Plan was most of us were to travel to Cleethorpes in 2 groups, half of us setting off from Thorne at 1:30pm Saturday and half of us from Balby at about 3:00pm.  Now, that should have meant the Thorne contingent got there first and the Balby contingent second, that wasn’t to be the order of the day, however, because the gremlins were out to play !!

It was about 1:15pm and Phil, Julie, Martin, Pete, Graham, Linda, Nicola, Craig and an A1 extra were awaiting the arrival of Mel to set off.  1:35pm and Phil’s mobile rings, it is Mel stuck between Stainforth and Thorne with no spark to fire up his motor !!  Mel had managed to get in touch with Mossy and he was on his way from his parents in Thorne with a spare stator and flywheel.

Meanwhile, back in Thorne, we decided to give Mel some moral support and off we trundled to find him.

There he was - left side of the bike in bits, his stator was not producing the goods so Mossy’s stator went in.  Alas, it fired up straight away, and by 2:30pm we were on our way, in the now pouring rain.

No problems for the first 30 miles or so then the gremlins threw in a second appearance.  Graham’s back brake decided it wanted to stay on when released and Martin’s loose head cowling kept taking his suppressor cap off.
 

Anyway, we made it, arriving about 4:00pm.  The Balby contingent of Deck, Bri, Chris, Michelle, Steve and his other half, had taken the motorway route and were already on the rally site looking for a spot to pitch ‘Camp Hunters’ !

Seems we were lucky we got there on 2 wheels.  Michael had got 15 miles from home on his LI before that packed up.  He sent it home in disgust on the back of an AA truck and jumped on the back of Kev Bird.

So, we pitched the tents, got changed and were ready for the off.  Mel had brought a box full of kebabs for the ‘maybe’ barbeque, which we then decided we were not going to bother with, so we managed to off load these onto a crowd who had lit up their barbie already.  They insisted we took beers in exchange, so we did.  It’s a tough life!

The night-time entertainment consisted of the usual pub crawl into Cleethorpes, running into the usual suspects along the way.  Later we headed for the do, which was heaving when we arrived to join the queue.  By all accounts the do was good, though packed and being like a sweatshop inside.  They probably turn on the heating so you buy more liquid refreshment !!

Nic and I decided to abort the do when some idiots decided they didn’t want to queue like other civilized human beings.  They pushed straight to the front and when the door did open just pushed forward.  Is it worth it ?  We had a steady walk back and stopped off in McDonalds for supper.

Back on the camp, Chris and Michelle soon arrived, they had lost their body weight in sweat in the do so decided to call it a day.

It must have been about 2:30pm and the rest of the possie arrived back at the camp.  Martin headed for his tent, but found only the grass it had sat upon.  Mel kindly offered to put him up, laying down the ground rules about farting.  Martin agreed the terms, leaving his shoes outside, also??

It was a noisy night with things calming down about 4:30pm, what a shit nights sleep.  We were all up by 7:30am Sunday looking somewhat worse for wear due to the lack of sleep.

Nicola and I headed off first, promising the babysitters we would be back by 10:00am, but the gremlins struck again.  About 10 miles up the A180, my TV packed up.  (Craig – you need a GP, mate!! - Nic)  It wouldn’t fire, and it turned out I had Mel’s problem from the previous day, no spark.  I messed around, but could not get it to work so swapped the stator with the spare I carry.  Soon fired up and we were back in business.  Meanwhile, Pete, Mel, Phil, Julie, Graham, Linda and Martin had rolled up to give moral support.

Soon as we were happy it was now okay we all set off, Nic and I decided to pick up the A18, where everyone else stayed on the M180.   We zipped past Mossy somewhere en route.  He was slip-streaming a tractor at the heady pace of 30mph whilst sporting a rather fetching pair of spectacles!!!

We all got home okay, though I very nearly ran out of petrol and just managed to limp to the garage.

Later on Sunday I called Bri to make sure all made it back okay, his mate Steve had seized his 175 up.  That went home in a van and then Bri holed his piston, again.  Full marks to Bri for being consistent  !!

Then, just as I thought we were putting the gremlins bed from the weekend, Graham informs me Martin’s Disc brake decided to let go of its brake fluid, and his side panel fell off.

One to forget about on the reliability stakes !!
 

Click here to go back to the events page