FIMBER #4 TEA STOP

Located on the Wetwang to Malton road (YO25 3HG) Fimber is one of my favourite stops on a long or short ride. I love going to Fimber, the roads from Hull are not overly challenging but bendy enough to make it fun, with a long straight, down hill just before you get there, but be aware it's a favourite stop for the police as well.

Sat under the trees with. the obligatory cup of tea in hand, it's a great place to people watch and to play the bike to rider game. When you arrive there is a good chance that the gravel carpark will be full of bikes, with a splattering of cars to make the game that little more interesting. Its' usually easy to pick out the car people, for one thing they don't have bike gear on and aren't carrying a crash helmet, but I have been caught out once. A young lad in shorts and tee-shirt. He jumped on to a big scrambler, yanked his helmet off his handlebars and roared out of the carpark as if his ass was on fire. All the other bikers watched him leave with shaking heads. The thing is with Fimber you are watched from the second you enter the carpark, not in a creepy way, everyone loves bikes and they, just like me have an interest in all styles and types of bikes; and just like me an opinion.

So the game; what you have to do is try and match the bikers sitting around to the bikes resting in the carpark. You can get clues from the gear the bikers are wearing; branded leathers with Yamaha emblazoned down the legs and arms, to old style loose fitting leathers from the 1960s. Another trick is to look and the brand new bikes and then to find the born again bikers with pristine gear, all matching and not an oil stain or water stained creases anywhere, they usually have the most expensive bikes with virgin tyres. So in your mind you have thinned the field and then the fun begins. Most bikers have a favourite jacket, its' been worn for years and has stretched in the right places over the years, fitting its' owner like the proverbial glove. It might say Kawasaki across the shoulders but that doesn't mean he is riding one, he is just wearing his favourite jacket.

Fimber has a steady run of bikes coming and going, so, then someone gets up and starts heading towards the bikes , you have seconds to match rider to bike. Last summer in-between lock-downs, I was playing the game, I was feeling chuffed with myself as I'd matched 4 out of 6 riders to their steeds of choice, when an elderly gent got up to leave, dressed in the iconic 60s style understated leathers that a cafe-racer would be proud of. Bless him he he wasn't to good at walking and seemed to shuffle towards an old BSA. Result! That's what I'd matched him too, 5 out of 7, wrong! He shuffled past the BSA without giving it a glance and with amazing grace, for his age, mounted a BMW G310R. As he left on tick over, I thought it is too much of a bike for him, but as he turned right onto the long straight he opened her up, used three gears and was gone in an orchestral high pitched, hard reeving, German engineering.

So if you are out towards Wetwang, drop in for a cup of tea and play the game, the people you meet there are friendly and have a great sense of humour.