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A Sunny ride out. At last. Thursday March 29th

31/3/2012

1 Comment

 
On Wednesday Matt decided a club ride out would be in order for the next day. He circulated an email including a route map and destination. Never have we experienced this level of organisation in the annals of encmcc mid week rides. I was a little concerned that this was raising the bar too high and I wouldn't be able to do this when I lead a ride.
Thursday came and five of us gathered at Matts were we learned we were now going to an entirely different destination. So things were back to normal on the organisational front. It was only later that we learnt that naively Trevor believing the circulated instructions but unable to make the start time, spent a pleasant morning at the original destination as the sole motorcyclist present mixing with a large group of cyclists.
Meanwhile Matt explained our new destination was to be The OK Diner on A1 near Stamford. Today a meeting of Real Classic magazine readers was to take place at the OK Diner. This was to be one of several meetings around the country taking place throughout the year and was also to be a competition were you collect points by attending. What do points mean? I haven't got a clue. A further highlight was that Frank Westworth the hairy editor was going to be in attendance to bless those present. 
We had a lovely ride in warm sunshine through some beautiful countryside gradually winding our way towards our destination. All went well until almost at our destination we discovered we were lost or rather the OK Diner was lost as it wasn't were it was supposed to be. After a pause and a bit of guesswork we found the back entrance of the cafe which was located on the A1 going North from Stamford.
About twenty bikes were there but it seems most people were inside the cafe.
The OK Diner turned out to be based on some ones idea of an American style diner.  It was a long narrow building in the style of a railway carriage with various items of Americana decorating the walls. The shape of the place prevented people forming into a cohesive group and wasn't really an ideal venue for this reason.
The food was a bit on the expensive side of normal so dissapointed that no pasties were available most of us opted for one of the cheaper items, a sandwich made with egg sausage and hash browns, which came adorned with two small US flags in case you hadn't realised it was an American theme. Tea and coffee were extra but imagine Rods delight when he found out you got free coffee refills. 
Outside again it was apparent that the hairy RC editor hadn't turned up. It later transpired that his Norton Rotary had expired with real classic style electrical problems. 
We spent a little while looking at the assembled bikes with those new retro classic Triumph Bonnevilles predominating amid a few older machines.
We headed back after Mark took advantage of the garage next door to the cafe. This garage actually had no queue for either pasties or fuel despite the governments best attempts to create panic about fuel shortages. However it was very expensive in line with the tax mans policy of bleeding us dry..
We headed back home as a group only separating off as we got near home.
We had a nice time and thanks to Matt from us all with the possible exception of Trev, for leading a nice warm sunny run for a change.
 See photos in gallery two of the website.
1 Comment
Matt
31/3/2012 12:18:36 am

Shame about Trev missing our jaunt but everyone has my contact details and had I known he was going to miss the start I would have updated him as to changed (?) venue..........which really wasn't a change of venue as we had listed in the events if you see my point.....my mistake was to in fact link in with my cycling clubs tea stop destination (Jem's Cafe). My excuse and yes I do have an excuse was that in fact Thursday and as you know I cycle on Thursdays - another excuse being that surprisingly this week Friday was not on Thursday ( if you think I have now really cracked you could be correct BUT if you attend the Tuesday night club meets....very entertaining they can be.......you will know that for certain members of the ENCMCC Friday in fact often comes on any day of the week.

Am starting to feel like the absent bearded one (FW) from Real Classic - so his rotary Norton broke down a pittiful excuse really as the amount of time he has spent dealing with breakdowns I thought he carried a spare engine in the panniers..........hope you got bac to Bude OK Frank look forward to seeing you next time!

Matt

P.S. I also have a map prepared for the ride out tomorrow but as it's all fools day ( another reason why we should all make the effort to get out) I thought I wouldn't bother to share it.

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