From: rwert@well.sf.ca.us (Bob Wert)
Subject: London Ride, Part 1 (LONG!)
Summary: An April London Pub Ride
Keywords: pub, London, fun
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 16:27:17 GMT

Here, at long last, is a report on my trip to England last April.  It's 
taken quite some time to get it done, but here ya are - it's in 2 parts for 
the weary of eyes...

[In honor of the occasion, I'll try to remember to use *proper* English  
 spelling and terms where applicable.]

THE CAST:
Bob	     me, Bob Wert, DoD#0302, 'murican Ninja rider, Fremont, CA
Tom the Mad  Tom 'Mad Hatter' Yates, DoD, late of IC, now MIT, FJ1200
Charles      Charles Stannett, DoD, Ogri in Suffolk organiser, Ipswich
Ken	     Ken 'Edible Dormouse' Zetie, DoD, consummate juggler, Oxford
PJ	     PJ, IC Bike Club Secretary, Publisher of OILEAKS(tm), London
Martin	     Martin Hardacker, DoD, IC Bike Club member, my pilot, London

*PART I*

GETTING STARTED:
With help from Tom the Mad, I got in contact with some Ogrites and Imperial 
College (IC) Bike Club members.  There is a mailing list called ogri in the 
UK, named after the cartoon character in BIKE magazine, Ogri;  I mailed an 
introduction to the list, saying when I would be over and asking to meet up 
with some folks for an ale or three.  I got a number of replies, and things 
started moving.  Still haven't figured out why they call each other "peeps"
though...

Charles started organising an Ogri outing over the May Day holiday weekend 
so I could attend and so that everyone would have *3* days to have fun.  
There was a pub run, a bike show run, floor space, etc., all being set up, 
to be called "Ogri Goes Mellow in Suffolk".  So as to not keep you in 
suspense, I have to confess that I was called back to the States early to 
deal with a work emergency, and so was not able to attend.  By all accounts 
I read later on, I missed quite a weekend.  But I still had my London ride!

Ken replied as well, offering me space in Oxford if I could pull myself away
from London, but we just couldn't coordinate on a time (alas, I *so* wanted 
to meet the now-famous Jess and her sister, Alice).  Ken *did* make it to 
the Ogri gathering even though the weather was not cooperating at all.

PJ also answered, and we discovered that my London hotel was within easy 
(5-10 min.) walking distance of IC, so we agreed to meet and try a ride once
I got there.  A major stumbling block was that I left SFO on Easter Sunday, 
arriving at Gatwick on Easter Monday, which is a holiday for lots of UK 
folks.  Also, the week after Easter is still Spring Break for IC.  Anyway, 
don't go over during that time of year - consider this a warning.

There was a flurry of e-mail crisscrossing the Atlantic as time drew near 
for my day-long flight over the pond - names and locations of recommended 
pubs, names of Ogrites, maps, etc.

GETTING ACQUAINTED:
During Thursday lunchtime, following PJ's excellent ASCII map, I walked from 
the Kensington Towne Hall down to Royal Albert Hall to find the Physics 
laboratories of IC.  I found PJ's lab, but no PJ.  I left a note, got his 
phone number and got back to my BARQA seminar.  I called at break, got PJ, 
and we agreed to meet at my hotel after the seminar ended (since it was 
Spring Break, the Southside Bar and Grill's Upper Lounge wasn't open).  PJ,
Martin and I walked over to Kensington Gardens park (you know - where the 
Peter Pan statue is!) and sat on the grass drinking beer/ale/soft drinks 
while getting acquainted - topics ranged from who owns what bike, riding 
experiences, sci-fi books, TV shows, royalty, Mary Poppins and Bert the 
Chimney Sweep and Dick van Dyke's 'orrible Cockney accent, helmet laws, 
riding destinations in the US and England, all that neat kinda biker stuff.
And all this within a hundred yards of Kensington Palace, Prince Charles 
and Diana's London residence [I waved, but I don't know if Diana was 
watching or not.  sigh.]  Their gate onto the park is a HUGE and partially-
GILDED black wrought iron work of art.  I am gushing because I guess that 
deep down I am a royalist at heart (is there such a thing as a redneck 
royalist???).  PJ has this 2'x 3' brilliant day-glow ORANGE dispatch-rider 
bag he uses to carry everything while riding around - said he got it from 
a friend in Los Angeles, some newspaper carrythingie ("The Guardian").  
You can see him from a mile or three away - but I guess that's the point.
  
Martin had a moto-newspaper called MotorCycle News (MCN), a weekly.  It is 
a real nice paper, lots of racing stories and ads - try to pick one up next 
time you are there.  We discussed how I should go about trying to find a 
Ducati dealer that would have the Mikuni carb parts for the 900SS that Ed 
Hackett requested on rec.motos (I tried a number of places, but to no avail 
- some shops suggested the Mikuni importer, but I wasn't able to ferret out 
their number before I left for Yorkshire).  I also picked up copies of BIKE,
Fast Bike, Performance Bike, What Bike? and MotorCycle International at the 
newsagents.  Seems like one of the major differences is that the British 
moto-mags seem to be able to say what they think more:  they are not nearly 
as afraid to speak their minds - if they think a bike is POS, they say it's 
POS.  Freedom of the press?  Dunno, just seems to be a big difference 
between them and Motorcyclist or Cycle World.  I also got the impression 
that bikes cost a *lot* more, ferinstance:  6995 pounds for a ZZR-1100 vs. 
$8299 for a ZX-11 in the US (multiply pounds by ~1.8 to get US$:  $12K vs. 
$8.3K).  This cost differential was a topic much discussed in the moto-mags 
along with the controversial leg protectors, "voluntary 100 HP limits, and 
the type-approval stance of the EC.

I had to attend a seminar dinner so we trooped back to the hotel, went up to
my room for a while and watched traffic on Kensington High Street ("High 
Street Ken" if you're cool :-).  From 7 stories up, you get a nice view of 
how lane-discipline is relatively nonexistent - just seek a space and fill 
it;  it was quite amusing to watch the motos weave in and out, seeing how 
nice it is to ride in horrendous traffic when people pretty much respect the
bikes' agility and size and allow them to go ahead.  Sure, there were some 
braindead cagers, but in the main, from what I saw and experienced, I'd
love it if we got the same level of respect and courtesy here.  Beginners 
have to display a large white placard with a big red "L" in the middle of
it - give these folks wide berth!

NEXT:  The Pub Ride in London...
***
-- 
 Bob Wert	rmw@genie.gene.com	rwert@well.sf.ca.us
 DoD#0302	AMA#510680	'90 Ninja 750R	    '89 Mustang LX 5.0L
  ...Seven turns on the highway, Seven rivers to cross,
	Sometimes you feel like you can fly away, Sometimes you get lost...