Meriden Branch Report May 2017

Hello members.

                         Once again, I’m in the uncomfortable position of having to apologise for the lateness of this report.  What with cluster migraines, a mysterious, recurring tummy bug and chronic insomnia I’ve had a pretty miserable June.  Oh well such is life.

May was a really busy month for the branch so I will launch straight in.  We started off at the Donnington Park Race weekend over the weekend of 6th & 7th.  Julie and Len took the branch stand on the Friday and stayed the weekend.  The weather on Friday and Saturday was distinctly disappointing but Sunday was a much improved picture.  Leicester branch manned the stand on the Saturday but we manned it ourselves on Sunday.  The aforementioned poor weather on Saturday proved to be a real dampener on attendance with only the keenest visitors braving the cold and wet.  John told me that when he set off from home early Sunday, he was in summer gear but had to have his heated grips on to start with.  That said, by the time he got to Donnington itself he had switched them off and it just got warmer from there.  We had 5 Meriden bikes on the stand and 1 Hinkley and seemed to be meeting a goodly number of new faces including a couple of our own members who had not made it to any of our other events.  There were a lot of interesting bikes on display including a pre-war 500cc OHC Triumph that never made it into production on the London Motorcycle Museum display, a Rob North framed unit 500 racer, a Trail Blazer based racer and the P1 Trident prototype all on stands very near our own.  There was a good deal of interesting machinery on the track both parading and racing.  They ranged from old British 4 stroke singles to early Japanese multis.  The Wiz Norton team were there, fielding their rotary engine race machines, a rare sight even in their day so really remarkable to see them used in anger now.

The weekend of the 19th – 21st saw a group of 10 members heading off to the West Wales Rally.  As I haven’t been at any clubhouse gatherings this month I am a little sketchy on the details but I am reliably informed that they felt that they were made to feel extremely welcome and that the whole thing was a rip – snorting success.

Also on the 21st was the Rugby Bike Feast.  18 bikes mustered at the Long Itchington Diner from whence our chairman Steve Bradwick led the ride in.  For the first time, the organisers had reserved a space for us which was really nice.  This event seems to be growing year by year and this one was massive.  There were 100s of bikes and 1000s of people in attendance.  A good time all around.

The Bank Holiday Monday 22nd saw us attend the Wings and Wheels event at the Bideford on Avon Glider and Flying Club.  Keith led in a convoy of 13 bikes.  The weather was really very miserable with a pervading misty drizzle.   There were a great many classic cars, bikes and light aircraft on display.  There was also a stunt display from an intrepid pilot in his Pit Special.  Unfortunately, his display was truncated by the bad weather and attendant low cloud.  This was a charity event but as yet we have not heard how much was raised.  Sadly the weather continued to deteriorate with the drizzle developing into a steady rain and by 2:30 the event was finished.

Well that covers the events so all that remains is one of my favourite duties which is to welcome our newest members and they are:  Jason Hickman, Stephen Spencer, Robert Castledine, Andrew Davies, Brian Knight and Rosie Platts.  Welcome all we hope to see you at the clubhouse on a Monday night from 8pm.

As the month is practically over there would be little use in listing its events.  So, the event list for July will be published in the June blog.

That’s all for now so stay safe and here’s hoping for a fabulous July.  Best regards, Alistair.

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Page edited 30 June 2017