22nd August 2019
Journey Length 19.9ml
Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS
It’s adventure night and tonight I had a plan to find some tanks. I had been reliably informed that there were some tanks near Heywood and hopefully we could confirm this. We normally meet at a place close to where one of us lives but tonight’s meeting place was to be the Queens pub near Bradley fold, a place equidistant from us both. Graham was already there when I arrived, “Nice to see you” ,he said I replied with the same, then “to see you, nice” we both said in unison. A throw back to Bruce Forsyths catch phrase. Then I heard Graham shout “nothing for 2 in a bed” , oops I thought wrong programme that was bullseye with Jim Bowen, then he realised before I corrected him. He mentioned that he had asked the SOG if he wanted to come with us, but he’d declined. “All that money on a bike and he’s hardly used it” Graham commented a little annoyed.
Off we went along the cycle path through Bradley Fold and we were soon at the housing estate at its end and onto Cordington Way. It was from here we needed to get to the canal heading towards Bury. As usual we took a wrong turn and ended up heading in totally the opposite direction. We stopped to check our map and realised we needed to turn left down Greenbank Rd which was now behind us , this would lead us onto the canal. It was here we took a breather and Graham asked if I’d had my tea, it turned out neither of us had, then Graham noticed a rather large gentleman outside the chippy “ looks like he’s had his tea and ours by the look of him “ it brought a wry smile to us both. As we rode down the path Graham commented how nice it was and I had to agree. It looked like a small park and we wondered what it was called. Later I found out it is strangely just called Banana Path. It was along here we came upon what looked like the remains of an old bridge.
We got to the canal and rode towards Bury, we passed a jogger coming the other way, he looked like death, don’t understand what the joy of that is really. We left the canal at Hinds Ln and went under the tramlines bridge via the tunnel before emerging into the area of Hutchinson’s Goit .A Goit is a man made channel for water normally to feed a mill, in this case a cotton mill. Here we also saw the large weir on the river Irwell where a large tree had become stuck at the top of the weir.
Now it was up Radcliffe Rd up to our next turn which was to be at the White Boar pub, but before we got there we had to stop to let a police car turn in front of us, as we waited Graham said we were all above board lights and everything so we wouldn’t get arrested and I said it’s alright pal I’m sure he’s seen our helmets , ha ha.
We rode up Whitefield Rd , turned left and arrived on Manchester Rd at the Swan & Cemetery where we took another wrong turn. Soon we were back on track and heading up Gigg Ln passed Bury FC, which unfortunately is going through some sad times at the moment and may have gone completely in a couple of days, a sad sign of the times. Shortly after passing there we came to a mini roundabout where I stopped . There was a car coming towards us turning right and a car to our left also wanting to turn right. I’d stopped to let the car opposite go as he had right of way, the whoosh Graham shot straight through, “ Oi I shouted it’s a bleedin roundabout !!! ”.
Once I caught him up and explained why I’d stopped he just said” we’d have been there all night waiting for someone to make a move , it would have been like the Chuckle Brothers “to me to you to me to you”
Onward we rode passing a garden with the biggest satellite dish I’ve ever seen, we both agreed it was probably not for watching Sky Sports if you follow my drift.
Around a corner on the cycle path we were met with a sign we didn’t want to see Bridge Closed Unsafe Structure Do Not Enter, what do we do now?. Graham’s answer ignore the sign altogether, but he did instruct me we had to cross one at a time pushing our bikes. Once over the bridge we followed the path to Bury New Rd where we turned right climbed the hill. Oh and what a hill, after what seemed ages we got to the top, and low and behold the pub at the top is called the Summit, well that’s about right then. From here it was only 2 minutes until we arrived at our destination, Heywood Tanks.
The place was closed and all locked up and we could only see a few tank things, a little bit disappointing if I’m honest, but like Graham said it had been a good ride here. After a quick breather while we chatted about work we set off on our return journey following our original path. As we did Graham mentioned his brakes were binding, but rather than adjust them he just decided to carry on a bit of apathy creeping in, or maybe just gung-ho.
The return path was almost a mirror image of our route, but a slight alteration found us pass a Chinese Chippy which prompted Graham to remark “Love a Chinese me, but I couldn’t eat a full one ha ha”, I nearly fell off my bike. We crossed over the bridge of doom, this time side by side if the bridge was giant to collapse we were going together. As we crossed we heard some young lads phones playing some very loud music, Graham being down with it stated “ its Stormzy init “ , I truly had no idea and neither had Graham if he was honest.
We crossed the tramlines via the level Crossing on our way back. Just as we got there the barrier descended with the lights flashing, so we patiently waited, as we did I noticed a sign Danger Overhead Live Wires. I pointed this out to Graham who said good job The SOG hadn’t come he might have caught his head on them, chuckling has he did?
We travelled along the canal until we got back into Radcliffe where we didn’t take 1 wrong turn but 6, up and down the streets we went the Tracking App map looks like a spiders web. Eventually we got on a dirt path that brought us back to Cordington Way although we had to negotiate a devilishly steep embankment that could have ended badly..
The light was now beginning to fade but as extreme bikers we were prepared, and both had our full complement of lights. This was indeed good planning as it was pretty dark riding under the trees on the cycle path to Bradley Fold where we parted company with the promises of texting when we were both home safely.
