Tilford Convergence Run
19th March 2003
The second Tilford Convergence run organised by Road Captain Peter ‘Scottie’ Scott had perfect conditions as 30 riders assembled for the briefing at Warr’s in Chelsea. It was a great mix of people from experienced veterans to recent purchasers on their first rideout.
This was to be a run with incident, humour and chaos. It started when half the group nearly had the shortest ride in C&F History as they turned left onto the A3 and headed back to town. Bit of confusion with the drop off there!
Safely back on the right track the long group rumbled down the A3 and off into the B roads just past the M25. The ride got a little strung out and cars managed to get stuck in the middle of us on occasions. The abrupt appearance of an oncoming SUV on a single lane road caused some sharp braking at the back of the pack at one point. This combined with some gravel meant that big Jim’s Ultra went over on its side. But no harm done to bike or man and a couple of minutes later he was off again.
The drop off system worked extremely well and the markers were very patient. The tail of the group must have been a good five minutes behind by now. Then we ran into our second incident. Lou from the States had flown in, hired a Heritage and was off with the guys of Chelsea & Fulham for a jolly. The narrow roads surprised him somewhat - he hadn’t heard of people dirt biking on Harleys. Unfortunately, as we passed through the village at Chiddingfold, he clipped a curb, which popped the Heritage onto the damp grass and a proper bit of dirt biking. That was all she wrote - Ey up mother, I think I’ve fallen over.
With the help of Andy, Steve Kennedy and others the bike was brought upright, back onto the road, had its turf removed, rested then restarted.
Lou ended up two bruised bodyparts - leg and ego. By now this tail end group of 7 bikes was at least 10 - 15 minutes behind the main party.
That’s when the Surrey guys got among the C&F dudes. Somehow the two chapter routes merged! All of sudden Scottie was leading a hoard of Harleys!
Us Tail-end-Charlies did not really expect to find any markers since we were so far behind, but the threats at the briefing worked and there were our guys at the Milford roundabout reading War and Peace and waiting, waiting, waiting.
As we neared Tilford the furrowed Scottie brow shot past going in the opposite direction looking for the late great C&Fers! But all was well. Everyone who set out from Warr’s got to Tilford to meet up with like-minded souls from Surrey, New Forest and Thames Valley.
The whole event was bigger, better, brighter, more incident packed than last year. Roll on next year.