Raid the Lakes 2005
Report by Jon Mercer ("Freak" aka "JPM")
More Photos Here
I've done a little write up, well long write up, from my perspective anyway, grab a coffee then start reading!
I'm sure this thread will go on and on... but I'm going to try and write the weekend through my eyes to give everyone who didn’t make it an idea of what they missed.
Where to start? Friday night myself and Lily did as much as physically possible to the bikes, tyre pressures, fuelled, cleaned, check fluids, lube chain and a rigorous clean to boot. Then pack as much as possible as we were there for the weekend, courtesy of Mike (Gizmo) and Linzi. Spoke to a friend on Friday evening who said he’d come up on Sunday, so had to call Ian to find out the meeting spot for Sunday as the original post was detailed right up to the meeting point on Sunday, and actually spoke to Mike for the first time, even though there had been U2U’s for some time.
I’d been on call all week and had my fingers crossed the quiet week would continue, one potential problem had been averted on Friday so everything look good, so early night ready for a long day. Could I sleep? No, excitement and nervous anticipation took over. The meeting point for the local NW monkeys was up at Ducati Manchester at 9am, so on with the leathers, then paddock jackets (just in case) and finally rucksacks, flippin eck! Had Lily put all out gear in just my rucksack? No, I had to take my laptop etc just in case of problems at work
So quick spin to Ducati Manchester, AlanE was already waiting, and the usual banter started there and then, Ducati Mcr kindly donated a couple of sets of earplugs and a few bolts I was after also. By which point Steve M had arrived, off we go… well not quite Alan’s triple nine failed to start again, for a brief moment I could see his heart sink, and even I started to feel depressed, then a brainwave, mine did the same a few weeks ago, bike in gear pulled backwards, get the stroke onto the compression, pressed the starter and voila she’s alive and off we go, first stop Forton services to meet up with BDG (Shaun) and a few others, always bad with names, sorry guys, please fill in the blanks.
Upon arrival the banter continued, I check my phone (as I did at every stop just to make sure everything was OK) it wasn’t had several calls and voice mails… oh dear, after a few quick calls, managed to dodge a crisis and off we went again, next stop Café Zest.
What can I say bikes, Italian bikes everywhere I counted 4 999R’s including mine – I’ll be alright for spares this weekend then , faces I knew and faces I didn’t, the weather was just starting to turn for the better, and got introduced to people I didn’t know and reacquainted to ones I did, Mike looked like he was in tremendous pain, and all credit to him for even making the ride at all, although he did say his back was actually OK when on the bike, quite the opposite after a few hundred miles for me. I briefly met Linzi who grabbed our bags and whisked them back home for us, words fail me to express both of their kindness and hospitality.
Ian is busy handing out maps, directions, RTL 05 T-Shirt order forms and a verbal description of the day, and a quick introduction to Sharon his beautiful other half, dunno what she see’s in him though??
So 20+ bikes set off from Café Zest, Mike leads as he does for pretty much most of the weekend, Lily has somehow managed to position herself a few bikes in front of me, and I’ve got BDG bearing down on me from behind (Oh matron!) luckily I haven’t got any mirrors so cannot see his grin. A quick blast up the dual carriageway and then heavy traffic, in the distance I spot a coach doing the tourist bit, and there are probably 15-20 cars stuck behind it also through all the twisties, Mike did the right thing and just took his time, he had a large group of bikes to manage and try and keep together, not selfishly blast past and leave the rest to play catch up. The coach driver must have had a copy of the route, as he seemed to take every turn we were taking for the first 45 minutes or so, as soon as the coach vanished the road opened up and we’re off – FINALLY!! Road etiquette was maintained throughout and it was nice to see flowing roads with the rumble of termigs in front and behind, eventually stopping for a quick leg stretch, cigarette, banter and latrine break at a run down petrol station (see photo’s earlier in the thread). Back on the bikes, I managed to move up the pecking order a bit, still with Shaun behind me though, ah you can’t have everything I guess LOL!!
Another sunny, flowing run down to the coast, I remember seeing a line of hell’s angel types coming the other way, a line of probably 100+ bikes, I nodded at a few, but soon gave up when I saw how many there were, probably looked like the Churchill Insurance dog! We roll up at the “seaside” for lunch, it might sound odd but you could just see the top of Sellafield in the distance, and sat on the grass, had a hot beef baguette and watched the sea roll in, contemplated having a paddle, and commented on jokingly having some speedo's on under my leathers and I had :cough: trimmed especially... clearly not to be outdone Ian then went one better (I think he needs to spill the beans on this one!! :lol anyway off we go again, sorry I can’t remember the names of these places, someone help me!
Off we go again and fill up once more, Mike and Lily are talking, I think half of us assumed she knew where she was going, so we followed, well after she did a lap or two of the roundabout then all hell broke loose off she went like a bat out of hell, Tabby, myself and one or two others followed suit, 3 figure speeds came up very fast indeed, and after a few miles normal service was resumed, we pulled over and waiting for everyone else to regroup, ha…. Shaun rolled up and had missed all the fun, he was slightly miffed, just excuses those 996R’s just can’t cut it anymore
There was another brief stop and the group split into two then, ones who were up for the weekend and ones who weren’t, which was a real shame as the highlight of the day for me was to follow (and I’d lost 2 of my 999R support bikes), a quick blast up hartside moor, the good points – what a road, a few tricky corners, but some nice flip flop sections also, the bad points – following a Multistrada (Martin H???) nothing wrong with the riding, just Multistrada’s don’t take sportsbike lines, so I’d tip in and get it wrong for the first few turns, until it twigged. What a view from the top, well in all honesty what a view all day, I’m so jealous of Gizmo and DCR, if I had roads like that I’d be half tempted to give track days up.
Myself and Lily headed back to Mike’s home, and put the bikes to bed for the night, I finally got to have a proper chat to Linzi as it was brief in the morning, a few hours passed reflecting on the day, then a quick shower and off out to meet up with DCR, Sharon and the few stragglers who’d stayed up for a night of food and drink. The drive to Kendal was spirited and details of each turn on the way were recited by Mike, what a road (A6) I wanted to go back and get the bike there and then! But that was tomorrow’s first run, I couldn’t wait.
So back to Mikes and before I knew it it was verging on 2am, bed time, I needed sleep big time. I didn’t sleep much, very bright mornings in the lakes you know!
Linzi again came up trumps as the perfect host, breakfast was in full swing by the time we surfaced, into our leathers, and bikes out, Mike was still clearly in pain, didn’t have a problem riding though!
The road I had been waiting for…. WOW, fast flowing, good visibility for miles, my kind of road, we got to Café Zest for day two and I just wanted to go back, a few less people today, but a few more familiar faces, nice to see Paul again (Mr C) with his new Monster S4, couple of our friends came up also, one on a CBR400 and as I have said Andy on his brother slightly tired CBR6, I’ve never ridden with him, but by all accounts the rumours of him being pretty handy on a bike were true as I soon found out.
Today’s route was different from yesterdays, but equally as good, no coaches today, and even the car drivers seemed more considerate by moving over and letting us through, Mike lead again and Ian held up the rear as per yesterday. The front runners included myself, Lily, Tabby and Andy, and it wasn’t long before we were covering some ground fairly quickly, one moment that sticks with me was a very fast stint, I think Mike had gone, Lily was chasing, and Tabby was trying to catch the pair of them, Andy was thrashing the CBR to within an inch of it’s life as he went to overtake Tabby, what they didn’t know was I’d already started my run a couple of seconds earlier, as Andy went by, I appeared 3 abreast to do them both, was quite funny, and Andy soon caught up laughing in the traffic. Another run up to Hartside, bikes everywhere today.
We came back down to grab our rucksacks and say good-bye and thank-you for Linzi putting up with us. And then another blast down the A6 for a spell , then over to Devil’s Bridge, another fantastic run, with the continuing ducking and weaving of us at the front, then unfortunately we had to head home, so said good-bye to a few people and headed back for the M6, there was a really REALLY nasty right hand bend over a bridge, I thought I’d got it horribly wrong, but later found out Lily did the same, Paul was behind me on his monster so would of seen me make a mess of it, I don’t know if he did the same though, Paul was going really well considering he’d not that bike more than a few days tops, then the boring trip down the M6, well apart from the builders ar*e for about 30 miles. Once that disappeared I had time to reflect on the weekend, and what I hope will be repeated next year, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I’ve made some great friends this weekend also – BONUS!
Got home, just abandoned the bikes, and relaxed, I’m beat, my legs are like jelly today, and I’m looking forward to getting home and catching up on WSB and GP tonight!
If you couldn’t make it this year, make sure you do next year that’s all I can say.
