Fishtail 445 – June 2017

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There has been a lot of activity at TV Centre since the last report. The first event was the Velocette Stand at the Southern Classic Bike Show at Kempton Park on Saturday May 20 th. As usual we had a good display of machines, a MOV, a rigid MAC, a MkII KSS, a chrome tank Viper and a Thruxton. The display attracted a lot of attention with plenty of visitors – especially during the heavy rain showers! Unfortunately we didn’t win any prizes this year so we will review the display for next year. Many thanks to everyone who loaned a bike for the stand and helped on the day.

Next up was our annual Cheddar Gorge run on Wednesday 24 th May. Twelve Velos started from TV Centre and arrived at the Gorge around midday after a tea and bacon butty stop at Hilperton. We were joined at Cheddar by members from Bristol, Wye Valley, Devon & Cornwall and Dorset Centres. We counted 35 Velos assembled at the bottom of the Gorge along with a Sunbeam, Triumph and Morini; about 40 bikes in total. The weather was great as well with a good gathering at Priddy for lunch. This is becoming a popular event with many interesting machines taking part.

The following Wednesday, June 7 th , we had a run to Alresford lead by Chris Webber. We stopped at the Flower Pots at Cheriton for lunch. Good food and their homebrewed beer was appreciated by all. There is an informal classic bike meet at the Flower Pots on Wednesdays and many interesting machines turned up over lunch. Many thanks to Chris for organising the run.

The next run was to the Haynes Museum at Sparkford and six centre members enjoyed the run down to Sparkford, the museum and lunch in the café. Our final run for this period was to Crofton Beam Engines on June 25 th. Six members started off from Padworth and we were joined at Crofton by several other members, we were allowed to park up in the grounds and had a display of Velocettes which attracted a lot of interest from visitors to the engines. Coffee and cakes were as good as ever. The engines were in steam and it is fascinating to watch the action of the beam linkages to achieve parallel motion.

Club nights continue to be well attended and we have several more runs coming up. Details can be found on the new TV Centre website as well as Fishtail.

Fishtail 444 – May 2017

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With the slightly warmer weather and lighter evenings runs and other activities are starting to ramp up at the Thames Valley Centre. Our first run of the year was to Tangmere in conjunction with the South Hants Centre. We had a good run down to Loomies Café where we met up with South Hants and then proceeded to Tangmere and had an interesting tour of the museum. The next run was to Prescott Bike Festival and three centre members had an enjoyable day watching the hill climb. To continue the aeronautical theme the next run was to the FAST museum at Farnborough. The weather turned very cold and eight members braved the chilly start and had a good tour of the museum including getting inside helicopters and planes.

May Bank Holiday Monday saw 6 centre members participate in the Fleet Lions run. No prize winners this year but they managed to miss most of the rain showers.

Our Centre website is now up and running at www.thamesvalleyvelocette.co.uk. Many thanks to Norman and Ed for all the hard work in creating a very professional looking site. Have a look and you will find the dates for our runs and shows under the Events sections By the time this is published we will have had our usual stand at the Southern Classic Show at Kempton Park and it will be interesting to see any changes made by the new organisers. We are also starting to make preparations for our Show Off Your Bike Day on 15 th July at the Cherry Tree and we hope to attract the usual collection of interesting Velocettes and other makes to the show.

Fishtail 443 – March 2017

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The main event for Thames Valley since the last Fishtail was the Annapurna Trail presentation by our quest speaker Nigel Adcock. Nigel went to Nepal and completed the ride just before the earthquake struck and some of his before and after pictures showed the total destruction of ancient temples in Kathmandu. The pictures and videos of the ride were quite amazing. The roads could only be described as terrible but the 500cc Indian Enfields on standard road tyres made the trip. Not a journey for the faint-hearted. Many thanks to Nigel for coming along and giving us his presentation.

As the weather should be improving, we are about to start our programme of runs. The first being a joint run with South Hants to Tangmere. The programme continues through the summer and into autumn and we look forward to seeing as many members as possible enjoying at least some of the runs. Dates for all the events are in Fishtail and I will circulate details of meeting places and times closer to the event. Please contact me to be included on the email circulation list if you want to receive details and are not receiving them already.

Good progress is being made with our new Thames Valley Centre website and we hope to have it up and running in the next couple weeks. I will give the web address as soon as it is available. Let’s hope the weather stays fair so we can enjoy some early runs out on the bikes.

Fishtail 442 – January 2017

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The Centre held its AGM on 10 th January at the Cherry Tree Inn at Stoke Row with 19 members in attendance. The Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary reviewed the past year and informed the meeting of the financial health of the Centre. Overall the Centre had another successful year with many good runs and events. The current committee was re-elected for the coming year and the events list for 2017 reviewed. An interesting discussion of the new Centre website followed and we hope to have this up and running soon.

The final action at the AGM was the award of the Hardman Expert Cup for special efforts for the Centre. It was awarded this year to Ed Tilsley for his excellent work on the production of the pull-up banner on the History of the Velocette. The award was accepted on Ed’s behalf by Norman Bailie.

The next significant event for the Centre is the Annapurna Trail presentation by guest speaker Nigel Adcock on 28th February at the Cherry Tree. It’s an intriguing trip through Nepal on standard Enfield motorcycles which I’m sure we will all enjoy.