Matt spotted the publicity for "Motorcycling Live 2012" an event held in the grounds of a school in Ampthill Bedfordshire. Inspired he circulated emails to club members to organise a ride out.
Now you might think that having a Sunday ride out as opposed to the usual midweek rides would bring out the hordes. Well it didn't.. The hordes stayed at home and watched the telly.
Four bikes left Irthlingborough in bright warm conditions making there way towards Ampthill by the usual not very obvious routes. As arranged we met up with the group next to the bridge in Harrold at eleven o clock and headed off behind them. Hardly a mile passed before we found ourselves on the route and in among the runners competing in Bedford Harriers Oakley 20 road run. There were literally hundreds of runners completely filling the left lane of the road out of Carlton. We spent the next four or five miles riding in the wrong lane making progress at about 10 miles per hour. I do have to say though that the lane discipline of the runners was very good and vehicles approaching in the same lane as us on the whole behaved considerately.
Eventually we were clear of the runners and we were able to make better progress going via Marston Moretaine and past the Millbrook vehicle testing facility and through the severe speed bumps in the village. The speed bumps in Millbrook village are so severe and regular they could well be part of the test track. They certainly tested the new fork seals in Matts BSA B31 which had oily fork legs by the time we arrived at "Motorcycling Live" in Ampthill's Redborne School.
We parked up and our first port of call was the chip van.
After satisfying our immediate needs a walkabout revealed the event was fairly low key. Among the people present was a grey bearded Simon Gandolfi selling his books. This is a man who at the age of 73 got back into motorcycling again after a fourty year break by touring Central and South America on a 125 Honda.Other attractions included some club stands and the usual road safety organisations.If the desire was there you could have ago at weaving through an intricate course of traffic cones observed by police and "advanced motorcyclists."
The main attractions were the Wall of Death which we didn't watch and a Stunt riding display by Dave Coates.
This man is the official Yamaha stunt rider who is also supported by Pirelli. He certainly new how to control the bike, scooter and quad that we watched him perform on. Judging by the abuse he dished out to the bikes and tyres, equipment sponsorship is essential, repairs to clutch and brakes must be a regular thing and new tyres must be needed after each performance.
After all that excitement we slowly made our way back to the bikes to head off home.
We left our group in Bedford and turned for Northampton whilst the rest continued on towards Rushden and home.
I checked later and about 800 runners finished the Oakley 20. Despite having done at least a quarter of the event, I notice we weren't listed in the results. How disappointing, but we still enjoyed our day.
See photos on Gallery 2.
Now you might think that having a Sunday ride out as opposed to the usual midweek rides would bring out the hordes. Well it didn't.. The hordes stayed at home and watched the telly.
Four bikes left Irthlingborough in bright warm conditions making there way towards Ampthill by the usual not very obvious routes. As arranged we met up with the group next to the bridge in Harrold at eleven o clock and headed off behind them. Hardly a mile passed before we found ourselves on the route and in among the runners competing in Bedford Harriers Oakley 20 road run. There were literally hundreds of runners completely filling the left lane of the road out of Carlton. We spent the next four or five miles riding in the wrong lane making progress at about 10 miles per hour. I do have to say though that the lane discipline of the runners was very good and vehicles approaching in the same lane as us on the whole behaved considerately.
Eventually we were clear of the runners and we were able to make better progress going via Marston Moretaine and past the Millbrook vehicle testing facility and through the severe speed bumps in the village. The speed bumps in Millbrook village are so severe and regular they could well be part of the test track. They certainly tested the new fork seals in Matts BSA B31 which had oily fork legs by the time we arrived at "Motorcycling Live" in Ampthill's Redborne School.
We parked up and our first port of call was the chip van.
After satisfying our immediate needs a walkabout revealed the event was fairly low key. Among the people present was a grey bearded Simon Gandolfi selling his books. This is a man who at the age of 73 got back into motorcycling again after a fourty year break by touring Central and South America on a 125 Honda.Other attractions included some club stands and the usual road safety organisations.If the desire was there you could have ago at weaving through an intricate course of traffic cones observed by police and "advanced motorcyclists."
The main attractions were the Wall of Death which we didn't watch and a Stunt riding display by Dave Coates.
This man is the official Yamaha stunt rider who is also supported by Pirelli. He certainly new how to control the bike, scooter and quad that we watched him perform on. Judging by the abuse he dished out to the bikes and tyres, equipment sponsorship is essential, repairs to clutch and brakes must be a regular thing and new tyres must be needed after each performance.
After all that excitement we slowly made our way back to the bikes to head off home.
We left our group in Bedford and turned for Northampton whilst the rest continued on towards Rushden and home.
I checked later and about 800 runners finished the Oakley 20. Despite having done at least a quarter of the event, I notice we weren't listed in the results. How disappointing, but we still enjoyed our day.
See photos on Gallery 2.
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