Hobs and Catie’s Biking Adventures Part I

My friend Hobs from back down south passed his DAS back in April and got himself a Kawasaki GPZ. When he found out I’d done my CBT he promised to come up to visit and have a weekend biking in the Peaks, so we finally got round to organising it! He came up on Friday after work (up the M1…rather him than me!) and we planned a route in the pub, which is definitely the best place for route planning!

We set off about 9.30 on the Saturday morning after taking a bit of a detour to SMC Bikes for a bacon sandwich and a cuppa and a browse at bikes we couldn’t afford. Then we set off on Ecclesall Road towards the Peaks. I’m writing this somewhat after the event so I can’t remember 100% where we went, but our route went something like this:

Foxhouse – Grindleford – Calver – Hassop – Bakewell – Haddon – Youlgreave – across the A515 to Hartington which was our first stop – Hulme End – Wetton – Dovedale – Thorpe – Ilam – Grindon – Onecote – Upper Elkstone – over the moors (with some amazing views of The Roaches to the A53 – Buxton – A6 to Doveholes – Sparrow Pit – through Winnat’s Pass (which is EPIC on a motorbike!!!) to Castleton – Hope – Bamford – Ladybower – Strines (where we stopped at the inn for a bite to eat) – Bradfield – Loxley – back into Sheffield. It was an amazing day, the furthest I’d been on the bike so far, and perhaps a bit too far as I hadn’t properly run the engine in! I asked Hobs what he thought of my riding and he gave me a few useful tips, such as positioning on the road during corners and using both my front and rear brakes, not just the rear! I had a bit of an incident on a muddy stretch of road where the back wheel totally went out from under me as I was only using the back brake. Luckily I managed to straighten myself out but it was a bit of a shock and I’ll certainly bear it in mind in future!




Not a great deal of biking took place on Sunday as I had to be at a band practice at 11.30, and we’d had a rather late night out at a metal club, so we headed out to Calver via Froggat for a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea (do you see a theme here?). We then headed to Hathersage via Grindleford. Once through Hathersage we took the sharp left along the awesomely named Fiddler’s Elbow which leads round to Ringinglow via Burbage. Burbage is a bit of climbers’ hotspot and today was no exception. Due to my abandoning him for band practice, Hobs was meeting up with a friend to go climbing so we parted ways and I headed back to Sheffield. All in all an excellent weekend was had!

Window Shopping

I'm not a great one for shopping. I think it's because I'm such an odd size I find clothes shopping particularly horrendous, but I do quite enjoy browsing stuff online, and I've now I've discovered that online biking clothing and accessories shops is a really great way of distracting me from what I'm supposed to be doing :) I've already purchased a dust cover as the garage I keep the bike in is pretty grimy, and I've started to compile a wishlist of all the other gear I would like.

Top of the list has to be this helmet It's blue. Sky blue. A sky blue helmet!!! It's beautiful and I want it but there's no way I can justify a brand new helmet after just a few months of having my current one! Still, it's something to aim for I suppose. Something slightly more useful (and much cheaper!) is a tank bag which I'd really like to get. I like the magnetic ones which just snap on to the petrol tank, and the fact they have a clear plastic pocket on the top to put a map in is pretty damn handy...I'm not sure how one attaches a satnav to a motorbike!