Well, just a quick thank you to everyone who attended the ride-out yesterday... there were about 16 of us in the end, i think, which represents something like a 76% turn out and there were good reasons for the others being unable to join us.
There were a couple of lessons learnt...
1) Whatever the intentions, people will ride at their own pace. I think that's inevitable and needs to be planned for in future rides.
2) When you've planned an M-way free route, all of us screaming down the M40 after the
very first roundabout was, in hindsight, a bit daft
2) Adopting some kind of second man/cornerman system is probably the best way to ensure that everyone is heading in the same/correct direction. (We did end up splitting into smaller groups, which is a bit of a shame.)
From a personal perspective, I now know that my bike and I can keep up with the best of them; I can flat-foot Andy's rocket ship; and 8 hours in the saddle results in barely any discomfort
I'll see what useable footage I have recorded, and as long as I can make something of it I'll post it on YouTube (this might not be very much, though, as we never really had the convoy of bikes that I was anticipating). All in all, a great day and regardless of what we might have done better we all ended up where we needed to be, when we needed to be there. Well done on that, everyone!