Ace Cafe & Chelsea Cruise - June 2010

On a perfect sunny Saturday in June an ambitious outing was agreed. The plan was to all meet up and travel to the Fairmile in Cobham for a brief stop and then on up the A3 to the North Circular and take in the Mopar meet at the Ace Cafe, then having been feed and watered we would roll homeward via Chelsea and take in the Chelsea Cruise.

Sounded like a good plan but as can be the way if you try to take in too much in too shorter space of time, it can all go wrong and that's what nearly happened!

By the time we had all met up we were running about an hour later than proposed putting the carefully planned schedule at risk. So we decided to give the Fairmile a miss and take a leisurely cruz up to the Ace.
Ace Cafe
Missing out the Fairmile was a good call as it turned out. As can be the case on a hot sunny Saturday, the traffic gets worse as you get closer into town. Throw in some road works and the odd breakdown as a result (none of us I'm pleased to say) and you make pretty slow progress.

Something that never ceases to amaze me is the attitude of other drivers. May be its me, but if I was going about my normal business in a modern car and saw a short convoy of special vehicles I would let them pass rather than forcing my way in between them.
Ace Cafe
It may be idealistic to think that other people might think the same way but that is what I believe. So we lost our first member of the group up at the Tolworth roundabout, whilst the rest of us re-grouped and pulled over to wait for him to catch up.

This happened a couple of times on route, the most amusing being when we pulled over into a slip road off the A3. Once we were back up to full numbers, the only way back to the A3 was through a housing estate. Picture the scene of a few rods and about the same again in old and new American muscle squeezing their way down the roads of a London housing estate with parked cars on both sides and passing points getting tighter and tighter! It was the sort of thing you laugh about afterwards but not always as funny whilst trying to negotiate your way through.

Still we got to the Ace pretty much as planned as regards timings etc, and there was a good display and an enjoyable atmosphere to relax with. We stayed for a couple of hours, occasionally reminising about a journey up.
Chelsea Cruise
The run down to Chelsea was a much bigger affair with a good number of the rides from the Ace also rolling down to Chelsea Bridge. The traffic and road works on the next leg of our journey wasn't any kinder but once again we all made it, this time with only one police caution!

The time at Chelsea was equally enjoyable, just watching and looking at the rides up and down the bridge, talking to all sorts of people and just soaking up the atmosphere of a warm summers evening in London.

It was a great day and to be honest a little tiring, and I did a lot of fuel (this I don't mind as long as I'm moving). But was it all worth it?
Chelsea Cruise
Definitely, I'm not saying I'd go very time, but it is an experience that shouldn't be missed.

We have all agreed on one thing though – may be it's time to dig out those CB radios, that way we can all keep in touch on route and not run the risk of getting pulled for using our phones to re-group!


To view the pictures of the Ace Cafe & Chelsea Cruise “click here” to visit the gallery and click on "June Outings".