Well its all over .... for another year :-)
Despite what the weather had to throw at us, 465 bikers (not counting pillions, police and USR's) got out of bed on a dank, dark, rainy Sunday morning to have a ride through London.......Contrary to the nightmares that I have been having since February it wasn't just me and Stem riding through London with the police ha ha.
So nice to see so many familiar faces in the crowd, your support was really appreciated... I was pantsing it at several points and the bear hugs, hoots, waves and kisses were most welcome.
I was up at 6.45…… just like Christmas day, I was well excited, the weather was a downer but I just wanted to see how many would turn up after so much work. The bikes were loaded at 7.55, Simon went for petrol for the gas guzzling thirsty beast and I went to meet our first rider of the day, Ivan (Italian plate S4R). Ivan must of felt like royalty sandwiched between 2 USR’s on the M25 leading him to the ace café….. little did he know that Unity ride would be nothing like any ride he had experienced in Italy.
So there were 3 of us at Ace Café…. We sold about 20 tickets at ace but everyone else had managed to register. To say that I was relived when Westie and PP turned up was an understatement, they received a bit of Jip from the Ace Marshal team and I think the suitable response was ‘This is where I am gonna park it’. Then the FBos Team turned up, really lovely to see them again and the Bike Paramedic volunteered to sit at the back as tail gunner (nice one). So the USR count was me, Simon, PP, Westie, John and we had more than 100 milling about….. knees were all a wobble. Then someone said ‘ Just seen Tall Guy bring about 30 in’ Woo hoo! On time and ready to rock n roll! So the final count was 5 Unity Support Riders and a Bike Paramedic at the Ace, to say I had a touch of the nerves standing up at the front to talk to 150 riders was an understatement..... All I could think about was getting everyone to Excel safely. Tall Guy did the briefing and we all ran to get our bikes ready.
Now we had about 150, no police escort and only me, Simon and Westie/PP knew the route. My set of Comms went down, Mr Rizla had Westie’s comms and so we resorted to old fashioned communication… lol We did get broken up as a ride along the way, but it seemed that the first group had all the luck with the lights. I picked up a group that was waiting on the side of the road and Tall Guy and I herded in the last of the Ace café ride. Being clapped and waved at, as we rode into Excel was lovely... The Ace Cafe ride was the second ride to arrive after Epping Forest, next came Box Hill, then the police, the Oakdene and finally the 125's from Box Hill (who had a special police escort through London). Just when we thought that we had everyone I got a call from M Faster at Excel west.... 'Are we early? Where is everyone? There are about 6 of us and a load of Gold Wings are just arriving'... So technically we also had a ride in from Excel west, ha ha.
Looking at all the bikes in the park... it didn't actually seem like there were that many. The USR's went up to Building 1000, had their final briefing from the police and waited for the riders to come...... blinking heck! Seeing them all line up behind us was quite something and I thought that i'd give em a wave..... I won't forget the wave I got back in a long while.
As the ride set off the Police distributed the USR’s out along the ride, unfortunately there weren’t enough at the front to help the police block the junctions. So I popped out of my position and headed for the front of the ride….it was brilliant to see just an endless stream of bikes….. lovely. Then I was instructed to block a junction for all the riders to go through and I got to see everyone waving at me, hooting and shouting hello. Once the ride had gone I had to slip back between the two police tail gunners and make my way to the front again…. What fun!
We are still waiting for the final count of money raised on the day although I have heard that riders were very generous to Pudsey Bear.
Thanks to all who came ……. And those who were there supporting all the way through the planning and promotion. I had fun, it was hard work to organize, there were a lot of disappointments along the way but I still managed to have such a laugh, I met loads of lovely people that were fantastic…. And yes, I’d do it all again if people want to ride.
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