After some light refreshments and plenty more banter, it was back out onto the Ripon road but with a turn north at Glasshouses for a gentle meander through some pretty villages and along picturesque lanes taking us well off the beaten track through Kirkby Lizeard, Grewelthorpe and Masham to rejoin the main road for the run past Jervaulx Abbey to our next stop and lunch break in Leyburn.  Although a more spirited road, the heavier traffic put pay to some of the delights.

By the time we were nearing Leyburn the cloud had finally been rolled back east leaving wall to wall sunshine that stayed with us for the rest of the day.

Before retiring to the cafe for lunch we hung about the market place admiring the other bikes and soaking up the sun to get that warmth into our bones.  The group spent the best part of an hour scoffing all manner of dishes from Steak & Local Ale pie, through to Full English Breakfasts, all washed down with tea and coffee, before we were once again in the glare of the sun where Clive admired Lainey's new leather pants.  Clive suggested she treat the leather with Renapur to soften it, as she was finding them a bit stiff.  She hadn't heard of this product before, so to demonstrate the excellent effect of this treatment he offered his own pants as an example, which she found very much to her liking!  "And that's our story, and we're sticking to it".

Keeping in mind the shorter days that April offers, and how we knew the temperature would drop after sunset, we were keen to get on with the ride, mounted up and left Leyburn northwards towards and presently into 'the most beautiful dale in Yorkshire' - Swaledale.

Swaledale and the Buttertubs Pass to Hawes

Although the road up Swaledale is somewhat torturous and slow paced, the views and the interest afforded at each village and vista was well worth it (a black bullock nonchalantly eating the verge, a stuffed sheep outside a shop, lambs gambolling across the road, and the like), and it also got us to the turn south that took us over Buttertubs Pass.  This is a fairly spectacular deep cut valley come gorge, with a serpentine, barrier-guarded road that climbs steadily up onto the moors that separate Swaledale from Hawes in Wensleydale.

From a biking perspective, the descent into Wensleydale is perhaps the more enjoyable than the climb from Swaledale, and certainly set us up as real-bikers again ready for the arrival in the bike infested streets of Hawes, where parking the seven machines was not at all easy.

Conveniently parked nearby were examples of both the ZZR1400 sports and the touring versions, so a great deal of discussion ensued.  Although Clive did express his thought that the ZZR reminded him of American 50's fridges, and Simon noted the similarity with the Batmobile, it did not spoil their friendship with Garf!  What the gals were talking about we men will never know, nor understand.

Whatever, all were quite obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves, and before long most were equipped with excellent ice-creams or soft drinks.

Again, we'd have loved to have hung around much longer amongst the press of bikes and bikers, but we had planned Slaidburn to be a bit more of a rest stop, so it was helmets back on, remounted and away.

Through the Three Peaks & into The Forest of Bowland for Slaidburn

If the recent section's roads were gently paced then the run through Ribble Head down to Ingleton was to be a complete contrast.  This is a very fast section, with excellent visibility and good tarmac, so the pace upped and the curves were rellished, and it wasn't long at all before the viaduct flashed by and we were descending into Ingleton and the Kendal to Skipton main road.

It had been intended to do a fuel top-up in Leyburn, but the planned petrol station was found to be closed for refurbishment, so by the time the ride got through Ingleton there were some with worryingly low tanks, particularly Pete's R1, and Simon's Bird (he'd not topped up in Skipton silly boy).  So those who needed it nipped up the road to a nearby petrol station and once refuelled the ride turned down the side road to Lower Bentham.

We were now entering the Forest of Bowland, and after a few miles of medium paced road with plenty of technical bends, it was suddenly out onto the 'tops' along a steadily rising straight road to the very top of the moor.  From there the road narrowed and twisted something rotten, with many passing places, plenty of loose sheep but views that fair planted themselves in your eyes.  So that everyone could really experience that 'top of the world' feeling the ride was halted above Stocks Reservoir and a short break taken.

Just a few miles further on the road dropped quickly down into the shallow valley in which nestles Slaidburn and our final break.

Slaidburn is famous for its very tame ducks - no doubt domesticated by the plentiful offerings of tit-bits that people have bought at the cafe, but Lainey seemed to have a particular attraction for one fella.  After a pretty full riding day, and some 150 miles put in so far by many of the more distant attendees, this was an ideal opportunity, and the perfect ambience for a spell of lying around on the grass soaking up the very warm sunshine.  This is exactly what we need for the rest of the season.

The Short Hop to Gisburn to the Run's End

Although we could have spent much longer just lazing around chatting, many of us still had a fair way to go before tucking the bike up for the night, so we reluctantly pressed on the short final section of the ride east out of Slaidburn, through Bolton by Bowland down into Gisburn.  After the sharp switch-back rise out of the valley, the rest of this section offered some fine opportunities for a final flourish of riding before, all too soon, we were pulling out onto the A59 the short way to the filling station at the west end of Gisburn village.