The Feizor Run 04 September 2021
Nine riders turned up at the Garden centre for John’s run to Feizor on an overcast and quite chilly day. Dave Y was out for the first time this year on his M16 and a little bit of fettling on his new carburetter took place before we set off. Charity collection made we set off at 10:45 with John leading us to Longridge, Bolton by Bowland and then to the railway station cafe at Hellifield. Lots of huge Tractors and Trailers along the way as harvest time is upon us. A nice stop here at the station where we had refreshments and watched a Pullman train pull in, presumably from a heritage railway preservation group. Not sure what was going on as there didn’t seem to be any one on it! A pleasant lady and her companion spoke to us as we sat there and complimented us on our bikes that they had been looking at as they came in. They had never heard of Matchless or AJS so they were informed of the facts!
From Hellifield we went up to Kikby Malham and Stainforth to get to Austwick and then a short section on the A65 to get to the road up to Elaine’s Tearooms at Feizor for lunch. We managed to bag the big slate table which conveniently seats up to 9 people and ordered our meals. It was very nice break with many walkers and other visitors coming and going. We seemed to confuse the poor waitress with our huge order but everything came as ordered and we sat and enjoyed the food in quite mild but overcast weather.
From Feizor we left to join the A65 heading north where Chris and Peter left us to make their way back to Lancaster and Morecambe separately. The remaining seven turned off at the Clapham turn and drove through the Gisburn forest to get to Slaidburn. At the Sladburn road a sign said the road was closed so John took us on a detour to get round the blockage and we ended up a mile or so further down the Slaidburn road with the road signs still saying Road Closed. We ignored the advice and rode into Slaidburn to the car park and cafe without seeing a blockage!
After a rest here we decided on the plans for the run home and as we were leaving 2 interested young lads on pushbikes asked us what make of motorcycles we were riding! Again we put them in the know and waved them goodbye. Well they were only about 12 years old so I don’t think they will have seen many about in their lifetimes. At the top of the road we came to some temporary traffic lights which were probably the cause of the road closed signs. The house on the corner of the road to Newton in Bowland had been hit some months ago by a lorry or something and had been shored up with buttresses for many months. It would appear that the restoration work was ongoing requiring a huge steel I beam to be inserted thus heavy lifting equipment and scaffolding were all around the junction. We passed through and made our way down to Dunsop bridge and shortly after Whitewell, John left us for home. The remaining six continued on to Longridge where Dave and Bob departed to leave the Fylde Coasters to go home via Myerscough, Inskip and Kirkham
A lovely day out with some roads we had not travelled before so many thanks to John for planning the route and leading us on a most enjoyable run.
(I clocked 145 miles for the round trip from Lytham and it took 8 litres to top off the tank. Not bad!)