Origami Phoenix Ride

14th November - Earlswood/Solihull 


Origami Ride November 2009 Earlswood

Heavy rain in the night and more rain and wind forecast may have put some riders off. Nevertheless, 9 riders set forth (where have I heard that before?) after a pleasant breakfast at the Manor House tearooms in Earlswood. Riders were mostly familiar faces but we also welcomed Chris, the owner of a brand new 2-speed Brompton.

New Brompton

Paul Evans led the ride following directions provided by Paul Grogan and slightly modified to take the conditions (very wet muddy roads) into account. Moutons and Bromptons predominated. The Moultons included a Mark III, an AM, a New Series and Paul's APB newly fitted with a Rohloff hub gear. One of the Bromptons was fitted with the Nano electric assist system, the range of which was reliably reported to be “about 2 Origamis”. The only other machines were a Dahon Vitesse and a Specialized Globe (a re-badged Dahon I understand).

Wet Road

The only casualty of the ride was a puncture. This, however, could not have happened at a better place as we had stopped for a look around Cult Racing Cycles in Earlswood. The friendly chap manning the shop spent some time chatting to us and seemed to be interested in small wheeled bikes that had descended on him – rather different from the road bikes that were his stock in trade. He cheerfully offered to repair the puncture free of charge and we were on our way.

Cult Racing

The lunch stop was at the Coach & Horses in Alvechurch, which provided an excellent choice of food and a good selection of Ales. Howard generously bought a round of drinks for all to mark the occation of his birthday. After lunch rain appeared to be setting in so a shortened route back to the Tea Rooms was taken. More pictures in the Flickr gallery.


Return to Reports page | Return to Origami Reports Page


Copyright (C)2009 The Folding Society
Last updated: 15th November 2009