-
Five Horses
Well that’s another Five Horses over with. How many of you saw all five horses this time around? I only saw four as I forgot to spot the Devizes one on my way round today. We had some interesting weather with blue skies interspersed with a few roving showers which managed to catch the classic group twice in the morning and the moderns once in the afternoon. Of course there was another nice heavy one which hung about long enough to catch Ghost & I on the way home from the Magpies! ::)
This year for a change I led the modern stuff and Ghost led the oldies, the two groups leaving about 10-15 minutes apart. We talked Reg (Bath Classic) into back marking for the oldies and Snowy for the moderns, many thanks to both for an excellent job. We are not strict who rides with whom; we just remind people that if you ride with the oldies they often don’t have things like indicators, brake lights, or even brakes for that matter while if you ride with the moderns you have to remember that they do have indicators which they can leave on for some miles to confuse other traffic- you don’t usually leave an arm sticking out for long – it gets too tired! ;D
It was an interesting route totalling of approximately 59 miles in the morning and 49 in the afternoon. Starting with a short stretch of dry lanes, followed by a long section of A4 past Cherhill Horse and then onto the A4361. This lulled everyone into a false sense of security before we headed past Hackpen Horse over the hills and plunging down a narrow sunken tree lined lane that was nice & damp, slimy and umm interesting. :o (I nearly lost the front end here on yesterday’s recce) Once through that it was back out into daylight and open countryside and on towards Hungerford.
The moderns paused to regroup as there was a large gap developing then it was onward through Hungerford and off once more over the hills into the countryside beyond, before diving down a few more lanes and over another hill or two to Pewsey. Pewsey horse was behind you as you dropped down the hill by the way.
Lunch in Pewsey, with some staying at the Royal Oak while others foraged in the towns supermarkets. After a sharp rainstorm (you have no idea how many bikers can fit into a smokers shelter) it was back on the road and wending our way towards Durrington, then Larkhill before a little ramble over the plain along the back road from The Bustard to Tilshead. (Incidentally this road was closed yesterday while the red flags were flying!) Back onto the A360 where the moderns found an excellent rainstorm [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif] before turning towards Lavington and another succession of back roads between Chirton and Devizes. I trust everyone saw Alton Barnes white horse although Devizes was hard to spot unless you knew where to look.
Things appear to go a little awry somewhere around here as we stopped & checked on Reg re-securing his back wheel :o and caught up with some classic marshals. We then dove off down another series of lanes to arrive in Devizes, dive cross the A4361 and then another evil slippy little lane through to Rowde, before wending through a final series of twisty lane to pop out of the lane we first entered this morning!
On arriving back at the Magpies we discovered Snowy & I had arrived via different routes through Devizes so we both went back for a quick chase through the last part of the run to see if anyone was wandering aimlessly around the countryside. Fortunately is appeared everyone found their way back ok. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped today in any way. We had 57 riders out today (60 entries in total) so that means £300 for Dorothy House. :-*
BB
-
Re: Five Horses
Well done to all. I was actually enjoying riding in the rain today....
Is there something wrong with me? :D
Great day. :)
-
Re: Five Horses
-
Re: Five Horses
Great stuff, thanks BB & Ghost!
Roxy x
-
Re: Five Horses
Excellent day out and thanks to all ;) ;)
-
Re: Five Horses
Sounds like you all had heaps of fun :) for the record just how many bikers can you fit in a smoking shelter?? ;D
My day was far from fun filled :-/ last HepB jab (OUCH!!!) and a snooze before starting nights.
-
Re: Five Horses
Very enjoyable day - I did expec to see a few more of the oldies on the run. I think all those weather forcasts in the proceeding week put a few off (wimps)
Must have a word with Judy - thought she would have planned the route to miss the showers... ;D
We did not do too bad though for the amount of black skies we saw - I rode down a few wet rodes but only got caught in one deluge. Ten years of cleaning ruined in one day... :D
Have placed two albums on Facebook - Album 1 is Parked and Album 2 is Riding.
http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=1130150590
Or search Derek Freegard and look at my Photo Albums for titles
I know some people think Facebook is the pitz by I find it handy for displaying albums of photos for all to see and they can leave comments or tag themselves.
On the riding shots I was not using a fast setting (sport) as it tends to be too quick. Although the photos look sharp the pix lose the sence of motion (turning wheels) the downside is I lose a % the are blurred to camera movement and focusing especially when bikes are passing quick. I did take some quickies with my helmet on. Not being able to see thru view finder means there is a bit of guesswork. (i missed the wheelie)
Pix on there are greatly reduced - ask and I will email originals.
-
Re: Five Horses
Was a good day...... seems the New bikes missed the rain whilst the "proper" bikes got rained on!!! No Justice and I blame Judy!!! ;)
Brilliant route.... going into Pewsey was interesting..... uphill into the wind the downhill with the wind.... :o
Thanks to Judy and Don.
Time to clean the Bike. :P
-
Re: Five Horses
Brilliant day out as always, though I was really gutted not to be doing the run on the little Honda. The rain strangely didn't bother me at all, make it interesting, though the bike needs a damn good clean now.
-
Re: Five Horses
Great pics Del, I'll scrounge some off you as I failed to take a single picture this year! The number of oldies turning up is going down, most of the beggars in Bath Classic have modern bikes as well as oldies and will often bring the moderns on runs open to all ages. I shall have to have serious words...
Jon, don't worry the 'new' bikes had a proper soaking in the afternoon on the way from Tilshead towards Market Lavington! I was hoping we would get away with it being dry but at least it was just showers and not raining all day. Kept us all on our toes.
Dabz, we have a couple more bikes down here if you feel like doing a cleaning blitz...
I must admit I missed doing it on an old bike, just seems more of a challenge somehow - although it was a bit of a challenge down a couple of lanes on the bypass tyres... :o
BB