It was lovely to see you all at a clubnight after all this time. It would have appeared that the planning on behalf of the landlord at the Alma,and ourselves went more or less as we had hoped. I thought we had made it clear that the ride would have to leave on time, because of the need to be at the alma for our booked slot at 7-30,and that we would be leaving from Church Lane. Several of us got it right and we left promptly at 6-30, as I had riden the route the day before at around the same time and it took about 45 minutes, which gave us a bit of le way for getting back for 7-30. I understand a few of you went for a ride on your own because we left so promptly. It didnt matter, and perhaps as there were several of us riding,we may have to leave in two or more smaller groups next time. I didnt stay for the meeting and I do apologise but I have explained why. I hear the evening was a great success, with 25 members and two guests enjoying themselves. Its a relief to see such support after what has been a very strange time. If all goes well, we should be able to repeat the process for our September clubnight. There are a couple of things in the pipeline meantime. One is a ride to the Haverhill area to a bike meet on Friday 14th, suggested by Julian, and The details will follow here soon. The other is a socially distanced fish and chip run which is at the planning stage at the moment with Paul is using his local knowledge to negotiate an arrangement to finish in Mersea. To keep up to date please keep an eye on the website and read Colins e mails! Gordon
At the moment, our clubnight next week on wednesday 5th is still going ahead as previously planned , but clearly, in view of the way things are going, there could be new rulings put in place quite quickly, particularly as pubs have been mentioned. We should also like to make it clear that your attendance is entirely at your own risk. Im looking forward to seeing you all,but we all still need to be careful. Gordon
Good news at last as we can announce our club night on August 5th at the Alma. Colin has negoitiated with the Alma and we have been allocated the space in front of the pub with the new seating arrangement. The landlord has done a lot of work making sure its as a safe as it can be and we look forward to seeing you there for 7-30. Colins straw pole suggested that at least 20 of you were up for it and they can accomodate up to 30 of us. I shall be leading a run starting promptly at 6-30 to be sure we get back to the Alma for 7-30. Assuming we get enough riders , we will be using the drop off system. To avoid congestion on the road outside the Alma, I would ask that you gather for the run in Church Road which is the first left, just past the Alma. I wont be staying after the run, because,being of a certain age,we are limiting our socialising to our family, who are all having to work. I hope you will all have an enjoyable evening and that we can resume our normal activities before too long. If anyone has a ride or a visit they think we can do,within the current guidelines,without a lot of risk, do let us know. Looking forward to seeing you all. Gordon
Unfortunately the relaxing of the rules hasn't come in time for our July clubnight. However, David, the Landlord at the Alma, has completely revamped the Alma in anticipation of the new rules so that his customers will be able to have a drink while remaining in a safe environment. You can see what he has been up to at the Gazette. https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/1854020.alma-pub-copford-transforms-car-park-beer-garden. We are hoping to have a meeting with David in the next couple of weeks to see what we can do. It would be good if we could hold our club night on Wednesday August 5th. We may need your help to get an idea of the numbers of members who would be likely to attend, so watch out for Colins e mails in the next couple of weeks. If it is feasible to run the club night, we will reinstate the pre meeting ride. I will keep the website up to date so keep an eye on it as well. Gordon
There are still no official club activities coming up in the foreseable future. With the current relaxation of the rules, I would rcommend that you all visit the BMF website and read through the recommendations on riding by The Coalition of Motorcycling Organisations, which the BMF is one,using the link provided on the BMF site. Its only common sense really but at least if you are stopped you can say you are following proper guidlines. Lets hope we can all get together before too long. Gordon
Another month has passed by with no official club activities, except for Colin's daily news. Clearly we will not be able to hold our club night at the Alma this Wednesday June 3rd, and we have nothing planned for the club at the moment.There have been some interesting anecdotes amongst the daily drivel, and a lot of interest in visiting some of the places mentioned within the "confessional tales". There has also been some photos of some nice bikes, and shirts! Keep the stories coming in, because if nothing else it has revealed some interesting behaviour of some of more elderly and respectable members in years gone by. I'm admitting to nothing but I will confess to having been a bit of a hooligan when I first got my hands on my old Rocket in 1965.
Now that there has been some easing of the social distancing rules for the rest of us, there is maybe some scope for a bit of riding, but its really down to commonsense. Personally I don't feel comfortable about going for a ride at the moment, despite the strong urge to do so. Sitting in the garden listening to the large numbers of bikes going past, particularly over the last couple of weekends, doesn't help. Don't forget we are affiliated to the BMF, and its useful to keep an eye on their website, www.bmf.co.uk for up to date information and advice. They warned of a two week purge on speeding, but it certainly hasn't made any impact on the traffic here.
Also for those of you with MOT expiring, Sean Davies Motorcycles has been up and running for several weeks, during the lockdown, and they always makes our club members welcome, so don't forget to support them over these difficult times. And they have an efficient collecting service locally if you cant get it to go! Lets keep our fingers crossed that things improve enough in the next few weeks ,we can all get back out on the bikes. Gordon
Just a quick update about club activities, or rather, the lack of club activities. You will have seen from Colins latest e-mail, there have been lots of requests for a club ride. While it's a lovely idea, the reality is that organising rides, even for just a few people, isn't really possible under the current restrictions. In addition, recoveries from breakdowns would appear to be an issue, the bike being repatriated, but not the rider, and if you were have an accident, your safety from the virus would be taken completely out of your hands. Like all of you, I am itching to get out on a bike, but I dont think its worth the risk.
You may have noticed that all the fuss about travelling to work by government has not mentioned motorcycles once. The BMF are on the case. I guess most politicians would never have sat on a motorbike, yet alone have used one to get to work. You just need to look at the people travellng on public transport recently to realise that cycling for more than five minutes would be out of the question for most of them. And Transport for London are reintroducing the congestion charge. Cashing in on the situation? You decide! Keep safe and if you can for the moment, stay at home. Gordon. PS And of course continue with your stories to Colin.
This Wednesday, 6th May, would have been our clubnight at the Alma. Spare a thought for the Landlord who had not had an easy time of it before all this happened. I have managed to resist taking a bike or a car for a ride, despite the almost continuous traffic past our house. We have managed to avoid going anywhere except for walks across the near by fields. I hope you have all be doing the same. It's not clear what the next few weeks will hold, but as a former scientist, I won't be going anywhere until there is a proven vaccine available. The idea that it will suddenly become safe to return to anything like normality in the short term is way off the mark.
This week we should have been going to the Isle of Man, albeit with the Porsche Club, and I was looking forward to the two scheduled early dawn drives around the circuit. So far I've only seen 120 mph on trackdays, and was looking forward to seeing if it would reach 146 mph, the top speed recorded in 1977. I've never been to the Isle of Man and it looks like next year now. I know one or two of you are also going to miss the TT as well. Who could have known? I shall also be missing the Le Mans 24hrs in June, and it's not likely that we will all be able to get together for the rescheduled event. I had got the Moto GP on my wish list as well. George and I had an interesting weekend last year.
My old BMW will come under the MOT amnesty this month, the BSA doesn't need one, although I usually have it done, and one of the cars falls in June. We would have been well into our riding programme by now, especially with all the lovely weather, not to mention the price of petrol. George has suggested that we use my air raid shelter for club nights, but social distancing would prove a bit difficult, especially on the stairs! Not to mention the beer consumption. I've avoided any more disasters with the paddock stand by riding the Varadero round in circles on my drive. When my children were younger they each had a 50cc motorcycle and we had a circuit around the garden, which was very popular with them and with visitors. They all learned about brakes, helmets, and how to avoid bushes! some visiting children had a steep learning curve. And it didnt do much for the lawn!
I'm pleased to see you are all making the effort to deliver some drivel to Colin for his daily reports. I have to say that some of the stories and photos are worthy of a better title than drivel. Some will im sure generate a degree of flack when we do meet up again. Keep sending them in, otherwise he will start making stuff up, and we dont want that. Gordon
Clearly there have been no bike runs or social gatherings since the last update, but I have to say that Colin is doing a grand job coordinating the drivel correspondence. The quality of the content is now getting to a standard that makes me feel a bit inadequate making these reports! Im pleased to see that there has been such a good response, and that everyone has joined in with the spirit of it all. I did think I might qualify for the most stupid bike related event. I managed to let my Varadero fall over while trying to use a paddock stand, something I have used sucessfully many times. It wouldnt have been so bad, had it not been beside my car, which now has a nice dent in the wing! It only smashed the Honda screen, which was easily replaced in a few days. It annoys me so much, I have parked the car the other way round so I dont have to see it every day! If you have done anything more foolish, do let us know! Gordon
It's been such lovely weather and with petrol heading downwards in price, the temptation to get a bike out and go for a ride has been enormous. But we of the baby boomer generation were brought up to do as we were told, something thats gone out of the window in the last few decades. So it's down to running them up in the garage, if only to remind the neighbours that you are still about! I've only got one that makes a bit of a noise so Im not too worried. I've still got the goldie silencers in the garage roof that were sawn in half, the entire contents removed, brazed together and rechromed! I had to run a bigger main jet in the amal TT in the day, but the noise was fantastic.
Living where we do there is a lot of traffic including lots of bikes. Its 30mph in all directions, and yet the number of bikes winding it through the gears as they leave the junction, nice to listen to, is a bit dangerous, as lots of them must be approaching the national speed limit in second or third gear. I feel a bit of a hypocrite as I was a bit of a hooligan as a youth! And any of you who have tried to do the grocery shopping on a bike will know, that even with proper luggage, its not all that practical, even if, like George, you have a tank bag! Most of the bikes I have seen have no luggage, and no haversacks, and you cant get much in your pockets. Of course the car boy racers do their bit as well as they make huge ammounts of noise, including all the popping and banging, even if their performance is in the large part, unimpressive. If you want to see how a real car goes try 1977 Carrera 3 at Nurburgring on YouTube. I did hear that some of the popular routes for bikes around the country were being exploited by a few as they were more or less deserted of other traffic. I'm sure none of us would condone that sort of thing, but I do understand the reasoning! Those of us of a certain age will be sad to hear about Sir Stirling Moss. As a lad, I remember having a green Vanwall race car by Corgi. I can remember seeing the results of his Goodwood accident on TV. He was a a truly great sportsman and driver, and an example to us all.
Finally, I would remind you all to keep sending in your contributions to Colin, so he can keep up the standard of the drivel over the next few weeks. Otherwise you might be getting more from me and George! Keep safe Gordon.
Just when we thought things would start to get going with the riding, we all are confined to barracks. This week would have seen our first pre meeting ride. As it is all we can offer is more of Colins E mails. Please do all you can to improve the content of the drivel by sending in your stories. Keep safe. Gordon
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