Day Two

And what an awesome day! Perfect biking weather, bright sunshine, not too hot.

Ride to Egham and back (See Map 1 below), via Drift Road, Windsor Great Park and Virginia Water. This is most of the route we used to drive to get to the Chertsey office and it's actually really nice to drive. As a bike ride, it's beautiful.

Drift Road (B) is an undulating two mile straight followed by some great twisty, leafy corners as you skirt Windsor Great Park. There's a weird "longabout" as you cross the A322 Ascot - Windsor(C) road followed by more great, wooded Surrey countryside. Down the side of Virginia Water with it's bizarre archeological treasures, visible from the road (D), and across the A30 into more twistys around Callow Hill (E). Finally into Egham for coffee and pancakes!

I reflect on how much fun that short trip was and how natural most of it felt. I'm certainly rusty, and I'm not sure how far to trust the new back tyres (Dunlop something or others) so corner speeds are LOW. In fact, even straight speeds are low! A combination of rustiness and the psychology of riding an unfaired bike - certainly not a bad thing.

Refreshed, I take the same route back to Maidenhead, but pass on through and head up to Brian Gray Powerbiking in High Wycombe who are having an "Open Day". Arrive in time to watch special guest James Toseland bang out a pretty good (even though I hate the song) version of "Mustang Sally" on the piano. I wonder if he ever regrets mentioning the fact that he can play? Decline the offer of queueing for an autograph and head inside to check out the merchandise. They have a fantastic range of clothing, helmets, boots etc and a lot of Alpinestars stuff (have I mentioned how much I love that brand? I will...), but don't have the two things I was specifcally looking for, so I head home.

As I get to Marlow I decide to take a detour and end up adding another 20 miles to the clock by heading home via Henley On Thames (see Map 2). Another fanastic stretch of road. Get the chance to try some quick overtaking manouvers on the Sunday Drivers who insist on pootling along at 35 in a 60. The bike is nice and punchy, even though I'm running it in and have to limit myself to 6,000rpm.

Arrive home in a very good mood. Nice to feel the familiar sensation of HEAT and the urge to rip off the helmet and leathers as soon as I stop moving. Despite a little stiffness around the knees and hips, I've really enjoyed the couple of hours out and about and can't wait for tomorrow.

Map 1 Maidenhead - Egham

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Map 2 - High Wycombe - Marlow - Henley on Thames - Home

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