Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

The best biking road (and the most dangerous one?) in England

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The Cat & Fiddle is one of the most, possibly the most famous biking road in UK.  On the one hand it can provide a scenic, if somewhat twisty, route over the hills from Cheshire into Derbyshire, on the other it offers an exceptional combination of challenging bends which, if you try to make progress through them, will certainly test your riding skills.

For these reasons it attracts bikers galore – and therefore the almost permanent attention of traffic police.  This is no place to take any liberties.  If the car and motorcycle police don’t get you, the police helicopter will.

Leaving Macclesfield, the start of the open road

There is a speed limit of 50 mph too, although the bends are such that few if any can be taken at 50 mph and it’s not the end of the world if you have to limit your speed on the straighter bits, so I don’t think this speed limit spoils anything much.

The reason for all this police and line-marking attention is of course that the bends are dangerous if taken too fast and lots of bikers have been killed or injured on this road.  Overtaking is also dangerous except in a relatively few places, hence all the solid white lines.

An easy right hander

It’s the car traffic which is most likely to be a nuisance and get under your feet.  And there are, sensibly and also usefully, lots of solid white lines which restrict – and of course indicate – the fairly limited overtaking opportunities.  Of course there are lots of other bikers to contend with too and it has to be said that impatient sports bike riders, some of who seem regard the sight of a GoldWing in front of them as a particular challenge, to be overtaken as quickly and inconsiderately as possible, can also be a real pain.

Chevrons indicate a tighter bend

I have ridden this route many times and if I am riding from Lancashire down to Suffolk, which I do from time to time to visit family, I often take a cross country route and divert to include the Cat & Fiddle because it’s such a good ride.

It follows part of the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton and from the outskirts of Macclesfield, where the fun starts, to the outskirts of Buxton, it’s only just over 9 miles – and of that 9 miles only the western half, from the outskirts of Macclesfield to the Cat & Fiddle Pub at the summit, has the  marvellous sequence of challenging bends which make it such a magnet for bikers. BY Alpine standards it’s not that exceptional but it’s pretty good and it’s in UK, so it’s well worth a visit.

Right then a tight left

And I rode it again this afternoon, in company with some other Wingers after our Sunday morning call on Knutsford Honda, where we had been treated to coffee and croissants. I led the group of bikes through Knutsford and Macclesfield and then, by pre-arrangement dropped to the back to take the pictures you see here.

There is an excellent diagram of the bends and a sequence of photographs showing the approach to every one of them on Derek Mobbs’s  website which I suggest you take a look at.

Slower traffic can hold you up

There is also a video recording by an (anonymous) Advanced Motorcyclist on YouTube which takes you all the way up from Macclesfield to the Cat & Fiddle Summit and includes an excellent commentary.  This commentary is also a first class introduction to some of the techniques involved in advanced riding, so it’s we worth a look.

At the top of the climb is the Cat & Fiddle Pub where you can refresh or unburden yourself as necessary.

The Car Park can be very crowded

The Moorland Bar caters for bikers so it’s not the sort of place you’ll feel embarrassed about sitting down in wearing riding gear or even wet riding gear and they serve bar food and mugs of tea or coffee as well as alcoholic drinks. It’s not very big and so unless the weather is warm enough to sit outside it does tend to get crowded and there are only a few seats.

The food is wholesome but perhaps a bit pricey (sandwiches are £5.95) but this place is pretty remote and the toilets are modern and clean. There is even a “Restaurant” somewhere in the building if you want something more elaborate than a quick snack – or at least there is a sign pointing to one.

Sneakling admiration or smug disdain?

Being parked up among ‘normal’ bikers can have its rewards, and it amusements, for a Winger.  Riders who have never seen a Wing stretching its legs are often surprised how well they can move.  And of course although groups of sports bike riders will sometimes studiously avoid showing interest in a Wing among parked bikes, they will also often drift over to have a peep when the bike is left on its own. On this particular occasion one of them was even brave enough to come over and chat, so I took his picture as evidence.

This Sports Bike Rider thought a Wing would be too difficult use for Instructing

On leaving the pub car park we rode down towards Buxton and then turned around to ride back up again and back down to Macclesfield before heading home.  As I mentioned this route is less than 10 miles end to end and it’s a good ride both ways, so silly to waste the opportunity.

We had stayed together on the way up, held up for most of the way by a slow moving car but on the way back down we rode at our own pace and since I was leading, I got first go at the overtakes and managed to get enough space to make a bit of progress and scrape a footpeg here and there.

As I was about a third of the way down a police motorcyclist pulled out of a side road ahead of me and it became clear that he wasn’t planning to dawdle.  So I was able to follow him without worrying too much about the speedo, on the basis that “he wasn’t riding with his blue lights on Your Honour, so I just assumed he was riding within the limits”.  Which, give or take a bit, he did.

GoldWings North West Wingers taking the fresh moorland air

Police riders are all advanced riders and this one looked pretty good.  He was riding safely, so no silly risks and he slowed down early and enough when we came upon slower traffic, and he overtook with a decent margin of safety and without cutting in on anyone.  The overall impression, as it should be with every advanced rider, was of  being smooth and unhurried yet surprisingly quick.  His throttle control as excellent so I saw little of his brake light but he was nevertheless wasting no time and making good progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed following him and can highly recommend having a personal police escort when you are riding the Cat & Fiddle – if you are lucky enough to get one.  I had to pull over to wait for the group when we entered Macclesfield but they arrived fairly quickly and the policeman was held at the lights lower down, so we  filtered past the standing traffic to stop alongside him.

My personal Police Escort back down the hill

I thanked him for putting up with me following him; he lifted his helmet and, fortunately with a grin on his face, said he thought I had been pushing him!  I suppose I was a bit cheeky staying more or less on his tail.  He also remarked that he had never ridden a GoldWing but  he said “it looks like they handle quite well”, which I suppose might even have been a bit of a compliment to me as well as the bike.  Maybe there’s some life in the old dog yet.

This was a good ride on a great and, fortunately for a British Summer, dry biking road.  I can thoroughly recommend the Cat & Fiddle, it’s worth making a special journey to visit.

Photography Note:  The on-the-move pictures for this article were taken using a small digital camera mounted on a cheap tripod swivel head (£8 at Jessops) screwed to the brake master cylinder reservoir lid.  Despite being taken through the windscreen, they are fairly clear. I just drilled a hole in the lid (on the bench, from underneath!) and used a quarter inch countersink UNC machine screw.  The lid fits above a rubber seal, so there is no risk of fluid leakage.  The photos have of course been cropped to restore verticality; it would have been too much of a challenge to get my bike upright for photos as well as ride these roads safely and click the shutter!