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Blandford and back again! A Bikers Tale....
This afternoon after our bijou rideout and just before the pub meet, I received a distress call from a workmate who is on a course in Blandford but forgot to take his uniform (numpty), his wife has the car here so he couldn't come to get it and she is 8 1/2 months pregnant so didn't seem fair to make her drive, so I being the kind hearted chap that I am convinced Mrs Ace I should take him his uniform on the bike.

So 88 miles there.
Plus 88 miles back.

An interesting Sunday evening?

Well the route.......

M3 boring, A303 better, A343 nice, A345 nomnomnomnom.

Departed Aldershot just before 2000, stopped at Tesco to top up.
Towards Camberley onto M3 (boring), thought to myself "save fuel stick to 80ish", but then the inevitable happened, someone overtook me! So red mist and some triple figures later I was on the 303 (better), "right off the Motorway now must save fuel"! Guess what, that's correct another bugger went past, red mist and some triple figures later onto the 343 (nice), nice swoopy bends interspersed with short straights, proper litre bike territory so screaming along like my hair was on fire, I found myself quickly in Salisbury, around the ring road and onto the 345 to Blandford (nomnomnomnom), now as Fallout and Daddyjob will vouch I don't know that road at all and would certainly not exceed any speed limits, so about 10 minutes later I was in Blandford, a quick blast up Black Lane and I was at the camp gates, time check 2122.

Hmm I thought not bad quicker than I thought!

So a quick smoke and a chat and I was off, time check 2149.

By this time it was dark "bugger me" I thought, "the headlights on this thing are worse than a candle in a jam jar"!

Set off down Black lane, onto the bypass towards the 345 (nomnomnomnom) approaching the roundabout thinking "no more street lamps, its gonna be dark out there", when a red BMW emerges from my left cuts me up on the roundabout and launches itself down the 345 (nomnomnomnom), aha methinks that is not as fast as this, so the Ace was launched quick on the heels of said BMW, and you know what? It was marvellous, whoever it was can sure handle a cage, they barely dipped below a ton all the way to Salisbury, and there was no oncoming traffic so his/her main beams lit the road like electric daylight, so I sat on its tail all the way into Salisbury, happy to be able to see the tarmac.
Around the ring road onto the 343 (nice) and blow me if I didn't end up behind a Rangerover Sport doing the same as the BMW, granted he/she was a bit sluggish on the bends but still near on a ton all the way to the 303 (not so nice), once on the 303 (not so nice) lots more traffic so lots of light, time to make progress, bombed past the Rangerover and settled for a speed that shall remain nameless (no more than 35mph), and the Rangerover caught me up and had the cheek to beep, so red mist and a couple of minutes, I lost the Rangerover and was on the M3 (boring), not far to go now feck it lets pin it!

So some burnt oil and some serious vibration later I was 4 miles from Fleet Services, bloody fuel light, so into the services for a splash and dash and on to Aldershot, into the driveway, bike off, time check 2310.

176 miles, 2 hours 43 minutes riding, 19 litres of fuel plus the top up at Fleet, fuel saving failed, big smile on face, Sunday evening well spent!
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