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	Stand Up And Be Counted It’s Saturday 4th of May, the sun is splitting the skies, I’m joyously carving my way through traffic and radio Phils’ Lid is belting out Guns & Roses. I up the pace a bit and change the mood with my patented Joey Ramone tribute, the 306 driving kid at the lights had no concept of power to weight ratios and disappears before I’m halfway through the first verse of ‘Beat On The Brat’. What a bloody marvelous day, a grin so big you’d think my head’s on a hinge. I’ve just returned from the Edinburgh protest ride - kicked off by Mr Meachers attempts to clean up the countryside (there was also one in London, check out MCNs site if you don’t know the score). Turn out was apparently excellent, I reckoned there were about 100 bikes though ‘official’ estimates put it nearer 70. The ride was interesting, met about 8 miles outside Edinburgh, drove down the motorway doing 30-40mph, preventing any traffic from getting through, then did the centre of Edinburgh at about 5mph to the great viewpoint - Calton Hill. It was great to see all the citizens and tourists cheering, waving and taking pictures, though I doubt they had a clue what was going on. Even our Police escort (who did a fantastic job) seemed to enjoy themselves - I’m sure I saw one tooting along with one of the impromptu horn ‘tunes’ as he sped past me to clear the next junction. There were also some excellent notes from a couple of Harley riders clutching and giving it big handfuls. About now you’re probably wondering what I’m on about. It’s pretty simple, where were you? Okay, so maybe this wasn’t a dire threat to biking as we know it, but one day it might be. I don’t want to give everybody a hard time; we all just want to have a bit of fun right? The point I want to make is this, there are a lot of whining gits out there just dying to ruin you’re fun and apathy is their greatest ally. I’m involved in a number of pursuits that have already been at the sharp end of government legislation brought on by the uninformed and in some cases the vindictive, don’t let it happen to you. All I ask is the next time something like this comes around have a think about it. I mean riding out with some mates, meeting some new like-minded people and generally having a blast is hardly an imposition is it? Nuff said? Lastly, the Chat Room, possibly a great resource and a chance for us all to ‘meet’, but if you’re anything like me you all be seriously frustrated at never actually being online the same time as anyone else. To try and remedy this I will be online on Friday 24th May and Saturday 25th May, I will endeavor to be in the chat room every half-hour between 7 and 10 P.M. (i.e. 7:00, 7:30, 8:00 etc.) I will hang around for five ten minutes each time so come along if you fancy a natter. Catch you on the flip side. Phil