How I became involved with transatlantic bikeshare dot com
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lookout bmw motorcycle owners of Vermont trotter”s joined the club and is heading for Vermont!!!!!!!!
The trip to Vermont started over 12months ago on the dockside in Liverpool—waiting for the isle –of—man ferry. It”s funny but two previous bike rides in America had both started with an i.o.m. holiday—in 1999 I met three young lads on creg willies hill just above glen hellen on the “tt” course whilst waiting for the races to start—this led to an afternoon ride on a Yamaha tdm over the golden gate bridge and a short(far too short)ride up the pacific coast scenic highway with a guy called Michael Parkinson. Then in 2000 three great days riding a harley Davidson electra glide up and down the coast around Sarasota—longboat key and ann maria island-thanks to a guy called angus wing(great name—great guy)who I met on the isle of man ferry(where else).
Anyway back to june 2004—jean had left for work on Wednesday morning at 7”45am like the good wife she truly is, iwas due to catch the 6pm ferry from Liverpool and jean would follow on two days later—flying in by manx airlines on the Friday evening.”now think on trotter” jean said as she walked out of the door “don’t forget me when you are out tearing round that mountain course—be at ronaldsway airport for 5”45pm.”as if I could forget you my love”said jim, scratching the flight details on the inside of his helmets visor!!!!
11pm the bikes all ready to go—and im ready to go on my38th visit to the island.i love it—cant get enough of monas isle. A big part of “tt” week for me is meeting and talking to other lads on bikes. So although it was still 6hrs to sailing time and only 1hrs ride to Liverpool—the sun is shining so lets get off and see who we can meet this year!!!!!!!!!!
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12 noon Liverpool docks.
How this place has changed since 1967. all we had then was a leaky shed and a dirt floor—now we had a beer tent—fast food unit and tarmac parking,how exotic! After having a general look round there he was my new friend(but he did”nt know it !)
“hi there are you on the 6 oclock ferry”said trotter” no mate the 8 oclock im waiting for some friends from London” after he had told me he had arrived from texas i grabed him by the riding jacket and rushed him into the beer tent—not really but you get the idea!
Over a drink robin day told me all about trans-atlantic-bike- share and how the bmw he was on belonged to phillip carr from rotherham who was a member of t.a.b.s.so after a very enjoyable 2hrs hearing about texas and arranging to meet in the island for another drink I got on the ferry but not before I had full details of the bike share club and phillip carrs address in rotherham!
Sorry to say robin and I never seemed to get together over the “tt” period—too much to do and see—not enough time! It’s the same every year—your on the ferry one minute on the way to another “tt”-- and in the blink off an eye your getting off in Liverpool and another “tt” is over.(I have kept in touch with robin by e mail since)
“hello phillip-jim trotter here I met robin on the way to the island,could I call and see you about trans atlantic bike share”?
as rotherham is only 50miles away from where I live--2hrs later I was sat in phillip & pats front room drinking tea and hearing about all his trips to the states,pictures-maps-video”s etc I could have sat there all day ---but my wife(the worker in our house)likes tea on the table—so after telling phillip about how since 1973 after reading ted simons book called “jupiters travels” I had wanted to ride the pacific coast top to bottom—and anywhere else in America if possible.
Phillip did more than listen to all the ramblings of another Yorkshireman-- within two days he was on the phone in that wonderful rotherham laid back accent(that ted hall cannot understand at all)to say he could arrange for me to meet ted at ripley castle in july when ted & lynn were over for a bike holiday .
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I missed the turning for ripley castle gates so carried on to the next roundabout and as I was allmost at the entrance coming towards me on the other side of the road was a k100 with two people on being followed by a triumph ridden solo. Trotter shouting through his helmet”are you from Vermont” big guy on k100”are you jim traaaater”?
“Heifermeister” –ted hall—had arrived!!!!!!!
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five minutes later we were all drinking tea in the ripley castle tea shop and being introduced to ted & lynn and chris burton the owner of ted & lynns bike. Being an isle of man “tt” nut the day just kept getting better when it turned out that chris lived on the isle of man and was in fact the harbour master at port erin and port st mary nice guy and very quite—well compared to ted!!!!!
Whilst all this was going on phillip carr arrived with at least another7—8 motorcyclists who were part of Phillips regular bike group,it turns out that ted had christened them the “tea & pee gang” and in fact they had a club badge they all wore—it had a teepee as the central emblem! This nickname came about because they drink tea—ride for a while—then pee!!and so on throughout the day-- hence the badge!
After a ride over the moor”s with our new bike friends we called at “stump cross caverns” for some more----tea . after tea and a pee it was time to leave the group and after getting all ted & lynn”s details I threatened to keep in touch by e mail and hope to arrange a ride in 2005 in Vermont.
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