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Originally Posted by Char

Justin 'take me down the muddy track' Photis - thanks loads 😉

Are you sure you don't want to rephrase that?

[Albie]

Originally Posted by jotr1960

Thanks very much to Alan, Shuffle, BigOz ,Albie,J.P, GT and Scrapps plus all others who made the Weekender a brilliant event. Fantastic Hotel with excellent food and accommodation plus the staff were great.
Can't comment on the ride outs though! Pity there weren't a few more bikes there on Sunday for the competitions.

You need to come out on a ride.

Now Char's bike. Even I had to vote for that. I cant even imagine why anyone wouldn't. Some people strangely even voted it B.O.T.Y which could NOT happen ! Its not a bl00dy Monster. Someone voted for mine best modified Monster a Scrambler

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Monster ate 511 thundering miles in 34 brilliant hours without missing a beat..

Hit Mach 1 for the first time on an owners club run and really enjoyed riding out with everyone. Thanks to JP for showing us some great roads.
The National run on Sunday was thankfully more restrained. I loved the way the second bike stayed behind at the junctions to mark the way. It meant that the bikes got shuffled so everyone saw a bit of each other and rode at different ends of the run. Thanks to Alan, Albie Shuffy and GT for taking good care of the tailenders.

Great to put faces to some of the names on here, nobody ever looks quite as you imagine from just some words and an avatar...Like Jerry-dile Dundee..

Big thanks to all who put effort into making this a success...It stood out a mile...and thanks for having me..

Was really nice to meet you Gazza . It was good of you to make the effort. I will say that the ride outs get better all the time because we all get more used to doing the Belgian way which really does work and you actually play a role.
In fairness to J.P he is a gent whom you can say can we slow it down a bit. I am a captain slow at times and always feel awkward slowing folk up especially with a pillion and that's why I sat back to mop up if needed and because I cannot get lost on my roads where I live. If you go as fast as the fastest they will continue that way. I did my best to keep up on Friday run but lost the pack but they will always wait so don't worry and feel bad. I do but that's me. Anyhow hope you felt welcome amongst us. Fancy Belgium then in Sept.

oh ffs ... wheres all the pictures !!!!!!

[Albie]

Originally Posted by garry

oh ffs ... wheres all the pictures !!!!!!

To be fair as the posts above seem to say ! sadly no one hardly took any as was far to busy having fun . Even I who normally have a camera somewhere just got lost in the weekend. There are some but not hundreds at all.
Some also here
http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...ad.php?t=51906

[Albie]

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Albie

Was really nice to meet you Gazza . It was good of you to make the effort. I will say that the ride outs get better all the time because we all get more used to doing the Belgian way which really does work and you actually play a role.
In fairness to J.P he is a gent whom you can say can we slow it down a bit. I am a captain slow at times and always feel awkward slowing folk up especially with a pillion and that's why I sat back to mop up if needed and because I cannot get lost on my roads where I live. If you go as fast as the fastest they will continue that way. I did my best to keep up on Friday run but lost the pack but they will always wait so don't worry and feel bad. I do but that's me. Anyhow hope you felt welcome amongst us. Fancy Belgium then in Sept.

Ah! So that's the Belgian way. Well I think it rocks.

It's actually not too hard to keep up with JP, but then it's always reasonably steady at the front of the run. The whiplash/elastic effect makes it much harder at the tail end.
Hence it makes more sense for Captain Slow and his nervous mate to be at the front with Captain Flashheart at the rear.

(Was just going to edit this myself but you beat me to it Slob. I consider my wrist slapped.....Sorry for the indiscretion.)

Some of the old British owners clubs practice a method where you always keep the bike behind you, in sight...So a bit of waiting and loitering is not unknown...Perhaps not really suitable for Monsters?
Some of the big Annual runs, like the AJS&Matchless owners 400+ bike runs, are marshalled at every turn, sometimes by the Police...Again, perhaps er, not for us.?

As for Belgium......Well I don't have a passport as it happens........

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Ah! So that's the Belgian way. Well I think it rocks.

It's actually not too hard to keep up with JP, but then it's always reasonably steady at the front of the run. The whiplash/elastic effect makes it much harder at the tail end.
Hence it makes more sense for Captain Slow and his nervous mate to be at the front with Captain Flashheart at the rear.


Some of the old British owners clubs practice a method where you always keep the bike behind you, in sight...So a bit of waiting and loitering is not unknown...Perhaps not really suitable for Monsters?
Some of the big Annual runs, like the AJS&Matchless owners 400+ bike runs, are marshalled at every turn, sometimes by the Police...Again, perhaps er, not for us.?

As for Belgium......Well I don't have a passport as it happens........

Ha nor do I right now sir !

[Dirty]

Didn't think you needed one for EU?

It was really great to see old mates after 5 years. Although I was there for only one afternoon/evening/night, I am so glad I came.

Reminiscing with Alan C, Albie, Caroline, JP among a fair few others, it was like going back in time for me.

Most members there were unknown to me, (not surprising considering the time that's gone by), but those I spoke to, were all pukka people.

If circumstances were right, I would have loved to have done the whole weekend, but I will make some breakfast meets in the near future.

Great hotel, serving lovely food by very helpful & friendly staff by the way guys. You'll be hard pressed to find another as good.

It was the first good ride on the T-Bird this year. Blew out a few cobwebs.

A brilliant weekend, with brilliant people, riding brilliant bikes on brilliant roads, staying in a brilliant hotel in a brilliant part of the country with some (nearly) brilliant weather...
BRILLIANT!!!!

[Black Bob]

Originally Posted by Char

I thought you voted for me

Oh but I DID, but not in the category that you won! (Which wasn’t present on my voting slip anyway.) I even admired it in flow along 50 miles of the A272… thanks to you and Mart for the company going back, by the way.

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Ah! So that's the Belgian way. Well I think it rocks.

It does rock, but it’s not really Belgian, it's just the Drop-off system. Way better than sticking to a convoy.

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

It's actually not too hard to keep up with JP, but then it's always reasonably steady at the front of the run.

JP was intentionally taking it steady, trust me. As he said at the briefing, it was intended to be more of a parade than a fast ride, but the beauty of the drop off system is that even that allows for some fun when gaps inevitably open up.

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Hence it makes more sense for Captain Slow and his nervous mate to be at the front with Captain Flashheart at the rear.

Some of the old British owners clubs practice a method where you always keep the bike behind you, in sight...So a bit of waiting and loitering is not unknown...Perhaps not really suitable for Monsters?

In my experience, that method just leads to frustration for those who want to move on a bit, and undue pressure for those who don’t, and unwanted responsibility for everyone to keep someone in their mirrors. The drop off system lets everyone relax and go at their own pace, knowing there’ll be someone waiting at the next junction. And and as long as people are sensible and courteous with their overtakes, it’s arguably the safest of the two methods.

A nice tweak to the drop-off is if the leader matches his pace with the bike in #2 slot, and then everyone gets a chance to admire the swan-like grace of the leader for a bit, and maybe even learn something.

A really nice bonus tweak is NOT flying up the INSIDE of another bike on the same side of the road in a 40 mph limit - I'm mentioning no names/bikes here, but you'll know who you are.

I thought it was a flawlessly run ride-out Sunday. Nice one JP.

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Black Bob

I thought it was a flawlessly run ride-out Sunday. Nice one JP.

I agree 100% with all you said.

Just in case anyone was in any doubt, I though both runs were BRILLIANT....

[J.P]

The Drop off system works well, when people pay attention at the briefing.
This year everyone did and I thank you all for it and it's just as much thanks to you lot that the ride went pretty darn well.

Over/undertaking of other bikes on the Rideout isn't encouraged if it has no meaningful reason to have been done. So don't.

I'm glad that my flawless (almost) planning, meant we had a pretty darn good route the whole way without too many of the snags that some parts of the country suffer from.

And yes, I was going sensibly.

I've led the National Rideout, and many others, for a good number of years and there's a lot of planning goes into them to make sure we all have a good ride. The benefit of being at the front is that no one can hear me scream when I get it wrong. That include's 'JP Shortcuts' or 'Green Laning' as it is somethimes known. Just remember, there's a better road just round the next corner. Yah.

Glad you all liked it and I'm happy to mail the route to anyone if they care, and want a Garmin .GPX file.

Otherwise, just follow me the next time....

[Albie]

Originally Posted by J.P

The Drop off system works well, when people pay attention at the briefing.
This year everyone did and I thank you all for it and it's just as much thanks to you lot that the ride went pretty darn well.

Over/undertaking of other bikes on the Rideout isn't encouraged if it has no meaningful reason to have been done. So don't.

I'm glad that my flawless (almost) planning, meant we had a pretty darn good route the whole way without too many of the snags that some parts of the country suffer from.

And yes, I was going sensibly.

I've led the National Rideout, and many others, for a good number of years and there's a lot of planning goes into them to make sure we all have a good ride. The benefit of being at the front is that no one can hear me scream when I get it wrong. That include's 'JP Shortcuts' or 'Green Laning' as it is somethimes known. Just remember, there's a better road just round the next corner. Yah.

Glad you all liked it and I'm happy to mail the route to anyone if they care, and want a Garmin .GPX file.

Otherwise, just follow me the next time....

You always do a good job J.P. Lets face it the 1st time we did it was much faster and far busier down the narrower lanes from Mayfield roundabout . We had horses and cyclists then. I was filming all the ride and was around 1 hour 20 and all very good except for the traffic lights which is always a slow junction in Hawkhurst and always will be. There were some really nice flowing roads there. I enjoyed it for sure.

Thanks J.P.