Hi Linzi

Good ride report as usual, even though you were a bus biker for the day!

Funny how you met the HU parents on your way there.

Look forward to seeing the pics.

Chris
chris@welovebikes.co.uk

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[/SIZE] "Live dangerously for as long as you can!"

Linzi, to make you feel better with the whole tube, bus, sleep thing.

Spotting the post about the Ace Meeting a good few weeks ago, I thought "I'll go to that if I can". A few days later, Brittany Ferries sent me an e-mail with €25 offers for day trips to Portmouth, arriving at 8am, leaving 8.30 pm, and further down that day's mail, an e-mail from the Ace Café reminding me about the Adventure Travel day. So, I click on the link for Brittany ferries and book myself on with the bike, total price €40 return with a bunk in a shared cabin both ways and the bike.

Friday night sees me indulging in a bit of frantic rummaging to unearth my passport, a bit of spanner wiggling to get the aluminium boxes on ready for filling with books, Marmite and tea bags (spot the ex-pat), and a look at the weather forecast revealing I'd probably need to pack almost as many clothes as if I was going for a month.

Saturday lunchtime and the weather's looking good so I set off for St Malo early, thinking I'd take the coast roads, stop off and get coffees on the way and then have a mooch round the old town before needing to get on the boat at 6.30. I had a great time round the coast, the occassional gust threatening to throw me into the sea aside, and got to St Malo at 4.30, parking the Derbi beside two British plated, Touratech'ed to death GSes. I like parking next to BMW's people come up to the Derbi, and ask me how far I'm travelling and their riders seem to think I'm on the new Tenere till I point out that yes, that is the whole engine they can see. To cheer me up even more St Malo had a fair so I mooched round the fairground, bought candyfloss (how do you get it out of Goretex?) and tried to avoid the inevitable 14 year old scooter boys and girls snogging each others faces off.

Then into the old town to go to the tourist tat shops to get a Breton flag for the boxes, they're just looking too shiny and new. What a huge selection of touristy rubbish, so much choice, well, I'll just have to buy a flag and a strange breton woman symbol thing. Hmm, a bit of drizzle, but not too bad and it helps me slide the stickers round to just the right place. And now off to the terminal to check in, get on board and stuff my face full of whatever they're serving, a or three and bed.

And here's where the plan starts slipping. I arrive at check-in, the nice lady in her little cabin accepts my passport, looks at my very pale, very badly printed off electronic ticket (I knew I should have bought new cartridges for the printer), and then asks me if I want to change anything on my booking. I reply no, I'm happy with it as it is, merci. And then she says "but monsieur, why are you here a week early?"

The ride home wasn't scenic, the drizzle turned to rain, sleet, snow, and one of the stickers pealed off.

So what should I do in Portsmouth next weekend?

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I met some old faces, some new faces and some people I knew from various forums. It was good just to grab a coffee, have a chat and enjoy the sunshine. Nice to see some very interesting bikes and check out the farkles.

I've posted some photos here:

ACE Cafe Overland Adventure Tour - a set on Flickr

I didn't see any other riders from the North and judging by the snowstorm on the way home I can see why...

(I cant embed the vimeo vid as the forum is only geared for YouTube. The link is below though.

Hi Alex, I can't outdo you I'm afraid but: I decided to take my heavy but effective SLR camera and took a spare battery and spare 36 roll of film-very thorough yeh? I took carefully composed shots of the bikes, cafe, inside etc and was happy with my work. Today I went to Boots to get them developed with their 1 hour service. First I had to ask if they could get it to unload or rewind as I couldn't. I'd also noticed that this EOS 50E didn't show number of shots used unlike the other EOS 50. I was told that it had no film in it. I knew this couldn't be the case as I had loaded it myself. "I'll show you the film then". I said politely. Yep it was empty! I can't understand how I did that. Maybe I remembered loading my smaller Trip 35 which I had been intending to take. Grrr! Linzi.

LOL.
Oh dear!

Alex, I don't fancy Portsmouth, but would be happy to meet up a bit nearer
London for lunch or tea and chat.
PM if interested.

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Vitim Bridge Clubwww.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533442
www.sibirskyextreme.com

My son and his friend were flying down to Toulouse last summer and I had to drive them down to Gatwick at 5.00am for a 7.00am flight. The auto check in machine took my son's details ok and issued a boarding card but kept rejecting his friends.
Eventually we had to go to the airline help desk to be told that his friend was booked on the same flight tomorrow morning (and no, they couldn't change either of the bookings!).
I took him home to find that his parents had just left to go to Toulouse by car and the house was locked up. He had to spend the day with us and I drove him down again the next morning. He's now a student at Cambridge!

Originally Posted by Alexlebrit
So what should I do in Portsmouth next weekend?



How about checking out the Classic bike show and autojumble at Shepton Mallet, its a 2 day meeting.

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Had a good day yesterday-great seeing some real bikes who had been further than Box Hill... and great to talk with a number of you too. Planning my first real trip beyond said Surrey hang out this year to Morroco, and gained a lot of tips but beyond that inspiration to just go and get on with it. Well worth the visti. Thanks to all involved. Simon

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BMW GS650 Dakar and too much bling from Touratech!

coz of the snow around Oxford i ended up taking the cage instead of the bike
was great having a chat with Simon 'old man on a bike' Gandolfi
and the misses has taken a shine to an XT660

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XTZ750 91 - overland touring toy
TDM850 91 - main bike & commuter
TRX850 97 - sunnyday twisty toy
"Never argue with an idiot. They just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience"

Bugger - only just seen this. I live about 2 miles from that Ace Cafe. When and where's the next meet-up?

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www.overlandcruiser.wordpress.com

As far as I know there has been no dates released yet for another event at the Ace Cafe. But given the turnout [I hate to say it, but you missed a great day] I think its pretty likely there'll be another.

Yes, it was an excellent event, and very handy for a lot of people!

BUT - won't be another one in 2009 - the Ace is booked solid till 2010 - and we are working on dates for then.

You lot need to come to an HU Mini-meet, either in London or have one wherever you are. There's a lot of them going on round the world, and they always are a great time. So stick your hand up and find a location and set a date, and you can have your own meet!

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I did not make it unfortunately, but if you want there is a biker friendly but in the Midlands (about 1/2 to Ripley) called bassets pole that may be interested in hosting a similar event... (although it is not a cool of a place as the ace)

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Jonathan Fox wrote in:

I took some photos at the Ace.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/everywh...7613544732108/


Best regards

Jonathan Fox

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com