Failure to plan ...

saphena

IBAUK Webmaster
Staff member
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IBA Member
#1
Yesterday I set off on a planned and pre-vetted (thanks Martin) route with number two "good girl" daughter riding shotgun but some of my so-called planning wasn't quite up to snuff.

I've never carried a pillion more than about 50 miles before and she's never ridden pillion with me before so I anticipated that completing the ride might be challenging because she might not be up to it, not because I might not be up to it. She just got on with it (young people eh!) whereas I found the extra weight on the bike meant that I got tired rather sooner than I expected to. Also, having to think for two of us meant that I didn't do body management in the same way I've used before.

My second failure to plan involved the infamous A14 and its perrenial overnight closures. The penultimate leg of the ride went from Birmingham to Great Yarmouth and I realised that I might encounter some trouble getting into East Anglia. I looked at a what-if involving riding up the M1 to "somewhere around Leeds" then heading south to "probably Maidstone services" and concluding that "that'll probably do" without actually nailing the options. To cut a long story, racked with indecision, I followed the posted diversion south for a bit, then my satnav and eventually decided around Newmarket that enough's enough. I headed for home then down to Portsmouth and back to make up the mileage.

Hopefully we collected enough receipts, along with a live spotwalla track, to enable verification in which case "good girl" will become the latest IBA member but either way she's very happy to have managed her first 1,000 mile day - too tired to come to the pub with her dad though:(