Spring 2000 in Swindon

PHOTO GALLERY (with many thanks to Stephen and Jeanne)

Well, yes, I know....Swindon isn't exactly the place that springs to mind when choosing a venue for a weekend away.  However thanks to the wonderful organistion and hard work of Angel, Jeanne and Bonny, and the hospitality of the Blunsdon House Hotel, this was a truly excellent meeting, and the largest gathering yet of Quacks.  The meeting took place between 5-7th May 2000.

The weather forecast did not augur well, with heavy thundery showers planned for the entire southern quarter of the UK.  However we all set off on Friday evening in warm sunshine, hoping for a miracle - a dry Spring meeting.

29 people were due to attend, the largest gathering in Quick Quacks history, including one member who had just joined the day before!  We had to split into two groups for the carvery meal on the Friday night, which was extremely delicious, complimenting the beer very well. 

The breakfast lived up to expectations, full of grease.  We needed three groups this time, with the large number of bikes taking part.  Angel led the quick group, Bonny the medium group and Jeanne the slow group.  Setting off just before 9.30, the fast group took Stephen by surprise - he was aiming to take a short-cut to Avebury by car to get some action photos, but the fast group got there first!  However some good photos of the bikes passing the standing stones were obtained.

We then headed off to Stonehenge for a cup of tea, with Stephen following the slow group in the car, dangling the camera out of the window to try and get some action photos - sadly most of them were action photos of trees...  Being in the slow group myself I can only wonder at the reports of rather questionable overtaking manoeuvres by certain members of the fast group...  True to form there was the obligatory shower of rain, but it soon passed, and the rest of the day was warm and sunny.

The next leg was a long but very interesting ride down to Lulworth Cove for lunch.  In the past, the majority of incidents on Quick Quacks weekends have taken place in the fast group, but unfortunately it was the slow group's turn to add incident to the day.  One particularly nice roller-coaster road close to Dorchester proved Yoav's undoing as he had a coming together with a car, thankfully nobody injured.  The Bandit had some fairing damage and lost a footpeg, quickly replaced by the pillion footpeg from Chris Kinchin's Kawasaki, making it the first Kawazuki on record to take part in the QQ runs.  The marker system for the runs worked well, and it was clear something was wrong.  While Jeanne nipped back to help Yoav, Chris K and Stephen (the car WAS useful), Mei Ling and Sarah helped a learner to bump start her bike which was reluctant to kick start.

We pulled up into Lulworth Cove rather late, and the mega-cod and chips was a favourite lunch.  The weather was steaming hot at this stage, with some QQ's removing quite a lot of clothing to make the most of the first really summery day of the year.

After lunch, we headed towards the Giant at Cerne Abbas.  The slow group again provided the incident.  First we were fooled by the Diversion signs, and took the wrong turning, thereby missing the Giant (difficult to do, since it is enormous in many ways...).  Having discovered our error, we also realised that we had lost three of our group, although they soon turned up.  Just as we were turning round on a rather steep and uneven bit of road, another Diversion took over, in the form of Cedric, who did what we all dread - dropped it on a slow U-turn in front of a crowd of other bikers.  The severe slope led to most of the oil pouring out through the airbox cover before we could right the bike, leaving the road and his tyres rather oily.

After a bump start, with the Diversion smoking like a two-stroke, we limped to a car sales garage, where we scrounged some oil to keep him going from a visiting mechanic.  Cedric didn't need to oil his chain again, though!  We then took in some really excellent twisties all the way to Seend (near Devizes) to take over Angel's house for tea.  Ann and Jeanne had provided some really wonderful cakes, and we all rehydrated ourselves, and pigged out on cake on his lawn.

The ride back to the hotel was at a more sedate pace, starting in two groups because Jeanne had to go and feed the cats, but we picked her up again in Avebury and made steady progress back to the Hotel, where we arrived, hot, aching, tired and very happy having completed another memorable QQ ride.

I'd like to thank Jeanne, Bonny and Angel for organising the event, choosing an excellent venue, and leading us through an eventful run.  I'd also like to thank Stephen who came in his car (because hasn't passed his bike test yet), provided invaluable back-up to the QQ slow group, and managed to get some action photos of several QQ's, including pictures from the car on the move.  It takes some doing to keep up even with slow bikes in a car!

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