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Photos of the run

Wet and cold outside at 07:30 this morning.
The weather man had said 'Dry & Sunny', but who believes the weather man ?

The friends that had said would meet up on the way failed to show in Newbury by 9 (one of them had smashed his bike two days earlier breaking his hand - so I guess I'll let him off) so I headed north through the rain to Fox's Cafe by myself.
Some folks had said that if the weather was bad they wouldn't come out so it was with some relief that the sky began to clear the further north I got and we ended up with a fully dry run.

Paul R, Tanya & Stuart were already clasping mugs of hot coffee to warm up when I got to Fox's and by 10:15 we had quite a respectable contingent for a November run.

I'll probably forget people, and I'm crap with names so bear with me :-

Cliff with four friends ('blade, 2 aprillias, a monster & a thundercat)
Paul R on his Rossi Rep, Tanya on her loud CBR6, Tim on his even louder VTR & Stuart with his second VFR800
Mick with the Rossi Lid on the CBR6 and his mate Chris on the Fazer
Alan on the yellow 'blade
Christine on a CBR6
And of course the two CB500s of Peter & Martin

Nidge posted his apology the evening before - he'd been t-boned by an out of control Harley the previous day and been seriously de-biked.

Phil got a bit closer.
He got within a mile of the meet when his back tyre blew (at 80 during an overtake).
But he scored points with his SO by being home early ...

Is that everyone ?
Who have I forgotten ?

Before we set out Cliff gathered us round & made sure that we understood the marker (or drop off) system. Some people were a little confused by the explanation so to ensure complete chaos, the system was demo'd by a bunch of bikers running round the car park waving their arms. Confident that everyone knew how to point we mounted up & followed Cliff into the wilds of Oxfordshire.

Don't ask me what the route was.
It's not that I don't want to know - I'd love to get a copy of that route & print it on my tank - it's just that this was one of the few recent runs that I didn't lead and that made for a wonderfully restful, responsibility free run.

Late breaking news
Route out	Route back

Cliff had said before the run that overtaking was OK, but everyone was a little cautious about this to begin with, and we did start on narrow roads.
After a couple of junctions I had been dropped off and was near the back and was wondering about overtaking the bike in front when Alan went past in a blur. That seemed to open the flood gates and when we stopped a few miles further up the road for petrol a number of us from the back were back at the front (mostly because of the choice of lane at a roundabout).

I don't want this to sound like there was some mad frenzy of overtaking & cutting people up coz there wasn't (well - none that I saw).
You quickly got to know who was faster than you and had some idea where they were in relation to yourself (whether they were immediately behind you !) and you rode accordingly.
One of the trickiest things on a bike must be overtaking another bike. They accelerate so damned fast that if you out accelerate another bike them you end up approaching the next corner at unfeasible high speeds putting not only yourself, but also the speeding bike that you've just passed, in an awkward position.
I didn't see (or hear about) any intergroup close calls & no one seemed pissed off with anyone else so I guess we behaved in a civilized manner (at least to each other).

At least one of us followed the instructions of a MAC instructor when they were persistently badgered by some old biddy in the petrol station.
The instructor had said 'Do what is expected of you'
Biddy "Why do all you bikers have to ride through Lower Scrotum on a Sunday"
Biker "I don't"
Biddy "Yes you do"
Biker "I've never been here before and I don't know where Lower Scrotum is"
Biddy "Every Sunday"
Biker ""

During the second stint, to the pub near Stratford, the group got a little split up.
This meant that there was a wait of about five minutes after being dropped off before the last bike came through. It also meant that there was time for a smoke, and once you were back on the road you weren't in a tight bunch so could pretty much run at what ever speed you wanted till you caught up with bikes in front or reached the front of the run. Paul, Tim & myself ended up running huge sections together without the sight of another bike (other than parked bikes marking the route).

Cliff was marking the route by dropping people off and having them point the direction to go.
As I approached one junction I saw someone at the side of the turn off pointing at their feet.
I thought 'What the hell kind of direction is that supposed to be' and was about to blast past when I realized that it was Cliff and he wanted me to stop ...

After about 70 miles we stopped at a very nice pub for lunch and took over their outside tables.

It was bit odd with so few regulars & so many new faces - but I guess we've only got ourselves to blame for not having regular runs.

Fed and watered we headed south to Banbury where those not heading back to Oxford went off on their separate ways leaving eight of us to run the last few miles into the sun for a final coffee.

So - who was the fastest - and the slowest.
Well I guess Cliff was fastest coz he was the front the whole time (almost)
And Richard must have been the slowest coz he was at the back the whole time.
And that's because the run was organized that way.

Yes, some riders did more overtaking than others but bike runs aren't a competitive sport (well - ours aren't).
We're on a run to enjoy ourselves.
No one crashed which means that no one tried to ride beyond their current skill level.
And everyone had a good time.

One thing does stick in my mind - as we were retracing the final few miles to Fox's diner I noticed that the road we were on was called 'Thame Road' [1].
I don't bloody think so ...

My thanks to Cliff for leading the run. And to Richard for taking the back of the group - a sterling job sir !

[1] Pronounced 'Tame'

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