More smiles, laughs and car horns being tooted from the public than you could shake a stick at.
We arranged to meet at Chaddlewood garage for 09:00, although the weather was dry plenty of water was expected due to the rainfall we've had over previous day's, the dress code started off as any Christmas tree decoration attached to your bike, this soon developed into a full on fancy dress competition with plenty of Santa's and a reindeer arriving all eager to get muddy.
We soon set off in search of our first lane 201-097 where Dave's chain broke and bids started on replacement split links for him (It wasn't his fault, he rides a blue bike ), after this lane we came across our first flooded section of tarmac, everyone made it through without any problems, we soon came across our second flooded tarmac road of the day, this one was very deep (Almost air box deep) after a few hesitations we had all made it through with bikes still running.
The next lane was 202-157, the mud is usually good here and today was no exception, plenty of moments and one stuck bike later and we were on route to 202-158, I was expecting the puddle in this one to be deeper than what it actually was.
We then used a short 202-159 and on to a difficult climb up 202-154, we had everything on this lane, badgers, squirrels even a flying reindeer , we then made our way to devils steps, I don't normally have any issues on this lane however today nothing was working for me, I had a real mare getting to the top.
We then used 202-179, 171 and 180, as soon as we entered 202-173 we were met with another flood, I've never seen this much water on this lane before, despite the depth, mud and floating branches we all made it through.
It was then on to 202-302 up and down then 202-174, 198, 184, 182, 149, 148, Charlie had a badger whilst the reindeer pirouetted on 147, after a quick stop to sort Charlies accelerator we made our way to 202-144, I was expecting a lot of water here but nothing like what we found, when we arrived at the lane another group had already got through the first flood, Jon from our group attempted first and drowned his poor 2 smoke, followed by Dave & James who both made it, after watching James go through we could see it was rideable until about 6 foot away from the end were it became too deep for the rest of us to bother with so we took the ride around, after about an hour getting Jon's bike running again we decided to play it safe and get some lunch.
After lunch we found 202-123, a lane I've never used before, I managed to find a pothole in a puddle and almost lost my bike in it, luckily I was being extra cautious after Jon's experience and managed to stop in time.
We then did 202-311, 304, 133, 131, 130, 096, 097, 109 & 130 said our good bye's to Mike then we did 202-129, 172, 171, 179, 306, 196, a very eroded 195, 194 and finished the day on 202-193.
All in all I had another fab time leading and riding with great company, thank you all for another cracking day.
-- Edited by Gripper on Thursday 27th of December 2012 12:13:32 AM
It was a cracking day, big thanks to Justin for leading and everyone for making a effort with the fancy dress. BIG thanks to mike for the chain link or my day would have ended very quickly. I did have to take 5 mins at the top of woo hoo(need to get fitter). It was great to meet simon( the flying reindeer) Great rideing with you all again. Cheers Dave
It looked like a cracking day out. Give me a shout next time you guys are riding, it would be nice to join some of you again - its been ages! - and would be good to meet some new faces.
Have a Happy New Year and here's to much fun out on the lanes for 2013!!!
Definitely Geoff, your more than welcome to join us or lead anytime, if your number is still the same I'll make sure a text gets to you when we're going out.
what a day,thanks to justine for leading us on the day,what a laugh,justines beard was making me laugh all day long,class mate,gona make more of an effort next year,nice picture of my bike mike,ha,im ant doing that again,recon i lost a stone trying to start it,must say justine your right up for the day very impressive,nice vidoes charlie,caught some great footage,,recon you got some competition,as dave the lane gru got a new one for grimbo,
roll-on the next ride out
happy new year to you all
jon....
if carlsberg made mud,it would probably be the best mud in the world...........
), after this lane we came across our first flooded section of tarmac, everyone made it through without any problems, we soon came across our second flooded tarmac road of the day, this one was very deep (Almost air box deep) after a few hesitations we had all made it through with bikes still running.
, we then made our way to devils steps, I don't normally have any issues on this lane however today nothing was working for me, I had a real mare getting to the top.
