My first ride on a Vincent, yesterday evening!
- Thread starter AngloArm
- Start date
I came across this great run quite by chance when driving. There are a few watering holes en route but I prefer to use the hour to drive and now ride. Where's the green hut?
That's much appreciated, thank you John
I think I know where you and Ossie are talking about. It's near a stretch of road called the 'mad mile', a little further on and up into the woods. When I was a 'young blood' or more accurately bloody young, I lived in Ruislip, Middlesex and my friends and I used to meet in the old lay by opposite the Polish War memorial on the A40 western Avenue, near Northolt Aerodrome. There was a burger van there every night, 7 days a week run by a chap called Tom or typhoid Tom as he was affectionately known. Even the local traffic division police used to stop by for a coffee break and a chat about their own bikes. On a good Friday and Saturday night there were approaching a hundred or so bikes, unfortunately mostly Japanese but there was never any trouble and mostly all were happy friendly people. The underpass had not yet been built and the cars used to pull up too sharply at the traffic lights after roaring down from Hillingdon Circus or up from the Target roundabout, consequently entertaining us motorcyclists with the occasional tyre screeching rear end prang when they were not concentrating on the junction's dangerous Traffic lights. The lights were also used to start the inevitable drag races between the faster bikes, usually going west past the aerodrome so we'd all get a better view of the start. I remember a Suzy GS 1000 v Kawa Z1 v Honda CBX with a blower and some young gun who thought he had a chance to jump off ahead for several seconds on an RD250. That race start was hilarious with the CBX eventually taking it after catching the other two big bkes. If only there was a capable British bike around to drop everybody's jaw I would have loved it.
It was also the junction of the road coming from Greenford and the White Hart which was a 'mods' pub (remember the film Quadraphenia had been released in 1978/79 and so had started a mod revival) and so whenever a few Vespa's pulled up at the lights they were always given an affectionate rousing cheer at which they usually smiled back. I had some enjoyable evenings there.
Thanks Ossie. When are you next going ?