The first March ride out today saw fifteen motorcycles, one with a pillion passenger and included two associates. We me as usual at Peterborough Services at Haddon (A1/A605 junction) for a chat, coffee and then the formal briefing. With a group of this size and with two associates joining us we decided to use the 2nd man drop-off riding system to keep the riders all going in the same direction.
We left the services at the posted time of 10am. This is our winter start time, used October to March when the clocks are set to GMT. We will revert to 9:30am start times for the twice monthly social rides when the clocks are set to BST, We headed up the A1 just 1 junction and then took the country road to Elton, through the Sibson bends and on to Wansford. The route took in some great Cambridge and Lincolnshire Roads leading us to the Bitchfiled village road from Corby Glen to Grantham. This is one of the best motorcycle roads in the area and being a dry bright day it was perfect.
Through Colsterworth and onto Wymondham for coffee and for those who wanted it the ubiquitous Bacon Roll. The service was excellent, as usual at the Windmill and we stayed for about 45 minutes enjoying each others company before heading off again for the return loop.
The rerurn took in some of the great roads in Rutland, under the Harringworth viaduct, bypassing Corby and through Benefield on the very nice A427. It started to rain at this point, which just gave us time to enjoy the twisty bits before they were too damp.
Back at Wansford for a final goodbye we were greeted by a traffic jam, where some bright spark had decided to close the A1 and suggest the traffic goes through the village and over a single lane bridge. It didn’t interrupt our ride very much as we used the nimbleness of the machines to navigate the traffic and meet up at the old Ducati showroom on the A1.