Not at home long enough to do a full ride-out report before heading off to the sunny south (Fareham) to re-roof a garage; some folks do lead exciting lives!
So, here, in no particular order, are some thoughts about the excellent and more than well-attended ride-out:
Four of us had planned to meet at the Premier Inn in Lowestoft and so Rae and Simon (on his V-Strom cos he doesn't trust his dealer to fit a flange) rode down together while I battled up manfully from Bury St. Edmunds without the aid of a satnav, a map nor anything recognisable as a sense of direction! Mike W wheeled his ginormous R1200 RT out of his garage and was at Lowestoft already!
Rae did an excellent job of organising the run, despite stealing the route from someone called Pete who owns two sheds!
Rae's idea of having a pint seems to involve about 6 pints!
Simon (JS) gets really giggly after about 3 pints!
06:45 is a god-awful time to start riding a bike; but that is what the four us did on Tuesday morning!
To echo Rae's sentiments, if the Eastern-most road in the US was the start point for a 'Chasing the Sun' run, it would be called Sunrise Boulevard and NOT Gas Works Road!
Mike's R1200RT is about as wide as a wide thing on wide day and riding behind Mike meant tail end Charlie here couldn't see where he, nor anyone else, was going!
Red Lodge do a very nice big breakfast thank you very much!
TomL rode up from the deepest depths of Herfordshire to a) join us for a thrash across country and b) to deliver my missing Euro millions! Thanks very much sir; it is a gentleman that you are!
Willoughby cafe is a most forgetful place; what was I saying?
Dom's Bike Stop was closed! It has now been closed every time I have been there!
There were a load of idiots standing around in the mist outside Dom's closed Bike Stop! These included, but are not limited to Timbox, Bobtail and his Secret Switch friend Johhnyboy, Philip who had ridden down from Crewe and probably others I have ignored, insulted and forgotten.
So, off to the American diner in Leominster for breakfast/lunch/dinner as various folks fancies took them and then it was off to sunny Aberystwyth. Tim had to leave to get back to work (he says) and Tom called it quits to head off back south, so we now numbered 6; Rae, Simon, Mike, Bob, John and me.
Mike and I ended up marooned behind a tractor hauling hay bales at 0mph through town and up hill and down dale with an everlasting stream of oncoming traffic and solid while lines and could actually have got off and walked faster. When we eventually caught up with the waiting advance party we set off with gusto to get across Wales tout suite before the sun came out.
My neck is still aching from the battering I took from the vicious winds coming in off the Atlantic for most of the day on Tuesday!
We missed out the stop at Devil's Bridge and it wasn't till we were almost at Aber that the sun came out with a vengeance and I was way overdressed in my winter gear.
Tight left handers with gravel, mud and running water cascading across the surface are not nice, not nice at all!
We thought the wind had been bad as it blustered across the country but at the 'T' junction on the sea front in Aberystwith it hit us like a steam train. Rae was struggling to hold his bike up and turn right with the wind blatting from his left. Mike was wobbling a little, but further back in the train, I couldn't see what the problem was. But as we all moved off one at a time, we each took our turn to do battle with the elephants thundering into us along the promenade; surreal and weird and bloody dangerous if you ask me.
From Leominster, I had been running as 'tail end Charlie' with who I thought was John behind me(!), but when we pulled into the hotel car park, Bob announced that we had lost John. 'No we haven't, he's there!' quoth I whilst pointing at John parking his bike up at the end of the line.
You can imagine my shock when John took his helmet off and immediately turned into Philip, who I didn't realise was riding to Aber with us from Leominster and so, Bob was quite right, we had indeed lost John.
At this point I was gobsmacked to discover that Philip wasn't staying the night at Aber but was doing a rapid about face and heading back to Crewe there and then. One hopes he made it back OK and it was lovely to meet another new face even if it was for such a short while.
John turned up about 1/2 hour later having slunk off to find petrol without telling anyone and is now officially banned! Forever!
We all told tall tales long into the night with every one of us complaining that we were 'all over the road' with the wind, whilst everyone also told the one in front that they were 'absolutely planted'; just goes to show.
On Wednesday morning, everyone scattered to the four winds, even though they weren't blowing by then, and I headed off back to England, assuming I could find my way with no one to follow.
The A44 is probably my favourite road in the UK!
It is bloody annoying when your inner sun visor keep flopping down all by itself; so that'll be another �30 for a new Schuberth mechanism then!
I assume the plod who was 'lasering' me from the westbound on-ramp of J15 of the M4 as I blatted eastwards on the opposite carriageway was having a laugh; either that or he is still trying to catch me. Good luck with that one then!
I got home at 3pm and no visits from the law yet!
I have a new sat nav and lovely new Sena 20S all synched and talking to each other so now I just need to drill a couple of holes in the side of my helmet.....
Brian (who had a lovely couple of days with some really good riders, drinkers, liars, cheats and thieves and can't wait for another excuse.....
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