Muchas Graicas, Companeros y Companeras
 

Great weekend - nice, nice, nice. Big 'thank yous' to all involved, especially Glyn, Grant, Susan and the other volunteers and guest speakers. Three days of adventure bikes and beery yarns made the barking rain and the damp tent irrelevant.

All good. And especially nice to see more real travellers than posing wanna-bes, more mile-stained R80s than polished 1200GSAs, more faded tattoos than Touratech catalogues. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And sharing their experiences for free.

The highlight? Gotta be Ted - on great form and full of chuckles with his perfect presentation. I still can't get that groovy jazz soundtrack out of my head.

Gracias y suerte,

Dan Walsh

I didn't see much in the way of polished 1200GSAs, but we were admiring some beautifully immaculate R80s, a couple of which looked as if they had been trailered to the camp field (or carefully cleaned after arrival).

I made one big mistake, and that was pitching the tent near the campfire. Even with earplugs we were woken at various times until 3am.

Unfortunately I missed Ted Simon's session at 10pm as I was giving a talk on Garmin GPS at the same time. I thought I had enough material for 45 minutes but there was so much interaction with the audience that it went on for 2 hours until we were ejected from the room at midnight!

Lumb Farm handled the numbers better than on my previous visit (2005) but I wish they would open the showers earlier than 0830.

Overall, a great event, even with the rain. Many thanks to Glynn, Grant and team, plus a big thank you to Nick Watson and Clare who looked after us on the trail rideout.

Tim

My only complaint was a some slightly brainless positioning of bikes and tents.

I couldnt get out of the field for 2 days, missed rideouts and couldnt go to the shops. I thought it was common to sense to leave a channel for bikes to get in and out :confused1:

Does anyone know how many people actually showed up ?? It couldnt of been 500. I guess a lot of people didnt show due to the weather. :stormy:

Yes, the range of bikes on show was diverse - second only to Dan Walsh's range of jackets!

I confess I was one of those by the campfire squeezing a full 24 hours out of a day's distance run, in the knowledge that to most of the people I saw the "sleep when I'm dead" philosophy doesn't involve too long a wait!

While Ted was always going to be the star of the show (and rightly so), an honourable second has to go to Jeremy Bullard's charismatic performance, full of self-deprecating humour, and fascinating fact. First on stage and brought the house down, what more can you say!

To paraphrase Ted:

" My trip was not a round the world trip, mine involved much more than that. The round-the-world trip has become a cliche - the RTW. Mine was just a long trip that I wanted to end where I started"

They say the sign of true genius is simplicity. I say good on yer Ted, and Jeremy too.

Ban the hell out of them!
 

Some of us dont want to ban loud dogs but to drown them, so that doesn't count. Crying children should be banned. The smoking ban is wonderful.

However I too would like to ban most bans I dont agree with.

D. Bannerman.

Yes Ted, it was bikers who positioned the tents and bikes. And there WAS a route through them but it got muddy. You could always volunteer to oversee the parking and tent positions next time, though. That would be a positive step.

I mean a route up to the top of the field. I think most people who parked near the top were stuck there all weekend, unable to get their bikes out.

God, i hate moaning.. it wasnt really a big deal

Next year I would happily lend a hand with trying to organise sensible positioning if it was required.

As I said. Has the event outgrown the venue? There were many ID cards left at the registration desk from people who either did not attend or didn't bother going to collect them, so I don't know if it even reached the 500 attendees mark.

Camping quagmire
 

Ted,
Here I was thinking that you were just being lazy on the weekend :)

The field was certainly tricky to navigate. The ol' evil eye disuaded some particularly enthusiastic campers from pitching right in front of my tent's entrance, which would have forced a mud and gravity defying dive-roll to get in :cool4:

Getting the bike out was another story.

I'm not sure if organised camping and parking will be as much fun though. A large amount of entertainment was provided by just watching some of the poor buggers trying to get out of the field on their bikes (funny until it was my turn) :laugh:

Ted, I was right at the very top... (With some other XRV.ORG guys.. :thumbup1: )

Wasn't really a big issue at all... Honest... :cool4:

Ted, consider yourself recruited for the volunteers team - parking department! ;)

We will need more volunteers next year to give a hand with various jobs, and I will create a sign-up for that purpose along with next years reg page to come soon.

MANY thanks to all the great volunteers we had this year - they did an amazing job.

Final numbers still to be determined, but yes, the rain kept a number away. But a fair number just showed up too, so around 440 or so is my best guess at this time.

Any other comments on capacity with that in mind? I rather thought it worked better than last year with more people - the meals were much quicker - except for Thursday night and that was a surprise to all - we had 180 people register Thursday! Last year it was more like 80! Next year Angela will be prepared for that.

So far we're planning on limiting it to 500 again.

We are also considering another meeting in the autumn, perhaps north - or south!? Locations anyone?

Hi Grant

A couple of years ago this subject came up and I looked for something in the south of England (excluding Kent because of security concerns you raised). However, I was not successful especially given your terrific arrangement with Lumb Farm.

I thought of south because of the proximity to the Continent for our friends over there.

Two a year might solve overcrowding though..and allow growth too.

I agree with Grant on the 500 limit. Small enough to be intimate and large enough that you never quite get to see and do everything you wanted to, which is a great reason to come again next time.

I also think an Autumn meet would be great. I'm happy to scout out some venues in the Cambs area if people want to come round here. I could probably organise a group punting session if it's not too late in the autumn. I know it's not biking, but it is good fun!

NORTH NORTH NORTH! :)

No. I'm not just lazy ;) we have some GREAT roads up here, much freer of traffic, and we are meant to be motorcycle TRAVELLERS after all! OK so some might find it a longer ride to get to but you could have it somewhere where the location itself was a draw. Lumb Farm is OK but it's just in the middle of commuterville really. Up North you could have it in Glencoe (perhaps the Red Squirrel Campsite?), or perhaps even on Skye (Sligachan Campsite after the midges have left!). Arran is another option. Or you could have it out East, say in the Cairngorms. People could then either take the fast road (the A9) or any number of other routes to get there.
Off-roading is limited up here but we could have ride outs to nice cafes or pubs instead. ;)

Anyway, that's my vote. I can look into locations, campsites with pubs etc. if you like, any excuse to get out on the bike this summer!

Matt :)

Sorry for changing subject. Feel free to move/delete.

If you are doing the north/south thing then I would definitely recommend Wyke Down near Andover. It's a farm with a large restuarant, large camping ground and massive field AND golf driving range. Venues for presentations/talks might be an issue but sure some plans can be made. Maybe use the farms two barns. Also 15 minutes from Salisbury plains :)

Wyke Down Country Pub and Restaurant - Camping and Caravan Park - Andover, Hampshire, UK.