Pre 1950s rides of LFGSS: old bikes, vintage rats, classic lightweights

Car decided to turn right last minute, the one behind had to stop suddenly, I was behind and didn't have time to reach for brake.
I'm fine, car had a nice flat trunk and I simply laid on it. Car's was fine l, no scratches (only rubber on it), my frame as you see :/

Yep. Landed on the trunk, even said sorry to the dude (was one of those roadsters) when my head popped up next to his.
Wasn't going fast, so no damage to me.

Well, phew for you. But that’s not going to buff out, is it...

Glad to hear you're unscathed

Such a beauty 😢 it sads me to see it like that.
67 years and one day under me :(

I'll have the Vaz brothers repair it and repaint it proper.

Appears to be an early Henry Burton
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283504096129
Collection from Staffs

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@anidel utterly gutting for that to happen today but the main thing is you’re ok. When I rode back I wasn’t sure what had happened at first and when I saw you getting up out the verge I thought a lot worse had happened.

I had to sit down a minute. Adrenalin was flowing thru my vein and I could feel it :)
Was very very lucky in the end. Just literally changed seat from my saddle to the rear of his car.

Anyway, I think it's for the best. Was leaning towards not re-painting the frame, this would have meant probably not noticing the amount of rust beneath the paint (at least the two main tubes that failed)
A full check of the rest of the tubes is in order

I'm gutted for you @anidel, such a shame about the frame.

Looks in original condition.
Claud Butler - Collection in Sheffield.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F223538681753

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Anidel, I'm really sorry about how things went for you today.

Looking on the bright side, it was lucky you hadn't had an expensive repray and, perhaps luckier still, that you don't appear to have damaged the forks. The tubes can repaired, but I doubt if those forks could be replaced.

I'll post about the ride itself tomorrow.

Indeed! Gillott had their own machine to bend the forks, so that can't be replicated.

Oh no! Glad you're fine.
Winston should be able to save it though!

Glad you're OK, A!

Cheers mate, yes I am! Gracefully landed on the back of his car.

Glad you're ok Anidel, that looks bad. Sorry for my no-show and no messaging to let you know everyone, Had something of a personal life emergency that took over. Hope everyone else had a good time

And also good that you don't seem to have damaged the car, by the sound of it. Lucky escape. Hope you manage to get the frame fixed.

Oh no!

A Fairly Easy Day in June

Ride Report.

Anidel's incident has rather overshadowed the rest of our ride; there are a couple of things that maybe worth telling.

We had an almost idyllic day, with good weather, good roads and scenery and a fairly well matched group. I have no qualms about admitting I was the weakest rider, but that is one of the benefits of being old - there's no problem about not being fastest.

It was necessary to abandon the original route because it involved descents which might have been problematic to those a bit challenged in the braking department. I did say early on that I did not wish to commit to one particular route beforehand because I wanted to consider the weather and riders on the day, and I feel this proved to be the right decision.

So we went with Plan B, which didn't really involve any difficulties (up or down) before the climb at Playhatch where Johnny 69 showed that even a moderately high single gear (72") is no handicap for a rider who is not stricken by age.

Shortly after this we had a cafe stop at The Herb Garden at Sonning Common and then followed a route through leafy lanes back to Henley, from there we took the back road through Aston village to avoid the unpleasant main road climb up Remenham hill. You still do exactly the same amount of climbing this way, but without the heavy traffic and diesel fumes. On our way back to the Windsor - Twyford road we stopped briefly to admire the cold war site of RSG 6 (Regional Seat of Government) at Warren Row. This was to have been a centre for running a military government after the devastation of a nuclear war fought to preserve democracy. Its presence was exposed by the 'Spies for Peace' group during the 1963 Aldermaston march, much to the annoyance of the authorities. It is now a commercial wine cellar.

On a lighter note, we progressed pretty rapidly back towards Staines and as we approached Windsor at a steady 20 mph, I was being towed along at that point by Falcon Vitesse and it struck me that I was jolly pleased that his Simplex TdF would not engage the top sprocket; we were going quite fast enough as it was!

We had a pleasant debrief in the London Stone pub (same as HDin J). We'd covered just about 59 miles from Staines back to Staines, which I'm ashhamed to say made this my biggest mileage day of the year so far.

So in a nutshell, we had a good day out, Johnny 69 and Falcon Vitesse rode well and I hung on. It's a pity the ride wasn't a bit better supported because I'm sure there are plenty of others who would have been easily capable of enjoying this outing. Tomorrow I'll post some thoughts about organising rides in the hope we can do better in the future. It's all very well owning these desirable old machines, but if they are not used there seems to be less point in having them.

Nice read as always @clubman

Thanks, Thuekr.

Nice write up Chris - and thanks for mentioning the places we went to so I can look them up. I really enjoyed the day and didn’t pay a lot of attention to where we were, I was busy enjoying the sunshine, the views, general greenery and sharing stories!

Sounds great and would love to have made it but had other commitments.
Anyone take any photos?