Fishtail 445 – June 2017

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.