26th January 2025 - Rideout to Barton Mills - Ian Cain

Our ride on the 26th January was to Walker’s Snacks by the Five Ways Roundabout at Barton Mills. 8 riders turned out including Soji, former Chairman of the Group and now our local IAM car and bike examiner. He’s not joined us for a while so it was nice to see him.

It was a bit of a shock to find the Sainsbury’s car park where we meet full of VW vans of varying ages and types, along with a few VW cars. They were obviously meeting here before going on to another event and all set off to leave at about the same time that we did. It was chaos, vans everywhere trying to get out of the car park. We had to be careful joining this exodus, but luckily once out of the car park they went in a different direction to us.

It’s not a long ride from King’s Lynn to Barton Mills, about an hour, and although it was chilly the roads had largely dried out. It was a pleasant ride, long enough to be worth doing but not long enough to become really cold. Heated grips and clothing were appreciated by some though.

Our route to Barton Mills took us through Brandon where there is now a motorcycle dealer selling BSA, AJS, and Benelli motorbikes. I think these are now all brands owned by Chinese manufacturers, but interesting that they are bringing back historic European brand names.

I think we all got home before the rain started and no doubt many of us spent an hour or two washing our bikes when we did get home. Thanks to all who turned up, and to Steve Chollerton for leading one of the groups of four.

Ian Cain