96 miles - 7 hours - 89 lanes - 5 counted badgers - 1 squirrel - a few horses & plenty of other riders.
Well we all met at Brixton garage for 08:45, fueled up and left about 09:00, weather was clear but slightly chilly to start with, riders where myself, Shaun, Charlie, James & David.
David joined us for the first couple of hour's but had to return home by 12:00 ish
All lanes were 202 lanes today so we started with 193, 194, 195, 196 then up devils steps (David took the ride around, 178, as he apparently had a bad experience with devils steps once), then we did 179, 171, 172, 180, 173, 174, 198, 334, 185, 161, 160, it was along 295 that I gracefully decided to take a rest in the hedge much to Charlies delight, it didn't have the criteria to be called a badger so I believe it was more of a squirrel .
We then stopped at Totnes garage for a quick fuel top up, we said our good bye's to David as it was time for him to head for home and we set off for 118, 322, 113, 111, 110, we got to the entrance of Tally Ho where I explained to the group to leave a sensible gap between us as this one can be tricky, I went first only to meet a group of T2Ters at the bottom of the hill, I believe the leader was L'orange but I'm hopeless with names so I cant be 100% on this, any way, I also introduced myself, we shook hands and wished each other a good day, by then the rest of my group had caught up with me .
Tally Ho was as slippery as we expected but we all cleaned it without to much grief, it was then on to 324, 101, 091, 079, 080, 081, at the end of 081, I could hear the faint sound of bikes in the distance, at that point a couple of ramblers walked into 081, they where very polite we explained that we had one more bike still to come and they replied with a report of seeing a large group of bikes a couple of lanes away.
We then did 073, on the way to 074 we switched off our engines to allow horses to pass, again the riders were very polite, it was then on to 074, at the end of this lane we met Mr L'orange again with his group of T2Ters (Map reading), we waved, had a giggle and set off for 069 where we met a woman walking her dog, she grabbed the dogs collar but didn't look very happy with us ridding there, especially when I waved and wished her a good morning, but hey, you cant please everyone .
we then did, 433 & 060, upon turning into Rocombe hill, I was met with another dog walker, this lady was on the phone but politely nodded us by with a smile.
As I reached the end of the lane there was a group of Bikes and a quad, we stopped and chatted with these guy's for a while, they were local lads having a bit of fun in the mud and at least they were using proper lanes.
We then went on to Piggery (Thanks Pete ) where I had my first badger of the day, followed by James who cleaned it, followed by Shaun who also had a badger and snapped off his break lever, he admitted defeat and went back to the entrance of the lane, luckily we carry spares, charlie decided not to tackle Piggery today due to healing injuries.
My first attempt.
Shaun's Attempt.
Not being happy with my first attempt I had a second go and cleaned it this time.
we then went on to 053, 346, 035, 036, 037, 340, we switched off our motors again for horses on the way 023, again the riders were very polite, we did 023 admired the amazing views at the top of 329.
On 022 James & Shaun decided to go through the same puddle at the same time .
We then did 388, 019, 343, 017 where Charlie had another badger, 018, 012, 013, at the end of 028 there was a party of about 25 walkers, surprisingly polite and didn't seem to mind us ridding there .
We then did 060, 433, 069, 074, 073, 081, 080, 079, 091, at the entrance to 101 Charlie left the group to ride around Tally Ho as he didn't fancy the decent so I explained how to get to the entrance of Tally Ho via tarmac, we then did 101, 324, (down Tally Ho) and re-grouped with Charlie.
We then did 110, 111, 113, 322, we met a lone rider on 118, we exchanged nodes & waves but carried on ridding.
We stopped at Totnes garage for a late lunch, waved at another T2T group going past and noticed that Charlie had picked up a flat in the rear with a double rim lock, at first we thought that was the end of Charlies day, then I tried to persuade him to use my spare tube and tyre levers (purely for the entertainment value) but luckily Shaun was carrying a bottle of slime, Charlie put it in, inflated his tyre, job done, brilliant stuff.
It was then on to 295 where Charlie had another badger but no witnesse's for this one, followed by 160, 161 where we met the group of T2Ter that we previously waved at from Totnes garage.
On to 185, James had a badger, I was going to take a photo but his bike had trapped his leg and he was unable to remove the bike himself so I thought helping him was more of a priority.
The rest of our ride was plain sailing through 334, 198, 174, 173, 180, 172, 171, 179, 306, 196, 195, 194, 193.
Cheers Mike, soft cushion's indeed, those KTM seats are unforgiving .
Not as close to the TRF 100 lane award as it looks, many of the lanes we used in both directions so a more accurate number would probably be between 50 - 60 different lanes, but now you have planted a seed and got me thinking .
.
.
) where I had my first badger of the day, followed by James who cleaned it, followed by Shaun who also had a badger and snapped off his break lever, he admitted defeat and went back to the entrance of the lane, luckily we carry spares, charlie decided not to tackle Piggery today due to healing injuries.
.