Devon TRF Group Forum

Rec'd a call from Paul Friday offering a run which I declined because a/ I would be the crappest rider and b/ I had agreed to go shopping with my better half.   Thought about it overnight, thought "oh what the Hell" and got a pass to go.  Road up to chez Paul had received a light snow fall and was slippery in places.  Met the bunch coming the other way because I was late but Paul was waiting at home so we all got together.  Riders were Paul, Mike T Lynne S and Gaschef as TEC.  We went down 192072 to meet our mate Big Brian and this completed the line up.  Paul took us up 192074 and along 192068 and I filled up the KMX200.  The rest were all on Hondas so there were no reliability issues.

Paul then took us down what I think was 193218 and then I was onto lanes that I don't know.  As always with a good run leader, you don't know where you are most of the time so I can only give impressions of the lanes that stood out for me.  We went to enter a lane with 2 horses and shut off engines per TRF SOP.  One of the ladies tried to block our passage with her horse but after some discussion with Paul, she grudgingly acknowledged our politeness and legal right to proceed and let us go.  Then there was a nice lane with a tricky hole which I needed help to get through.  Then there was a lane with a tricky exit onto the road where I received a light coating when I went too close behind one of the others.  Needed a bit of help on the tricky bit of this one also.  The lanes were all quite slippery today.  There was another with deep tractor ruts which were rather strange to ride with the vibes from the tractor tyre tread marks and the tendency of the bike to "wall of death" up the rounded edges of the ruts.  Took a Hampster style fag break here.

Further lanes included a tricky(for me) technical downhill and one where I got a bit of mud in my eye at the very moment when Mike T stopped to take a pic.  After a few more lanes, we were into spectacular Dorset scenery.  This is one of my favourite counties for views and the rolling hills and valleys were just magnificent on a clear day like this.  Another high point involved a climb up onto a steep terraced valley.  You ride along a high terrace with died-back gorse on one side and a vertiginous drop on the other.  For some reason() I tended to keep too close to the gorse side and a hidden badger grabbed my gear lever and pulled it into neutral.  Down I went in front of all the others.  Soon we approached a couple of lanes I had done before, one long but straightforward which brought us up onto the hill above Chesil Beach with its amazing view and one with deep shingle which was great fun to ride with the bike sliding around but under control.  Here we took a coffee break.

After coffee, I admitted to Paul that the seasonal overindulgences had ruined what little fitness I had & I was going to call it a day at that point.  He persuaded me to keep going but the next lane, which he thought would be easy, had developed an awkward rut and I needed to keep stopping for breath.  So it was decided to head for home territory with the others doing the hard stuff & me bypassing these and doing the easy ones.

By now it was getting late & we had our works post Christmas dinner scheduled for 7 in Beer so I said goodbye to Lynne who had accompanied me on a couple of final easy lanes near Morcombelake and went home.  She told me a funny story about an incident on a ladies run on these last lanes.  Going to 'fess up Jules?

Looking back on a brilliant run, I thank Paul for leading, Gaschef for not laughing too loud at my incompetence and everyone for great company.  Will start working on lane fitness asap.