Tan Hill The Long Way Round

Helen and I went out yesterday with NUKB on a rideout around the Dales and past Tan Hill. I planned the route and led the rideout employing the drop-off system, with Beamerbiker doing a great job of TEC all day.

 

We set out from Clitheroe Services just after 10:00am heading down the A59 towards Gisburn. We turned left into Clitheroe and took the B6478 towards Slaidburn. On the drop down from Newton Fells I managed to get my left peg down, so it now matches my right hand peg. We turned left at Newton towards Dunsop Bridge where we then turned right to the Trough. I had a nice run through the Trough of Bowland once I had pushed myself past quite a few cars. I stopped at the crossroads in Quernmore to mark the right hand turn. Loads of bikes kept coming past me and a guy on a Pan stopped to tell me that the Police chopper was up over Devils.

 

After a short while we all re-grouped at this point were Beamerbiker informed me that Scotsy had dropped off as he didn’t want to go to Devils Bridge with the expected Police presence. We set off from Quernmore towards Caton and turned right on to the A683 towards Devils Bridge. As we went through Caton we noticed several bikers pulled up by the Police. We carried on up the A683 to Devils taking it easy as nearly ever biker coming towards us was flashing and waving to slow down. The Police had set up a speed camera in Hornby, they where hidden behind a bush using mirrors on the camera to see people approaching without giving away their location. We arrived at Devils Bridge around 11:30am expecting a Police presence and free brews but no sign of them. Devils was stupidly busy so no one bothered to get a brew as the queues were to long.

 

We left Devils Bridge just after 12:00pm seeing CJ and Ella just arriving. We headed on the A683 to Sedburgh, it was time to open the taps again as it looked unlikely the Police were about after what Pab had said at Devils. In Sedbergh we continued up the A683 towards Kirkby Stephen and turned right at the end of the road onto the A685 to Brough. At Brough we took the fabulous B6276 towards Middleton-in-Teesdale. Hardly any cars about and lovely and peaceful and a sunny day what more can you ask for. Just before Middleton we re-grouped in a lay-by and then cut across to the B6277 towards Barnard Castle.

 

We stopped in Barnard Castle for lunch. Helen, Debs, Andy and I had lunch in a cafe that was hidden down a small corridor. We stopped in Barnard Castle for about hour and set off at around 2:00pm.

 

From Barnard Castle we cut across the A66 and headed through the Stang Forest to Langthwaite. We turned right at the end of the road and headed on up across Arkengarthdale Moor to Tan Hill. We stopped at Tan Hill to re-group where Dave answered a call of nature. We turned left immediately after Tan Hill and head down over Stonesdale Moor to Keld. We joined the B6270 towards Muker and then turned right just after Thwaite and went over Buttertubs Pass to Hawes.

 

We stopped at Hawes for some of the guys to refuel and then took my favourite road the B6255 to Ribblehead Viaduct. At Ribblehead we turned left onto the B6479 towards Settle going through Horton in Ribblesdale on the way. We stopped at Settle for a Brew in the Naked Man Cafe, mine and Helens usual afternoon rideout haunt.

 

We left via the B6480 towards Long Preston and turned right onto the A65 at the roundabout. We then tuned left towards Rathmell continuing onto Wigglesworth. At Wigglesworth we briefly joined the B6478 before turning left again towards Sawley. We re-grouped in Sawley and then turned right after Sawley onto the A59 towards Preston. After going past Clitheroe Service we turned left on the A671 towards Padiham with the majority of the others continuing on the A59 towards Preston.

 

From the posts on the Forum it looks like everyone had a really good day out. It was nice to meet a lot of new faces today, hopefully they enjoyed being on a group rideout and will come out with NUKB again. I had a really good day out and got well into the zone at times and have now removed any signs of chicken strips off my new tyres. It was a shame that the mic had got damp and broken on my bike as it was such a nice day to be capturing on-board footage. The new Ram Mount cradle for my Pocket PC TomTom system worked really well today. We also had the comms units working as well, the range is not what we hoped for but with a bit more practice we should be able to fine tunes things a bit.