PAG 27, page 3
But we’ve skipped a bit. I was after a fry-up, remember? The ultimate comfort food for the hung over? Well the Newmarket Road was (and looks as if it still is to a lesser degree) the industrial and immigrant end of the town; there’s lots of factories, car showrooms, kitchen builders, plumbers merchants, takeaways, newsagent/tobacconists; you know the sort of place; every larger town has one. And of course there would be a greasy spoon café. But there wasn’t. I ended up in a Macdonald’s.
It was a good thing to have done; real culture shock. But it was appalling. Anyway it bucked me up and gave me another topic of conversation…
OK we’ve made it to ‘Marshal’s’ (PC World actually). Gradually the gang assembles; there’s a predictably varied
selection of vehicles; I wouldn’t have tried to predict them, just that they’d be varied… and we’re going to Wisbech, right up at the top of East Anglia near Kings Lynn, a fair stretch. In our entourage we have a feet-forward motorcycle with a dustbin fairing, Hillman imp engine and a distinct alien spaceship look to it, one of those new, powerful scooters (another feet-forward enthusiast who went mainstream) a few serious ‘normal’ road bikes, an MZ belonging to the man who maintains the enthusiast’s web site (takes all sorts and at least he got rid of his Harley), the Hornet of course and a Gordon-Keeble. This turns out to be a high specification 1960’s fibreglass bodied 2+2 sportscar with a brute of an American engine. It’s a handsome thing, and it’s owner says they only made a handful but they’re a fair alternative to the Aston Martin of the day and much cheaper. You’ll all be pleased to hear that the Hornet stole the show despite such vigorous competition from both 2 and 4 wheels.
And they’re off! (Only an hour later than planned) We followed our leader out onto the Fens and there followed a jolly hour and a half of driving. I had been concerned that the Hornet might fall behind with its low ultimate top speed but there was the MZ to favour so I was fine. Due to my less than great interest in the Gordon Keeble I didn’t even notice that the dark blue car I was casually following had transmuted into an Audi during some traffic shuffling. I followed him off the main road and, half a mile later, realised my error when he turned into the local dump. I knew that was wrong and hared back the way I had come. In the meantime the rest of the pack were being delayed by
traffic lights and old ladies in the next village and I soon came up with them again, to my relief, as I had only a hazy idea of our final destination.
We stopped at the Sebring factory and lamented the fact that they only had one of their own cars on show and seemed to be mostly a TVR garage, then it was onward again. If you’ve been to the levels or the fens and taken to the country roads you’ll guess that one of the interests was the road surfaces. Fen roads ‘float’ on the peat, there is nothing solid to bed them onto. The result is they have strong predilection for the edges to break up and the whole road surface to slump into undulations and ridges. They always test your suspension at speed and Andy, at the back of the crocodile on his MZ, assures me that he could see impressive showers of sparks coming off the spring hangers a
couple of times. I was gaining on various of the gang through the corners, which surprised me. Can a Pembleton really out-corner a bike?
The big change from student days was that no one broke down.
The weather held, bright but cool and we paraded down the waterfront of Wisbech, which is an attractive looking Dutch-influenced town with many fine old buildings. Out of the other side to struggle with difficulty through the traffic caused by a large car boot sale and to the mill house and (derelict, sadly) windmill that was our destination. We dumped our gear and bundled off to a nearby pub for lunch and nostalgia (part 2).
Lunch Stop.- In the foreground a 1980’s
recumbent motorcycle