The weather was superb and the roads were pretty busy. There's plenty of opportunity to have a little fun if you don't get stuck behind a horsebox (we did, twice ), but there lots of pretty villages and 30 & 40 zones too.
Our number included a lady on a 125 and Lplates who although a fairly new rider, didn't hold us up one bit. Another works as a theatre practitioner in a London Hospital. She's a careful rider; she's seen a lot of the consequences of bike accidents. We agreed to wait at every junction in any case, so no one got left behind. It gave me and my pal (on a VFR 1200) the chance to put the bikes through their paces a little and "make progress".
Coming into a pretty sharpish bend just outside Finchingfield, we were confronted by 3 sports bikes, at full lean angle, coming straight at us from the opposite direction. Their bikes were on the white lines, the "apex" if you like, but their bodies were well onto our side. We're both very experienced riders and were already moving over from postion three, and thankfully able to swerve in time to get the hell out of their way and avoid a head on crash amounting to around 100mph.
A couple of hundred yards further on, we met 3 more bikes (2 were abreast) overtaking a lorry as it came into another bend we had just come out of. Another dozen or so bikes were crammed in behind the truck, waiting to make a similarly psychotic move. I was worried sick about the girls behind us but they were only hassled by a rider who insisted on overtaking them even when he had no clear view of the road ahead.
I'm a tough old bird but the whole episode left me feeling really shaken and bloody angry.
We had the inevitable icecream in Finchingfield and looked on in dismay and bikes of all shapes and sizes (although not all of them of course), revved and occasionally redlined through the beautiful village. Just a bit too much willy waving to be honest.
An hour or so later, a police car tore through the main street. We heard later there was a collision near Sible Hedingham, not far from where we were involving 4 bikes. One lad of 22 is dead. 1 in his 50's is fighting for his life and another injured.
I'm sure you're all far to sensible too do it but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, keep the hell away from that white line on right hand bends. Keep the red mist under control. If you do do it, go get some advanced training before you kill yourself or someone else. It may be heroic to say that someone died doing what they loved but I'm sure it's little consolation to their loved ones or to those innocents they happen to drag into the mess.
Sorry it wasn't a happier report but I felt it had to be said and I also needed to get it off my chest.
Edited by Kelpie, 06 June 2016 - 06:24 pm.