It was his wish to have a bike escort to the church. So how could I refuse.
Google maps worked it out to be 156 miles each way. We'll see how accurate that is.
I set off around 10am and arrived at John's house just after 1pm, after stopping on the A40 near Standlake for petrol at a Tesco Extra store.
It was pretty cold. Even the wintery sun at the pitstop warned by hands. On the way up I wore the old all leather Belstaff gloves. By about halfway my fingertips were frozen.
In the end there were five bikes at John's. He had asked that the order was to be Kettles, then other 2-stroke Suzukis, other Suzuki made bikes, then Aprilias, Triumphs, HD and then others.
We had some pictures taken before the hearse arrived.
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| Pepé at the meeting place |
Luckily there was a Kettle ridden by a local guy Brent, a Suzuki ridden by Old SOC Sandy. Then Mark Powell and me on Triumphs and lastly John Carr from the SOC.
We were joined by Old SOCs Tony Taylor, Phil Hingert and Stuart James. They were in their cars.
We lined up in John's specified order and followed the hearse to the church.
The ceremony was really good. The vicar knew John and was also a biker. Instead of hymns we had two country music hits that John loved.
And then his last laugh on us. The music at the end as the coffin was carried out to the graveyard was Frank Ifield - She Taught Me to Yodel.
He said no one could leave without yodelling. We had a (pathetic) go at yodelling. Thanks John. We tried.
After the burial I decided to make my apologies as I had a three hour ride home, and head off and miss the wake.
I set TomTom for home. In effect the same way as I went.
I started with the Belstaffs and as it was dry and sunny I expected to be a little warmer. Wrong.
A stop for a pee and a warm-up at Beaconsfield before the challenge that is the M25.
I had a comfort break and a coffee at Starbucks.
As I togged up it started to snow, or was it hail? It was small lumps about the size of peas but quite soft. Changed gloves to the Dainese's I bought in 2017 and have hardly used..... No better than decades old Belstaff!
In the morning the M25 was really free running. Even at about 4.15pm and way before the swoop from the M40 onto it the traffic was four solid lanes.
This was mostly the same until the M23. About 20 miles plus.
I was able to filter for some of it. Eventually arriving home at 6.25pm. With the stop it was just over three and a half hours. Given the heavy traffic not bad.
Stats.
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