Editorial
Five months into the year already. It is a lot warmer now, but it still gets wet
occasionally, “So what!” I hear you exclaim, well it is a time when some caution
should be exercised, dry spells followed by rain, make for a slippery road,
usually on what is called a fast bend, so called not for the mph! But the speed
you and your machine can part company. Please be careful. Articles sent in by
members are always needed for the newsletter, however it is appreciated if
writers keep a simple text format (notepad!) to ease fitting into the
`publisher’ format and keep picture files small, about 200kb is fine.
Martin
Crash!
News is usually good in your newsletter, so it is a shock when the realities of
life are brought home to us. Just before Christmas Mike Stevens had the
misfortune to be involved in a very nasty accident, from which he sustained
serious injuries, it doesn’t take much imagination to realise just how
unpleasant this is for both himself and his family and I’m sure that all who
read this, will join me in wishing Mike a very speedy recovery and return to
good health. It was unfortunate that this incident wasn’t heard about before, as
it was, it was only heard about at the Stafford Show by Dave Ramsden, for which
Dave, many thanks. An unpleasant reminder for all of us, that we should always
be on our guard against carelessness, from others, as well as our ourselves!
Good luck and get well soon Mike, when you’re better, maybe an article?
Martin.
 |
A rare beast
here is the Ural Pick-up, A serious trike; I wonder why they didn’t
market these over here? |
Update for Uttoxeter Rally 4&5 July
Hi Comrade Carl here with information on the rally that Dave & I are organising
at the V.J.M.C. classic bike show. It looks like it is going to be a great do
with over 900 bikes booked in for display on various stands.
There is also rallies been organised by the Gold Star Owners club around 80
bikes), JAWA/CZ club (holding their AGM with 100 bikes), Kawasaki GT club, BSA
owners club, UK Sidecar clubs (who are organising a sidecar village) & regional
sections of the VJMC .So this is something to be a part of. Also over the
weekend is a large auto jumble, bike demonstrations, etc. At night time the bars
are open from 7.00 pm till 1.00 am with two live bands booked in over the
weekend & a disco when they are not on stage, shower units & toilet facilities
are all over the camping area as are food outlets. Our rally area has been put
next to the Jawa /CZ club so it could be like an eastern rally, we have our own
marquee which Dave is supplying & transporting in case the weather plays a bit
foul. So if would like to be part of it here's what you have to do, A weekend
pass (show & camping) can be got in advance for £11 from me (cheques payable to
Carl Booth) as I have ordered 20 for our rally site (this means you save £3 on
the original price), but if you would like to display a bike on the stand in the
premier hall it's FREE! there's an incentive to polish that bike)
So come along & join in, if there is enough interest at this & it takes off, it
could become a regular rally for us in the summer with nearly everything laid on
by someone else except the beer), so less organising for us. So the more the
merrier & it will shove our bikes to the forefront in the classic world with our
club being the only Russian one. See you there Comrades...
I
can be contacted on 01253 720327 (leave a message on machine if no one in) or by
post at:- 6, Curzon Road, St. Anne's-on-sea, Lancashire FY8-3SE or e-mail
comradecarl@tiscali.co.uk
Extra News
1. The organisers of the Uttoxeter show will be giving Comrade Carl fifty
tickets for the event on sale or return to sell to members. These will be
slightly cheaper than those on sale by the VJMC themselves. Club members who
want to attend should contact Carl or I to get their tickets - can you please
add this information to the listing for Uttoxeter in the newsletter..
2. Also with regard to Uttoxeter - Tony Jones is expecting to have an auto
jumble stand at the event, offering mainly Russian stuff. This is another reason
for members to attend - you rarely see Russian spares at auto jumbles
 |
Look at ‘em,
as soon as the sun comes out, they have to find some mud to go splashing
around in! |
FBHVC ~ Federation of British Historic Vehicle
Clubs
Tony Jones was on the COC Stand at Stafford, Classic Bike Show, he reports:
Jacqueline Bickerstaffe came onto the stand and asked us to pass a message to
you.
“Basically right hand sidecars are low on their priorities at the moment so
don't expect any help/action soon. If however you do get a petition going then
they would be happy to lend their weight to it.”
So there you have it. No help from that quarter then! Also from Rosy Pugh ~
Secretary, Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs Ltd sent to us:
“At our recent (26th April) Federation legislation committee meeting we did
discuss the problems faced by your club with regard to sidecar regulations. The
feeling of the meeting was that a campaign could be counter-productive as it
might highlight the fact that the actual definition of a sidecar is rather hazy
at present and it was thought not to be in the interests of sidecar owners to
clarify this or to draw too much attention to it. Our motorcycle experts were
also of the opinion that a campaign had been organised in the past and had not
been successful – and the situation was unlikely to have changed.”
So based on that response, I have, on behalf of the COC, declined the invitation
by the FBHVC to affiliate to them, I feel that we would be funding other
campaigns for other clubs, rather than a cause close to our hearts ~
Peter J. Ballard.
MZ Riders’ Club ~ Scottish Rally
With
much glee I took up the invitation from the MZRC to attend their Scottish Rally
at Gairloch south of Ullapool on May bank holiday weekend and looked forward to
travelling through some off the county’s most spectacular scenery for weeks. In
the event some of it was obscured by cloud and I daren’t look at other bits for
fear of losing concentration while riding through atrocious conditions.
Having listened to the forecast beforehand I was almost tempted to go on my
outfit, but in the end was glad I took my solo. It performed faultlessly, which
was why I built it, and the narrow twisting single track roads on the west coast
of Scotland are perfect for the precise cat like handling and agility of a solo
Dnepr.
Being a man of relative leisure, and knowing it was long way, I set off early
and spent Thursday collecting two landmarks for the Round Britain Rally in East
and West Cumbria – this involved my first ever ride over the Wrynose and
Hardknot passes. Others had told me they were extreme, I just thought they were
cissies.
Now I know what they mean. Imagine, if you will, a very steep and twisty
footpath snaking endlessly up a mountain to which someone has haphazardly
applied some tarmac. I exaggerate not.
All this messing about saw me barely make Scotland by the end of the day. I knew
there was a campsite at Gretna, where the owner was very kind to me three years
ago. But he’d gone and it was closed. The other campsite in the village had
decided they didn’t want tents anymore because someone in a tent once made a
noise. It’s to be hoped they never get a rowdy carravanner or they’ll be out of
business on that principle. Anyway, I got a pitch at Annan and began to regret
the tiny tent I’d brought, in which I could only lie down, not read or cook. It
fined up and I read my book at a picnic table until dusk and then listened to my
MP3 player in the dark, as is my wont.
Friday dawned sunny but cold and it lasted until Irvine. When I came out of
Morrison’s supermarket after breakfast it was raining Datsun cogs and it did so
most of the way through Greenock to the Erskine Bridge and up past Loch Lomond.
Another stop at the Green Welly Shop on the A82, a fine restaurant, where I
talked to Irish BMW riders on their way to the Ulster Section camping weekend –
there were dozens of them – almost exclusively on modern stuff. I made a point
of talking to the one man on an air-cooled bike assuming some affinity in a
world where most people don’t know how their bike works and never get their
hands (or disposable latex gloves) dirty.
You know how you know some where’s a long way, but it’s about four times further
than you ever imagined it to be – well this trip was like that. It wasn’t warm
enough, it kept raining and then it got very windy. I missed the heated grips
and hand-guards on my outfit, but trying to ride it into a gale would have been
torture.
Eventually I arrived and was largely ignored by the dozen or so assembled – it
can be like that when you turn up at a rally on your own – the onus is on you.
Thankfully a Geordie lad made a fuss of me and I ceased to feel like some kind
of pariah. (the paranoia is my problem, not the MZ club’s). Enough brave fools
arrived for a good evening in the hotel about fifty yards away.
The rally swelled threefold on Saturday – making it a very reasonable turnout for such a remote destination. There was a sprinkling of traditional two-stroke MZs, several Rotax-engined ones and a later multi cylinder one, but many of the attendees were on more powerful tourers of non-Teutonic origin. I hoped for some photos of intrepid COC members, but there were none. Not even a sidecar in sight, so you’ll have to make do with my bike and some MZs.
The function room of the hotel, with its panoramic view of the sea, was chocka
on Saturday and much merriment was made. I plonked myself in the middle of the
throng, determined not to be ignored. I was asked how I could possibly ride on
Avon Safety Mileage tyres, as I often am - the fact that everyone used to use
them, they last a long time and I can fit them myself carries no weight with
those brought up on modern rubber and I was able to tell my stock of crap jokes
to people who haven’t heard them all before. Mike, the rally organiser, compared
the raffle, being a bit of a natural, and gave out the prizes for the bikes.
There were biker bandanas and plastic ponchos as prizes, but no tartan caps with
ginger hair, which was disappointing. I won ‘best mongrel dog’ for my bike,
though I prefer simply to refer to it as a special.
I
woke only slightly damp – a real cause for celebration given the conditions and
my inability to get in my bag properly. A few were staying another night, but as
Sunday dawned fine I decided to head home. Naturally the sun didn’t last, and it
was more of the same, though the last two hundred miles were mostly fine. I had
intended to camp over somewhere, but when I get pointed towards home I never
actually do that, and I did it in one with three extended sustenance stops and
without using more than a few miles of motorway where it was essential.
I
got in the house at just midnight, having been on the road for fourteen hours
and was so cold and shaken up I could hardly function until I’d stood under the
shower for half an hour. The total ride was just short of a thousand miles. But
one bloke rode to the rally from Southampton, and he’s eighty. There's a thin
line between torture and fun.
Dave Ramsden