A-Bike London Meeting Report, NEW PHOTOS ADDED

[Garry]

I've just arrived home from London, having attended the A-Bike meeting today. It was great fun, and I'll try to post a full report here tomorrow!

[Binch Shin]

WoW.. you were there !!

I'm waiting here now.. hehe

[Amuro Lee]

WoW.. you were there !!
I'm waiting here now.. hehe

Me too.

[Garry]

Hello everyone.

First, I'd like to say a big thank you to Newcross for arranging the meeting, to David and Jo of Mayhem for providing a wonderful picnic, to our special guests Sir Clive and Alex, and to everyone else who attended and made it such an enjoyable event.

Full report coming in the next hour or two.

[Garry]

In the days coming up to the planned A-Bike meeting I was a bit worried, because Britain had suffered terrible floods on the weekend before, and it was still raining every day. However on Saturday a miracle happened because suddenly it was hot and sunny!

Including myself, 11 people turned up in Trafalgar Square at mid-day. It wasn't quite as planned however - we couldn't get to our exact meeting point because the square was taken over with stalls and music for the 60th birthday of Pakistan. They seemed to not know that Trafalgar Square was supposed to be reserved for the A-Bike meeting We managed to take a few group photos in a different part of the square.

After being kicked out of Trafalgar Square we went for a ride along the mall to Buckingham Palace. Another attendee appeared here and was doing a good job of persuading an Australian tourist to buy an A-Bike. I think between us we must have sold a few of them on that day

We rode around Green Park for a while and took some more photos next to Buckingham Palace. Luckily Newcross was available to conduct some emergency repairs on one A-Bike! We attracted a lot of curious glances from tourists wherever we went. We passed a few other cyclists, including one extremely unusual bicycle which I have never seen before. Perhaps someone can identify it from the photos later.

At 2pm we arrived in St James' Park for the picnic with Mayhem UK and the special guests, Sir Clive Sinclair and Alexander Kalogroulis, designer of the A-Bike. A few more A-Bikers and other guests also arrived.

Sir Clive and Alex were both very friendly and eager to hear feedback about the A-Bike. Newcross provided them with a file of all the known faults. They were very pleased to receive this, and will investigate carefully to see if modifications are required. In fact, the A-Bike is already undergoing occasional minor upgrades, and this process will continue.

We also took the opportunity to enquire about their ideas for future developments and were rewarded with tantalising hints. The A-Bike will undergo gradual improvements, and one day there may even be a return of the X-Bike!

Everyone had such a good time that most of us stayed until after 6pm, others leaving only due to travel arrangements. But eventually it was over, and we parted, agreeing that we'd all had a great time, and will certainly arrange other events in the future.

Here's a funny co-incidence. On listening to the BBC midnight news, I heard that the hottest place in the whole UK on Saturday was St James Park, right where we had our picnic! It certainly felt like it, and I have the suntan as evidence

In conclusion, it was a great day out, with maybe not quite as much A-Bike riding as planned, but plenty of socialising and useful discussions.

Please send your own feedback about the day and your ideas for future events. Thank you again to everyone who contributed!

I will start uploading photos now although it might take a few days to sort them all out.

[Amuro Lee]

Thanks for your detail report, Garry.
I really regret that I coundn't go there with you.

[Garry]

The photos from my camera are now online!

Go to the first one at:
http://flickr.com/photos/10744277@N08/942598653/
and browse through from there.

Now I'm just waiting for photos from Newcross and Jo, plus any others that anyone wants to send. I can add them all to the Flickr page.

One more thing, if you have a Flickr account add abikecentral to your contacts list, and if you don't have a Flickr account, why not make one?

[Binch Shin]

Thank you very much, Garry and newcross

And the newcross's T-shirt became very special !!
1. Special : Girl friend's drawing.
2. Very special : Sir Clive's signature.

[thatsme]

fantastic stuff there garry.
now let's plan antoher one, more abikers !!!

[Garry]

I have just added more photos from Newcross, they're on the same Flickr page.

[Garry]

And now I added Jo's photos also. Some very nice ones there! Three pages in total now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10744277@N08

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[ATMP]

Thanks guys for organising Saturday. It was kind of Mayhem to lay on the picnic and great to meet Sir Clive and Alex. I have only just had a chance to look at the photos which are a reminder of an enjoyable day. As I had hoped would happen my confidence in riding the A-Bike has grown as a result of meeting other A-Bike riders.

It was good to meet everyone and I particularly enjoyed talking to Alex about the technical challenges of designing such a unique bike.

We talked about meeting up again later this year - I understand there are other cycling events in London that we could attend as a group. I am very interested in being part of another get together, so we will hopefully all meet again.

[Timbo in Essex]

I should just like to add my thanks to Jo and David of Mayhem for organising such a lavish spread on Saturday. It was really very kind of you and also thanks for giving up your Saturday to listen to us going on and on, with your unfailing good humour.

In line with the other comments, I really enjoyed the day and it was also the first time I have ever seen another A-bike. It was really good to catch up with other A-bikers and swap experiences and maintenance tips.

Lets do another meet-up before the end of the summer.

Best wishes to you all.

Tim W-W

[newcross]

Thank you very much, Garry and newcross

And the newcross's T-shirt became very special !!
1. Special : Girl friend's drawing.
2. Very special : Sir Clive's signature.

Yes, very special. the T-shirt also got
3. Alex's autograph on it.

It became a great memorabilia of the joyful day.
I've never had autographs on my T-shirt, so I don't really know what to do with it. means use it or keep it. Either way, I look like a proper A-bike geek with it now, don't I? haha

(forgive me for replying late. now I'm a bit caught up with preparation for going to Japan for a while.)

[thatsme]

so guys, no more talking.
when is the next meeting?
summer is almost over!!!!