else can happen............or can it ?

Wolf takes me back to see Devils Bridge the old haunt of Roger and Geoff.  What a stunning structure in a beautiful location............
As we walk up the bridge Wolf is showing off his local knowledge telling me about its history and that due to repeated attempted suicides there is a local bye law making it a crime to jump from the bridge.................I'm joining the conversation with quips of how high it is and how shallow the water looks from above and don't those big rocks look hard etc etc.....................
As we head back to the bikes we hear a loud splash.............we look at each other...........naaaaa it can't be...........as we look around back to where we stood was a pile of clothing looking lost..............then our ears were assaulted by the shouts of a man tell the world that he can't swim and HELP !!!
Yep another incident to add to the days tally ..............

1 GPS
2 White Vanman
3 BMW Driver
4 Wolfs wrong meal
5 Wolfs new friend
6 Sad Man

After this and seeing Wolf in work mode again I'm glade to say the trip to downtown Wolfsville was uneventful other than The Wolf not being given official clearance to bring home a curry take out. 

1 GPS
2 White Vanman
3 BMW Driver
4 Wolfs wrong meal
5 Wolfs new friend
6 Sad Man
7 No Curry


Mind you my trip was still 120 miles to do so headed off joining the A1M at the Juntion of the M62 southbound for home..................

After the day's events it came as no surprise to find as we were passing Newark a Police car parked at a 45 degree angle across the nearside lane just after a blind bend with no prior warning signage blue lights flashing glass and debris all over both carriageways as a car with all 4 corners bent and buckled from its interface with the central Armco being recovered on to the flatbed recovery truck.  Yep ABS working good on that one phew

So......

1 GPS
2 White Vanman
3 BMW Driver
4 Wolfs wrong meal
5 Wolfs new friend
6 Sad Man
7 No Curry
8 Police block road

No more please.............I'm just wanting to get home and have a hot shower then bed............
6 miles from home I catch a brief flash of coloured reflection in the verge.........next thing I know is a cat makes a dash for the other verge..........ABS saves the day ..........Phew

So in the 440 mile day the incidents read as follows

1 GPS
2 White Vanman
3 BMW Driver
4 Wolf wrong meal
5 Wolf new friend
6 Sad Man
7 No Curry
8 Police block road
9 Cat on mission

Not to mention Wolfs new friend wanting him to join him in Gateshead !

All in all an action packed day were no one got hurt thank goodness.

Really nice ride and my longest day out to date lol

[Charlie747]

Brilliant pictures but surely you could find somebody more attractive to photograph in the cafe!

Now mentally scared for life .................LMAO 👍🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻

[Charlie747]

Lovely pictures as usual Steve, the guy with the scary appearance is /......well....scary 

I must correct you though, you may be surprised to learn that I'm not a regular weekly visitor to the Bridge, in fact I haven't been there for about a month, I know that Geoff frequents on a regular basis though, I don't know where he was yesterday....BUT....

Gill and I were at the Nostalgia Festival at Croft Circuit, the weather was stunning the cars bikes army displays and fly pasts were  simply outstanding...I'll post some pictures later 

And Charlie, guess what we were all treated to as a nostalgic fly past ??????....................................................

It was the Avro Vulcan XH558 'Spirit of Great Britain' ...in truth we left before it flew over the event  BUT as we turned off the Tank Road towards Leyburn it flew right over our car and was the most spectacular sight...so a great day out   

http://www.croftcircuit.co.uk/news/44/vulcan-nostalgia-2015

I did mention to our tour leader that we might try to see the Vulcan display at Blackpool but alas he had arranged so many incidents for our day out that this was an event to far

[stoketim]

Great write up Charles old boy, and not to much waffle 

[O.C.]

I did mention to our tour leader that we might try to see the Vulcan display at Blackpool but alas he had arranged so many incidents for our day out that this was an event to far

Well he's a good organiser is that Steve ya know

Great report BTW Charlie   

[Debs]

That was a great report Charlie.. Had me smiling all the way through... I could imagine all those things happening without even being with the both of you. 

[Lonewolf]

Yep, an excellent write up and all perfectly true.