Origami Phoenix Ride

A select few were to meet at Off the Beaten Path for the Melton ride. In addition to six familiar faces we welcomed Sue Young from Nottingham and Alan Johnston from Syston in Leics. Sue was riding a 6-speed Brompton (M6R) in striking pink and yellow. It was remarked that this was the livery of Alan Hart-Davis's Brompton (since stolen), but the colour scheme of his machine was the reverse of Sue's, which had a pink frame and yellow extremities (so you're off the hook Sue!). Alan's mount was a red Moulton TSR27, but he is also the owner of a TSR30 - I would guess there are not too many owners of both of those models! As it was a dry day we also saw a rare outing for Chris Eley's early New Series (which doesn't get let out in the rain). Dave Chance's F-frame and Mark Singleton's Pylon brought the Moulton count to 4 - half of all the machines starting out. There was one more Brompton, belonging to John Highet, Richard Seaman's new Dahon Mu P8 and my Pacific Reach completing the starting lineup. John had intended to bring his Grasshopper recumbent, but was put off from doing so as he was unable to make a bike reservation on one of the trains he was planning to use.

The day was very hot but a pleasant breeze made riding slightly more comfortable and - unusually for the UK - a little cloud cover was actually most welcome. We left Melton and climbed for a while to the East of the Vale of Belvoir (pronounced like 'Beaver') but this was rewarded by excellent views over the Vale. We suffered one casualty - a rear puncture on Alan's TSR; the tube was quickly replaced but getting the 'Clickbox' gear cable attachment back on correctly was to prove more difficult, meaning that Alan had to ride the last few miles before the lunch stop in 1st gear (could have been worse - could have been 27th!). After some fiddling in the pub car park he worked out how to correctly re-attach the Clickbox and was back to his full complement of gears for the return to Melton.

After an exhilarating decent into the Vale we passed through the villages of Stathern and Harby before joining the tow-path of the Grantham Canal towards Hose, where we stopped for lunch at The Rose & Crown at Hose (aka The Rose at Hose). We were met here by Dave Little, who had followed the map posted on the Origami site. Rather than his more familiar Specialized Globe folder he was riding a Trice recumbent. The welcome from the new owners of the Rose, who had only taken over the pub a week ago, was very friendly. The home made food was very good and complemented by a good selection of ales, including my personal favourite - Timothy Taylor's Landlord. Rather shockingly for a pub in the Vale of Belvoir - home to 6 of the 7 dairies licensed to produced my favourite cheese - they had run out of Stilton!

The price to be paid for the views of the Vale and an enjoyable decent into it was of course the climb back out of it to return to Melton. I am told that climbing is not one of the greatest strengths of the recumbent design.

Pictures in the Flickr gallery.

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Origami Phoenix Ride

10th July - Melton Mowbray