Norwich & District
Section of the VMCC
Norwich & District
Section of the VMCC
Grasshopper Run
18 riders and 3 passengers entered the inaugural Grasshopper Run, put on for the first time by Arthur and Jill Livings. Pulham Market was the start point for the Run which took the riders south through the pretty villages of north and mid Suffolk. It was good to see Thaxted Mill turning even though it indicated that we were in for a windy and blustery day.
The 51 mile morning route brought us back up to the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton where refreshments were available with some riders opting to go to The Buck for lunch.
The museum has a number of new exhibit rooms at the rear of the main hanger, where a replica Wallbro Monoplane aircraft that was built by Wing Commander Ken Wallis using a picture and the height of his uncle in the picture to give guidance as to the dimensions of the replica can be seen. A relative found a newspaper article later giving greater detail of the original including wingspan and tubing dimensions; Ken's replica was very close on overall dimensions and spot on on tubing size.
The lunch time break was greeted with heavy rain showers which persisted all afternoon, most of us got wet at one time or another. Arthur's breakdown recovery was busy with Peter's Norton blowing a fuse, Tony's Ariel seizing its exhaust valve and Mike's Panther breaking its throttle cable. The only answer was to put the broken cable into a screw on nipple and putting it into the front brake lever to get him the last 5 miles back to the finish. Alan had lost his tickler at the beginning of the day (there's no answer to that!) on the big BSA outfit making starting interesting.
Jill and Arthur had provided a buffet at the end of the Run which was well received, their daughter Sarah looking after the shop until they returned.
Or thanks go to Arthur, Jill and Sarah for organising the new Run and Cynthia for doing the sign on.
