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Pack Iron Butt ride to Ace Cafe & Brighton Reunion ~ Sunday 13th September 2009:
What can you say about the Ace Cafe and the annual Brighton Reunion? Its a phenomenon. What else would make sane people get out of bed at 5.30 a.m. on a Sunday morning and complete a ride of more than 400 miles just to see motorcycles parked on a seafront? But its not just the parked motorcycles - it's being part of this massive gathering of motorcyclists and just enjoying the craic.
Six Pack members on six bikes left Cardiff at 6.30 a.m. on Sunday 13th September to ride up the M4 to the Ace Cafe, London, to join the start 10.30 a.m. start of the massed ride to Brighton. As we rode east, we collected more Pack members with military precision, and by the time we reached Reading Services for our first coffee stop, our numbers had swelled to 16 people on 15 bikes. Suitably refreshed after some hot drinks (it was surprisingly cold in the mist along the M4 at that time of the morning), we set off on the last 40 miles to the Ace Cafe. Arriving at the Ace for this particular ride is difficult to describe - there were literally hundreds (if not thousands) of bikes parked in every conceivable spot outside the cafe by the time we arrived at about 10 a.m. However, we were marshalled onto a footpath and wriggled our way between the parked bikes and the crowds, and eventually managed to park.
We had about half an hour to look around or get a coffee, but in reality, most of that time was spent trying to find the other members of the group to brief them on a departure time and place when leaving Brighton! Previous experience of taking groups to Brighton for this event has taught me that it is impossible to park together and near impossible to find each other once you have parked! We settled for a garage on the sea front, with a departure time of 3 p.m.
The bikes started to leave the Ace Cafe promptly at 10.30 a.m. in a sort of organised bun-fight and were soon being marshalled through red traffic lights by the police to get us onto Western Avenue and thence out onto the M25. The customary groups of spectators were on all the bridges over Western Avenue to wave us off on our trip to Brighton and many more bikes were waiting on fly-overs and slip roads to join the cavalcade. I often wonder what the car drivers on the M25 think when they find themselves surrounded and outnumbered by motorbikes on just one day of the year. With no dramas (other than the Pack Leader hitting a black cat as he joined the M25), we enjoyed the ride to Brighton and arrived at about 12.15 p.m. If we thought parking at the Ace was congested, we now had to find parking spaces amongst 40,000 other bikes, most of whom had got there before us! Marshalls sent us further and further along Madeira Drive, until we were almost at the marina before we could find somewhere to park the bikes.
By the time we had parked our bikes and checked all the missed calls and text messages from other members of our group who had got split up, it was getting close to 1 p.m., so we headed off through the bikes and crowds towards the Ace Cafe stage and live bands. The first Pack member that we bumped into was Bill, but with no sign of Sarah. Wheres Sarah? we asked, only to be told I dont know I havent seen her since the North Circular! However, we neednt have worried because we saw her on her bike, fighting her way through the mle to find a parking place. Bill headed in that direction and that was the last we saw of them that day! We spotted Roger in a similar predicament, but they were the only Pack members that we saw before departure from Brighton.
Everybody did their own thing until it was time to leave and, unbelievably, 13 of the 15 bikes all assembled on time at the garage on Brighton seafront! The other two (Bill and Sarah) had previously briefed us that they would be making their own way back, because they had booked accommodation in the Reading area. So, with everyone fuelled up, we set off for the 200-mile ride back across country on the A283 to Petworth and then the A272 to Winchester, before heading north-west on the A34/A303 to Andover. From there we picked up the A342 across the Salisbury Plain, through Devises and down to Chippenham. We made our first stop at a pub at Derry Hill, just before Chippenham, at around 6.00 p.m, after 110 miles of A road riding. Six people had departed the group at pre-arranged places and one got separated from the main group at some point before the meal stop, so six of us relaxed over food and drink, whilst waiting for the feeling to return to our backsides! We left the pub and managed to reel off the rest of the A-road riding before it got dark as we reached the M4 at junction 18 for the last dash back to Cardiff. We arrived at home at 9 p.m., some 15 hours and 440 miles after leaving home that morning.
In 2007, just Dee and I did the ride and thought that others might enjoy it as a pack ride. In 2008, 11 people on 7 bikes made the pilgrimage. In 2009, the numbers had swelled to 16 people on 15 bikes. Clearly there is something that attracts people to make this ride, but as Ally and Huw said after their first ride-out with the Pack, Its just so mad you couldnt explain it to people who hadnt been there! |
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