Vintage

Thursday’s ride was organised by Martin W. A relatively local ride from the Coach and Horses, Newport (a pub massively refurbished since I was there last and stocked with a fine range of beers). The ‘twist’ on this ride was a visit to The Kia-Ora bungalow to visit Steve and Fiona Todd’s collection of 70 vintage motorbikes – more of which later.

The previous Monday, the Windmill ride had set off in the face of a cold northerly wind with a ‘significant’ probability of showers. It turned out (for those that completed the ride, me not amongst them) to be about as cold, wet and miserable as it can be in May. The forecast for Thursday’s ride was similar, so as I set off in pretty much full winter rain garb I was mentally composing a tale of abject, soggy misery for this blog. It didn’t happen ! To badly misquote Tenyson:

“Rain cloud to right of them,
Rain cloud to left of them,
Rain cloud in front of them
Volleyed and thundered ….”

The important thing here is no rain cloud actually appeared above them. We saw showers breaking all around us and evidence of soaking wet roads but we stayed dry and therefore, if not quite warm, comfortable. In fact, by the time we finished our ride and were tucking into birthday beers kindly funded by Howard, we were able to sup our beers outside in some sunshine (before it inevitably did rain and we adjourned to the bar).

But I get ahead of myself. 12 riders assembled at 09.00 for coffee and to pre-order food, some of whom I noticed had braved bare knees.

Our starting and finishing venue was the village of Newport. Newport used to contain a very large royal fish pond and hence was known as Newport Pond, but the pond has long since dried up. What Newport does have still (amongst other points of interest) are the church of St Mary the Virgin dating from the 14th century; many fine old houses dating from the 15th and 16th centuries and the grammar school founded in 1588.

Martin’s route, eschewing the busy main street where possible, did the Cook’s tour of many of these sights before heading out to Arkesden and Clavering then looping back via Rickling, Quendon and Ugley and past the historic London cycle club huts. Built just after WWII on donated land, these huts allowed London based cyclists to ride out on Saturdays, stay overnight, race on Sunday then head back to work on Monday. Worth seeking out anecdotes from Cambridge cyclist and author ‘Dr Hutch’.

Finally up the hill to Widdington, down to Newport then a loop out via the outskirts of Saffron Walden and Audley End before arriving back in Newport.

And the motorbike collection ? I have to thank Martin for the following words, my own knowledge of motorbikes extending no further than crashing a motor scooter into a ditch on Crete many years ago:

Through Martin’s membership of Uttlesford Ramblers he made the acquaintance of Steve Todd and his wife Fiona over lunch one day who revealed that they had a collection of around 70 vintage motorbikes and mopeds which we were welcome to view. Today was subsequently arranged for a visit to be made to their house in Newport, The Kia-Ora Bungalow, once the site of a café for cyclists and others.

Coffee, delicious cakes and a roaring fire welcomed us on arrival before Steve showed us around his bikes, ranging from bicycles with motors to racing bikes with sidecars (Steve’s speciality), trails bikes and sleek racers.

Steve won many medals and trophies during his racing career, starting in the ‘60s. Several members recognised bikes similar to those they rode in their wild youth. Tom Robinson would have enjoyed the visit (he’s busy mountain biking in France) as Steve helped Tom start his racing career on grass in the ‘70s.

Steve and Fiona have raised many thousands of pounds for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance through opening their motorbike collection, which Windmillers were pleased to contribute to whilst thanking them for their kind hospitality.

Over lunch a list of ‘first ever’ motor bikes belonging to members on the ride was created:

Maurice – Hudson Autobike
Howard – Yamaha DT 175
Gareth – Yamaha DT 125
Ken – BSA ex-GPO 175
Nigel – BSA Bantam 125 (when aged11). The rest is history.
Simon – BSA Bantam 125 (built up from bits)
Rod – Francis Barnet 149
Andrew – Honda SS 50
Martin W – NSU Quickly

Howard, Maurice, Nigel, Graham, Neil, Martin W, Simon, Rod, Andrew, Alan, Mike, Evan. with Gareth and Ken joining en route.