NOVEMBER 05 73 BE270415
ighton breezy Brighton breezy …well, not that bright but certainly breezy 11 September, 6.30am. I’m up and dressed getting ready to leave for London! Why this early? It’s the London to Brighton ride for Ace Cafe’s Annual Reunion Party. This year would be special, being the only UK appearance of the boys from Orange County Choppers. Arriving at the Ace just before 8am, the car park is already half-full; there are even tents on the side of the north circular as people have been partying all night. Parking next to some of the shiniest Harley-Davidson’s ever, the fact I’m on a scooter soon has people’s interest. They ask if I’m ‘going to Brighton on that thing?’ I had news for them. I was! When my riding partner Jose ‘Speedy’ Gonzalez arrived at the Ace he had to park across the road – only 30 minutes ago it was covered in tents. A large mini-bus arrived with blackedout windows and circled a couple of times, creating whispers in the crowd: ‘Is it them?’ ‘Are they here?’ I positioned myself in front of the Ace entrance as a Chrysler Voyager pulled up containing Paul Snr, Paul Jnr and Mikey. They stopped right in front of me, and Paul Snr stepped out and said “Hi, how are ya?” This dumbfounded me, seeing my on-screen heroes right there. I’m no small guy, but this guy was big. I think his muscles had muscles! I scrambled for my camera and started taking pictures, finding out later the setting was on manual focus so my close-up pics – put it this way – sucked! The guys were hustled inside, but soon reappeared on the balcony where they rained down a shower of OCC Frisbees to the evermaddening crowd. It got crazy when they started signing Frisbees! But alas the box soon emptied and people’s thoughts returned to the rideout! 10.15am: The roads are packed with vehicles – trikes, bikes and scooters aplenty. The OCC boys are taken across to the Harley-Davidsons that they were using on the rideout and it begins. With so many riders trying to get onto the north circular, it takes roughly 15 minutes before hitting the Tarmac. I’m joined by José on his Runner and Ricky on his Dragster. It’s an awesome feeling to find the police have actually stopped traffic for you. To Brighton We soon hit the M25 after a slow and steady run. Everybody was in a good mood (even the Great British cycling team tried to keep up with us in their team car)! Better luck next time guys! I’d taken some pictures with my small digital camera, but unfortunately hadn’t secured my pocket correctly! If anybody has come across a Nikon Coolpix smashed into a thousand pieces on the M25, any chance of returning my compact flash card? The pace of the ride heated and many chose to cruise around 60-plus, while our group rode a little faster. It wasn’t long before we turned onto the M23 for Brighton. A lot of people worry about taking tuned two-stroke engines on a long run, but José’s and mine performed flawlessly (the only thing slowing us down was the thirst for fuel) and Pease Pottage Services was a welcome relief. It was obvious it wasn’t just us with a shortage of fuel. The fuel station’s forecourt resembled the Ace car park only an hour and a half before. The woman attendant really needed to take a chill pill as she screamed in the PA Words and pics: Joe ‘Numb Bum’ Brown system in broken English to “get off your bikes before filling”. Well we think that’s what it was? Back on the road, the A23 now resembled a car park, due to the shear amount of riders. Soon the familiar sight of steam was rising from some home-built bikes and trikes as they cooked in the queue. Filtering through the traffic we decided we’d had enough and stopped in Brighton on one of the traffic islands behind the Pavilion. We were confronted by a couple of bikers bemused as to what engines we had and whether we had nitrous? They couldn’t believe we passed them on the inside of the M25 when they had been travelling at high speed. They went away puzzled and confused as to how a 172cc scooter could do that kind of speed? Ahhh, bless em! Onto Madeira Drive 1.30pm(ish) Oh my God! I have never seen so many bikes in one place. It was crammed, with hardly a stretch of pavement to walk on. We found a fish’n’chip stand that wasn’t that busy, refuelled our stomachs and downed a bottle of water after sweating it out on the ride. Walking onto Madeira Drive the entire strip had bikes and scooters parked side-by-side and masses of trade stands. Want a new set of leathers, or new piece of chrome for your Harley? You could get it. A fair amount of Dragsters and Runners – even a Zip and a Piaggio X9 – were parked up on the strip. It was nice to see that anything on two wheels (or three) was welcome. Ace Cafe had a big sound stage, with many different bands blasting out music at ear-piercing levels and selling their memorabilia and T-shirts. We found the fabled OCC bikes but, to our disappointment, you had to queue to see them up close, due to ‘filming constraints’. At the fenced-off area you could see the two bikes crated over from the USA – but not up close and personal – and you could only see the Teutels on stage from inside the compound. Time for home 3pm(ish) We decided to head home after the 45-minute walk back to the bikes – and promptly got lost, taking the A-roads back into London. We’d lost Ricky in the rush to get fuel and wondered what had happened to him? As we returned to Ace Cafe he arrived. His Drag had overheated on the way there and he had to stop. Back home in Luton the odometer was reading 225 miles. I know many folks do much more than this regularly, but this was my first long ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Would I do it again? Hmm, I’ll let you know next year! Thanks to José for spending the day with me – you madman – plus the other riders and marshals for making it an enjoyable day. 74 NOVEMBER 05