Some of you may have worked out that I live in Cheshire and am a man of the cloth. There are quite a few clergy who ride in this diocese and we were delighted to welcome Bp Mark Tanner five years ago as our Bishop. He's a dyed in the wool biker, a former blood biker and (unfortunately) a BMW GS rider. Chester Diocese is linked with the Diocese of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and following a visit to the Congo last year Bp Mark found that the main means of transport is small Chinese made 125cc motorbikes that cost about £1000. The Congo Diocese employs many of the midwives and nurses that provide the health care in the Congo and they use these bikes to get around. There a few of us who go for rides with Bp Mark and on one of our rides last year Mark shared his ideal of raising £1000 for a bike plus £100 for safety gear per year to help the Diocese work. We were sure that the biking community could manage that. And so today was the inaugural Rideout around a bit of Chester Diocese. It was £5 to buy in to the ride plus whatever you wanted to donate. We rode about 60 miles in total from Diocesan church house in Daresbury, to the Bishop's house in Chester for lunch and then on to the Diocesan retreat house at Foxhill near Frodsham. It was a wonderful eclectic bunch of riders, ranging in biking experience of decades, through "born-again bikers like myself", to the Bishop's chaplain (my God daughter) who passed her CBT 3 weeks ago! I got roped in to being one of the Ride Marshalls, I was a bit nervous to agree, but found that concentrating on keeping others safe and on route, helped my riding confidence no end. Speed limits were as posted -10%, although it was often slower than that at the front due to so many riders strung out over Cheshire's roads. We had representatives from the British Legion Bikers, The Longriders, the CMA, clergy and assorted others. Bikes ranged from big tourers through trikes (Goldwing based, BMW Tourer based and a bespoke German Rewaco) 70's and 80's trail bikes, tourers, modern classics sports bikes, Harleys and the Bp's chaplain rode the charity Lexmoto 125 demo bike (The Congo version apparently has less plastic and graphics). Bikes gathered, tea, coffee, cake and music on hand. Getting to know each other, the guy in the fetching pink Hi-Viz is my mate Paul; vicar of Whitegate and would be the ride leader, others are mostly British Legion Bikers (I think). Bp Mark giving a pre-depart briefing. Just some of the varied bikes on the ride. At the end of a decent day: Some forty or so bikers took part, next ride will certainly be next Easter Saturday, but some of us are lobbying for a ride in September . The ride raised enough money for 5 bikes plus gear for the Congo! Edit: if you feel like giving follow this link https://www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/BikingBishop
@RevPaul Nice bikes and well worth cause. Good on you and all who took part and raised a good amount of cash
Nice one RevPaul. What a great idea and achievement - hope it goes from strength to strength. If I'm ever up there visiting the 'rellies' (I'm a Scouser by birth) on a bike then I'll try to arrange to join in. However, being the pedant I am, I can't let "died in the wool" go unchallenged, even for a man of the cloth!! I trust Bp TANNER is still very much alive and in the cloth rather than the wool sack!! A
OOps and I'm normally that verbal pedant! I'll edit it now. You'll be very welcome on the ride, or anytime you're up here, see you next week.
