Written by Phil Wadlow – Ride lead Sunday 26th July 2026
9.00am Found Roger Harris and me sat on the patio at Haddon services, the dark clouds looked ominous, we felt a few spots of rain and so moved inside adjacent to the patio area. David Lewendon arrived and had experienced a very damp journey from Oakham to Wansford, next Bhushan arrived, luckily there was no rain at Peterborough. Fortune smiled on us and we had a complete ride out with no rain, a little windy and not too hot, so as it transpired – pretty ideal biking weather. With just 4 of us ‘hardy souls‘ we agreed on the intelligent buddy system to keep group together.
We started from Haddon and headed North on the A1 to Wansford, then A47 to Uppingham then onto the Rutland TT towards Market Harborough. I turned off the TT route at Weston by Welland , through Thorpe Langton to approach Market Harborough services from the North for a change .
After a short break we started again and bypassed Market Harborough going past Braybrooke, then onto Arthingworth alas on single track roads – fortunately all gates were open, so we could ride adjacent to rather than over the cattle grids . Arthingworth has a spectacular manor house in the village! . We then progressed over Pitsford Water and past Althrop , another picturesque village and onto Flore .
After we passed through Weedon we continued along some smaller roads, very wooded and attractive, and finally arrived at the destination – The Blue Lias Public House, which has Fat Bobs Pitstop Cafe adjacent to. The new owners are doing a fantastic job of running car and bike meets and encouraging the more exotic and classic vehicles to exhibit and attend and showing motoring memorabilia.
We had some lovely food, efficient service, and the cafe was surprisingly empty, I think everyone on the pub side was gearing up for Sunday lunch!
We looked at the exhibits, which were all very interesting and took photos! Outside the location is beautiful next to the Grand Union canal. It is easy to see why this venue is so popular.
David and Bhushan decided to make their own way back from this point. Roger and I went onto Jacks Hill Cafe, Towcester, which had a large bike event on showing classic bikes and customized exotica!
We departed and rode home through Blisworth , Salcey Forest , Billing then Finedon , Brigstock onto the ride end point at Beans Cafe , Oundle.
Thanks to the riders who attended, in the end we were lucky with the weather. I think we may return to this destination before the summer is over and hope it’s becomes a regular on our rideouts in the future!!