Motorcycling with Social Distancing

Hooray, the government have given us permission to ride or drive to where we want to exercise. So on Tuesday a friend and I decided to interpret the rules and get our bikes out.

We met at a local pub car park in Fareham and set off, just the two of us. I had planned the route previously to take in all the scenic roads avoiding motorways and busy "A" roads. So the route took us into Wickham and then along the A32 to West Meon. In better times we would have stopped at a motorcycle cafe called "Loomies". On warm and sunny days you can find up to 200 bikes there at any one time and as some leave others arrive. Today though, it was deserted as they have had to close until this is all over.

Straight across the junction, still on the A32 heading for Alton. Just outside Alton there's a lovely big layby where we were able to stop and have a coffee, brought with us in our flasks. Then it was on to Alresford, with a ride by the Memorial Park, although we didn't stop. I remembered from my Co-op days that there was a big house just outside the town and a large pull off that we could use to stop for lunch and so that's what we did. Ham sandwiches and a coffee, all brought from home.

 A lovely place as you can see, green fields and a blue sky. I must confess to slightly breaking social distancing rules to take a selfie but we kept our gear on so no risk of contamination. Gary has just had a test anyway and he came back negative and I have no symptons.

Then it was off again to Temple Valley, some lovely roads, just made for biking. Clear and winding, not too fast, just enough for you to appreciate the speed. As we both ride cruisers, there's no throwing the machine around corners, we tend to take a more sedate 60mph. Fast enough for us oldies. There was a few pedal cyclists out also but we gave them plenty of room and as there was little other traffic we were all able to enjoy the roads.

So this is the route we took. About 100 miles which took us just over 3 hours, what with stops etc. On the way to Temple Valley I switched on my camera and managed to take a short video of the ride. Apologies for the video editing and music as I am just getting used to doing it. (You might want to turn your volume down slightly)