The BMW Club East Anglia Section

 

For some years we have had a ride out on New Year’s Day, weather permitting.

I had been checking the weather forecast for a few days leading up to this New Year’s Day and whilst very mild temperatures were forecast, rain was also due in the afternoon.

Like many, I expect, I had been with friends for the New Year Celebrations and enjoyed an excellent dinner, conversation, wine and champagne.

I arrived home around 1.30am and promptly went to bed. Rising at 7.30am, I peered out of the window to be greeted by an overcast but mild morning with no rain but a wet road from the rain during the early part of the morning.

I had breakfast followed by a shower.  I then checked the bike over, attaching my GPS (with route already loaded) and dressed in my motorcycling gear.  I wheeled the GS Adventure out of the garage, switched on the GPS and started the engine. As I reached the road, I mentally noted that the surface was indeed wet.

Riding out through Colchester at around 9am I encountered very little traffic – most sane people probably still in bed recovering from the New Year celebrations.

It is about 45 miles from my home to Bury St Edmunds where the ride out was to begin at 10.30am.  I reached Tesco at 10.00am, parked up next to several BMWs already there and went in to find their riders.

There were to be 12 bikes with 13 riders as follows:

• Dik (leader) on R1150RT.
• Tim (tail ender) on K1300GT.
• David on GT 1600.
• Ben on R1200GS Adventure.
• Jenny on R1200GS.
• Peter & Sue on R1200RT.
• Tom on R1200GS Adventure.
• Brian on Pan European ST1300.
• Mark on R1200RT.
• Alan on R1200GS.
• Dave on R1200GS
• and finally me on R1200GS Adventure.

After Happy New Year greetings all around, we made our way out to the bikes and Dik led us off on the ride out towards the first tea break.  Traffic was still light and the roads relatively dry with an overcast sky.

As is the norm, the drop-off system was used and worked very well.

The idea of the 5 Counties Ride out is just that – we ride through the counties which make up the East Anglia Section area.  From Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) we rode to Thetford (Norfolk) and on to Ely (Cambridgeshire) where we stopped by the beautiful cathedral for a photo shoot! Just outside Ely, near Soham, we had our first and last glimpse of the sun!

On to Newmarket and our first coffee stop at Burger King.  Leaving here we rode on through Newmarket noticing an increase in traffic, onto Royston (Hertfordshire) and then to the Birchanger Services at Bishops Stortford (off the large roundabout which filters traffic from the M11 onto the A120 and Stansted Airport.

Some of us indulged in lunch and others a drink and bun.

When we came out to leave it was raining! We had been lucky for most of the day but the ride home was wet!

It was here that one or two riders left us to return home whilst the rest of us followed Dave out along the old A120 through Takely on to Rayne (Essex).  Here, Mark and I left the group and continued out way home via the A120 whilst the others headed towards Sudbury and their homes.
[Ed: actually we went to Tescos to complete the loop, arriving there at around 4:10pm then headed home from there. The whole loop being 156 miles and took us just over 6 hours including rest breaks]

It was dark when I finally arrived home having covered 186 miles – some would have ridden further.

An enjoyable day’s ride with excellent company – tomorrow I’ll clean the bike!

Happy New Year to all