Tying up a visit to relatives in North Devon, I contacted Roy and Teresa Best with a view to joining their Devon Dippers Run. Trailering the Rudge autocycle through 250 miles of foul weather on the third of November to collect a fridge! Sunday morning saw sunshine and flooded fields and roads. Undettered, I set off from Holsworthy to Pinhoe near Exeter for the run. Roy and Teresa extended a warm welcome of tea and biscuits in their back garden, made for a cosy start. Alas, drizzle commenced before the start, but not for long, then the sun shone. Dissapointingly thin on the ground, only six riders set on and set off. A Motobécane, Norman Model C, Power Pak on a lovely Humber cycle, a Honda 90, VéloSoleX and my Rudge. The route took us along the by-road parallel with the M5 to some lovely villages, two miles into the run after a surprising descent, suddenly no front brake, cable nipple pulled off, adrenaline is definitely brown!
Navigating fords, floods and mud washed off the fields made me reminisce of our trip to Antrim. Secondary retardation was facilitated by forcing foot on road, in fact this works much better than the conventional brakes. Safely arriving at the pub stop, cable repaired and a coffee and chat for an hour. The return run was without incident, but if we got any closer to Exeter airport, we would need our passports.
Back at Roy's, Teresa had layed on roast potatoes, chicken, soup, etc, all around a blazing chimenea on the patio. I believe it would be a logistical nightmare if we tried it on a Mince Pie Run, or Kneels Wheels!
A very nice change of scenery and personnel made for an enjoyable day. Thank you Roy and Teresa. Four and a half hours later, I was home in Bedford after a great day.
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