Day 1 : The One That Did Not Get Away ...

... well not until much later.

The Group were almost ready to set off from Brands Hatch but Roger was missing. Word got through that Roger's R1 had broken down at Polehill on his way to Brands. Although he had his battery replaced a few days earlier his bike had just died with no electrical power. The RAC were called and he was waiting for them.

The Ride Out started.

As I was not part of the official group doing the Ride Round Britain, although I was going to ride to Sammy Miller to meet them for lunch, I decided to see if I could find Roger and offer my assistance. This was what I was greeted with ...

Mr RAC said that the fault may be with either with the alternator or the rectifier. Parts he does not carry and after he did numerous phone calls to several dealers, neither did they! They would have to order them in. Roger's wife had driven up to Polhill to meet him so we all went off to Giants at Brands Hatch and left the bike with them. I asked Giants if they had a demo bike that Roger could borrow for the day but due to the GEMS event at Detling all of their demo bikes had gone there.

We all, except Mr RAC, went back to Roger's house for a cup of tea and to formulate a plan. Somebody had offered to loan Roger their bike for the week but was not available until later that day. So I took Roger as pillion to meet up with the others for lunch at Sammy Miller's museum.

We got to New Milton at approx 13:30 after 'making progress' along the M25/M3. First we thought we had missed everybody as there was a sign welcoming the KAMG but no bikes parked next to it. However, we needed to eat so went in. Lo and behold there they were - some of them just about to tuck into their second burger - and the burgers were BIG!

Approx 45 minutes later it was time for the Group to move onto their next location in the 302010 Ride Round Great Britain. The weather was still perfect but Wales was to beckon them the next day so who knows what the weather would do.

Roger and myself had somebody with us to go back to Kent with so Paul kindly took Roger as pillion and all three of us went back to Roger's house. I led the way and it was apparent that the smaller roads were going to take too long so we took the motorways again. Anyway, Roger had a bike to sort out and hopefully meet up with the rest of the Group in Bristol for the overnight stop. Paul had to get home but I had a compulsary tea stop at Roger's and then left. Thanks to Roger and his wife for the cuppa's.

Unfortunatly Roger's offer of a loan bike had fallen through so he sent an email out to the KAMG Google Group asking for help. Somebody came up trumps with a bike and I think Roger made his way to the Ride Out the following morning to start his 302010 Ride Round Britain Tour.

Written by Joe Callaghan