We all met as usual at the Tesco car park at 9.00am for a 9.30 start. There was a particularly good turnout with 17 bikes in attendance and a couple of new faces too, excellent.

Panos arrived fashionably late on his new K1200R - named "Arnie on Steroids" - to a waiting crowd of eager spectators. For a minute, I thought he looked not dissimilar to the "Crazy Frog" cartoon.

Panos had obviously been performing his rain dance again and by the time we left it was drizzling and getting rather cloudy.

Colin set a brisk pace which kept the pack well placed & allowed for riders of different abilities to go at their own pace.

We stopped at the Little Chef in Shaftesbury for a coffee break and them moved on to "sunny" Swanage. Weather was still trying to dampen our spirits, but not gaining much ground.

The section from Corfe Castle to Swanage provided an excellent opportunity for reading the road, with blind summits and tightening bends making for some tricky riding. Lunch was fish & chips by the sea front, still no sun though!

Panos tried to entertain the troops by asking for electrical checks to be performed on a number of bikes on account of brake lights coming on at inappropriate times. The conversation also covered some "unconventional" advanced riding techniques we had witnessed along the way. The excuses however were even more entertaining.

Our return route took us along the hilltops of Lulworth, the sun had come out by then, and the scenery was fantastic. Colin could not resist taking us all for a minor detour to the Lulworth Army Camp, much to the amusement of the armed guard at the gates.

Having paid attention to Panos' remarks, I was trying particularly hard not to brake unnecessarily into the corners. We found ourselves on a very twisty country road with blind tightening corners and I was doing a lot braking. Chris on the new Triumph Sprint ST, who is acknowledged as a very competent & technically proficient rider, overtook me on a straight. Perhaps he was bored watching my brake lights! So, I followed closely, matched my speed to his, watching his every move and trying to follow him into a corner without touching my brakes. In comes what looked like a tight right hander, so we both change down on the approach and go in. However, as the bend tightened further we both ended up running wide onto the gravel and Chris was heard saying over the radio in a cool non-committal way "woops, went a bit wide on this one". No brake lights came on though which is probably why we our paintwork remains unscratched!

Final stop for cream tea in Stockbridge, we sat beside the river in the pleasant afternoon sun and discussed the day's events. At this point most participants said their farewells and headed into the sunset. A final small group headed by Colin then rode towards West Meon with one section being a narrow country track. We came face to face with a Range Rover and it looked like we had nowhere to go. However the driver just climbed up the bank, leaning at 45 degrees, and we all rode by under him. Not bad for a car driver, hey?

All in all, another excellent day out. Thanks to Colin for his skillful leading and route picking - he really makes it up as he goes along - and The Crazy Frog for bringing up the rear in style....
Paul (Baldrick) on the R1200RT