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Old 23-06-14, 02:14 PM   #6
jambo
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Croydonia
Posts: 5,376
Default Re: AR2014- Closing thoughts

Post AR thoughts (I had a little while to mull over these on the way back).

Camp-site was very nice, the local hotel had good beer and food, all facilities were just great. The Rocky Road Cafe owner did well under fire when most of the capacity of the cafe was filled up before the hob was warmed up on Saturday morning

As for technology, opened my browser this morning to see this piece which made me chuckle after people on Orange/EE became the one-eyed kings of the blind for the weekend.

The attendees make the event as ever, and it was great to get a chance to meet people that I'm unlikely to bump into day to day.

The route was a lovely mix of scenic & technical and I liked the option for doing the more tricky bit from the lunch stop but not making it compulsory, a nice solution to the dilemma of putting a lot of bikes up and down a sketchy bit of road.

The 3 groups for the rideout, I'm not sure was entirely needed given the low number of junctions and I think we had at least one point where a turning was missed by part of a group as someone hadn't waited at a turn. I quite like the spectacle of a large group on the ride out, but we had that at the stops anyway. The last section ran marked junctions and meant no one had to be able to see anyone else to get back. I'm only putting it up as a note as we all got everywhere we were supposed to be and had a lovely run. It was clear a lot of thought had gone into the route!

Would I go that far North again? Yes. The argument could be made that the further people have to go the harder it is to travel / the more time off you need to make it enjoyable. I'd guess we have more members in the south / mid-lands than the north so it's easier to get the numbers with somewhere a little further down, but it would be a crying shame to have the AR in the same camp site every year just to play the numbers. When we run them in the south it's a trek for those up north, fair's fair when the shoe's on the other foot, and it was a great motivator for me to go and see some bits of the country I've never ridden

As ever, I know organising something this size requires a significant amount of effort and I think the organising team should be very happy with themselves. You've all done a great job and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

The valet parking service offered on the Saturday evening seemed a little inconsistent in approach, but it's hard to get quality staff on short notice, so there's not much you could have done there

Having now surveyed the entire length of the A1(M) in one run, I will not be adding it to my best biking roads note book.

Love & Kisses

Jambo
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Last edited by jambo; 23-06-14 at 02:33 PM.
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