Riding In England. . . Who's the Hooligan now??

Ever ridden in England? It is a ball!! First thing, they are very motorcycle friendly. Back in the 90’s, three of us were on our way to the Isle of Mann; Alan Blake, then national sales manager for Avon Motorcycle Tyres, my friend Terry, and myself. 

As we are going up this hill (remember on the left side of the road), the cars are all pulling over so we can ‘lane split’, which is a little scary on a narrow two-lane road with Lorries (big trucks) coming the other way.

The speed limit on the dual carriage way or Motorway, is 70mph - but you can ride 80 all day long with no problem; just be sure to move out of the right lane (fast lane) if you see someone coming up fast behind you, and I mean 100mph fast.

Here in England the police drive white Rovers and use radar. But they have these places they park on the left side of the road that is elevated about 3 feet with a ramp up and a ramp down. The other place they sit is in the middle of an overpass. So if you see a white Rover (how could you miss them?) slow down. The other thing they used to do was post a sign that said “Photo speed check ahead”.  You can guess what was going to happen in about a half mile as you went under the overpass!

As most are aware it rains in England.  Thus we are riding down the M6 in the rain at an indicated 100mph, but it is actually better because the water does not stay on you visor, and as we start coming into more traffic we slow down to 80.  After about 15 miles I see a white Rover coming up behind me so I slow to 70 and move into the middle lane, he follows for a while then passes and follows my friend Terry from the States. When he moves around Terry to follow Allan, Terry and I slow way down.  The officer follows Allan for 10-12 miles and then pulls him over, and then waves for us to pull over as well.

When we all take off our helmets the officers see that I am the youngest - I have gray hair and am in my 40’s. Now it is ‘good cop, bad cop’. They determined we are from the States and ‘bad cop’ asked Terry “What the speed limit is in the States?” and Terry says 80-90 (as I’m thinking, “Where is that?”).  They tell us they’ve been following us for 10 miles and we have been exceeding 100+ mph, followed by big lecture. We are riding 600cc sport bikes that the factories have loaned Avon and as a result there is a bunch of questions about that too.

Then they say that we have two options:  1. Let us go or 2. Throw us in jail. Personally my vote was for option 1. In the end it was option 1. Most likely they were expecting some young ‘hooligans’, so we were a little bit of a disappointment. After a couple of minutes we were all the best of friends and I think they would have let us buy them a pint or two! They really wanted to give Allan a ticket but could not because they would have had to put us in jail and I am sure that was way too much paperwork for them.

Moral of the story is: “You can be a hooligan and get away with it if you have gray hair”

Alan on the Side of the Road with the two Police Officers!

Next chapter is about my gift to William Rudolph Michael Feilding, 11th Earl of Denbigh