7 riders arrived at Jonsey's cafe in Winkleigh for this run, I imagine numbers were down because of the weather and the weather forecast. Those that did turn up had ridden through damp conditions, some even rain, I found lovely dry roads once I had cleared the hills from Bickleigh, down into, and through Crediton. The coffees were good and the catch up put the world right chat also very enjoyable. Ian briefed us on the route warning that some of the lanes were a bit narrow and to be aware of potholes, ( a seemingly increasing feature of our Devon road network ), and we set off pretty well dead on 1100 with Ian obviously in the lead and yours truly as the rear marker. within just 200 yards, Tony's lovely Norton decided it was not going to play ball today and came to a stop with fuel starvation, he had a good idea of what was wrong so I set off to catch up the run. the first hour was all in the dry and some of the views on the way to Hatherleigh were very good, Ian tells me that when he pre ran the run on the previous Wednesday, the weather was much better and the view was really good. Just coming into Hatherleigh, Grahams Triumph, which had been missing for a few miles came to a stop, he was happy where he was as he was near home and could freewheel down into the garage and contact the family for a trailer lift home, it turned out his battery had died.
The weather deteriorated at 1200 and it began to rain, in fact it came in quite heavy for a while, Ian pulled us over at one point until it eased slightly. Northlew, Bratton Clovelly, Roadford and Ashwater was our route before we arrived at a farm shop / Cafe just outside Hatherleigh. two of our 5 decided to go home from this lunchtime stop so we, the remaining 3, went in for a nice pasty and salad plus more enjoyable conversation. Although the rain had eased off somewhat, we decided to end the run there and make our own way home, in my case, the rain again increased and my near 50 mile run home resulted in my being very wet through and left me dissappointed with my 'weatherproof trousers'.
All in all, a good day out in good company riding our bikes what could be better, I spoke to both Tony and Graham by phone to find they had both safely got home, I reckon we should call this run Ian's all weather run in all types of road!, thanks to him then and to you guys who turned up, sorry to those who could not come for health reasons like Chris and Maurice, keep and eye on this blog for the next run in August, then we shall want some volunteers to organise September and October, speak to Chris or myself please, sorry there are no photos but the rain and other things meant they did not get taken.
