This is the first of an attempt to keep our membership informed of what has been going on beyond the monthly club nights and to encourage you to take part in one or two of the large number of chances to take the old bikes for a ride.
I tried in vain to keep section notes in the Jampot, so at the last committee meeting, I agreed to give this a try.As an aside, I now belong to two one make clubs,and three others , as well as the Caravan Club.The one observation I would make is that the size of the annual subscription is in direct proportion to the size of the monthly magazine! And if you join the ACO which runs Le Mans, it will only be available in French!
The Ladies Lunch Meets continue to be popular and thanks to Dot for organising them for us. My attendance hasn’t been too good as we seem to be away too much. John got together a good programme for 2011, and I think it’s fair to say that a lot of members have enjoyed some excellent runs and visits in the course of the year. Two of the best ones for me involved the North Norfolk Railway, and we are grateful to Julian for having a contact there. Not only were we treated very well when we got there , the 98 miles each way proved quite exciting as well! A ride on the footplate of a steam railway engine must be high on everyone’s list.
I missed one or two trips, sitting in the sun in Spain, but John and I attempted the Lands End to John O Groat’s trip at the beginning of October. I reckoned that if we got to Lands End without mishap, then we were in with a chance. Despite the rain starting at the Dartford Crossing, we made it safely to Launceston on day one, despite our landlady for the night adding about 25 unnecessary miles to the journey!
Day two saw us visit the Lizard and Lands end and we made it to Tiveton, in the daylight. Despite the weather, we were in good spirits and keeping to schedule, and I have to say getting a bit excited about the rest of the trip. John struggled to book accommodation for the next couple of nights, but with that finally settled, we retired for the night. Still raining the next morning we set out again and were soon on track and cleared Birmingham and were on target to reach Carlisle before dark. Unfortunately, Johns Matchless expired at Sandbach and had to be recovered. I pressed on to my daughters, near Blackpool and returned the next day. My --- behaved quite well, but did consume a bit of oil-valve guides I hope, lost part of its battery carrier,( first time its come loose in 46 years of ownership) and almost lost one of the oil tank retaining bolts, but I feel I got away lightly! We learned a lot, I now have good wet weather gear and a new pair of boots, and I did hear rumours that another attempt may be made!
We recently lost another club member, Ray Faux, and several of us attended the funeral. Sad day.
We had rides to the museum of East Anglian Life, near Stowmarket - an easy ride and an excellent day out, and to the Combined Military Services Museum at Maldon. Again very interesting, well worth a vast and again an easy ride. www.cmsm.co.uk .We visited my friend David Lane at his garage on the way home where he showed us a beautifully finished MV 4 replica, based on a Honda 4. If thats the sort of thing you might like David is your man.
Top tip from one of your committee members - If like me you are using 6 volt electrics-nothing wrong with that-I did thousands of miles years ago, your headlight can be improved by using a halogen bulb. Nothing new there, but now I understand you can get LED rear bulbs, which combined with the halogen front,results in almost identical consumption as the originals.Those of you using the halogen front will have noticed that you had to carry more revs to balance the load,than before.
Colin unearthed a local story for us concerning the Zeppelin that crashed near Wigborough during the First World War and took us to the area. It’s uncanny to look across to where it crashed. Thanks for that, Colin, it really intrigues me.
We are looking for suggestions for rides, visits and any other suitable activities for 2012, so send them in. Equally, if you have any news or items of interest, send them in. John and Colin put a great deal of work for our little section and any help and support will be welcome.
I hope you all find this useful.
Gordon Levett