Ride report 24 September Birkin circuit with Beech Holme Club
In the absence of any adults it was down to the Hon. Treasurer to do all the complicated trailer fetching and storage opening and trailer loading stuff for this week’s trip to the Fisheries for our joint ride with our Hull friends from Beech Holme Tandem Club.
(Point of interest here – Beech Holme have been going as a CTC member group since 1950! Founded by amongst others that doyen of the East Yorkshire cycling trade, Cliff Pratt.)
Due to the fact that our friends on the railways were once again cancelling trains left right and centre we had a bit of a panic when pilot Agnes found herself unable to get to storage on a train as she had planned. Luckily Tim was able to collect her from Knottingley station instead on his way to Birkin.
On the drive over we had a considerable downpour but we drove through it and the rest of the day remained cool, draughty but dry. J
As we were a tad late in arriving at the start due to trying to retrieve pilots from obscure railway stations Beech Holme had availed themselves of the opportunity of a second breakfast whilst they waited for us!
Once Trekkers were finally assembled we set off with Keith on solo leading and Drew and Muz taking up the slow place at the rear, much of course to the disgust of Muz.
To cheer him up I arranged for his seat post to sink beneath him after the first mile so we could stop and correct this issue and then go at a more Muz-like pace to catch back up again. (Something that takes longer than you might think when you have 20” wheels and everyone else has 26” or 27”.)
Apart from the seat post issue the rest of the ride passed without issue with Beech Holme helping to mark the junctions and turns. Once back at the fisheries everyone had the usual excellent lunch of their choice before we loaded up and returned to base another successful Trek completed.
PS for future reference Tim is now thoroughly versed in tandem loading and strapping. J
Picture below of the assembled masses. Four crews plus a soloist from Trekkers and five from Beech Holme.
PPS it was Keith’s 21st birthday yesterday and we were forced by someone who should know better to sing “Happy Birthday” before we set off in the morning…
