Back on the Blog and the Southend Shakedown

It's been literally months since I last blogged: I keep meaning to sit down and write but there's always been something else to do that's got in the way.

I've always thought any type of writing is something you should do for fun, when you want to, so I never made myself sit down and start writing this again otherwise I'd have ended up hating it. But I'm back now with plenty to say!

The weather has been getting warmer for the past few weeks, and there are more bikes out on the road than there has been in ages. I've even been able to put away my inner gloves, and at times have ventured out in no more than a T-shirt and jacket!

This may not make any sense to those of you in warmer, sunnier climates, but the winter in the UK really can be enough to get any biker thinking twice about getting a car. If it's not cold its still raining, which makes visibility impossible. Its hard to find riding fun no matter how hard you try!

Southend Shakedown

Yesterday the summer weather was officially welcomed with the first big ride out of the year, down to Southend. Living as I do only 20 minutes from Stonebridge, I went from the Ace Cafe with maybe thousands of other riders.

Although it wasn't a gloriously sunny day (the sky was grey almost all day, with the sun coming through around 3) it was still warm, and it was a nice ride. Seeing bikes parked up at every petrol station you pass is a great sight...and surely thats how it should be all the time?!

I have no idea how many bikes were in Southend, but I know I must have been parked about a mile away from the start of the line of bikes. I wasn't among the last to arrive by any means, and still saw bikers turning up after I'd been there well over an hour!

The first thing I needed to sort once I was there was food, and there were queues of bikers pouring out of every chip shop, burger van and ice cream stand. Seeing big, burly bikers in their Harley leathers just sitting on the beach eating ice-lollies is a fantastic view!

People and the Bikes

I got talking to a few people once I was down there, including a father and his thirteen year old daughter, who wanted to ride the moment she was old enough. I got the feeling she already had a pretty good idea how to!

They were on a beautiful Goldwing, which was obviously about 5 times the size of my puny little GS500. They'd passed me at some point on the way down and I'd seen them both relaxing and listening to the radio!

Once I was down there I tried to get some pictures of the bikes I liked, including, I'm ashamed to say, a very nice pink one. I didn't even bother to see what the bike itself was, I was more interested in the paint job! I've included some pictures in various places throughout the blog: I'm still not very good at organising them to stay in the right places yet...

Unfortunately my camera died long before I had even walked past a quarter of the bikes that were there, so I missed out on photos of some amazing rides (and their riders!). It was definitely a great day and not one to be missed!