The Lake District

The club spent a few Easters at Hawkshead where we sheltered from the rain in the Sun (pub) opposite the campsite. Lawrence Mounteney stripped the cogs off his TriBSA's magneto. When we did go over Wrynose and reached Hardnott we stopped while Dave Parry and a few others had a fag. "Where are we going next?" I asked because I thought we were at a dead end.

Wrynose Pass

"Up there." said Dave Parry pointing up the mountain and I nearly had a heart attack. Half way down the other side on my Honda Benly 125 I hit a pothole and the blinking forks broke!



Alan Jarvis continues with his perspective of the event:

Start of quotation I remember our trip to the Wrynose pass very well. I was going to include a bit about the 2-piece Honda in my recollections but I could not remember who was riding it! Now I remember you and I remember what you looked like at that time. It was the yoke at the top of the forks that broke.

I do not suppose for one minute that you found your predicament funny, but the sight of you half dragged-half running behind the handlebars of the newly articulated Honda, made me laugh so hard the inside of my goggles filled up with tears! Thank heavens you didn't get hurt.

I cannot remember with certainty what year it was when we did this trip to the Lake District, I did 3 or 4 trips with the club to this area over the years, but if I had to guess I would have said 1966? End of quotation

- Alan Jarvis

Hawkeshead

We travelled up a few weeks later to fix the bikes and took digs with a lady and her daughter. She asked if we minded sharing a bed. "Who with?" we asked incredulously. "Each other." she replied. We were also asked to leave open the door to our room so they could pass through to the toilet during the night. We struggled to stay awake but eventually passed out with exhaustion. The next thing we were being called to breakfast. The daughter had everything bikers desire - muscles, tattoos, moustache. . . . .

Photo from John  Ashworth Tony Bradley worked Saturdays so he didn't arrive at the campsite until 9pm. By then we had been in the Sun Inn for several hours. Much to Tony's disgust we were in the process of carrying a couple of the members back to the tents when he arrived. We dropped the lifeless bodies into their tents and went back into the pub to keep Tony company for another couple of hours.



Terry Riddle adds a postscript to this episode.
Start of quotation Many years later I visited Hawkeshead while on holiday in the Lake District with wife, young daughter and wife's parents. We went into the Sun Inn for lunch-time refreshments and to escape the rain. There was a sign outside saying "No Motorcyclists". I was delighted to find that it was the same landlord from many years before so asked him why the ban on bikers. He explained that many years before he had a lot of trouble from a gang of bikers ending when one made a hole in the bar with his head. "That was Bill Marshall!" I recalled, "I was with that crowd." The landlord took the pint back out of my hand and replied "Well, your are still banned." and threw us all out into the rain. End of quotation

- Terry Riddle


Fast forward fifty years to April 2018: Heather MacGregor and Ted Trett visited the Lake District with the BMW Club sidecar section and tackled Wrynose and Hardknott on their beloved Beetroot. Here is Heather's video.

Looks like typical Lake District weather!

Derek Jordan John Ashworth Clive Hodgkin Tony Bradley Lawrence Mounteney 3 Alan Jarvis Peter Wright John Hilliard Dave Parry 2 Lawrence Mounteney Peter Wright Alan Jarvis Derek Jordan John Ashworth Dave Scrivens