The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

poem by Robert Frost

Any Colour You Want

(Spotted at Ace Cafe, London 2013)

Round & Round

Norton Rotary Classic

(Spotted at Ace Cafe, London 2013)

Italian Lightweight

Gilera B300

(Spotted at Ace Cafe, London 2013)

Ace Cafe 2013

Sunday morning and it was only a short hop on the Tube and an equally short five minute walk to the Ace Café for breakfast.

Unlike my last visit, there was a bit of a crowd, with a group of BSA Bantam owners and the 59 Club holding a recruitment drive. On top of this the sun seemed to have brought out a goodly number of other folk on their bikes.

  
Luckily, the majority of them were just leaving on what looked like an organised ride-out as we arrived, so we managed to swan right to the head of the queue and order breakfast without having to wait. A solid, cholesterol-laden full-English breakfast with tea and toast it was too. Marvellous.

Collection of BSA Bantams

The history of the place is quite interesting and the owners, who were on duty that morning, have quite cleverly tapped into the larger nostalgia market. They cater for all sorts and have specialist days for specific makes and models and owners clubs. They run a mailing list, and they host bands and such at night where the café becomes a bar. They even have a shop at the back of the premises. The 'idea' of the Ace Café seems to be one which resonates with a large part of the motorcycling fraternity, as well as those interested in old vehicles generally. The fact that we were there is evidence enough that they are doing something right.

Moto Guzzi Cafe Racers

Other than the collection of nice old British bikes parked up outside, probably the most interesting bikes on show were a row of Benelli Tornadoes. Now you don't often see one of these machines on the road, and here were six of them. Very different, and didn't their riders milk the attention for all it was worth. And no sneaking away when they were done, either. They peeled out of the car park later in a cacophony of noise and smoke as they revved their poor beasts to the redline. What's the point of having something like that if you're not going to misbehave?

Anyway, it did begin to fill up again about an hour later, possibly people coming back from the ride-out, but by this time we'd eaten our breakfast and I'd had a quick scoot around the car park and taken loads of photos, so we decided to leave.

If you're ever in London I would heartily recommend the Ace Café, and not just for the atmosphere, the food is pretty decent too.

Playing the Tourist

I've been to London a fair bit over the years, but mainly as a means of going on to somewhere else. As a result, I've never actually done the whole Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben sort of thing before. So, this time we visited all the usual haunts.

Down in the Tube Station

Big Ben

Tower of London

Changing of the Guard (Lifeguard Regiment of the Household Cavalry)

Buckingham Palace

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The Millenium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge at night

London 2013

About a week or so ago mrs. combo and I headed off to London for a few days. The idea was to take in an NFL (American Football) game at Wembley, the Minnesota Vikings were playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers this year, make a side trip to the Ace Café one morning for breakfast, and then generally play the tourist. 

Tickets

Wembley Tube Station on game day

Steelers fans with a Mexican twist

Pre-match entertainment. The US national anthem was sung by Gene Simmons of rockband KISS

Steelers warm up

Crimestoppers

(Spotted on a bus shelter, London 2013)