First ride out

Today's main event was to be a ride out with Buzzer.

I arranged this yesterday after I got, in my opinion, a rather abrupt and thoughtless rejection from Bubbles, when I asked him if he fancied a ride out.

It seems that he wanted to have his first ride on his own rather than in company,* and he did that on Saturday afternoon. He then asked if I wanted a ride on Sunday and I replied that I'd already arranged to go out with Buzzer and he could tag along if he liked.**

So the day unfolded as follows. I took Hobson out around the Three Miler this morning, and we then had an early lunch. 

Bubbles arrived around noon and we headed over to Alcester to meet up with Buzzer.  The weather this afternoon was glorious and we had a quite splendid ride out ... sedate, but splendid

Our route took us out through Wixford, and on in to Stratford, before heading through Ettington towards Banbury. From Banbury we headed back via Kineton,*** Compton Verney and Wellesbourne. We skirted around the southern edge of Stratford and returned via Bidford on Avon. This allowed us a final blast up the bypass back to Alcester.

It was a great run out and my first real ride on the R 1250 R after the horrendous foggy run up the motorway when I collected her in January. 

I felt a little more at home with her and my gearshifts were far, far less graunchy. If I'm honest I would have preferred it to be just me and Buzzer as Bubbles is very slow at the moment. Even though I am still running in the bike, I could ride a little more briskly than the newbie.

Whilst on the subject of running in, I really need to get my act together and get out on whenever the weather allows.

I need to complete another five hundred miles and get the bike serviced before I head off to Germany in June ... I also need to get a lot fitter!

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* I would have thought he would have welcomed a bit of company in case he had a problem with the bike or he ended up in a hedge? Shit can happen on a bike! ... especially if you're new to it.

** Cos a) I do have plenty of mates with bikes and b) they don't need baby minding because they've been riding for thirty or forty years, rather than thirty or forty minutes.

*** Where we stopped at Gilks Cafe for a coffee