TeamSteve H4Htrip in Words

This just in from Steve:

TeamSteve left Derby on Tuesday morning and journyed Northwestward in what can only be described as "ordinary" weather. We passed a large military vehicle on the M6, and a tea stop at the motorway services saw it join us. SteveB was in the pasenger seat like a rat up a drainpipe, interviewing the driver as best he could through the Liverpool accent he found himself confronted with.

Moving along, we decided to lunch in Morcambe as this was the nearest we would be to the sea on this trip. We saw a lot of beach, but not much sea, then rolled along the route that we hoped to ride the next day but in reverse direction.

Arriving in Keswick, we booked into the YHA not long before the mopedders began to arrive. We had heard snippets of the problems with our Chinese mount, and now had a chance to join in the stripdown. The more pieces that were removed, the more it became obvious that the engine was not turning over.

Having removed the cylinder head, we could see evidence of something impacting the head, and then noticed that the "something" was a needle roller nestling at the end of the bore. Craig, our volunteer mechanic for the week, had a little difficulty removing the cylinder. The reason soon became obvious. There was a broken off chunk of piston ring sticking out. The little end had imploded, and we only found 3 rollers, so the verdict had to be that our moped was beyond any help without spare parts being obtained. TeamSteve was now in limbo, and relying on the interweb to come up with help.

We could either worry about it or go to the pub.... no contest. R K Ick joined us, and we explained the meaning of our RealClassic monikers to each other (I admitted that I'd never read his properly, he thought I was a country bumpkin). A fine meal and some fine beer, including Jenning's Sneck Lifter ( a good half hour was wasted discussing the meaning of this peculiar name) later, we welcomed a couple of the other riders to our table.

At some stage one of the guys, Tristan, casualy mentioned that he had a spare moped that we might wish to ride the next day. I seized the moment and grilled him further before shaking hands on the deal. And so we retired for the night leaving Ken in the safe hands of the C90 stunt team and some dodgy photos of their escapades.

Wendesday morning dawned grey and damp, so SteveB nominated me to ride the early stint. After breakfasting in style at the YHA restaurant, we fitted our Hippo Hands to the Honda Zoomer we were to ride, and I test rode it up the street and back. What a super little machine! Shortly after, I set off 3rd in line of our party of 5. The weather had closed in, so it was disappointimg to be in such a beautiful part of our country with no view to speak of. However, the elation of actualy being able to fulfill my part of the charity ride more than made up for it.
Before long, we arrived at the garden centre for our tea stop, there to be joined by Malcolm (Pathfinder) on his Enfield. The staff had reserved us two big tables in the middle of the cafe, and it seemed that most of us had a big sticky cake to help sustain us.

Malcolm helped us get through Lancaster, then we battled our way through the outskirts of Preston. An interesting interlude was provide by a female driver of a VW Beetle who took exception to Fiona's headlights on the red Zoomer. So excited was she, that she reverted to Anglo Saxon to converse with John, our esteemed leader. She seemeed to think that he was overweight and of doubtful parentage (with a few choice F words added) How she could deuce that from driving alongside him I don't know. Maybe she has a sister called Sarah who works in Morcambe.

A planned lunch stop at a good looking canalside pub went awry. The pub had closed for refurbishment 4 weeks previously. Backtracking to the main road, we were welcomed to the pub where we turned off to the other pub. Although they could only provide sandwiches, it was all very pleasant. Being around halfway on our trip, it was time for SteveB to ride the Zoomer and me to drive his van.

This gave me chance to leapfrog whenever possible, and get some action photos along the way. The final stop for the 'pedders was another traffic calming exercise (dropping in to a layby to allow the following convoy to pass). So I nipped on ahead to the Travelodge at Shrewsbury where I knew MadMike was waiting. The NVT was already there and being mollycoddled, which was nice to see. Ten minutes later, and the gang rolled in and introductions were made.
MadMike proceded to remove any valuable items from the Dead-Ped.. valve caps, plastic number plate screws etc etc, whilst Craig flashed his spanners at the Peugeot. This needed a new shock absorber, an item collected by Craig and our Ken earlier in the day. The Mighty Gusset and Hazel dropped by, then all too soon TeamSteve had to depart.

I really enjoyed my couple of days, made some new friends, put faces to internet names, and hopefully did some good.

Thanks go to everyone involved with the organisation of this ride and, hugely, to John Tristan and Fiona for trusting us with their baby.

In case you've not seen the photo's, they're here:
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/mrrealtreat/H4H%202011/?albumview=slideshow