18 April- A50 to ride it right

A bikers meet - I'm not used to this

On 18th April I had been invited to attend the Ride it Right day at Haselemere fire station, Surrey. PeterW3035 was riding up from Wickham with the Solent Advanced Motorcyclist mob (our local IAMs group) and we agreed to meet off ST-owners.com.

I had stopped the night in Aldershot having bolted down from my first Stoke trip via the wonderful A50 (no, really – wonderful: quick and wide with very little traffic) so tripped down via some sleepy back roads via an error in navigation and for some reason Godalming, which was a slow nightmare.

There was a giggle at a bunch of Norton riders in Godalming who obviously had no idea who was leading the ride and made a series of false starts off the lights as each began to accelerate and then near ran into the back of another braking to find where ever the leader might have been. There were squeely brakes and tippy-toes all over the junction and it certainly made for a laughable sight. (Mental note: don’t repeat the gaff myself).

Ride it Right

Once at Haselemere (a little late) I soon recognised Peter and associates. As is a growing tradition we quickly sought out, targeted, and destroyed a bacon butty each before browsing the stands. Some of the stands were safety-oriented, while others were trade. But of the trade stands none were remarkable; a fairly poor show to my mind.

(Motorcycle News)

There was a VFR1200F in white with side panniers but no top box, which caught my eye. Having ridden one recently (report to be a part of this catch up phase) I have a great deal of respect for the model and wouldn’t mind owning one. The caveat is that it is NOT an ST replacement and I doubt I’d last the current 54-77mile commute each way each day. The other Honda dealership offerings looked pretty mundane against the VFR.

The Honda Owners Club had a stand showing off a couple of older classics I’d recognise on the roads as a late teenager. They had merchandise but little impetuous for me to consider joining.

The local Heine Gericke had the poorest conceived stand I’ve ever seen. A tailor dummy in gear and some pamphlets. There was hardly a thing on sale, which must have been an error because I’ve not mentioned that I estimate several thousand bikers attended.

Surrey Police Casualty Prevention Officer, Pete Harris ran a stand showing a bike hooked up from front brake to a lap top testing reflexes from a visual cue akin to a set of brake lights. Peter and I watched it a couple of time and discussed my being completely knackered from the (to me) mammoth 500-mile ride completed the day before. It seemed a good idea to see how poorly I’d perform. PC Pete did a quick paper drop thru’ fingers test first. I grabbed it the first time but missed it under light distraction of a chat. Nice demo. I’m slow.

I sat on the bike and received the PC Pete’s brief that 2 red squares would appear and when I saw the brake lights I should react and brake. The red squares arrived – a pause – and then everyone laughed. Those were the brake lights, Pat. Oh.

In the ‘actual’ test I performed my braking in 0.4sec (representing 18m at 30mph). We’d seen a sample 0.34sec earlier. But, I argued, my fingers were covering the brake. Let me try as I ride. I wrapped my fingers loosely around the handlebars and awaited my cue. Lights-brake! 0.48sec. Goes to show!

Helping the Police with...

Police Peter showed us through a presentation folder he uses to ‘educate’ (or scare the shit out of) young drivers and riders with some pertinent safety advice, warnings about driving under the influence of hand jobs, and pretty grusome imagery of crash victims hanging off the back of various vehicles and street furniture.

I was so shocked that Police Peter had to make this up on his own and has no access to graphic or learning designers that I offered to help (gratis, of course for such a good cause).

We’re in negotiations now. I hope I can help. I sent a prototype for comment – and I think he liked it.

Homing Instincts

After a charity brew courtesy the host fire service we caught up with Bruce Armstrong deleivering a first aid at scene brief in a side room. PeterW, I feared would be bored but in fact engaged quickly with the content all about helmet removal and scene safety – do the best you can – brief. Bruce was in fine form and had his audience giggling as usual. Nice to catch a few seconds catch up on completion but the new audience was already pressuring him to get back to it.

Up over the Downs home

Having done pretty much as much squeezing everything we could from the stands we agreed to ride out. I suggested the routes I’ve been finding across the Downs from Petersfield to via East Meon Boarhunt although confessed I’d only really done that end from the Western end. I was to lead.

We headed south to Midhurst and then west to and through Petersfield keeping to the A272 until mid-town dropping onto the B2070 to A3 south. At the A3 I traversed the junction to take a back-road to East Meon turning toward which a big black BMW MPV cut the approach to the refuge I was heading into to turn right across its path. Later PeterW said I should have been further out – personally, I think my cautious approach saved me from being a hood ornament.

Immediately I turned onto the single-cart country roads I could sense PeterW might not be entirely at home on it. Typically, it had a line of grit down its centre and near 0-visibility around severe bends. On approach East Meon it eased a bit and more on the switch to Clanfield where Peter declared a brew stop was in order. So, we pressed on to Hambledon down that lovely long sweepingly curved route that shouts out for a ton-up before reminding you actually, that’d be a REALLY bad idea what with my hidden potholes, broken surface on the centre lines, and sudden bends and junctions. At Hambledon the café was shut – thinks to do Loomies.

Route to Droxford. While contemplating the sunny scenery and just how hot I was in my liners and winter gloves from the ride the day before I recalled the pub at Exton where the family and I had recently walked to from the top of Beacon Hill. I really fancied a lemonade in the beer garden down by the River Meon. We arrived, parked up, and found the bar closed (3pm). Very annoying as we didn’t want alcohol.

Luckily, Peter knew a tea room in Wickham from which he’d commenced the group ride that morning so I encouraged him to lead as it’s my daily commute and didn’t want to get carried away. In Droxford Dave from Smart bikes on his black ST1100 waved us down but we were already flying – a few miles on a Police revenue van was parked up at the Meon Valley Garage. Being behind Peter and he behind Sunday traffic I was thankfully well within legal speeds – today.

A good bottle of Dandelion and Burdock later we parted and I finally got home to a Red Bush with vanilla :)

Thanks, Peter – a great Sunday to round off what was otherwise a pretty distressing and difficult week.