Wednesday 21st August 2013.
Simon invited me to join him for a Barbeque lunch followed by a ride with the VCC. We were joined by Reg, Dave and Peter and whilst Sarah cooked tasty chicken skewers Simon showed us his collection of veteran bikes. At 1.30 we prepared to ride only to discover that one of the bikes needed adjustments to the gears. Whilst Simon was dealing with this, a loud bang made us all jump. One of the tyres on Simon's Chilton had exploded in the hot sun. This was replaced and we set off for the RV at the Flower Pots only a few minutes before two. We need not have worried about being late for the start for when we arrived we found about 15 other riders still enjoying a pint and chatting about the various bikes being ridden, sharing the pub garden with about 40 veteran motorcycles and their riders
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| Some of the Assorted Motorcycles. |
Simon had selected his 1978 Rohan for me to ride and I had tried it out on Tuesday and discovered the toe clips were too short for me, but because of toe overlap we could not fit a larger pair. Consequently I was riding without toe clips and this made me realise how much I used them normally.
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| Gridironman with Simon's 1978 Rohan.
About 20 of us, including one tandem and one tricycle, eventually left the "Pots" and headed towards Ropley via the site ofhe 1644 Battle of Cheriton.
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| Riders viewing the Battle Site with the aid of the Infomation Board. |
I was pleased with my progress up the lane once I had mastered (?) the art of changing gear with a non indexed derailleur. The lowest of the five gears available was somewhat higher than that on "Sporty" but I climbed the hill quite well.
After a brief pause we continued through Bramdean Woods and down the hill to Old Park Road I was very cautious going down the steep hill as I found the brakes not nearly as effective to those I'm used to. As we waited by the farm another loud explosion made us all jump. Another tyre had blown in the heat!
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| Fixing the flat! Note Bob on his tricycle. |
It took about 15 minutes to replace the tube and then we continued via Parkside Lane to Ropley, we crossed the A31 and looped round via Bowers Grove Lane to Bighton and so into Alresford where we enjoyed tea and cakes at the Railway Station.
Our next challenge was Mollie's Dismount out of Abbotstone. A fair number of the group found it expedient to walk but I was pleased that I just managed to ride it. While we regrouped at the summit we heard buzzing noises coming from a nearby field. I explained to the group that this was from a model airplane flying club who fly their planes there regularly.
As we whizzed down into Itchen Abbass, with open and straight road I was not too concerned about my lack of stopping power; but when we got to the mainroad Simon was concerned about his lack of pedalling power. His freewheel had broken and turning the pedals had no effect!
He phoned Sarah to come and pick him up whilst the rest of us continued through Ovington and Itchen Stoke then via Tichborne to the "Pots". When we arrived there we discovered that Simon had cycled from home on another of his bikes! (A good reason for multiple bike ownership?).
Of course a post mortem of the day's events then took place over a refreshing pint before we headed home to Alresford.
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| Reg, Chris, Simon and another rider discuss the day's events. |
Here is my Map and Data for the day. I was pleased to note that my average moving speed of 11.3 m.p.h is very near my usual speed on Sporty!
It was a very enjoyable day out with a lot of new friends as well as a number of my friends from theCTC.
The experience of riding a veteran bike made me appreciate more "Sporty's" indexed gears and better brakes. My neck and shoulders still ache this morning from the different riding position too.
Thanks to Sarah for a very tasty lunch, to Peter for tea and cake and to Simon for a refreshing pint and to everyone taking part too for a most unusual ride.
Gridironman.
Note: - If you click on a picture it will enlarge.
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