RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Thames Valley

July Social Ride
2024-07-07 10:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London) | Podium Place, 31A Bone Ln, Newbury, RG14 5SH
Sunday 7th July
Start Time: 10:00AMRide Leader: GemmaPace: MediumDistance: 160 milesFinish Time: 5PM

We will start at 10AM sharp from the Podium Place cafe in Newbury, do get there earlier if you want a drink.
Our trip for July will take us almost to Cheltenham but not quite, we will head out west dipping down to Andover and then back up to Devizes on some of the lovely A roads. We’ll stop around 11:30AM for a quick break, coffee, cake, ice cream at The Rowdey Cow (Lower Farm, Devizes Road, Rowde, Devizes, SN10 2LX)

Lunch will be at around 2PM at the The Weighbridge Inn (https://www.weighbridgeinn.co.uk/)
After lunch I’ve found some rare UK hairpins and we will head over the top of Cirencester, staying on scenic A and B roads, we will cut down to Wantage. Try and spot the Uffington white horse before we the Wantage road back into Newbury. There will be a mid afternoon stop for fuel.

June Social Ride
2024-06-02 09:00 - 17:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom
Our monthly social ride, more details will follow about a month ahead of the event.

May Social Ride
2024-05-12 09:00 - 17:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

April Social Ride
2024-04-07 09:00 - 17:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

March Social Ride
2024-03-03 09:00 - 17:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom
Meeting: Bulldog Triumph (Near Wokingham) Reading Rd, Winnersh, Wokingham RG41 5AB
Time: 9:15 briefing for 9:30 departure
Distance: 75 miles (Approximately)
Duration: 3 Hours (Approximately)
Description:
This is a half day ride of about 75 miles . There will be a couple of leg stretch / pauses .
That means about two hours in the saddle and a total duration of about three hours .
There is no fuel stop so please arrive filled up. There is a BP fuel station next door Bulldog.
We will cover A and B roads and lanes and there will be some gravel .
The pace will be to test pass standard . Briefing will be at 08 45 .

February Social Ride
2024-02-04 09:00 - 15:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

January Social Ride
2024-01-07 10:00 - 15:00 | Iron Bull Roadhous, Water End Park, Old Basing, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 7BB, United Kingdom
Social Ride out – 7th January 2024
Start Time: 10AM
Finish Time: 3PM
Distance: 100 miles
Leader: Gemma
Pace: Relaxed

Starting from the Iron Bull Roadhouse on the A30 outside of Basingstoke well start the year with some familier but always enjoyable roads. We’ll head south west towards Winchester and pickup the Morestead Rd before cutting back eastward and grabbing a coffee in Bishops Waltham.

We’ll continue then south east enjoying some lesser known roads around Denmead before moving to our lunch stop on Hayling Island around 12:30pm.
After lunch we will make our way towards West Marden, South Harting and after a quick hop up the A3 onto the Selbourne > Alton Road. We should finish around 3PM at the Station Cafe in Alton.

December Social Ride
2023-12-03 09:00 - 15:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

AGM
2023-11-18 19:00 - 21:30 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

November Social Ride
2023-11-05 10:00 - 15:00 | Iron Bull Roadhous, Water End Park, Old Basing, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 7BB, United Kingdom
Social Ride out – November 5th 2023

Pace: Relaxed
Distance: 120 miles
Ride Leader: Gemma
Start Time: 10:00AM
Finish: 3:00PM

With the clocks going back and the weather on the day bound to be a complete surprise we have a short relaxed ride for November.

We’ll leave from the Iron Bull Roadhouse at 10AM sharp, so turn up earlier if you want a breakfast or drink.

We will make our way over towards Andover, then Pewsey and towards Devizes on a mix of A and B roads.

Lunch will be at around 12PM at the REME Museum Cafe.
The REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) will be open so if meals are light we will have time to take a look around before we leave.

The ride back is only an hour, making sure we get back to our finishing point Podium Cafe by around 3PM while we still have light and before it closes.

Skid Pan Sessions
2023-10-01 09:30 - 12:00 | Thruxton Circuit, SP11 8PN, United Kingdom
Come and join us for the Group’s annual skid pan event at Thruxton Circuit .
Thruxton have a selection of front and rear wheel drive cars, which allow you to experience how to correct and control a sliding car. Their skid pan is a polished concrete surface, which uses water and no chemicals.
Here is a video, to give you a taster of what to expect on the day:

We have secured two dates for the course, Saturday 23rd September and Sunday 1st October. The session will commence at 10am on both days and last for approximately 2 hours. We have just 1 place left on each day now! The cost is £75 (which is subsidised by the group).
You can book your place through our secure members store: https://membermojo.co.uk/tvg-roadar/store

October Social Ride
2023-10-01 09:00 - 17:00 | TBD, TBD, TBD, United Kingdom

Skid Pan Sessions
2023-09-23 09:30 - 12:00 | Thruxton Circuit, SP11 8PN, United Kingdom
Come and join us for the Group’s annual skid pan event at Thruxton Circuit .
Thruxton have a selection of front and rear wheel drive cars, which allow you to experience how to correct and control a sliding car. Their skid pan is a polished concrete surface, which uses water and no chemicals.
Here is a video, to give you a taster of what to expect on the day:

We have secured two dates for the course, Saturday 23rd September and Sunday 1st October. The session will commence at 10am on both days and last for approximately 2 hours. There are 4 places available on each course and the cost is £75 (which is subsidised by the group).
You can book your place through our secure members store: https://membermojo.co.uk/tvg-roadar/store

September Social Ride
2023-09-03 10:00 - 16:00 | Costa Coffee at 1 meadow Gate Farnborough GU14 6FG, Farnborough, GU14 6FG
Pace: Relaxed
Distance: 120 miles
Ride Leader: Allan
Start Time: 10:00AM
Finish: 4:00PM

The ride will go down to Hayling Island for Fish & Chips on the beach.
The starting point will be Costa Coffee at 1 meadow Gate Farnborough GU14 6FG for a 10:00 start time.
A slightly slower pace until we leave the Farnborough area, then we will explore some of the smaller back roads until we reach the lunch break.
After lunch we made our way back up to Farnborough through some smaller lanes until we reached Costa Coffee around 16:00.
The total distance is about 120ish miles and at a moderate pace.
Please arrive with a full tank of fuel, there will be a coffee/fuel stop on the way down and on the way back

August Social Rideout
2023-08-06 09:00 - 17:00 | Costa Coffee Drive Thru, Reading Rd,, Winnersh, RG41 5HQ, United Kingdom
Start Time: 09:00
Distance: 160 miles
Pace: Relaxed
Leader: Graham
Can we please meet 09:00 hrs, at Costa Coffee which is next door to Barr & Block, Reading Rd, Winnersh, Wokingham RG41 5HQ. (See below)
Ride will be a circular 160 miles, taking some excellent motorcycling roads as we wind our way past the historic stones at Avebury to arrive at our lunch stop in Devizes. But the fun doesn’t stop there as the tried & tested roads back to where we started are just as good.

July Social Rideout
2023-07-02 09:00 - 17:00 | Starbucks drive-through, OX9 3SB, United Kingdom
Cotswolds Capers
Start: 9AM
Pace: Moderate, with the chance to make progress for those who wish.
Meeting point: Starbucks drive-through OX9 3SB (there is a petrol station here if people need to fill their tanks on arrival)
Morning coffee stop: ‘The Organic Farm Shop cafe’, Burford Road, Cirencester GL7 5HF
Lunch: ‘Blaze Inn Saddles’, Burdrop, Banbury OX15 5RJ (we will probably stop at a petrol station prior to this, to stretch legs and in case anybody has a smaller tank)
Afternoon coffee/finish: ‘The Harrow Inn’, Enstone, Chipping Norton OX7 4NF
Total ride time: 5hr
Distance: 190miles

This route should have something for everybody. Long sweeping bends as well as narrower, tighter corners. As much as possible I have tried to avoid main towns but there is only so much you can do in the south of England…
After meeting at Thame, we will ride through Long Crendon, along the B4011, before turning off towards Burford and then on to Bibury, passing the famous ‘Arlington Row’. There are one or two slightly awkward drop-offs so I will try and keep us together through Burford itself, as I expect it will be busy on a Sunday. After about 1hr30mins, near Cirencester, our morning coffee is at The Organic Farm Shop which should have plenty of space and nice views of the farm. From there we head north into the Cotswold’s on the longer section of the ride. This is about 1hr45mins-2hrs as we wind our way up and down through the Cotswold’s (look out for Diddly Squat Farm, before Chipping Norton), through Charlbury and in the direction of Banbury before diverting off to our lunch stop: The Blaze Inn Saddles. I am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather as it is an outdoor venue, hopefully with covers. On the last leg (about 1hr30mins), we head north to Leamington Spa and loop back down to Chipping Campden and finally end up in Enstone at ‘The Harrow Inn’.
The full route is approximately 5hrs of riding time so it should be a full day. I appreciate this is further north than some of the other social rides, so, I have left out a final leg after Enstone so people can get back earlier if they need to. Please help us keep the lunch stop informed and indicate if you are able to attend.

Slow Riding Training Day
2023-06-10 10:30 - 14:00 | Bike2Bike Greenham, JustMoto 108 Lindenmuth Way Greenham Business Park, Newbury, RG19 6HN, United Kingdom
On the 10th June tutors from Thames Valley and Hampshire RoSPA groups will be available to coach you on slow riding skills and techniques. This is free to members and non-members but we ask that you make a donation of £10 that we can donate to the air ambulances of both counties.
Space is limited to approx. 30 bikes by the size of the site so please book your place by filling in this form
We will prepare a number of practise exercises and coach you through them, so you can look as good riding slow as you do riding fast. The training will take place at Bike2Bike’s Greenham training center where they have some lovely smooth tarmac for us to use. There are facilities onsite and we will provide a light lunch.
Please arrive around 10AM and we will finish in the early afternoon.

June Social Rideout
2023-06-04 09:30 - 17:00
Pace: Progressive
Distance: 220 miles
Ride Leader: Gemma
Start Time: 9:30AM
Finish: 5PM

For June we are going to stretch our riding muscles and ride out to Wales. I’ve removed the offroading section and landslide from last years and replaced with some qualilty A roads.
This is one of the longer rides in our calendar but it’s well worth the trip to ride these roads. We will start out from the Esso Garage just off the M4 at 9:30AM and dash up the M4 and make our way over the bridge to Chepstow.
From there we head onto the B-roads towards Usk and reach our first stop Bafflehaus for a spot of coffee. Before heading into the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecons) via the A40 and A479 and onto LLyswen for a quick petrol stop (approx 95 miles) and leg stretch.
We’ll head a little further north, staying on the twisty A roads and then cut east on the A481 towards Leominster. If the weather is good we will aim to have lunch at Dom’s Bike Stop around 2PM.
After lunch we make our way back fairly directly skirting Gloucester then Cirencester before making a straight run down just past Swindon to finish back at the Esso garage of the M4. If all goes well we should get here before 5PM.

White Waltham Airport Visit
2023-05-20 10:30 - 14:30 | West London Aero Club, Waltham Road, White Waltham, SL6 3NJ
Join us on Saturday 20th May for an exclusive tour by Mark Green, a former fireman and tutor for Thames Valley Group who ‘spread his wings’ and took up flying.
He is now a manager at White Waltham and is also a pilot training instructor.
The morning will start with a talk on the history of White Waltham Airfield and Mark will then tell us about his training activities, comparing advanced road vehicle and aircraft flying instruction.
After lunch (included in the price) we will be given a tour of the airfield including the hangers containing some historic aircraft.
The price is £12:50 per head inclusive of lunch and refreshments on arrival and during the morning break. Non-members are welcome to attend for the same price and members can buy tickets on their behalf.
We have a few places left, so please go here: Our Store to book your ticket.

2023 Morgan Factory Visit
2023-03-25 10:00 - 12:30
Dear Members,
On a Saturday in March 2023 we would like invite a group of our members to the new facilities at the Morgan factory in Malvern.
Welcome to Pickersleigh Road, the historic home of the Morgan Motor Company for over 100 years. A destination for visitors from around the world, guided tours of the Morgan production line provide an automotive experience like no other.
Immerse yourself in the mix of rare craft skills and latest modern technology that goes into each Morgan sports car. Unlike other factory ‘experiences’, visitors to Morgan won’t peer through viewing galleries, walk through imitation production lines or be shown the outside of factory buildings. A Morgan guided tour is authentic and real. Visitors are guided through every workshop – each one with its own sights, smells and sounds – by an experienced and knowledgeable tour guide.
Morgan factory tours last for between an hour and a half to 2 hours; starting and finishing in the Morgan Experience Centre. The Archive Room is also included within your factory tour.
Why not add an afternoon tea to your factory tour, which can be enjoyed in The Canteen. Or add an experience drive around the Malvern hills.
Just let me know if you are interested, via the link below, the tour costs £28, but if we have enough interest, we can then take advantage of a group rate…

Oxford Meetup® Ride Out Thame to Touch Down Cafe Wellesbourne
2023-03-23 10:00 - 14:00
Hosted by: Dave Tomlinson
This is one of our regular, fortnightly rideout to ensure the “riding” cobwebs are kept firmly at bay!
Our destination the Touchdown cafe, the cafe sits within the beautiful Cotswolds, British at its heart and surrounded by stunning roads and landscapes
We will ride through roads less used, following a stunning, traffic fee route…. Dave T will be leading the ride which is 105 miles and about 2 hours. Mostly A roads, and local roads….
We’ll stop about halfway for a short break/leg stretch, around the A43 services, plenty of parking, toilets etc. We then make our way to the Touch Down Cafe, Airfield Estate, Loxley Rd, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EU
Starting with a brew at Thame Costa 9 High St, Thame OX9 2BZ 9.30am onwards, with a departure at 10:00.
You don’t need to have the route as there is a lead rider and tail end charlie, but if you’re interested, please find the Route file here: Please have MyRoute-app open & select GPX 1.0 format
https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/2291532?mode=share
The riding plan and safety measures will be discussed prior to our departure which will be at 10.00am, You MUST be present to hear the safety briefing if you want to take part in the ride.
If you have any questions give Dave a call on 07554 033284
We will use “Second Rider drop-off” system to mark changes of direction. Please view this ‘youtube’ if you are new to the system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGXRtvk3_EQ
In addition, keep the headlight of the following rider mostly in view. Ease off, if you lose sight of them. And there is a no overtaking rule within the group..
Liability Waiver
All participants take part entirely at their own risk and are wholly responsible for their safety, riding, compliance with the Highway Code, traffic regulations and speed limits. All bikes must be street legal. No liability accepted by the leader or other organisers/helpers. You signify your agreement when tapping the ‘Attend’ button on the event page. Further liability information here: https://www.meetup.com/BMW-Club-Oxford-Motorcycle-Riders/ in the ‘What we’re about’ section.

Oxford Meetup® Ride Out Super Sausage Cafe
2023-02-23 11:00 - 14:30
Hosted by: Dave Tomlinson
Details:
This is one of our regular, fortnightly rideout to ensure the New Year cobwebs are kept firmly at bay!
Today we ride through the charming Cotswolds on routes less travelled…. Dave T will be leading the ride which is 50 miles and about 2 hours. Mostly B roads, local roads, and some A’s….
We’ll stop about halfway for a short break/leg stretch. We then make our way to the Super Sausage Cafe for lunch.
The location is 10 minutes from the A43 for easy access home.
Starting with a brew at Thame Costa, 9 High St, Thame OX9 2BZ from 9.30am onwards. , arrive at 09:30 with departure at 10:00.
You don’t need to have the route as there is a lead rider and tail end charlie, but if you’re interested, please find the Route file here: Please have MyRoute-app open & select GPX 1.0 format
You MUST be present to hear the safety briefing at 09:45 if you want to take part in the ride.
If you have any questions give Dave a call on 07554 033284
We will use the 2nd man drop off system to keep us together and to create movement around the group.
All participants take part at their own risk and are wholly responsible for their riding and safety, and compliance with Highway Code/road traffic laws. All bikes must be street legal. No liability accepted by leader or organisers.

Oxford Meetup® Ride Out Triumph Motorcycles 1902 Cafe
2023-01-26 11:00 - 14:00
Hosted by: Dave Tomlinson
Details:
This is our regular, fortnightly rideout to ensure the New Year cobwebs are kept firmly at bay!
Today we ride through the charming Cotswolds on routes less travelled…. Dave T will be leading the ride which is 80 miles and about 2 hours. Mostly B roads, local roads, and some A’s….
We’ll stop about halfway for a short break/leg stretch. We then make our way to Triumph 1902 Cafe for lunch.
The location is 10 minutes from the M40 for easy access home.
Starting with a brew at Starbucks Coffee, part of the Esso Service Station, OX26 1BT, from 9.30am onwards. , arrive at 10:30 with departure at 11:00.
You don’t need to have the route as there is a lead rider and tail end charlie, but if you’re interested, please find the Route file here: Please have MyRoute-app open & select GPX 1.0 format
You MUST be present to hear the safety briefing at 09:45 if you want to take part in the ride.
If you have any questions give Dave a call on 07554 033284
We will use the 2nd man drop off system to keep us together and to create movement around the group.
All participants take part at their own risk and are wholly responsible for their riding and safety, and compliance with Highway Code/road traffic laws. All bikes must be street legal. No liability accepted by leader or organisers.
