Thoroughly strong wind going down to York on Friday made transporting my spare car on top of the car a distinctly nervewracking experience. A gust at the top of Soutra, whose wind turbines were all switched off, actually managed to shift the Quest about five inches across the car roof, but my three ratchet straps were otherwise having none of it and it didn't go any further. Torrential rain at Jedburgh eased past the car door seals, which were compressed by the ratchet straps, so my right arm got rained on.
After leaving my campsite on Saturday morning a small group of roadies went past. I chased them all down and overtook with an excess of several miles per hour. I meant to ease off to let them catch me, whereupon I would have gradually sped up and broken them, but they weren't playing. Admittedly perhaps they were at the end of a century ride, and I had (mostly) fresh legs; I brought a Real Pillow, but my air mat was too firm as I'd been too
tired lazy to let some air out of it before going to sleep, and then I was woken at 4am by the local wildlife, which I valiantly ignored until about 7.30.
I parked at the BHPC tent and was met by fellow velonaut LeeW, and over the morning I answered more questions from everyone and their dog than I could possibly remember. How much does it cost? How fast does it go? Don't you use a flag? Do you race? How does it steer? Does it take luggage? Where do you ride it? Can $randomsmallchild sit in it? An old guy with a lot of wispy, wiry grey hair asked a lot of questions, but he had a very strong Welsh accent and was nearly deaf, so each of us was hard to understand. I was completely talked out by lunchtime. LeeW had the advantage because his Milan has a racecap, so people couldn't see inside it. I ended up having lunch with Clarion and Butterfly (and Nye, but he was too busy sleeping). The lentil stew was fab.
I thought the rally was a bit down on exhibitors though. Notably, no Alpkit, no Bikefix, no Circe, and no Mike Burrows
1. Spa Cycles had a great display though, as did two electric bike companies, but I wasn't in a buying mood
2. My impression was of a York Rally with only a few deviant bikes and many touring bikes with faded saddlebags. Some of the talks had audiences that seemed to comprise entirely retired men with white beards.
I did the Velovision pub ride to Naburn in the evening. The ride was led
3 by Simon-something who is the new Howard Yeomans, and I am reliably informed issue 53 is in the works. Long live Velovision! The pub was hoaching], and food took ages. I didn't see a menu anywhere, so consulted my diary from last year and ordered the same pizza.
Finished up about 9pm and had a barnstorming run back to the tent. The skies cleared for a short time around 11pm, so I managed a few shots of Jupiter.
Sunday morning was spent catching up with more people, including Steph and Pedaldog, and Lee who was just about to leave, and then back to the BHPC tent to field even more questions from people, followed by a not-veggie jumbo hotdog for lunch
. I had a final wander around the tents, and still didn't buy anything bike-related. The red beast had to go back onto the roof of the car, with Butterfly, Nye and Kim supervising the operation. Then an uneventful drive home again, with the wind still blowing like crazy.
1 Some in the HPV community reckoned this was a good thing.
2 Of course, if Alpkit had been there…I do 'need' a sort of 500ml pot with a lid.
3 He didn't actually know the way, mind.
