To the South East

14 May 2011

My first excursions out on the new R6 have been reasonably safe and easy as I get used to being back in the saddle. My clutch hand has suffered enormously, it's taken a serious, and after a round-a-bout trip using mainly A and B roads from Woking to Brighton, then over to Hastings, then back to Woking, it really needed a decent rest.

This was my first taste of the England I had always pictured from films. I had the small road-cum-lanes to myself in the early morning, which looked fabulous in the morning sunshine as I gingerly started to feel my way around the R6, its new suspension, and new tyres.

By the time I made it to Brighton, it was time for breakfast, where I was offered the choice of either toast *or* fried bread (?!?).

Brighton Pier

After breakfast, I continued along the coast. I shot some video, however vision from the GoPro was somewhat cloudy, which I'd never seen before. Perhaps there was some condensation within the unit itself? Either way, it's made me somewhat reticent about taking it into the water with me, which I shall most likely do in Espana.

I made it as far as Hastings before my clutch hand really started to complain horribly, from there I turned back to Woking.

I've seen some interesting cars around Woking, two different McLaren supercars, as the McLaren Technolgy Centre is located off the A320 slightly north of Woking. Both of these cars had words such as 'prototype' written on them, one bright orange, another a light blue.

On further investigation, both cars appear to be derived from (if not actually) the current MP4-12C machine, which sounds as stunning as it looks.

I followed the orange one to Guilford (could it be Clarkson driving?) however it ended up being some left-hand drive machine that wasn't driven by Clarkson so I went on my way.