Picture Gallery

elmsford C h e Sainsburys Springfield , ides will lea v All Full Member R

22 0 2 Diar y

2022

January

Sunday, 9th Associate Group Training (AGT) Tuesday, 11th Group Night - Natter Night Sunday, 16th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday 23rd Mick & Alan’s Associate/Member Ride

February

Tuesday, 1st Group Night - AGM Sunday, 6th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 13th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 20th Mick & Alan’s Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 27th Observer Peer to Peer Ride (2201)

March

April

May

June Tuesday, 1st Group Night Sunday, 6th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 13th Associate/Full Member Training (AMT/FMT 2201) Sunday, 20th Mick & Alan’s Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 27th Colin's Full Member Ride

Tuesday, 5th Group Night Sunday, 10th Associate Group Training (AGT) Saturday, 16th Super Sausage Run – To be confirmed Sunday, 24th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 24th Mick & Alan’s Associate/Member Ride

Sunday, 1st Essex Motorcycle Show, North Weald Tuesday, 3rd Night Sunday, 8th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 15th Observer Peer to Peer Ride (2202) Sunday, 22nd Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 22nd Mick & Alan’s Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 29th Associate/Full Member Training (AMT/FMT 2202)

July Tuesday, 7th Group Night Sunday, 12th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 19th Slow Riding Day Sunday, 26th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 26th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride

Sunday, 3rd Maldon Motor Show Tuesday, 5th Group Night (to be confirmed) Sunday, 10th Associate Group Training (AGT)

Sunday, 17th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 24th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 31st Observer Peer to Peer Ride (2203)

August

Tuesday, 2nd Group Night Sunday, 7th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 14th Associate/Full Member Training (AMT/FMT 2203) Sunday, 21st Audrey & John's Cotswolds Ride Sunday, 21st Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 28th Colin's Full Member Ride September Sunday, 4th Essex Air Ambulance Run/Show Sunday, 4th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Tuesday, 6th Group Night Sunday, 11th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 18th Copdock Show Sunday, 18th Slow Riding Day Sunday, 18th Colin's Full Member Ride Sunday, 25th Observer Peer to Peer Ride (2204)

October

Tuesday, 4th Group Night Sunday, 9th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 16th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 23rd Associate/Full Member Training (AMT/FMT 2204) Sunday, 30th Colin's Full Member Ride November Tuesday, 1st Group Night Sunday, 6th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 13th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Sunday, 20th Colin's Full Member Ride December Sunday, 4th Mick & Alan's Associate/Member Ride Tuesday, 6th Group Night - Xmas Quiz Sunday, 11th Associate Group Training (AGT) Sunday, 18th Colin's Full Member Ride Group Nig h ts @ 1 9 : 3 0 , AGTs @

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Diary 2O22

Picture Gallery ■ Picture Gallery ■ Not So Many

Not So Many ■ Picture Gallery ■ Picture Gallery

Reveiller Rides 2012 - Part 1: Landscapes, Mountains and Glorious Tarmac

John Tipper

(previously published in TUG in December 2012)

With the evening light failing, the temperature outside dropping and the bikes securely parked in the garage, I’m sitting in the study listening to some of my favourite music while reflecting on the wonderful miles we covered this season and all the great people who have ridden with us.

Only yesterday, we received a lovely letter from John Kidman, who doesn’t have email, to thank us for the trips he and Margaret had joined this year. We were particularly moved to hear that our ride to Bavaria “was the best holiday” that they have had abroad together, “eighteen over the last ten years”. Such praise is ample reward for all the hours spent organising these rides for your enjoyment.

Our 2012 season began by accompanying a hundred or more Harley Davidson’s on Le Shuttle. With the demise of Seafrance, this was our first experience taking Reveiller Rides ‘under’ the Channel. There was a hint of what was to come when we arrived at the Early Arrival Services to find a queue at the pumps at 7 o’clock in the morning. We also encountered Rob White trying to bump start his Blackbird but more of that later. Our main task was trying to keep separate from the Harley’s as we wanted to be sure all our group got on the same train; as it was, Keith Brades was unsuccessful but we regrouped at the Total petrol station in the Calais Terminal. I was rather bemused when the Harley rider parked alongside me on the train began looking at his engine, looking in the petrol tank and removing the spark plug leads; yes, it would appear that Harley’s still have HT leads. “Have you a problem”, I asked, always willing to help a fellow rider in distress. “I think my engine’s missing!” I’m sure I could see it was still there but nevertheless. “It’s a twin”, I replied, “they all sound like that”. “Naa! it’s got no power. It’s tuned to 115 bhp but feels gutless. Must be water in the tank; but then again, I’m carrying luggage, oh, and the wife!” We both agreed that this must be the problem.

With only 140 miles to cover on our first day, we had plenty of time to admire the scenery on this four day (Green* ) ‘Scenic’ ‘D’ Tour taking us through the picturesque ‘D’ roads of Picardie and Bourgogne; if it wasn’t for the weather! In

the past we have enjoyed superb weather in April, temperatures having been in the mid twenties. No problems though, everyone had studied the forecast and were appropriately dressed. We stopped an hour or so from Calais at an inviting looking restaurant for coffee, it was just after 11 o’clock and the apprehensive looking waitress invited us in. “OK pour onze cafés si vous plaît?” I enquired. “Oui monsieur” came the obliging reply. It was then that I noticed all the tables in the restaurant had been laid for a major banquet but no problem, two large tables were made available for us in the foyer. We removed our wet gear spreading ourselves in the area provided. Coffees consumed, I noticed an increasing number of cars arriving in the hitherto deserted gravel car park with ‘mature’ drivers at their wheel; the banquet guests were arriving. The haphazard nature of parking made it clear to me that we should get going; much later and we’d have been blocked in! Rain gradually receded leaving clearer skies on our scenic route south through the pretty towns and villages of Hesdin, St Riquier, Poix-de-Picardie and Grandvilliers to our first night’s hotel at Agnetz.

After a shower and a few beers, not necessarily in that order, we all enjoyed dinner exchanging experiences from the day accompanied by the usual banter. I seem to recall Audrey choosing a blueberry pie for desert that proved to be quite hard to break. “Give it here Aud, I’ll break it up for you”. Despite others giving their enthusiastic advice, it was still a problem so I asked Audrey to open her mouth saying “I’ll put it in”. Rapturous laughter ensued when Audrey commented she didn’t fancy the cream any more followed by Stephen’s retort, “I’m not coming again”!

Although quite fresh, our second day’s ride to the Côte d’Or began with clear blue skies and a brisk wind so the wets were packed away. We had planned a visit to Pierrefonds for coffee. Pierrefonds Castle dates back to 1393 when Louis of Orleans built the fortified residence to keep an eye on trade between Flanders and Burgundy. In 1616, Louis XIII laid a fatal siege to Pierrefonds Castle, taking it then dismantling it. This great ruin was forgotten until it was bought by Napoleon I in 1810. In 1857, Napoleon III entrusted the architect Viollet-le-Duc to turn the castle into an occasional residence, then a museum which would be open to the public. It’s now best known as the castle used for the filming of BBC’s Merlin series.

Although the castle is open to the public, we had 180 miles ahead of us so our visit was limited to coffee in the Market Square. Cameras safely returned into their cases we continued our journey through the Forêt de Compiégne, the site of the Glade of the Armistice war memorial where in 1918 the Germans signed the armistice that ended WW1 and where Adolf Hitler deliberately chose the same location for

the French and Germans to sign the second armistice on 22nd June 1940 after Germany won the Battle of France.

Our route south stuck to favoured ‘D‘ roads taking us through Château-Thierry and Sézanne where we stopped for lunch. We continued south towards Troyes and Châtillon-sur-Seine in the north east corner of Burgundy, an unspoiled region with forests, plains, rivers and vineyards. From here you can experience two of the best wine regions in France, Burgundy and Champagne but we know them for the superb roads of the Côte d’Or that awaited us. After a short break in Châtillon’s town square, we joined the D901, legendary to so many of our members. Thirty miles of riding bliss but more importantly, a gateway to a motorcycling mecca. Sadly, this four day ride doesn’t give us time to explore but we did get to ride the legendary D959 on our third day.

Our hotel for this second night is a favourite. Saint Seine L’Abbaye is a small village nestling in a wooded valley at the foot of the first gothic church in Burgundy. The Bony family have been welcoming guests at their hotel in this prestigious setting for four generations. Formerly an outbuilding of the 13th century abbey converted into a post-house to accommodate travellers, then family board and lodging and finally a hotel-restaurant. We’ve stayed here many times and I’m sure will do so again.

Rob White’s Blackbird wasn’t having a good tour. His first problem exposed itself on his way to Eurotunnel, refusing to start without a push on several occasions. However, until now, each time the battery displayed symptoms of being flat, a push start was all that was needed but this changed on our third day. Although starting dry, the weather deteriorated the further north we rode. It had begun to rain and we were held up at a busy roundabout in Givry-en-Argonne when the ‘Old Girl’ died again. This time, however, she refused to restart. We found some shelter and scratched our heads wondering where to start. To our relief, Rob suggested we change the voltage regulator surprising us all by having one with him! Tool kit’s to the ready, in no time, Keith Brades and I had removed the rear fairing and the new (ebay) regulator was fitted. Would it start? Well, it’s a Honda! We were on our way having lost just 45 minutes or so. Was this the end of our problems? No, it needed a push start occasionally but Rob made it back with us and got the ‘Old Girl’ home safely where a replacement stator cured the problem.

It’s was a shame about the wet weather but thankfully it was fine in the Cote d’Or. Our thanks to Malcolm Kentish, Vanessa Gilder, John and Margaret Kid-

man, Stephen and Trudy Pearce, Mark Birchall, Keith Brades and Rob White for joining our first ride for 2012. We returned to Côte d’Or for our second ride (Red* ) but even though it was now May, the weather started very wet and cold. Audrey’s 97 year old mother was becoming frail so Audrey decided not to join us. I was riding my CBF but soon wished I’d taken the Pan. Even Steve Shortis and Richard Parker left their CB1000R’s behind in favour of their GS’s. The good news was that wet suits were removed by the time we reached Chateau Thierry when the sun broke through accompanying us for the next 150 miles to the first hotel. This ride, our second on Le Shuttle, exposed a flaw in Eurotunnel’s automatic checkin; Mike Hamilton discovered his reference number had already been used so he couldn’t checkin. I’m surprised just how easy this can happen. I book reservations in advance and receive a block of 10 numbers for each ride. They are not normally concurrent numbers but the first 5 or 6 digits of the 8 digit reference are usually identical increasing the possibility of someone entering an incorrect digit to find it accepted as it matches one of our other legitimate numbers. It took Eurotunnel the time for two trains to depart after ours before they sorted it out so Mike could join us. We’d arranged by text message to meet at the Calais terminal petrol station but, for the first time in my experience, we were directed ‘LEFT’ when leaving Le Shuttle making it impossible to access said petrol station. Quick thinking, more texting, we arranged to regroup at the A26 Péage booths. Hassle over our scenic ride to Montigny-l-Resle went without a hitch.

We arose next day to a dry morning but the sky was grey and it was soon raining. This eased as we approached Avallon but this was of little consequence as our demanding route took us through the Natural Region of Morvan. A day on these roads in the wet will sort out any confidence issues with wet weather riding. Kevin Davis on his Avon shod CBF impressed us all with an angle of lean and degree of confidence to be envied. The Z Z R1400’s of Mark Birchall and Mongoose (Richard Thomson) must have been a handful but nobody was complaining. The Morvan ‘park’ was created in 1970 to preserve this 2,800 sq. km. region of rolling Burgundy countryside described by the tourist brochures as best explored “at a slow pace to absorb the atmosphere and appreciate the little things that make Morvan so special”. But not when it’s wet and riding powerful bikes; the road is demanding so little time for sight seeing today.

The sun welcomed us on Day 3; would the Côte d’Or let us down? The roads here are a revelation, some open and flowing with low verges affording superb views across corners while others are tree lined and more technical. Some billiard

table smooth while others can test your suspension. Some look innocent and inviting but can be challenging if you allow your concentration to lapse. The majority are free of villages and all are free of traffic; this is what biking is all about. 200 miles of riding bliss. Tales of the day were washed down with a plentiful supply of beer before we all sat down to an excellent 3 course meal.

It’s a shame Audrey couldn’t make this ride but my thanks to Richard’s Parker and Nash, Mongoose, Mark Birchall, Mike Hamilton, Derek Turton, Steve Shortis, Kevin Davis, Peter Cockle and Garry Plummer for joining me. Our first (Blue* ) 10 day tour for the year took us to Bavaria close to the Austrian border. Yet again there was another Eurotunnel glitch with John Parker and yellow K1200S being left forlornly on an adjacent platform. We met up at the petrol station in Calais’ terminal and were soon on our way to Luxembourg for our first night.

Our route for the second day took us to the heart of Schwarzwald (Black Forest); all going well for the first delightful 15 mile leg on the N10 to Vianden. We then crossed the border into Germany to find that I had no German maps on my Z umo; now I know why I had trouble loading the route! I’d just got straight lines and no detail other than the base map showing trunk roads and motorways. My sincere thanks to Ron Luke for lending me his Z umo 550 and to Kevin Davis, armed with his MacBook Air, who sacrificed most of his night’s sleep to reinstate my maps. However, these were not the only difficulties to be overcome on this day. The B50 to Bitburg was closed with a long deviation, we had a 1/2 hour deviation at Wissembourg and the link road tunnel in Baden Baden leading to the B500 was closed. Glitches aside, it was warm, sunny and a Sunday so we’d planned lunch at Johanniskreuz, just south of Kaiserslautern, in the Naturpark Pfälzer Wald, a popular biker gathering at weekends where proud owners admire each other’s pristine machinery. A wide range of food is available here with anything from bratwurst, currywurst, schnitzel, gateau or ice cream. We are in Germany! Having overcome the Wissembourg detour and the closed road tunnel at Baden Baden, we joined the awesome B500, one of Europe’s best known biking roads. It was very busy with hundreds of bikers enjoying their highly polished machinery. Police presence was minimal yet I saw no dan-