Thirteen of us on eleven bikes assembled at Redbeck Cafe on a sunny Sunday, for our August rideout to How Stean Gorge and Brimham Rocks.
Following fried breakfast products and our obligatory team photo, we were all off by 9:00am, heading back into Wakefield on Doncaster Road and our first unscheduled excursion for the back six, a trip along Ings Road to the roundabout, all the way round and back along Ings Road to Kirkgate, where we should have stayed in the first place. No idea why. All was well again as we worked our way out of Wakefield on the A650, through Morley and our next unscheduled excursion, this time for the back four bikes. For some reason, we missed Justine marking the right turn off to Gildersome (she watched us clearly sail past), and Martin, Cathy, Dave, Faye and Steve carried on ... and on .... no junction markers .... so straight on and on, through Bradford finally stopping at a petrol station in Shipley when we realised we had got split up and the rest of the group weren't just in font of us after all.
A few phone calls and we ascertained the rest of the group were waiting for us at Tong Garden Centre. We were going to head all the way back but decided we would all meet up at the Morrison's store in Yeadon instead. Dave knew the way from Shipley to Yeadon and we arrived in the Morrison's car park to wait for the others. And we waited .... and waited .... until a quick phone call determined the rest had decided to go to the Hawthorne Farm pub near Leeds Bradford airport instead. A few ungentlemanly words were muttered as we saddled up to meet the rest at the 'not previously agreed' point.
However, we were all together again ..... and how we all laughed (well, maybe not Martin ;-). Steve & Justine had to get off as they had a rugby match to get to and had only planned to go to the first stop off at How Stean Gorge anyway, but the hours delay meant they couldn't even get that far (fortunately, Dewsbury won (at local rivals Batley), so it was worth leaving early !!).
So, eleven on nine bikes set off to How Stean Gorge from Yeadon together ...... but didn't stay together long .... the group got parted into two again. Seven made it to How Steen Gorge, the others ended up at Brimham Rocks, and they never saw each other as a complete group again.
Sharon texted Justine with a message that said it all 'This is turning into a f*****g pantomine' ;-) Our much praised second man system had let us down, and in Martin's words, 'Once it goes wrong, there is no backup plan'. We'll have a good think for our next rideout how to avoid getting split up again (pre-printed routes (so you know you shouldn't be anywhere near Shipley ;-) , possibly 2 markers at difficult junctions etc).
However, despite having three rideouts in one ..... it wasn't raining, it was out and about on the bikes, it was all spent in good company (albeit, less volume of good company than it was supposed to be), the roads and destinations lived up to expectations ..... and .... it was all the more memorable (we wont forget this rideout in a hurry !!!). And of course .... we are the 'Lost Riders', we have a hard earned reputation to uphold ..... and uphold we did .... in style !!!!!!
Our next rideout is our annual Trasure Hunt (Sunday 27th September) ..... and it's positively mandatory to get lost on that one ... LOL