DAY 3, Sunday 29 June

This is Norton Day, the annual event the Norton Owners Club puts on, open to all, members, non-members, the general public, anyone with an interest in Norton bikes.

the 99 in a sea of Nortons, Norton Day

The event wanders around the country – last year, it was held on the Isle of Thanet, way down south, but this year the Yorkshire Branch of the NOC has volunteered to organise it, choosing a well-known biker Café, Squires, as the venue, and very good it’s proved to be too. We’d been down the night before by taxi for a few drinks with the crew, before returning the couple of miles to our B&B.

As late-comers, we’d been relegated to a large and rather run-down mobile-home for the night; when asked what our accommodation was like, Neil and I decided ‘interesting’ was the right description – there was indeed a plumbed-in loo etc, but only cold water, so showers were not exactly en-suite, over in the main house. Even the breakfast turned out not to be a proper ‘English’ – all-in-all, it would be difficult to recommend the Wheelgate B&B in Sherburn-in-Elmet, especially once the third denizen of ‘our’ mobile home succeeded in walking-in some extremely smelly evidence of the proprietors’ rat-dogs that was liberally sprinkled over the grounds.

the 99 in a sea of Nortons, Norton Day

Norton Day passed well, lots of people to chat to, new NOCcers to get to know, more interesting observations to be made on our favourite bikes, and one of the trade-stands stocked the requisite fuel-filters!!

And we succeeded in handing out the majority of the 200 special ‘Gutjwa Appeal’ envelopes Neil had produced, and collected around 40 or so back from donors, many with only paper in them, so a minimum of a fiver for sure. We had neither time to open and count the moneys received, nor the space to cart it off with us, so the envelopes are safely in the care of Ally and Neil Shoosmith, who run the NOC Spares Scheme, and drive the loaded van to all our events, bless ’em - I’ll be down to Dorset to collect once the RRTT is finished, but I expect we’ll have raised another £200 or so, so looks like the £3k barrier has now been exceeded.

As Vice-President of the Club, I was called on to present the prizes for the various classes of bikes and events, with one of our German visitors picking up no less than 2 awards, and Yorkshire members then collecting the bulk of the rest!!

presenting the prizes

By the time we’re ready to leave, the skies are looking ominous – as we fuel-up for the long ride north, they open, so we’re fortunately already stopped and under cover as we struggle into the waterproofs, and then splash up the A1, until running into a completely blocked major roadway. Rather than attempt to wriggle through the mass of jammed-up traffic, we divert off onto back roads, and get to see Tadcaster and Boston Spa in the rolling York Vale landscape, no great treat for the eyes, but better by far than the horrors of the Barnsley to Knottingly stretch we suffered yesterday.

From Wetherby, we’re now back on-track, and the rain’s eased off, and the sun has started to re-emerge. By Knaresborough, it’s worth stopping and removing the extra layers, and we end up completing the remaining 200 miles thus, though on a couple of occasions it has proved a near-thing, with rain-splattering on the visors, but nothing persistent enough to require covering-up again.

Not only has the weather improved, but so has the countryside – the eastern foothills of the Pennines features some very pretty villages. From Rippon, we’re now getting into the Yorkshire Dales, one of my all-time favourite parts of England, though the really wild stuff I love best doesn’t kick in until Leyburn. A vicious wind has now got up, almost blowing the front wheel from under me as I crank into one corner – the Norton is going really well sans-fuel filter, and the lack of power is hardly apparent on these twisty roads.

We cross out of North Yorkshire and into County Durham over The Strang on narrow, bumpy, sheep-lined open-moorland roads, wild, desolate Pennine tops, the now-clear weather presenting fabulous views over the distant miles.

A Costa Coffee shop in Barnard Castle is open late Sunday afternoon (good on yer!! – and great cakes too!) Then we’re off again, past Val’s parents’ old Eggleshope House, a thousand feet up over looking the Upper Tees, and once more we’re out on bleak open moor-tops, wonderful biking roads with superb visibility and enough swervery to keep things interesting – boy, does the nigh-on 50 year-old Norton love this sort of terrain!! It just feels so secure and ‘planted’ on the bendy stuff, it’s a real delight to be riding the old gal the way she was designed to be!

We eventually drop down to Hadrian’s Wall to refuel in Corbridge, then it’s back onto the old Roman Road A68 that plunges and rears over the Northumberland countryside, arrowing north, up onto Otterburn, and eventually over the border, and we’ve at least made it to Scotland!! It’s a great road, but once again the authorities have done their best to spoil things, with a veritable forest of speed camera, though with the 99’s cruising gait about 60-65 mph, it’s not a major impediment.

The A68 delivers you right onto the Edinburgh By-Pass, through some wonderful Border-Country scenery, without too many towns and villages to impede progress, but we’re starting to run out of time, so it’s up to 70 mph on the ring-road with no chance to see anything of Auld Reekie, my favourite city in Britain as we charge on, over the Forth Road Bridge in what looks to be the start of a serious downpour, but fades to nothing t’other side of the Forth, and we’re now facing the final leg along the north shore.

As usual, the last few miles seem to take forever, and again as usual, finding George and Margaret’s house in Alloa flummoxes us, but eventually we’re at our destination, to a wonderfully warm welcome from our hosts, the couple that ran the hotel in Falkland I stayed in when working for Calluna in less-than-lovely Glenrothes back in the late 1990s / early 2000s. At 9.15, we’re seriously late on our 7-8 p.m. estimate, but we’re forgiven, and have a great evening chewing the fat, and catching up on the past 5 years since last Neil and I stayed with them on our Aberdeen and back 3-day epic in 2003.

The Norton has run really well; though there is evidence the tank fuel-tap filter is clogged, I’ve not had a single spanner out all day. We’ll start with a spot of maintenance tomorrow, as we face another 240 miles day, albeit with all-day to do it in, rather than only an afternoon and evening – it’s a highlight ride, Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glencoe and the Great Glen, and we’re a-tingle at the prospect already, despite (mildly) aching posteriors!!