UKRM Run 2010

Oh, I'm back. Well, I've been back home for the last 90 mins or so, but reality
caught up with me, so I couldn't do the traditional first back home post
straight away.

As usual, a great run (albeit quieter than previous runs. I think people are
getting old [1]). Thanks go to TOG for sorting it all out. We thought it may be
his last trip, but because he's bought land in an earthquake zone, it looks
like it was actually his penultimate trip.

The food in the hotel was really not bad at all. I think that the owners must
have got wind of the reputation of UKRM, 'cos all the wine in the restaurant
had to be settled up front (mind you, they were a little more relaxed last
night).

'twas great to see all the faces again (I won't begin to list them all, as I'm
sure I'd forget one or two names), although I don't think that there were any
new ones this year. No break downs on this trip, but TOG did decide that he
didn't like his RHS pannier and ripped it off with the assistance of a refuse
lorry (bang went his camera, amongst other things. Again). Apparently he'd
sourced another pannier before leaving the docks!

Niall got nicked right before arriving at the hotel and was escorted to the
cash machine to hand over 90 euros (I believe the Gendarmes didn't have change
for a 100 euro note). Having twittered this, ogden replied that it doesn't
count unless there was an armed roadblock.

Saturday was a nice relaxed day, with most of us heading up to Epernay to
visit some of the Champagne caves. The Mercier one was quite popular and very,
very impressive in size [2]. Colin found another local producer with the name
of, er, well, Colin.

Andy decided to corrupt Kiran and break into an abandoned race track and I
think Kiran got quite a buzz out of it. Apparently houses and posh appartments
are next on Kiran's list.

The weather held out for most of the weekend, with a few spots on Saturday
night. It rained last night and was looking distinctly dodgy this morning.
Much fresher that the last couple of days.

Higgins had to do a scouting reccy for our resident cloggie because said
cloggie forgot to fill up yesterday and was on reserve this morning. The
scouting tour failed, as the road to the nearest petrol station was closed
for a cycling race. So they parted this morning with me "twittering" that we
may be awarding a petrol muppet award quite shortly. Watch this space.

On my quick and pretty uneventful trip home, I could see the blue sky on either
side of the motorway with the grey stuff in the middle. As I approached the
grey bit, I was hit with torrential rain, which lasted about half a minute.
Right after this, I was hit with hailstones the size of half a smartie for
about a minute. By God, did it hurt. It was like I'd been shot with a machine
gun air rifle. When it stopped, I breathed a sigh of relief, only to get
battered again about 10 minutes down the road. Thankfully this was a shorter
episode. My trusty Sidi's of 10 years have given up the ghost as they let in
water quicker than it takes for Brown to call Duffy a bigot. Any
recommendations for new boots?

Looking forward to next year's trip, although this _may_ be Colin doing the
DFV'ing as he volunteered (or was it press-ganged?) into doing it (After
a light hearted lunch on Sat, I volunteered to do the hotel bit, whilst
Colin does the ferries).

Oh, and I do know who Crystal Tips is now.

Ta TOG. Looking forward to next years run already.

[1] Most buggers had gone to bed by 1am!
[2] Over 30 million bottles in this cave alone!

 

As long as he doesn't use my whisky as fuel replacement.

 

That's not a bad idea at all.

 

It's a bit disappointing to find oneself among the last few survivors
at such an early hour, especially as so many of the lightweights were
youngsters.

I'm still on the way home, having stopped for lunch in Laon.

 

I'll be there next year, so we'll get utterly mullered

 

Me too, what a bloody awful run back, and was *cold* for the last 30
miles or so after the jacket dried out.

Me, Adie and Andy did a bit of spirited riding in the pissing rain, me
particularly in the filtering bits. I'll not say where as my NIP might
already be in the post

Paul.

 

<snip>

Luckily I have a trigger-happy fuel light. I had a bit spare before we
filled up. I did sweat a bit and you rooting for a PM number didn't
help.... much.

The ride back was...interesting. We were also pelted with rain and
hail. Went to the European Space Center. Nice to see a life size model
of the Space Shuttle, but aart from that, it seemed like a Belgian
Insecurity Fix. I forgot to count how many times Belgian astronauts
were mentioned (yes, they have some), but it was a lot.

Higgins: since you didn't react to my waving my arms, I hope you
gathered I took to the road to Liege and aren't searching ditches for
cloggie bits Thanks for the ride, was a nice road we took.

ToG: thanks for organising and herding the cats. I do have one favour
to ask though: can next year's staff be a bit happier? This lot was a
bit moody, although, the guy cracked a smile at Linda saturdaynight.

Scraggy: thanks for the nice ride Saturday (as well as Mr. and Mrs. SD
and Mr. and Mrs Tim)

Finally: thanks go out to anyone who was there: great to see faces again.

 

Very nice weekend as Cab noted. Home and drying off kit which didn't
leak, thanks HG. The M20 from Dover to Maidstone was fun if you like
horizontal rain.

 

I stuck me leg out. Gone native, you see.


It was good apart from the moment of sheer panic when the fuel gauge
went from four bars to none, in an instant. Flicking to the distance to
empty only showed three dashes, i.e. out of range. Clearly something
wasn't right but the question was, which reading was correct: the four
bars or no bars.

A quick Ctrl-Alt-Del with the ignition key seemed to sort things out.

 

Linda said it was raining, but I didn't notice

 

I have to say the K keeps a lot of the rain off as long as you're moving
at 40+, and shrugs off sidewinds.

I got wetter waiting in the interminable queue for passport control at
Calais.

 

On Sun, 2 May 2010 19:53:46 +0200, Spete wibbled:

That was after he received his tip, eh?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

There was a queue? You should have been there earlier.

 

We caught the 3.30pm boat. We were going to autoroute it all the way,
but as the weather wasn't bad at all, we stuck to main roads, until we
got a bit mislaid near Arras, and then took the autoroute.

And half an hour away from Calais, the heavens opened.

Enjoyable few days' riding, all the same. The K managed a best of 55mpg
(gentle pootling around on Saturday) and a worst of 40mpg (two-up into
the howling sodden sodding headwind outside Calais).

It likes smooth bends, and I managed to scrape it on one left-hander.
Throw some bumps in, thought, and it does start to move about a bit.
Still, for a 17 year-old tourer, it does bloody well. But I hear that
Triumph is working on a new Trophy model....

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

The GTR is distressingly thirsty when pressing on. I filled up near St
Quentin, and got the low fuel light as I approached the port.

 

Ditto with the ST3. Filled up near St Quentin, fuel light on the way into
the port at Calais. It died just as I was parking it on the ferry, which
gave me visions of having to push it off at the other end. However, it
turned out I had just stalled it. I made it to a garage in Dover with no
problem.

 

My ST3 does something similar - goes from 3 bars to orange light in next to
no time.

 

I hate you. The run down on Friday (at an average 85mph) returned just
shy of 30mpg.

Blimey. We filled up at the St Quentin Motorway services, and rode all
the way home on it.

Low point was the impromptu tour of Reims roadworks, deviations, and
tram network construction project, which is why we ended up on the
autoroute after all.

 

I came VERY close the first FR i did, my BMW spluttered into the
services & my arse was like a fucking insideout banana.

 

Use the forks, Luke..