The bears go riding for charity

Yesterday was the second motorcycle run in aid of St Elizabeth's Hospice in Ipswich. Last year, the weather was warm and around 600 bikers rocked up to do the run.

We arose yesterday morning, stuck our heads out of the Bear Cave, looked at the rain and retreated back inside. These days, I am a fair weather biker. Not because I am a wimp, but because the bike is such a pain to clean. The Pillion Bear is allergic to cold and wet - it brings her out in whinges. We had already paid, so the Hospice would not have missed out if we did not go.

However, on reflection, we thought that a lot of effort would have gone into organising the event and it would be a shame not to support it. So, the Pillion Bear was inserted into an old pair of bright orange overtrousers (which clashed horribly with her pink and black jacket) and bullied onto the back of the bike. We arrived at Orwell Motorcycles in time to catch the last minute of the pre - ride briefing. There were, at a guess, around 200 other bikes there so it was not a bad turn out.

We had a nice ride of about 30 miles and ended up at the Orwell Truck Stop for coffee and bun. All in all, it was fun. There was a band playing on a trailer in the car park, but everyone was inside because of the cold. Which was a shame as they were rather good (never found out who they were).

The bike is now filthy and will require some hours of TLC, but I am glad we made the effort.

Apparently, the Pillion Bear was whinging all the way. Fortunately, this was contained by her crash helmet so I never heard any of it. Maybe this is an arrangement that could be rolled out into the household situation? Maybe not.