Overland Day at the Ace Café, London, Sunday 23rd March 15.
 

Hola, anyone planning on attending and how will I recognise fellow Hubbers, short of your grizzled and worldly looks?

I’m hoping to attend as it’s relatively local and I’ve managed to miss the last two. I’ll be on a KTM 990, I’m bald and to make it easy I have a birthmark in the middle of my forehead that looks like I’m permanently enjoying some religious festival or other, be it Ash Wednesday or something more exotic from the Hindu calendar. So I should be easy enough to spot

Cheers,

Brian

What is the quality of coffee at the Ace. I wouldnt want to go all the way up from mid kent to be offered a cup of instant.:innocent: If i do get there, I have a y reg XT in black with gold rims.

What you need is something like a board with the word traveller on it. An old cardboard box. Bet the café can give you one of them and a marker pen. See what happen's.
John933

The quality of coffee I cannot vouch for I'm afraid. I did once ask for a 'strong' hot chocolate only for the girl behind the counter to fill the mug with chocolate powder leaving enough space for a mouthful of water. In her defence it was 'strong' as requested.

The box with World Traveller on it is a good idea but 1, I'd look like a tool & 2, 'World Traveller' is a little rich these days as with two boys under the age of three my adventures are currently limited to trips to Asda.../Ace Cafe for 'Overland Day' (& hopefully the Irish HU Meet in June) .

I shall keep an eye out but as I doubt we'll be standing by our bikes all morning I'll have to use some detective skills and try & work out fellow Hubbers by their looks of longing for the open road.

Alternatively I'll suggest a corner of the cafe to meet at a certain time & take it from there!

Cheers,

Brian

You might want to consider pre loading on decent coffee before you get to the Ace. :rofl: Similarly if your diet is more varied than sausages, beans, bacon etc.

The last couple of times I've been to the adventurers day not only has the cafe been full but also the car park and the surrounding streets as well. Sometimes there's hardly enough room to pull a decent wheelie. :innocent: The cardboard box idea might have some merit - particularly if you put wheels on it and tell the car park bouncers it's a Touratech display bike. :rolleyes2:

Modman and I will be there around 11:00. He's on a tricked-out G650 X-Country and I'll be on an F800GS.

Hi mate,
I'll be there :scooter: I've just recently purchased a KTM 990 Adv R. Based in W12 London. Where u riding up from? Hope to meet some other 990 Adv riders up there!! bier

Morning,

it looks like we may even be able to class ourselves as a ‘Biker Gang’ at this rate. I’ll bring the obligatory badges and flick knives.

11am sounds good although I may be a little early. I'm riding down from Watford, Herts.

An F800GS with an X Challenge should be easy enough to spot as will an XT with black & gold rims and another 990R - hopefully. If we can travel afar, spotting each other in a car park or thereabouts shouldn’t prove too tricky???

If it gets really busy, I usually park opposite at the end of the footbridge.

Looking forward to seeing some fellow Hubbers in London.

Brian

Me and a mate might be up (unless we decide to go trailriding instead) I'll be on a dirty DRZ 400 and my mate on his XR650 aaaarrrrr.

Look out for Bikes with HU stickers! if you haven't got one yourself, I can spare a couple from my stock. Drop me a PM with an addy and I'll pop them in the post, but be quick!

I've got a small number of HU stickers. I'll bring 'em with me. :)

Just confirm it's on the 22nd of March SUNDAY??? not the 23rd????

Yep, Sunday 22nd from 9am :thumbup1:

Have stickers (thanks Pongo), will travel. See you on Sunday!

Hey Smudger

Sorry we missed you.

I got there for about half 10, spent a quarter of an hour shuffling through the crowds before deciding to go for a blast. Made it back for 3 ish when it was much easier to womble about.

Good to see so many Adventure bikes out & about but perhaps a mini meet for Hubbers at the Ace when it's quieter is in order?

Well, what a fabulous day that was at the Ace Cafe Overland day. Sunshine, relatively warm and the biggest crowd I've seen at the event. The staff at the Ace Cafe did us all proud! Thanks to Mark and Linda and to Vasilis.

14 exhibitors and a raft of travel scribes including Zoe Cano, Graham Field, Chris Scott, Austin Vince, Elspeth Beard and yours truly of course :)

It was like a huge family of overlanding enthusiasts had got together. Yep, family! And I spent the whole day chatting. Fantastic. So many friends. Brilliant! And so many very overlanding bikes there to look at - the full range - C90s right eh way up to the big boys.

High spots of the day, Rob Archibald and his girlfriend Lucy setting off around the world - 2 up on their 125cc, and Daren Carter setting off around the world on his old mate - his GS. I wish I could bottle the feeling they were having as their big rides started. Wonderful.

We headed west with huge smiles on our faces. Thanks to everyone who stopped off to say hello and have a natter. Cheers!

For a really good taste of the day have a look at this Ace Cafe Overland Day video from Iain Harper

So, being there from 11:00 to 13:30, not surprising we missed you!

Well I'm sure you enjoyed it, even without my company.

After a look round early on I joined some old friends on sports bikes for a circular spin (having a go on a nice Ducati & GSXR in the process) & returned when it was equally as sunny but a little easier to mooch about.

Big crowds clearly a testament to the quality of exhibitors. The guys from Overland Magazine really impressed as did the breadth of authors, film makers and adventurers.

Of all the bikes there the ones I wanted most were both Honda C90's. How things change.

Apologies for missing you, but the sunshine got the better of me.