Page 12 - 2022-08-01 RiDE
P. 12
YOUR RIDES
p Not every day one
of these passes you
The towns and villages may be well Into Cocking — no tittering at the this close
cared-for but the road quality is variable. back... Lots of really old buildings; the
Austin’s avoiding the gravel and potholes soil is very chalky and where you get
which kick him out of his KTM’s minimal chalk, you get flint, so lots of houses
seat but which I can just ride over and round here are built with split flint as
barely notice on the sofa-soft Tiger. facing. Very distinctive.
Paradoxically, we look forward to the odd It gets twisty and up and downy as we
roadworks and temporary lights we come get near Goodwood racecourse. Austin
across — a good excuse to filter to the front stops at the viewpoint at the top of
of the queue and get a clear bit of road Kennel Hill — it’s one of his favourite
when they go green. spots and I can see why. “You’ve got the
The scenery’s changing now. There’s still whole of the South Downs spread out in
a whole lot of forest going on but it’s a front of you here,” he says.
contrast with the earlier woodland — Past the racecourse, we see signs to
rougher and less manicured. Aerodrome and Motor Circuit — that’s
The sun’s coming out and the dappled more like my kind of horsepower. We
light and shade through the trees is pretty, rumble through the tunnel under the track
but hard on the eyes, though not as hard as — there’s some car testing going on, so no p The Kennels, near
Goodwood. Evidently a
what comes next. As an atheist, I love a one’s going to mind us giving it a few posh dog round here...
good church but, in Midhurst, we ride past cheeky revs and enjoying the echoes.
the Divine Motherhood and St Francis of Into the Café, past a statue of legendarily
Assisi RC establishment, and my voice leg-deficient Battle of Britain pilot Douglas
recorder notes just dribble into expletives. Bader, who flew his last mission from
What were they thinking? here before ending up in Colditz. There
Back out on the 286, a flat, quick bit of are quite a few bikes parked up outside
road. Out of the woods for the moment, — it’s a popular spot evidently, although I
into fields and hedges. Got to put on your suspect they’ve been down to the south
quick overtakes where you can ‘cos there’s coast for an ice cream, rather than
a lot of double white lines so, when exploring the leafy lanes. We’ve not seen
opportunity does knock on the door, any bikes at all on the road so far.
you’ve got to open it quick. There are always lots of old vehicles
lurking about here but today, there’s a
Spitfire posing in one of the car parks —
Supermarine, not Triumph, in case you
were wondering. In polished raw
aluminium, you’d be forgiven for thinking
it’s a static display or even a replica but
G-IRTY is actually one of the most original
wartime Spits still flying, having survived
lots of combat missions during the war,
including at least one forced landing.
Any day with a Spitfire in it has to be a ü Entrance tunnel at
Goodwood. RC8R
P Emergency towing vehicles, Goodwood style good day but this one’s about to get better. exhaust sounded good...
Outside the café, just savouring the first hit
START/ FINISH
GUILDFORD of caffeine, and a two-seater Spitfire taxis
past just a few yards away, turns into the
wind and takes off directly in front of us –
some lucky person is getting the
experience of a lifetime. I’ve checked in the
TOP TIP lining of my jacket though, and
Lovely twisty road but look
out for side turnings and unfortunately haven’t come up with a
concealed driveways spare three grand for the ticket, so we’ll
have to make do with a bacon bap
(excellent, but then at £7.50 a throw so it
should be) and then we’re off again.
We’re away from Goodwood on a really
nice rolling road. Short bursts of fun, blast
past the car in front and a mile or so of give
Map data ©2022, Google DOWNLOAD be careful — lots of posh houses set back
it some, and then more traffic. You have to
from the road with concealed driveways,
THE ROUTE
and the last thing you’d want to do is spoil
www.ride.co.uk
a rich person’s day by smacking into the
12 SEPTEMBER 2022 side door of their Range Rover...
