The weather was very windy with possibility of light rain. I put on my full winter kit plus my lovely heated gloves as it makes riding a lot easier with warm fingers these days. Barry said he might come along so we agreed, if his Blade was on his driveway then I would stop as it wasn’t so I carried on.
A bit blowy on the M1 but a good journey to M25, Laurie had said that he would meet us at Rykas so when I got as far as the A404 turning I could see that distinctive colour of his jacket ahead but he carried on as I turned off at Maple Cross.
Coming down to Denham roundabout I saw Chris waiting in the layby by the garden centre on the other side of A40. I signal him by waving my arms and pointing that he was at the wrong meeting place but without success. He waved back thinking that I was another friendly biker and I guess did not recognise me.
Got to A412 layby in plenty of time, Vinnie was happy that we hadn’t ridden off and left him like last year. Told everybody where Chris was and asked them to wait whilst I went back to get him. Eventually we were all together at the A412 meeting place and it was a good turnout. Pat & Brian, Vinnie, Chris, Steve V, Danny, Big Dave and myself were in attendance.
We set off for Rykas with Brian leading, Max joined our group along the way as he was waiting on one of the bridges on the M25. He managed to catch up to us on the A10 turn off. It was a good steady run all the way to Rykas. Laurie was already waiting for us and so we had a quick coffee break before setting off for Brighton. This time Steve led the way through the A roads and back onto M25 then onto M23.
Laurie was last in our convoy just behind me as we were making steady 65MPH, that’s when I noticed that he started dropping back slowly. I was watching him in my rear view mirror and assumed that he wanted to ride slightly slower than us as he often did but always arrived not too far behind us. When we parked up at Brighton it all become clear, Pat received a text from Laurie to say that his rear tyre had deflated. He thought that his bike felt sluggish due to the strong winds and carried on riding for a bit longer. As a result, the tyre was completely flat and came off the rim. It’s amazing how the radials cope with running on flat as opposed to old crossply tyres which would have thrown you straight off. That was end of Laurie’s day as recovery was called out and he was soon back home. Since then he is gone on holiday to recuperate no doubt!
As we carried on walking to inspect all the vintage vehicles parked up on the sea front we bumped into Bob Brooks. Apparently he got up at 5:30am to catch the train which stopped at every station and took him two and half hours. It was a nice surprise to see him there! Alas It was time for fish n’ chips before going for our walk about admiring hundreds of pre 1912 bike in fantastic condition. We did our usual wandering about with lots of banter and meeting few people we knew on the way.
Eventually it was time to go home and so we all went to fuel up our bikes. Journey back was slightly faster and everybody peeled off when they reached their turn off. Vinnie and Danny went on the M4 while Steve, Pat & Brian and Chris on M40 and I carried on up the M1 to Luton.
