Only two runs since the last report as the cool days and long nights draw in. The Berkshire Downs run in October was eventful in that one of our riders took a tumble on a bend and hurt his elbow and ribs. Fortunately he is recovering well and we hope to see him on his bike again in the Spring. I was unable to go on the last run of the year, the Reading Toy Run, in support of Dr Bernardo’s school in Wokingham. Club nights continue to be well supported.

Our Christmas Dinner was held at the Cherry Tree on Tuesday 11th December and 26 members and partners attended. As usual the Cherry Tree laid on a very good menu. A quiz and raffle followed the dinner. A very enjoyable evening and many thanks to Keith, Dennis and Mick for organising the night and the quiz and to the staff at the Cherry Tree.

By the time this edition of Fishtail arrives we will have had our AGM and the Events List will be posted shortly afterwards.

Best wishes to everyone for the New Year.

August started off with a run to the Sammy Miller Museum in the New Forest on the 5^th,   eight members enjoyed the run in good weather.  There wasn’t an autojumble on this year so no bargains this time.  The next weekend it was Popham Megameet where we have a club stand.  The new booking arrangement is a bit laborious and the early arrival time put some people off.  The forecast heavy rain didn’t materialise and we had about twenty bikes on display.  Attendance seemed to be down overall which was probably due to the bad weather forecast.

The next run was on August 15^th to Whitefarm Lodge Care Home in Whitton.  We had been asked to make a visit because several of the residents had been motorcyclist and the events organiser for the home thought they would enjoy seeing and talking about the types of bikes they had owned.  Six set off for the run to Twickenham on four Velocettes, a Norton and a BSA.  We took the Norton and BSA as we knew they were bikes two of the residents had owned in the past.  The visit was well received and brought a lot of smiles to faces, especially when the bikes were started up.

The run to the Brough Superior meeting on August 26^th was cancelled due to the very bad weather forecast for the day.

September 9^th was our annual Seymour Charity Run which is about 65 miles through the Oxfordshire countryside with a stop at Thame by the old Seymour premises.  Good weather and an enjoyable ride with twelve bikes on the run.  We had the pleasure of Jane and Roger Franklin’s company on the run.  They had made the effort to ride down to join the run which was much appreciated by our Centre.  I hope they enjoyed the run and had a safe journey home.

Kop Hill by Dennis Edginton

Kop Hill weekend weather was perfect, dry and sunny with a welcome light breeze and it brought the Spectators out in large numbers. As ever there was a delicious selection of rare and little seen cars and bikes such as the beautifully built Agli Vincent and the Seymour KTT Mk V111 as ridden by Andy Barrett

There were 12 Velocettes that ‘rode’ the Hill with 6 Velocettes displayed on our stand. It was especially great to see familiar faces from the Woburn, London, and S. Hants centres visit our stand during the 2 days. Tim Pottage brought his 1938 racing MOV, a really stunning little machine and he and Norman Bailie on his 1939 KSS Mk2 both rode the Hill on Saturday with Norman again riding the Hill again on Sunday. Other TV members to complete the Hill were Keith Cookson MSS, Mark Lomax Venom, Dave Peterson MSS and Roy Springate on his Rudge.We had considerable interest on both days from the Public with 3 possible new members for the VOC. The organisers of Kop Hill visited our stand and were most complimentary about the stand and how it was organised. On the Saturday Norman Bailie gave a live interview on local radio about the Thames Valley Velocette Centre.

It was a pleasure to see John Cobb’s record breaking 24litre Napier Railton, a truly wonderful sound for all car, motorcycle ‘motor heads’. And a big thanks to Robin for her very welcome lovely Lemon Drizzle Cake which went very quickly on the Sunday.  A very memorable event this year.

Farewell to Dave Hogg

Finally one piece of sad news, Dave Hogg a member of TV Centre, passed away during the night on Thursday 13^th September.  The Centre has sent their condolences to Dave’s family and we hope to have more about Dave in the next issue of Fishtail.

It’s been a busy time at Thames Valley Centre since the last Fishtail report.  Events started off with four Centre members having an enjoyable, but cool, day at Brooklands with Dennis Edginton, our Chairman, featured astride his MSS on the first picture in Fishtail 452. The poor weather continued which resulted in our run to Stoke Bruerne being cancelled on 2^nd May.  A complete change in the weather saw seven Centre members participating in the Fleet Lions Run on May 7^th when shade and ice creams was the order of the day. This is a big charity run with well over a hundred bikes of all makes entered.

The Southern Classic Bike Show was on May 19^th where our refreshed stand was awarded third prize and we had the pleasure of Jane and Roger Franklin’s company.  There was a lot of interest in the sporting bikes on display and many thanks to all who helped make the stand a success.

May 23^rd was our annual Cheddar Gorge run with nine members and one guest riding to Cheddar where we met up with riders from Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Bristol and I believe Wye Valley?  My magneto was starting to play up so I was a bit late away from the coffee stop and missed the gathering at the foot of the Gorge. I understand about forty Velocettes were there and many then went back to Priddy where we had an enjoyable lunch at the Queen Victorian Inn.  This run seems to be getting more popular every year.

Our first run to Crofton Beam Engines followed on May 27^th where eight members enjoyed the usual excellent coffee and cakes and a tour of the engines in steam.  Always fascinating – at least I think so!

June 13^th saw 9 of us visiting Bletchley Park.  A very interesting day out; we could have spent a lot more time looking at the exhibits but the entrance tickets last for a year so we may well return.

Our biggest event of the year is our Show Off Your Bike Day which was held on June 16^th at the Cherry Tree.  About forty five bikes of all makes were on display and the rain held off so we could all enjoy the barbeque laid on by the Cherry Tree. Steve Clark, one of our newer members, was so taken by the Bletchley Park visit that he appeared as Private Pike – stupid boy!  Added some fun to the day. The following awards and trophies were presented:

Best Rigid – Velocette Tim Simkins – G3 Colonnial
Best Spring Frame Velocette – Tony Mortimer – Venom Thruxton
Best Pre-1945 Non-Velocette – B Sarney – Rudge Special
Best Post-1945 Non-Velocette – Ivor Reyland – BSA Gold Star
Best Post 1972 Classic/Modern – Chris Winsby – Norton Commando
Arthur Lavington Trophy-  Geoff Bowen – Venom Thruxton
Ben Mallinson Cup – Dennis Frost – MKI KTT
Brian Harris Trophy – Steve Boakes – V2 MAC
Cherry Tree Shield – Dennis Frost – MKI KTT

Our regular club nights continue to be well supported with about twenty bikes at the last evening.

Finally, I have updated our email list in line with the requirements of GDPR.  If you would like to be included in our list please contact me.

The recent bad weather has caused us to re-schedule our planned talks for March. We were fortunate that Stuart McGuigan from Criterion was able to come to our Club Night on Tuesday 13th March and give us a talk on the Velocette gearbox. About 30 members attended the night which shows how much interest there was in the subject. Stuart and John went through some of the features of the gearbox and although in the general the gearbox is very good they pointed out where you can get problems. Criterion are known for developing improvements for Velocettes and Stuart and John showed us a development prototype of a new first gear pinion which gives a lower first gear in the Series 12 gearbox without altering the other three ratios. This about to go on test and it will be interesting to hear how that goes. It should make bikes with Series 12 gearboxes more manageable in traffic. I personally found the restoration of a gearbox mainshaft which was worn in the sleeve gear area of great interest, it could be the solution to a problem on another bike which uses a gearbox very similar to the Velocette gearbox. Many thanks to Stuart and John for coming to our meeting and sharing their thoughts with us. We appreciate the time and effort they put into making the evening so successful.

With the weather improving and the days getting longer we are looking forward to getting out on our bikes more. Our first planned ride is to the Rural Life Museum at Tilford with the South Hants Centre and we then have regular rides planned for the rest of the year. Details can be found in the Events Section of our website or the Fishtail Events Diary.