First Ride of the New Year
With the weather being either rain or raining and windy, December wasn't much of a month for riding for pleasure. Luckily I don't ride to commute any longer.
So with the last few days of that month billed as "warmest on record" it started to look good. Wrong. The forecast dry weather for the 30th and 31st was bollocks. It was just as wet but not as cold. Drizzle at 10°C rather than the 4°C of the weeks before and all over Christmas.
So as the forecast for the 1st is for sun it looked like we might have dry roads (some hope) I set off on a TomTom magical mystery tour across Kent to the Flying Horse in Smarden.
It is the annual January 1st classic bike meet organised by the Men of Kent section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club.
The magical mystery tour took me across country to the south of Ashford. There was a setting I must have missed that chooses the shittiest muddy and often single track road. Eventually popping out on A28 near Bethesden and then off on some more mud strewn roads. Some even with grass growing down the centre. How quaint!!! And slippery.
By the time I arrived at the Flying Horse the bottom half of the formerly pristine bike was covered in mud. The same as my boots and ARMR trousers.
I had a coffee and a chat with some other guys. Then across to the parking to have a look at the assembled bikes. Pix below.
There were plenty of older bikes and many more modern bikes.
It's unusual to see the Honda Valkyre but today there were two.
After a chat with fellow Meldrew Ian J I set the TomTom for home. Did it choose a rerun of the magical mystery tour. Nope. It chose a direct route to the A20 between Charing and Ashford and the M20 home!!!
If anyone knows the rationale behind the TomTom mapping system then let me know. One way to the pub, another way back...
The ride back was on mostly dry roads. Ones wider than two cars, maybe even wide enough for a car to easily pass a truck or bus!
Once home, I changed and we walked the dog. More mud.
Then I got out my new washer to hose the bike down. See separate article on that!!
I cleaned the bird shit off the car windscreen/windshield with it too.
I decided to take the picture of the odometer, still in Kms, for the Kilometerpresser competition.
And so the first ride of the year has ended.
Both the rides below were both planned on the TomTom.
The first is the way to Smarden. The second is the route back.
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