ABR Holy Grail Rally 2012

[Bluepaul]

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Bring it on !!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[davsato]

its the Da Vinci code II? to qualify you must video yourselves riding up the aisle on a sunday morning, extra points per shocked old dears teeth falling out

[Hacknslash]

Hi James

Unbeliveable they are all north of my location ..... he he, however its too tempting...... I'm gonna enjoy this.

[mawse]

What happens to verify a visit when close vehicular access and parking is limited to residents only ... like Exeter??

Have to agree with Mr Scouse here, cos I dont think you can drive to the front of Sheffield Cathedral unless you are a taxi, bus or tram :woohoo:

But that could be part of the challenge.......

[Mad Cow]

My thinking is that Cathedrals are pretty big so I'm sure you could get a photo of most with your bike in the foreground even if it's a mile or two away :laugh:

So how close do we have to get?

[Mad Cow]

On the basis that proper preparation prevents piss poor performance, I thought I would do some online planning.

By sticking the post codes into Google maps you can then use streetview to see how close you can get, on the basis that if Google can get a camera car in close enough then getting a bike in should be a doddle.

Issues so far, the post codes are not always 100% accurate at least three take you to locations half a mile away and one eight miles away! I could enlighten you but where's the fun in that

Regarding vehicle access, there does seem to be a few problems:

As Mawse says, Sheffield is tricky but there is a road that intersects with the tram route opposite the cathedral entrance, double yellow lines abound but I think there's a bit of pavement you could park on for a quick photo. Some of the others however seem to be buried deep within pedestrian areas but as he says, it's all part of the challenge :laugh:

[James691]

You're on a quest to be an ABR Knight

You have logic, you have tactics and I assume most of us have opposable thumbs B)

The Locations are there - Once you have them all the last quest is yours and then the destination of the ABR Grail is revealed.

Accept or Decline

The challenges and the solutions ..... are yours.

The best of luck Ladies and Gentleman

[stanbloke]

This a great idea James.

Are there any laws that prevent you from pushing your bike to any of the locations ?. It is illegal to ride on a footpath...but...if i pushed my bike to the location in order to take a photo ( and pushed it back to the roadway) would that be allowed .

[900Fantrider]

JAMES, why have you done this? When I got back from finishing the nature last week I said I would pass on 2012, but now I find I`m sat here looking at the 2880 mile one hit route and thinking ummmmmmm that looks a good ride! :woohoo: :woohoo:

cheers Marc

[scouse]

This a great idea James.

Are there any laws that prevent you from pushing your bike to any of the locations ?. It is illegal to ride on a footpath...but...if i pushed my bike to the location in order to take a photo ( and pushed it back to the roadway) would that be allowed .

It's possibly treading on risky ground for some of the locations. I live in Derby so know you would have to be very quick as the paved area in front of the doors, and all nearby roads are strictly no parking for anti terrorist and security reasons as it has regimental flags etc inside ... double yellow lines and CCTV everywhere... even the Queen wasn't allowed to stop there and had to park and walk from a nearby hotel last year on Maundy Thursday.

However to get a good shot of a bike and the cathedral you would need to be at a distance to get it all in which as the frontage is just onto a side road not so easy .... so getting up close and putting the authorities backs up, unless you have super wide angle lenses, may not be the best choice for many of the locations. It's just a simple matter of getting creative and also considering about how your actions may impact the reception of the next ABR who rides up... the recent Occupy thing at St Pauls has shown that not all church bigwigs are fond of peace,love and understanding