Old Picture Gallery

Picture Gallery ■ Picture Gallery ■ Old Pictures

Old Pictures ■ 2004-2006 ■ Picture Gallery

tent had fallen off somewhere between Lewes, DE and the hotel!) So I rode down to Norfolk VA, and found a bike shop (Cycle Gear, the first of many visits to that particular chain of shops!), picking up a Bilt Charger MX (mesh and armour) jacket and MX gloves, along with some chain lube. SUCH a difference. No more overheating and not having to ride in just a base layer t-shirt (not safe). Breakfast at the Bel Aire pancake house next door, then more highway pounding to Arapahoe, NC, to find my In-laws and my base for the next couple of days. (Continued from page 22)

July8 th . Long day. Left Arapahoe and headed to Cabelas outdoor outfitters, in Garner, NC, just south of Rayleigh, to buy a replacement tent, freeze dried hiking food, etc. Massive store! Then on the road to Boone, NC as I wanted to run the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Asheville. Had a great time on the 118 mile route. Loads of twisties opening up to views across the valleys. Plenty of other bikers up there too. Also explored some of the small towns along the way. After a long and frustrating evening looking for a campsite, around Asheville, NC, to plant the new tent and get some much needed sleep, I gave up on ‘under canvas’ option and found a hotel instead.

9th July Finally joined the ‘TAT’, at Mars Hill, NC. Every kind of road in the TAT so far, from smooth tarmac to deep soft cinder, often different around every corner! But stunning views to be found, and not enough traffic to be unable to look away from the road. Strangely, one of the obstacles to look out for, after deer, rabbits and chipmunks (and the occasional snake) were box turtles. Who had decided the tarmac was a great place to bask in the sun. Grapefruit sized ‘organic’ rocks, often just in the wrong place. Speaking of rocks, the Rally Raid engine guard earned its keep. Bouncing off a large rock that I couldn’t lean round in time. An impressive ding in the metal, but not in the sump. So money well spent.

Bike has done fine, even with an inexperienced rider and a lot of weight up high. Got my left foot scraped a couple of times on the twisties. Not bad for knobbly TKC 80’s!

Left the TAT at Maggies Valley, NC. Had a beer to cool down in town, then headed up towards “Tail of the Dragon”, with the intention of running it after all the ‘yahoos’ had gone home. But sense (and fatigue) won out and found a place to pitch up for night in-

stead. Wasn’t up for finding a place in the woods, but stumbled across the Iron Horse Resort Biker campsite and a good price (with WiFi, though it was very flaky). Ended up next to a group of Australians who are travelling the US on their trikes that’s they shipped from ‘down under’. New Cabelas tent went up. Quite impressed with it. Good quality and spacious. Plenty of room for my gear overnight if needed.

10 th July Packed up early, and rode up to Deals Gap, to find and run the Tail of the Dragon. Heard a lot about it, how it was a great road to ride. 318 bends in 11 miles (or thereabouts). Found it, ran it, and TBH, didn’t find it that interesting. Perhaps because I’d already ridden so many similar roads over the last few days, including over 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Still, crossed it off the ‘list’ and continued on the TAT. Through more forests, and through Tellico Plains, the original start of the TAT. Ran into 3 other people riding the TAT, and rode along with them until Ducktown, TN. Was good to have some company, at least for a while. They were on ‘little’ 250’s, so left me behind on the trails. BUT, on the tarmac between the trails, I would quickly reel them back in on the bigger 500cc bike! At Ducktown, we had different plans, so I decided to jump ahead a little, and took the ‘slab’ around the edge of the Chattahoochee National Forest, to Calhoun, GA, where I found a USFS campsite for the night. No-one else there, just me and the fire flies. And the ever present humid heat!… As I was alone I was able to leave the fly sheet off the tent and sleep in the mesh inner, which made a big difference to being able to cool off

11 th July. From Calhoun, I stayed on the TAT, continuing through the Chattahoochee National Forest along winding forest roads, some of them very steep switchbacks, past LaFayette, TN, Mount Carmel and over Pigeon Mountain, with long vista’s over the valleys below. At one train crossing, I had an enforced rest break, while a seemingly endless freight train crawled past at about 5mph. Made

me wonder about the people who used to ‘ride the rails’, during the great depression, and whether people still do it now Then onwards. Past Trenton, eventually arriving in Jasper, TN. Took a break, then tried for Lynchburg and the Jack Daniels distillery. Got there too late for a tour, and the hotel in town was full. Found a bed for the night in nearby Fayetteville. And just in time too, as the heavens opened. Fortunately I was able to pull the bike under the porch, outside my hotel door. Keeping it dry and allowing me to replace the horn, which had self ejected somewhere on the trail.

12th July. Took a day ‘off’, to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery, and the town of Lynchburg, TN. Definitely a ‘must see’ if you’re passing through the area, of even taking a detour if you’re further away. The tour takes you through the whole distillery. From the huge storage buildings that contain around a million gallons of JD, each (there’s around 25 buildings), while the whisky matures (the smell is amazing!), past the area where they make the charcoal that is used to filter the whisky, which gives JD its unique colour, the spring where all the water that is used to make JD is drawn from, Jack’s office, the bottling plant, and finally on to the tasting room. Didn’t go too crazy in the tasting room, as I had to ride down to Huntsville, AL to find a new rear tyre. Mine was totally done, but I’d had no luck finding a TKC80 at any store along the way. Fortunately Cycle Gear in Huntsville had one. But… they don’t remove the wheel. So, I strapped the bike to a tree in the parking lot, shoved an old car wheel under the engine guard and pulled the bike wheel off! As I had started late, I rode on till sundown, and then kept riding. Even if some of the TAT required a detour. Fortunately detours were very few ( I only had to ‘go around’ about 3-4 times on the entire trail). Came across a herd of cows that has decided not to stay home, found the farmer and between us we corralled them up and moved them to safety, on our modern day steeds! Rode 20 miles of the TAT, including 4 stream crossings, in the dark. Fortunately the £20 LED lights proved to be a lot better than the price tag would suggest. Finally found a place to pitch up, beside the Natchez Trace parkway, in a car park for the Sweetwater Trail.

13 th July. Woke up before the sun and rode down to Collinwood, TN at 04:30 loading up on carbs n coffee ready for the day ahead. Back on the trail, which crossed over into Alabama briefly, through Waterloo, before going north again into Tennessee. More stream crossings, including one particularly nasty, very slippery one, that required me to pull off all

the extra weight (bags etc) and carefully move the bike over to a safer crossing spot! Made it to Counce, TN where I’d hoped to meet Sam Correro, the person behind making the TAT. Unfortunately, due to missed communications, this didn’t happen. But I did manage to reach out to another friend of mine, Brent, up in Jackson, TN where we had lunch and finally met each other after years of knowing each other on FB!

Headed back down through Counce, still unable to contact Sam, so headed south into Mississippi. Very rough trails, to the point where my windshield mounts finally gave out. So a side trip to New Albany and a hardware store where I found the parts to fix the flapping windshield.

Found a campsite in Pontotoc, MS. A quick negotiation with the camp owner resulted in a bargain rate and a night beside a very scenic lake, with my own restroom, and shower (mainly as everyone else was in air conditioned trailers/ RV’s!). Unbelievably humid. Taking a cold shower did nothing as I was unable to successfully dry off! At this point I was slightly ‘done’ with the Eastern US, and it’s constant dampness, and was looking forward to reaching the much more arid western side. –to be continued.

Editor: This article was submitted over a year ago.. Because of its length, profuse illustration, and the fact that it had to be clipped fragment by fragment from a website I put off including it whilst there were easier options. I am a profoundly lazy person.. If you want to read the full account now, with better format and LOTS more pictures, visit https://ukjeeper.home.blog/

Old Events Report Chris Johnson

This appeared in TUG in February 2008. At the time the then editor (Guy Jones) decided that the italics on the fantasy section were a mistake and ‘corrected’ them, thus causing some puzzlement for members who read it as part of the actual report.

Firstly, a big Thank You (not) to whoever cleaned up all the old entries from the ‘Runs and Rides’ section of the EAMG BBS and thus removed my primary reference source for these reports. I was forced to consult my notes, and transforming “squiggle st.i.150+10 smudge 18 th pnct. Cuppa. 1hr. Cold. M sys, illegible …” into a plausible ride account means a lot of fiction and not much fact. No change there, then!

The first ride of the period was Richard Parker’s run to St Ives on Sunday 18 th November and we had 23 bikes (according to Richard … I can only find 19 in the photos). The weather forecast had been absolutely terrible, but in the event the day was fairly dry. Richard celebrated the fact by adding an extra ten miles to the outward leg. The route had me completely confused then, and the passage of time has not helped. Six of us arrived at The Local Café in St. Ives, and for the better part of an hour it stayed that way. It turned out that Derek had suffered a puncture in Sible Hedingham, Guy had stopped to help him fix it, and we had left a trail of increasingly lonely and cold markers behind us. One was even offered a cup of tea by a sympathetic shopkeeper. This provoked some discussion later about the Marker System, although in truth the system did not actually fail on this occasion. I

suppose we must have ridden back afterwards but I have no notes, or memory, about it.

Gary held a ride on Sunday 2 nd December. Everyone knows that Gary’s rides go to Walker’s Burger Bar, but on this occasion he broke with tradition and we had the novelty of a ride to … St. Ives! It was a grey, greasy sort of day and I think there were about a dozen of us. We lost a couple on the way out. Elke was riding her new Versys at a very moderate speed on a straight stretch of road when it suddenly slewed its rear wheel from side to side and threw her off. That section of road had been cheaply repaired with a lick of tar and, in the damp conditions, had no grip at all. Elke was unhurt and the bike, apart from a footpeg which had snapped off, seemed remarkably undamaged (naked bikes have their advantages). It was not really rideable, however, so Phil and she had to drop out. When we reached St Ives the centre of the town was closed to traffic because of a Christmas Fair. In the grand old social ride tradition Gary ignored the closure signs and led the head of the group to the café. There was then a wait since, in an equally grand old social ride tradition, the remaining riders searched out alternative routes for the last few hundred yards. There was another wait after we had eaten when some of us went back to our bikes and others, including Gary, slipped off to investigate the delights of the Fair. Back at Leaden Roding Gary declared the run officially over. This apparently satisfied the terms of the pact he had made with Dark Forces, because the skies promptly opened and we all got soaked going home.

I had planned a ride to the White Lion in Baldock after the AGT on December 9 th , but an attack of the lurgy kept me away. Guy Jones took over as leader and five bikes made the run along the usual Thaxted, Newport, Buntingford route. The White Lion was only serving Sunday lunches (note to self –remember to update your destination list) so the group went on to Bikestop

in Stevenage for a frugal lunch and some serious shopping. For the journey back Guy turned on his Sat Nav (when will they ever learn that this is nota good idea) and in the resulting struggle over what constituted a suitable route for a social run had an interesting ride through towns nobody had ever visited before, and had not the slightest intention of ever visiting again. Eventually at Harlow the battle, and run, were declared over with a points victory to the Sat Nav. Guy sent me an amusing account of this ride which I would normally have included verbatim but, bearing in mind the duplication of ride reports for the Mosquito Run in the last TUG, I thought it safer not to.

I decided not to attend Richard Parker’s Full Member run to Ixworth on 16 th December. The weather forecast said ‘cold’, and if the temperature is below four degrees then I lose concentration after about 50 miles. Richard’s routes

normally require a fair amount of concentration. Stephen reported that when he eventually made his way home from it the air temperature was minus three. The run was about 150 miles, 12 turned up for it at the Springfield Sainsbury’s, and one turned up at the Miami Tesco’s, and was consequently a non-starter. The run was without major incident other than for Alan, who got a nasty puncture and had to resign himself to the slow mercies of the RAC. Richard published the route on the EAMG BBS so if you are interested look there … soon … whilst you still have a chance. At Ixworth they not only went to that posh Village Café again, but even had a reserved table. By August I expect Richard to be organising jaunts to the Savoy Grill.

I did attend part of Richard’s next run; the Xmas Recovery Ride to Purleigh on Sunday 30 th December. The forecast said nine degrees and it was not far short of that when I set out (which for Sydenham in the early morning is positively tropical). It seemed like a day for leathers; with three layers underneath and a padded reflective vest just in case. The estimated run length was 120 miles, which meant that the route was going to be very indirect. I arrived just before the run started and did not have time to take photos or do a bike count, but I am pretty sure it would have been in the mid-teens. Alas, Essex was a lot colder than predicted and by Finchingfield (yes, it was an indirect route, wasn’t it) I bottled out and, giving my apologies to back marker Geoff Preston, scurried back home with my tail between my legs. No details about how the run was for others, apart from the inevitable puncture.

The weather forecast was beginning to rule my life. For Gary’s run on 6 th January it predicted that the air temperature over most of East Anglia would still be zero at midday. After the ignominy of the last run I didn’t even have to think about it. Guy Jones kindly sent me a report of the ride, part of which I will risk quoting, “I would guess 40 people turned up, a lot of new faces. Richard Parker lead a group with Geoff Preston Tailing, Gary had Terry Sullivan in support. We went to (where else) Walkers Cafe ! via Braintree, Gosfield Etc then through top Red Lodge and up to