Members’ Ride

Members’ ride 6 March 2025

A report by Ian Prideaux

Paul Watson and Kathy Balmain led a full members’ ride from the Flower Farm Garden Centre in Godstone on Thursday 6 March. The glorious spring weather, with bright blue skies and a temperature of around 10 degrees in the morning, tempted out a cohort of around 20. After meeting for a coffee at the Flower Farm we set off just after 10 a.m. being careful to turn left out of the garden centre. Turning right would have risked 20 bikes ending up in a sinkhole in Godstone High Street.

Paul led us on a twisty and challenging ride through parts of Surrey, East Sussex and Kent, taking in Tandridge, Crowhurst, Edenbridge, Chiddingstone, Frant, Wadhurst, Crowborough and a host of other pretty places. In fact Chiddingstone was so pretty that we looped round it and saw it twice! We tackled some single-track lanes, one with a memorable warning sign from Sussex County Council about “dangerous potholes” (which they were dead right about) and one that featured a gradient of 20% (going down) where one member complained that first gear was too high.

After a brief leg stretch just outside Crowbough [see picture below] we continued on our way heading for the Custom Café at Bexhill. Getting out of the lanes and on to the A259 allowed us to open up and use fifth and sixth gear for the first time in the day and we pitched up at the Custom Café around 12.30 having clocked up 66 miles from the Flower Farm. Paul had reserved an area for us and we piled into the Custom’s extensive (and generously proportioned) menu. The chicken club sandwich is recommended. All that exercise gives one an appetite.

The trip back took a slightly more direct but nonetheless interesting route, this time through East and West Sussex. No single tracks this time but Grinstead Lane was memorably enjoyable and twisty and we were back at Flower Farm around 4 pm. Big thanks to Paul and Kathy for organising and to Mike Seary for acting us tail gunner throughout the day. Most people would have covered over 140 miles the day.