Frost Bite Run 2025

I’m usually an early riser and as I looked out the window as dawn broke I noticed that there had been some overnight rain. The rain however had stopped, and the roads were drying in places as I left Hinckley at 8:30 am. This would allow me plenty of time to top up my petrol tank on the way to the start of the run at Tutbury car park. (I filled up at the Texaco station on the A511, Ashby Road on the outskirts of Burton, £1.299 a litre for premium, the least expensive I found en route.🙂)
I made good time as the roads were quiet as usual early on a Sunday morning. I was the first to arrive at the start point and very soon after other riders began arriving. We stood around in the early morning sun, catching up on gossip, and talking about bikes.

Mick Waterfield, our run leader gathered us around and gave a rough idea of where were going and the run was around 75 miles with a stop about halfway for refreshments. He also told us that there was one uphill right hand bend that should be treated with care. (He was right about it being tricky as it was on a sinuous series of uphill turns. The road was still damp under the trees and the left edge of the off camber bend beckoned unwary riders. 😲)

We left Tutbury at 10 o’clock using the drop off system, with riders on 19 bikes plus two pillions. I followed up as last man. The roads by this time were mostly dry but still damp in places so you had to watch out for fallen leaves on damp patches. The route took us up into scenic Derbyshire where the trees were taking on their autumnal hues of brown and gold. This was Derbyshire at its finest with sunlit views in all directions.

Our halfway stop was at Monyash. It was quite busy as the sun had enticed quite a few other motorcyclists out making the queues for drinks and toilet in the café quite long.

Mick led us on a different route back to Tutbury but unfortunately a few of our group missed the main group leaving Monyash. These went straight home or arrived back at Tutbury when only a few of us were still in the Tutbury car park. (I put this down to the difficulty of getting everyone together before we left because it was so busy that our bikes were parked all over the place.)
Just before we left Mick showed us the trip reading on his bike. It was almost exactly 75 miles, not a bad guess at the length of the route as he had predicted before the start of the run.✔

Many thanks to Mick for planning and leading the run and to all those who took part in what was our last calendar run of the season. Eddy

Some photographs below at Monyash from John Earp and myself in the Tutbury car park. Eddy

At Monyash Old Smithy Tea Rooms