Fishtail 459 – March 2019

A relatively quiet time of year at TV, our trial midweek lunch time meetings have been quite well attended and it is good to see some members who can’t make the evening meetings.  We are going to a different venue for the March meeting which may be more convenient for members who live in the west of our area.  On 12th February we had a very interesting technical session with Stuart and John from Criterion Engineers on the Velocette primary drive.  Stuart and John went through some of the problem areas and give good advice and solutions to problems.  Many thanks to Stuart and John for spending the time to make a very informative evening.  I gave a talk on the working of chronometric speedometers and rev counters at our club night on 26th February which seemed to be well received. With the warmer weather and lighter nights hopefully we will be out and about on our more soon.

Fishtail 458 – January 2019

The only event since the last Fishtail report was our annual AGM on January 11th.  It was well attended by 26 members.  Dennis and I gave a review of the last year and Keith presented his Treasurer’s report. Norman lead the review of events for the coming year and it looks like we have a lots of interesting runs planned for this year along with our stands at the Southern Classic Bike Show, Popham Megameet and Kop Hill Hill Climb.  Additional runs will be added during the year so watch out for updates on our website and in Fishtail. For any members not on my contacts list and would like details of runs sent to you by email please get in touch with me on the address above. The 2018 committee were all re-elected again for the coming year.

During the AGM Dennis presented 2 awards to centre members for their enthusiastic support of the Thames Valley Centre over the last year:

The Hardman Cup to Roy Springate

The Ted Portsmouth Cup to Steve Clark

We are trialling winter midweek lunchtime meetings on the Wednesday of the week between our regular Tuesday night meetings to see how much support there is for daytime meetings.  Again details on the website or Fishtail.  Looking forward to warmer days, lighter nights and more runs on the bikes.

Fishtail 457 – December 2018

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.

Fishtail 456 – October 2018

TV Centre had four runs since the last Fishtail report. On 19th September nine members enjoyed a run to the Iron Age and Town Museum in Andover. The route was mainly back roads from Padworth to Andover. The Museum features artefacts found at Danebury Hill Fort. It is a small museum run mainly by volunteers and the items are very well displayed. The craftsmanship in the metalwork on display is exceptional considering the age of the exhibits. As usual, coffee and cakes in the café went down well. On the way back we stopped at Danebury Hill Fort and had a look at the earth works. A good day out but a bit windy on exposed roads.

26th September was our run to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Brookwood Cemetery lead by Dave Peterson. We paid our respects to Dave’s Canadian uncle who was a Battle of Britain fighter pilot. It is interesting to look around the cemetery and see how many different nationalities fought and died for our country. On leaving the cemetery we stopped for lunch at the Outlook before returning home. The next run was to Crofton Steam Fair on Sunday 30th September where certain members made new friends with teddy bears in overalls!

We also joined up with the Oxford Centre on October 11th for the Geoff Steele Memorial Run. A good run to the northern part of Oxfordshire and into Gloucestershire. As we were a bit late arriving at the start, the break for lunch at Ilmington was very welcome. There was a good turnout on the day and the weather was good.

Our Centre AGM is on Tuesday 8th January 2019 at the Cherry Tree in Stoke Row starting at 8pm. We look forward to seeing as many members as possible at the AGM and please bring along suggestions for runs for 2019 as we will being reviewing the Events Diary for 2019 at the meeting. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Fishtail 455 – September 2018

August started off with a run to the Sammy Miller Museum in the New Forest on the 5th,   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 15th 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 26th was cancelled due to the very bad weather forecast for the day.

September 9th 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 13th 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.

Fishtail 454 – August 2018

The run to the Flower Pot at Cheriton was enjoyed by eight Centre members. The start had to be moved from Henley to Twyford due to the regatta and road works. About forty motorcycles were at the lunch stop which added another element of interest. Many thanks to Chris Webber for arranging and leading the run.

The next event was the Woodcote Steam Rally. The weather was very hot and unfortunately the number of visitors and exhibitors was down on previous years probably due the World Cup and Wimbledon finals. Unfortunately two events had to be cancelled; the British Bike Night was cancelled by the organisers and our participation in the Up the Downs run. The weather forecast was so bad for the day of the Up the Downs run we decided not to go as a group from the Centre. Hopefully the weather will be better next year as we particularly enjoy this run. Club nights at the Cherry Tree continue to be well supported with the good weather bringing out a variety of motorcycles.