Some 15 bikes turned up to take the roll call at the Tesco capark, Winnall, and the temperatures were already rising. Amongst them Julian with his lovely new yellow R1200S and Adrian, or at least I think that's what his name is as we haven't seen him for over a year, with Percy the Pig. The "real" Dave with his K1200S also dropped by to say hello but would not join us on account of these rides being in the habit of doing too many twisties at pace! Tim on the K1200R was our pilot for the day with Captain Sensible taking up the rear.
After a short burst on the A34 & A33 we turned left on the B3084 and what felt like shed loads of unmarked roads to join the A343 towards Newbury. After some more miles we then turned west through some more unmarked roads to join the A338, the B3087 to Pewsey and then the A345 south to meet the A342 west towards Devizes. We then turned off on the B3098 to Westbury and the A350 south to Shaftesbury and the B3081 through Zig-Zag Hill to Compton Abbas airfield, our lunch destination. That was probably the warmest 115 miles we've done for a long time.
Now, food has tended to feature quite heavily in these ride-outs but the high temperatures were playing havoc with the paricipants' appetites. Neil on the fruity FJR1300, normally a wicked breakfast + chips man, had nothing and Captain Sensible only had a slice - it was very small too - of fruit cake. Nevertheless the sights and location were more than enough compensation...
After a long break we set off for the afternoon leg of the ride and I was going to say "refreshed" here but were nowhere near refreshed. Boiling our nuts off was more to the point. So we took the A350 - one of the best biking roads in Endland according to RiDE - and then turned west on the A357 to Sturminster Newton and north on the lovely B3091 to Shaftesbury for a re-fuel. The decision was then made to give the Little Chef a miss and ride back on the familiar delights of the A30 to Salisbury with Stockbridge our final destination.
At this point the leader/back-marker roles were reversed and "Slim" decided to take in a stretch of the A338 and the B3084 as the long way around to Stockbridge. A few miles before arrival at our favourite afternoon tea spot, Chris on his new blue 955i Tiger decided to demostrate the reasons why advanced riders never overtake on junctions, and at the same time test his emergency braking skills!!! Upon arrival at Stockbridge and in the absence of fresh pairs of pants to change into, we settled for tea, coffee and sparkling water.
A big thank you to Tim for organising such a challenging route - or did he just made it up as he went along? - all the participants who make these rides such a pleasure and Chris for the excellent demonstration of his advanced riding skills. The next ride will be on Sunday the 1st of October so make sure you've all got your pink tickets lined up.