Frostbite Run 2020

The weather for this November 1st run didn't look too promising as I left Hinckley a bit of "mizzle" falling and damp roads. The start was from the car park in Tutbury at 10.00 am. On such a grey morning I didn't expect to see many bikes turn up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that by start time we had 17 riders including two lads from Tamworth, Pete Kirby and Garry Hirons who had also ridden with us on the Autumn Mists run. (If they read this send me your email addresses and I'll add you to our mailing list.) One of them was on a BMW single and he told me that the Velocette he had used on the Autumn Mists run wouldn't start that morning. When we started to leave his BMW single wouldn't start! I guess it just wasn't his day!! I checked they were OK and left the two of them to sort it out. A pity but they seem very keen so we hope we see them again.

It was a few minutes after 10.00am as Mick Leach lead the bikes out of the car park. I had volunteered to be last man and was a bit delayed due to checking if the non starter would be OK. Which way did they go? Panic! Bill, who was taking a short video of the start pointed me in the right direction. Panic over. Losing the last man is not a good way to start a run to!

The roads were still a bit damp in places with occasional very light showers but as the ride progressed the roads were mostly dry and we even had a bit of sunshine at times.��

There map below shows in red the route we rode. It was 49 miles from the start to the finish at 1.15pm near the Salt Box cafe. We had a short "Pit Stop" break just over half way round. I've marked that with a blue star on the map and one of the photographs below shows the bikes lined up there on the side of the road with an ominous sky behind.

Dave Prescott was on hand at the start and photographed quite a few bikes in the Tutbury car park. Thanks to Dave for the photographs, Mick Leach for photographs captions and also to Bill Shackleford who supplied the short video of the bikes leaving the car park. You can see Bill's video at this YouTube link:

This may be our last run for a while due to a 4 week "Lockdown" due to increased Covid 19 infection figures so many thanks to Mick for organising this run. Stay safe. Eddy.

frostbite route map