WWW.SV650.ORG - Annual Rideout 2002

Hi John, Fame at last! Doug Pepper has me riding side saddle as his highlight of the day! :o) Please tell him that I have done that for years, whereas Rossi has only just started doing that in public! I don't mind Rossi copying, my cat is named after him! I was talking to you with Bryan May (not THE Bryan May), the guy on the Beemer. I work with him, and he never told me that he was a racer! You should have seen his knee brushing the floor on some of the twistier bits of the rideout! Amazing for a bike that size! Thanks for organising the day out, it was a bloody good route! When my clutch stops slipping, the fork oil seals are done, and I have a legal can on, then I will be back! Glad you enjoyed it. Bryan was certainly quick on that GS

John , sorry I did not get to the ride out you arranged but as james foulger will have already told you, we have been working on a brand new machine which was due to be debuted at the ride but things where not to be and at 3.15am sunday i climbed into bed sha##ed. Every one else was waiting down at the meeting point at 7.30am and of course i did not show up. So they decided to go for a quick ride and then to the pub for lunch and a pint of our west country CIDER. Any way for my none showing up i have to organise the west country ride out, for which further details will be forwarded onto your self to post on the site. But one thing is for shore about the ride-out there will be no soft alans! best wishes James Holland. Another rideout, excellent idea.

Hi john, Have just looked at the rideout images. They look great! I didn't see you get a sneeky snap in when i was giving Geraint an earful! Anyway, the lad who had spent the night before at JHS was James Foulger. His bike is the yellow SV with JHS twin pipes, Goodridge rear brake hose and black Oxford Sports panniers, pictured in the 'Rideout 2002 Images' section. Once again, thanks from everyone who attended for the great day and for excellent website. Cheers Michael 

John, Just to let you know, I made it back to Manchester ok after a bit of drama. What happened? I had just exited the second to last corner, when big bang, back end locks up and engine stalls. Luckily it was not during some of the previous wilder corners. I was expecting sky earth sky, but managed to coast to a stop in time. Looks like the damage consists of a new chain and sprocket set (had to grind chain off as it was so tightly jammed around the front sprocket), and a new clutch push rod, as the chain snapped the old one in two which explains why the bike stalled. Hopefully there will not be anything else wrong internally.

I'd like to thank everyone else who tried to help. (oh by the way, yes the neutral light is back in operation now the chain has been freed). As it turned out even if we had got the chain back on, the bike would not have been going anywhere, but thanks for trying anyway. I was enjoying the ride up to that point. The transit van you mentioned came past later and offered to help (or maybe he wanted to check out the can for bsi markings). I found out later that the police had been making a special effort to target bikes using part of our route yesterday, due to there being on average one a death a month last year, so I guess we were lucky not to see more. Highlight of the ride -- The guy who tried to ride side saddle ala Rossi as we came into Ruthin. see you next year Doug

The rideout went smoother than last year, no one got lost (to my knowledge) and we all came through unscathed except one. Poor Doug Pepper's 750SV threw it's chain near the end. From what I gathered from others later, Doug was fine, the bike didn't get dropped but the chain was well wrapped around the gearbox sprocket, so it was an RAC call. Hope you got home okay Doug. The situation at that point was confused by the boys in blue and their silly antics. Doug was right behind me on the A525 when we started to get lots of flashing from oncoming traffic, bacon ahead? Obviously we all slowed down and took things steady. I never saw the camera but apparently it was hiding in the back of a white transit operating in our direction. Next time I glanced in the mirrors there was not a bike in sight, I assumed that people were being ultra cautious but it turned out to be Doug and his chain.

Sadly the boys from Bristol didn't make it. Apparently they were up all night trying to sort James' latest SV750 but time got the better of them. James Foulger had been down there earlier that day and mentioned that it's a real stunner. Can't wait to see it.

Thank you all for turning up. I enjoyed talking to you all. Perhaps I'll repeat this event later in the summer if there is any interest.

Meantime here are the few pics I did take and feel free to send your own comment and photos of the event for me to post. John

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