Eleven intrepid rider and one pillion met at Haddon Services, Peterborough in preparation for the delayed 2nd social ride in October. PECAM’s social rides are on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month throughout the year. However last week the heavens opened with heavy rain about 7am and didn’t stop until after lunch. The ride lead (quite rightly) decided to postpone the ride to see if we had better ‘weather luck’ this week – and we did – just!
All of the riders were experienced IAM Roadsmart qualified Advanced members of the group and so the briefing was able to be dealt with very efficiently. We then mounted up to head off to Stradishall in Essex, a planned 65 mile trip. The rain, although light at this point was steady, and had been falling for some time, therefore the road surface was pretty wet for the most part. We headed generally south, through some familiar country roads, made more challenging by the ever accommodating farmers leaving large patches of mud for us to practice on. On comparing notes when we stopped at the destination it appears more than a few of us had very interesting handling issues to contend with, and certainly mud-skating on a near 200BHP sports bike is far from the fun that it sounds.
When we hit Bluntisham our general direction changed to head eastwards on the fantastic fen roads out to Soham. The open flat fields and amazing view you can get as a rider normally means that you can maximise your bike’s performance (within the confines of the law of course) on these roads. However, the wet and muddy roads meant careful consideration had to be given to every aspect of your ride and smooth and steady were the watch words of the day.
After Soham we proceeded through through Cambridgeshire into Essex, with a dramatic change in roads. We were met with beautiful trees lining the roads in full golden autumn glory, narrower roads and high hedge rows, and very light traffic. The wet fallen leaves making a good imitation for ice meant that we couldn’t relax for a second. After just shy of 100 minutes riding we arrived at the very welcome and excellent Cafe 33 in Stradishall, Service was efficient, they are very used to groups of motorcyclists as well as cyclists, the food was excellent and the banter and general conversation, as always, very pleasant.
The contrasts in the type and style of roads continued through Essex and back into South Cambridgeshire, through picturesque villages, until 55 miles later the ride ended at the White Swan, Conington. The roads now were dry in places, but it has to be said the last stretch of road bringing us to the pub appeared to have been prepared by Alton Towers, it was a real roller-coaster of a road – but a lot of fun, even on a sports bike.
Many thanks to all who came along for the fun, and especially to Kevin Hudson for planning and leading the ride and Jimmy Duff for the TEC pink vest duties.