The Weekly Ride - Week 1
So the first ever weekly ride. I must admit I was quite nervous as if anyone would turn up. I got told about a group on Facebook called London Cafe & Custom. I asked if I could join and they very kindly let me in, I spoke to a guy who was in charge and explained that I would like to create a weekly event where I could get like minded riders to meet up and go out for a ride. He was keen to help and put the invite out to his 400 or so members.
It soon gathered interest and quite a few people confirmed they could come. The plan was to meet at the Bike Shed in Shoreditch. I decided, as I had arranged this first one I would have to find a suitable route, difficult to do in the London area (too many speed humps). So after a bit of street view on Google, I settled on the idea of heading out to Epping forest, I tried to create a bit of a loop.
So Saturday came, it was a blisteringly hot day in London, very unusual for April. I arrived at the bike shed at about 2:00, got myself a lemonade and sat out in the sunshine. The place was buzzing, there were people inside and out, not just bikers, but families, guys and girls even a couple of nice old ladies who sort of seemed out of place in a hip Shoreditch motorcycle club. I nervously looked around trying to make eye contact with people who might be here for the ride. It was a long 10 minutes until I spotted a face I recognised from the Facebook group. We made our introductions and he said he knew a few people who were coming and went off to round them up. As a small group gathered and a few others approached and asked if we were there for the ride out. They all seemed a nice bunch, all into the bikes, bike culture etc and were a lot more knowledgeable then me about the whole motorbike scene. There were guys from Brazil, Portugal and other parts of the globe, but all Londoners!
We finished off our drinks and decided to head out, we went to the car park at The Bike Shed and proceeded to get on our machines. It was interesting to see the different bikes these people were on, there was a couple of Triumph Bonnevilles, a Harley Davidson Iron, a Triumph Tiger, a Yamaha R1, a Cafe Racer Honda Gold Wing to name but a few. There were 12 of us in total.
We left The Bike Shed and made our way through Shoreditch, I must admit it felt pretty cool on a hot day riding through the busy streets of London amongst 11 other riders, it did feel like I was in a biker gang! Concentration needed to be high, although riding in a big group, we were noticed by the other road users, but I had to be mindful which paths my other riders maybe following. We soon got out onto A12 and I must admit I was a bit hesitant. I have only been riding again for the last few months and had not been anywhere near a motorway or a main 3 carriageway road on my bike. The others took off reaching the speed limit! in no time at all and I soon found myself at the back, plucking up the courage to get up to speed. After a while my confidence grew and I felt a bit better, we weren't on it for long and then we were off into the Epping Forest area. Imagine leafy countryside lanes on a hot sunny day and riding with a group of other bikers, perfect and exactly wanted I wanted to get out of the weekly rider. I was loving it.
One of the guys knew the area and thought my route was good, it went passed a place called The Tea Hut and he said we should stop there and have a drink and a chat. That's exactly what we did, again the people were friendly, full of bike stories, treks they had been on, bikes they had owned and wanted to own and there was a feeling that even though we were mostly all strangers there was common ground to be found. We discovered one guy had broken down, but his friend had carried on (there was nothing she could do to help) and another had lost the group somehow. So we were down to 9.
After yet another lemonade (I really fancied a beer but thought better of it), we all finished our drinks and decided to head out, we were heading out to the end point of the original loop. The R1 that had been blowing us out of the water all day shot off, I thought he had stopped to take a picture as we passed and he would catch us up. We kept on going until one of the group shot to the front and all of a sudden we had done a loop round a round about and all pulled into a petrol station. It turns out the R1 had run out of petrol, one of the guys kindly bought a gerry can and filled it up. We had to re trace our route and find the stranded R1, he was mighty pleased to see us. He gratefully received the gerry can and was praying it would re start, there was a bit of banter about him thrapping the thing to death with his petrol light on. It was then that an old VW Beetle painted to look like an old World War Spitfire turned up. It turns out they had gone past the stranded R1 and went to get some petrol for him, a very kind gesture and shows how the world is still full of thoughtful kind people. The owner of the R1 thanked them and explained that he didn't realise we would come back to rescue him. Once the fuel was in the R1 it started first time on the button a relieved rider smiled!
We then all left in convey again and headed back to London, we went down the A112 which was a nice ride over looking the King George's Reservoir. There was talk about heading to the Bike Shed but that petered out, I think the long ride, the hot weather meant that people just wanted to head home. I made it back safe and sound after the first weekly ride, the wife and kids were home so we fired up the BBQ, had a few beers, relaxed and had a fun evening.
I am already looking forward to the next one!
Here are a few images from the day.






You can see our route here.

It soon gathered interest and quite a few people confirmed they could come. The plan was to meet at the Bike Shed in Shoreditch. I decided, as I had arranged this first one I would have to find a suitable route, difficult to do in the London area (too many speed humps). So after a bit of street view on Google, I settled on the idea of heading out to Epping forest, I tried to create a bit of a loop.
So Saturday came, it was a blisteringly hot day in London, very unusual for April. I arrived at the bike shed at about 2:00, got myself a lemonade and sat out in the sunshine. The place was buzzing, there were people inside and out, not just bikers, but families, guys and girls even a couple of nice old ladies who sort of seemed out of place in a hip Shoreditch motorcycle club. I nervously looked around trying to make eye contact with people who might be here for the ride. It was a long 10 minutes until I spotted a face I recognised from the Facebook group. We made our introductions and he said he knew a few people who were coming and went off to round them up. As a small group gathered and a few others approached and asked if we were there for the ride out. They all seemed a nice bunch, all into the bikes, bike culture etc and were a lot more knowledgeable then me about the whole motorbike scene. There were guys from Brazil, Portugal and other parts of the globe, but all Londoners!
We finished off our drinks and decided to head out, we went to the car park at The Bike Shed and proceeded to get on our machines. It was interesting to see the different bikes these people were on, there was a couple of Triumph Bonnevilles, a Harley Davidson Iron, a Triumph Tiger, a Yamaha R1, a Cafe Racer Honda Gold Wing to name but a few. There were 12 of us in total.
We left The Bike Shed and made our way through Shoreditch, I must admit it felt pretty cool on a hot day riding through the busy streets of London amongst 11 other riders, it did feel like I was in a biker gang! Concentration needed to be high, although riding in a big group, we were noticed by the other road users, but I had to be mindful which paths my other riders maybe following. We soon got out onto A12 and I must admit I was a bit hesitant. I have only been riding again for the last few months and had not been anywhere near a motorway or a main 3 carriageway road on my bike. The others took off reaching the speed limit! in no time at all and I soon found myself at the back, plucking up the courage to get up to speed. After a while my confidence grew and I felt a bit better, we weren't on it for long and then we were off into the Epping Forest area. Imagine leafy countryside lanes on a hot sunny day and riding with a group of other bikers, perfect and exactly wanted I wanted to get out of the weekly rider. I was loving it.
One of the guys knew the area and thought my route was good, it went passed a place called The Tea Hut and he said we should stop there and have a drink and a chat. That's exactly what we did, again the people were friendly, full of bike stories, treks they had been on, bikes they had owned and wanted to own and there was a feeling that even though we were mostly all strangers there was common ground to be found. We discovered one guy had broken down, but his friend had carried on (there was nothing she could do to help) and another had lost the group somehow. So we were down to 9.
After yet another lemonade (I really fancied a beer but thought better of it), we all finished our drinks and decided to head out, we were heading out to the end point of the original loop. The R1 that had been blowing us out of the water all day shot off, I thought he had stopped to take a picture as we passed and he would catch us up. We kept on going until one of the group shot to the front and all of a sudden we had done a loop round a round about and all pulled into a petrol station. It turns out the R1 had run out of petrol, one of the guys kindly bought a gerry can and filled it up. We had to re trace our route and find the stranded R1, he was mighty pleased to see us. He gratefully received the gerry can and was praying it would re start, there was a bit of banter about him thrapping the thing to death with his petrol light on. It was then that an old VW Beetle painted to look like an old World War Spitfire turned up. It turns out they had gone past the stranded R1 and went to get some petrol for him, a very kind gesture and shows how the world is still full of thoughtful kind people. The owner of the R1 thanked them and explained that he didn't realise we would come back to rescue him. Once the fuel was in the R1 it started first time on the button a relieved rider smiled!
We then all left in convey again and headed back to London, we went down the A112 which was a nice ride over looking the King George's Reservoir. There was talk about heading to the Bike Shed but that petered out, I think the long ride, the hot weather meant that people just wanted to head home. I made it back safe and sound after the first weekly ride, the wife and kids were home so we fired up the BBQ, had a few beers, relaxed and had a fun evening.
I am already looking forward to the next one!
Here are a few images from the day.






You can see our route here.

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