It looked as if it was going to be a wash out for the running of our Dipper Run, with the weather forecasts predicting very heavy rain with high winds over Saturday night. The forecast was that the rain and winds would come overnight and start to clear up by about 10:00am leaving a gusty but dry day to follow; we expected that the rain would be with us for the day, gladly the forecast was spot on. As we started to stir in the morning to set things up the phone started to ring with riders ringing to ask if the run was still on and is it still raining in Exeter. With reassurance that the forecast was going to be correct, people started to arrive. Arriving also was homemade tomato soup and other tempting morsels to be devoured later in the day with Margaret, Janice, Rosemary and Theresa starting to set up to feed everyone later in the day. Sadly, not every one was able to come but we still managed eight riders with Stan doing the trailer with trailers, etc, nicely parked in the BT car park for the day.
John Rowe turned up with two VéloSoleXes, just in case one wouldn't start; I had my Novio and Power Pak ready but decided to take the Power Pak to show how well the bike coped with club runs. James came on his Honda Melody sporting a bright yellow spray job, Nick with his Honda 90 fitted with a 110cc race engine and keen to show how he could do wheelies on take off. This bike he rode down to Spain last year with some friends after putting it together from spares. John Glanvill with his Runabout and Des with his Francis Barnett, Geoff on his newly acquired Puch and Ambrose with his Tiger Cub completed our line up of assorted machines.
Leaving on time and in good cheer as the weather now was not bad at all and also quite warm, we went on our merry way. There were some odd areas that had a lot of wet leaves so a bit of care had to be taken at times but in general it was very good. The run went well this year with no work for our back up man Stan, apart from carrying my front mudguard home. Our route changed a bit from last year to lose a stretch of busy main road; instead we went through some more lanes to have a half way stop at the Diggers Rest pub in Woodbury Salterton for refreshments.
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