Derbyshire Dribble June 23rd 2002 With Mick Bingham, John Sargerson and Andrew Bailey
AKA: The Dangerous Brothers
I had signed up for the Dangerous Brothers Derbyshire Dribble as soon as I had seen the dates posted on the big trail bike club site. Mick had introduced me to trail riding last year in training for the 2001 Stella and I had ridden with John and Andrew in Scotland so I knew that the standard of riding was going to be extremely high and that the lanes were going to be of top quality.
I always find myself getting very excited whenever there's a BTBC trip on the horizon and this one proved to be no different. I found myself willing away the week before the event. Time seems to pass double slow when you've got something nice to look forward to and as a result the week past second by second. Eventually Saturday arrived and off I set. I was due to pick up a new(ish) shock from a breaker in Hertfordshire before heading up North to meet the rest of the overnighters.
I arrived in Chesterfield just after lunchtime but managed to get myself completely lost. Whenever I head off on a run I always print out loads of Autoroute maps just to make sure that I know exactly where I'm going however I seem to have developed the annoying habit of convincing myself that I know where I'm going and that I don't need any namby pamby maps and don't bother looking at them. Of course what actually happens is that I get myself completely and utterly lost and then can't find where I am on the map! Anyway, after a brief tour de Chozzer I eventually found my way to John and Jo Sagerson's house and to my amazement was the first to arrive. I had been having a bit of an email correspondents with Jo and it was nice to finally meet up. John cleaned his black 1150 GS whilst I smoked fags and drank coffee until we heard what sounded like a B52 bomber roaring down the road. Sharkie had bought himself a new Harley that very morning and had decided to join us for the run! After a few more fags and a bit more coffee the three of us decided to have a go at fitting my new shock. I thought that we were going to be in for an all afternoon job but with John and Sharkie's amazing spannering skills (and a big hammer) the shock was on and sorted in under an hour. If I'd have attempted the job it would have taken me an entire weekend so many thanks to John and Sharkie.
I was due to stay with Garty and Sue at Andrew's house so after fitting the shock, John, Sharkie and myself took the short trip over to DB#3's mansion. Unfortunately everyone was out, Andrew was having a last minute route recce, Jacque was working and John and Sue had gone shopping in Chesterfield so I dumped off my panniers and went to test ride the new shock. Knowing what my navigation skills are like I didn't want to get myself too lost so decided to take it steady and try and remember the way back. Unfortunately a group of sports bike riders came flying past me and I just couldn't help myself. I flew off after them and followed them onto a very scary twisty road. After I had suffered a few big moments and overtaken half of the group I decided it was time to head back to Andrew's house before I killed myself!
This time John and Sue were home but still no Andrew or Jacque. I had dumped my luggage in the back garden which was now locked so Garty and I had to tackle a bit of an assault course in order to retrieve them. With my luggage now back in my possession I jumped in the shower and got dressed in my best genuine original and hard won Coast 2 Coast T shirt. We were due to tackle the Chesterfield pub crawl. Harv, Lloyd and Sharkie had warned me about the legendary Chozzer nightlife and I was very keen to have a look for myself.
I have a self imposed golden rule on bike trips - I will not get drunk the night before a run. My theory is that I can get drunk and act like a hooligan any old time but it's not often that I can ride the country's best roads with a great group of riders. I seem to be breaking this rule on more and more occasions these days and the temptation of Chesterfield proved just too great. Fortunately Andrew stepped in before I got really plastered and warned me to calm it down a bit - very ironic seeing as he got so hammered in Applecross that he could barely ride the next day! The remainder of the evening was spent drinking coke and watching Jez's quite astounding pulling techniques whilst annoying\amusing everyone with my very own billy bobs.
Even though I had stopped drinking halfway through the night I still woke up at 04:30 in the morning, fully dressed with the lights on and a cracking headache. After a packet of Nurofen and a few more hours sleep I was ready for the ride and wasn't feeling anywhere near as bad as I should have done.
Andrew led the way to the meeting point with Garty and I terrorising the Sunday church goers with double back fires - although mine are more of a poof than a bang (insert Fraz or Carl joke here). The turnout for the run was really quite amazing. Normally single day runs seem to attract anywhere between 10 and 15 riders - although I have been on one that had 2 and I was one of them! The dribble had pulled in a group of nearly 35 riders which short of the C2C is probably the largest number of riders on any of the runs ever! Even more amazing was the amount of pillion riders. With all the wives and girlfriends I started to feel quite lonely with only my camouflage over-trousers sitting behind me!
Harry J had made the short trip east and along with his wife, Trish, had also brought a load of new faces, some of whom would be joining the rest of us on the Stella. Dave Edge and half of the cruisers had also turned up. Sadly Fraz couldn't make the trip due to something called a banjo string injury.
After Paul Atkin had arrived with an astoundingly loud back fire (why can't I do ones like that?) the group set off. Andrew was the only Dangerous Brother who wasn't two up so he led the run for the first section. Totally forgetting Garty's rider roulette tips, I slotted in second and was duly dumped off on the first junction about 1/4 mile away from the starting point. Still, this gave me the opportunity to get the camera out and get a few pictures. Whilst I was waiting a bright red old MGB pulled up and the elderly but very well spoken gentleman asked me if I was alright - what a nice man.
In all my short life I have never really been competitive; I'm normally very laid back and happy to go with the flow. Since really getting into biking in the last couple of years all this has changed. As soon as I'm on the move I can't control myself. I have to go as fast as possible, attempt to wheelie off any wheeliable bump or bridge and overtake wherever possible.In short I'm a hooligan and shouldn't be on the road but Fraz is worse! After standing on the junction and watching everyone go past, my singular aim in life became to get back to the front of the group as quickly as possible. This necessitated having a brilliant scratch with John B and his Africa. With Harry, PC, Garty and Dave Edge all two up and riding sensibly I even managed to overtake this plethora of biking masters! Soon I was back at the front and even sooner I was dumped off on another junction. And so the morning went on.
The roads around Chesterfield are truly superb. Admittedly there were a few cars on the roads but this just added to the excitement! At one point whilst heading down a very narrow lane, a tractor rounded the corner towing a plough that was ridiculously wide - so wide in fact that it took up half of the other side of the road. I was very glad that I had seen the thing before I charged into the corner!
At the first stop I tried to catch up with everyone that I hadn't seen at the meeting point earlier in the day. With so many riders this proved to be quite a challenge but I did my best. Paul Atkin (my dad) and me had a very excited Stella chat and duly inspected each others bikes whilst discussing the finer point of medical insurance - dull but very important (that's medical insurance not Paul).
Andrew told me to get behind him for the next bit as it was a cracker - a very twisty uphill bumpy bit of road. If a road gets the DB seal of approval you can be sure that it's a stunner. The road was indeed a cracker but I must say that I was little gutted to be overtaken by DB#2 complete with Jo on the back - and not only overtaken but left for dead! I put it down to too much alcohol the night before!
We then rode through the Chatsworth Estate which is a real eye opener to how the other half must have lived in days gone by. With acres and acres of landscaped gardens and a mansion that is quite simply stunning it really is an amazing place. It's not hard to see why it has been voted the publics favourite national treasure. At the end of the estate there's a serious hump back bridge where the traffic flow is controlled with traffic lights. I waited at the lights with Dave Edge and was told in an unmistakeable Barnsley twang to get the front up over the bridge. "Yes officer"!
Coming from down "saff" and not being a real proper biker, I had never heard of Matlock until I visited it last year whilst on a run with Mick. I was totally amazed the first time round and was now looking forward to our lunch stop in what must be the biking Mecca of England. One of the riders in the group warned me that there would be loads of Police speed checks all around the area and to take it steady. As it turned out there wasn't a single copper to be seen but better to be safe than sorry so thanks matey.
Getting 35 big trail bike into Matlock proved to be even trickier than getting 30 bikes through Geneva. The roads leading into the town are full of queuing cars and once in the main drag there are so many bikes that parking becomes a problem. As a result of this the group got totally separated. I soon found Burky and Steve Bond though and we headed off to the chippy for some lunch.
John Murray and I had a great time bike spotting. I could quite happily spend a whole day just watching and looking at the bikes, it really is awesome. Some of the finer spots were 1.8L Goldwings blasting out dreadful music, a Buell that insisted on doing about 80mph down the high street with straight through cans and a full on racing sidecar outfit that had somehow been allowed a Q plate. I want to know where he goes for his MOT because mines due soon!
After everyone had reassembled and a few riders had headed home for early baths, we headed off for some more action. This time John and Jo took the lead and on the few occasions that I managed to get into second place I got totally blown away. I want a GS - one that's a lot cheaper than normal, a bit lighter and hasn't got those stupid things sticking out the side of the engine!
Eventually we arrived at the mandatory river crossing. The last ford that I attempted with the Dangerous Brothers had dished out a punishing 33% fatality rate (that's dropped bikes rather than dead riders!) so I wasn't looking forward to this one. I sat at the back of the group and watched everyone easily make the crossing. I then had a crack myself and in all honesty it wasn't too bad at all. I was very tempted to pull a wheelie out of the ford but that would have just been stupid!
Everyone who attempted the crossing made it successfully so the vultures, which included anyone that had done the crossing before you, were all a little disappointed. Paul Crossland saved the day though. Having successfully made the crossing he dropped his lovely 75th Anniversary model R1100GS just as he was parking it up. Apparently he thought the side stand was down when in fact it wasn't. This produced a very comical slow speed drop which I caught out of the corner of my eye. I witnessed the horrible straining point where the bike is too far over to pull back upright but you just have enough strength to hold it there - for a while. I know because I've been there myself lots of times! The vultures were disappointed again though because the bike was upright in record time so no pix I'm afraid.
DB#2 then lead us on some more twisty roads during which time I was very nearly rear ended by an unknown lunatic on a dominator. The two bikes in front had braked for a corner and just as I was about to hit my brakes I noticed that the bike behind was about 1 cm from my rear tyre. The inevitable collision that would have followed had I braked was avoided but only just. I waved the rider past after that and stayed away from him for the rest of the ride!
The next twisty, tight bit of road had to be written off by a large portion of the group due to the fact that a very old lady in a silver VW simply refused to pull over to let the 15 or so bikes that she was holding up past. For mile after mile after mile we followed her. Things started to get a little heated as everyone was keen to get past. Eventually we came to another hump back bridge and as the old dear stopped to allow another car through I nipped past and pulled a "porpoise" wheelie over the bridge. A little girl standing on the other side was so surprised that she fell off her bike! She gave me a smile and a wave and said she was OK - It made me feel very bad though.
We then stopped and regrouped at a very scenic little tea shop that was right on a river. I have no idea which river it was on though because I never know where I am during these club runs - See the Garty report for more information! This was the last stopping point before some of the riders broke off for their respective rides home. I was going all the way on this trip though as my old shock and panniers were still Chesterfield. After an ice cream or two we all said our goodbyes and headed off. The lane back to the main road contained a tunnel that must be about 200 meters long - it would have been great for backfiring - if I could do them on demand!
We then had a short ride back to Chesterfield over some very twisty and dangerous roads. I hadn't seen much of DB#3 all day but we finally met up on this last bit of road and we didn't spare the horses! We were going so fast and concentrating so hard that neither of us noticed a TDM 850 rider had come off and gone through a hedge! We got back to the original starting point and waited for ages before going back and discovering the battle scarred TDM trundling along. The crash looked like it had been quite nasty - the rider had gone over the handlebars but had landed on something soft and was OK. The TDM looked a bit battered but it was mostly cosmetic damage. Hope you get the bike sorted out OK mate.
And that was it, the Dangerous Brothers first run had been a cracker. I think everyone had enjoyed the day. Lots of great roads and lots of great people - don't you just love the BTBC?
Many thanks to Mick and Janet Bingham, John and Jo Sargerson, Andrew and Jacque Bailey and everyone else for a Brilliant weekend. Sign me up for the next one please.
Adam