The Honda Owners Club

Just got in from a thoroughly enjoyable although tiring day.

Got down to Box Hill, Dorking this morning at just after 09.00 and met up with a few monkey mates. Also met Mabbie and Jack who turned up with their two Hondas which was nice. The turn out for the ride was a little low with only around fifty bikes making it. This was probably down to the weather forecast which wasn't brilliant, two years ago there were 125 bikes! We left at 10.00 and made our way up the Zig Zag Road to the top of Box Hill and then along the ridge to descend Pebble Coomb Hill only to find the road closed forcing us to retrace our steps. We headed through Reigate and Redhill towards our first rest stop at Outwood Common in the shadow of the Windmill. Next stop was Crawley Down for fuel (plenty of fuel stops are planned especially for Daxs as they have very small fuel tanks. We picked up a few more bikes (The Monkeyspunkas Crew from Kent) at Turners Hill and headed for the coast.

We reached Newhaven and turned west towards Brighton. Unfortunately one of the bikes low sided on a mini roundabout. The rider seemed OK but the support van took him to hospital for a check up. He was given a clean bill of health and was picked up later in Brighton by a friend. A fuel stop was made at Peacehaven, a few miles east of our lunch stop, Brighton Marina.

Brighton is one of the most expensive places in the country to park so it was very surprising to find that all parking at the marina is free. There are dozens of eateries at the marina so we all did our own thing and met back at the car park at 15.30.

Traffic was very heavy in the centre of Brighton, it was Gay Pride Festival Week and there had been several events today. On top of that the seafront had been closed due to an RTA. As we left Brighton and headed towards Ditchling Beacon car park for the ice cream stop, we lost another bike with a punctured front tyre. Once again the support van was called into action to ferry the unfortunate bike and rider back to Dorking. From Ditchling we headed towards Haywards Heath for our last fuel stop. This part of the run included some fast stretches of roads and 60MPH running. One of the bikes lost part of an exhaust which was quite worrying to see flying towards you at that speed, but fortunately it missed!

After the fuel stop, the spitting rain which had been around on and off all day became more persistent and was quite heavy as we returned to the car park at Box Hill at 18.00. A lot of the riders had come in vans or cars, but I rode not living to far away, and hoped I had enough fuel to make it back having not filled up since Peahaven. The bike coughed and spluttered a couple of times as I neared home and was definitely low on petrol but I made it. I put the bike in the garage went indoors, got rid of the wet leathers and got a nice cold bottle of beer from the fridge, perfect.

Regards

Chimpy

Sounds brilliant Chimpy! If there are any photos perhaps you can post them on here too?

Hi Jennie

There were quite a few photos taken although not by me. I didn't take my camera which is again unusual, just my phone but I didn't get to take any.

The photos will be uploaded to a gallery on the Monkeyrun site soon and I'll post a link.

I'm still recovering from the nightmares last night of that exhaust coming towards me at 60MPH!

Regards

Chimpy

There may have only been 50 bikes but it was quite a sight seeing you all set off! There was about 10 more turned up about half an hour after you all went.. I wonder if they caught up?

Hi Lindz

We did meet some more at Brighton Marina. One of them is featured in Streetfighters Mag soon. It may well have been them but I'm not sure.

Regards

Chimpy