Just one look at the weather forecast and it was obvious a ride out was on the cards. I’d had a whole week of night shifts at work, missed several club nights, birthdays etc and hadn’t seen The Howlers for what felt like ages.
It was short notice but I put out the call. We’d been to Ryka’s fairly regularly this year so decided to head to the Iron Bull roadhouse on the A30 just East of Basingstoke instead.
A 10 o’clock meet at that Hogsback cafe layby saw Bill on his HD 1690cc Road King and Jens on his Kove MT 450 already there, I knew Jens would be there cos he’d come flying past us on the A3 a few miles back.
The route was a fairly straightforward cruise down the A31 towards Alton, I didn’t want to ride into Alton village itself so set the Sat nav to join the A339 just to the south then head cross country up towards Basingstoke, A30, then back towards the Iron Bull.
The A339 turned out to be a revelation with fast sweeping bends, nothing too taxing, the trees in their autumn colours made it one to revisit maybe in the summer.
The roadhouse was fairly busy but when we got inside we were pleasantly surprised to see David had saved us a table so that made 5 of us in total. Time passed pretty quickly before we had to leave, there was a baby gender reveal party booked so we all headed off. I think Jens went back to the A339 for another go!! A lovely morning with good company, great roads and even better weather. Simon B.- 27th October 2025
