2013 JANUARY Newsletter
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WELCOME TO THE FIRST NEWSLETTER OF 2013 First Aid Sunday 20th January Our Annual first course was held at the Cornwood village hall in attendance were Alison Ford, Sue Cave, Toni Turner, Jill Darton, John Varndell, Trevor Pridham, Terry & Vivienne Johns Mark & Christian Hull, Denis Secker, Rob Walls , Mark Hancock and Steve Ford (Instructor) our thanks to all that attended and to Steve for giving up his time and to Sue and Alison for laying on the Buffett lunch.................................
Editor: EMAIL info@plymouthmcc.co.uk
Plymouth Motorcycle Club
Marshalling and Rideouts
The club always needs Marshal’s to help with Monday club Rideouts. We need people to go out with other Marshals and Route Mark a junction, This entails standing on or near a junction and pointing the direction of travel that the ride is taking. You will be fully briefed on the route and if you are still not sure the route marshal will take you out with them and drop you off at the junction you are marking, as soon as you see the Tailend and Safety bike (orange Hi-Viz) you follow on behind the ride until instructed by the rear marshals to re-join the group. Where have you been over the winter?????. I cant believe you have all been in hibernation (cant blame you if you have though) Been out and about?? Do you think the places you have visited would make a ideal Monday route?? Then we would love to hear from you we are always glad to learn about new routes for Rideouts............
Web Address Change
In case you were unaware we have changed our website address to http://www.plymouthmcc.co.uk. The reason behind this is down to cost, We emailed Easyspace our service provider to see if we could reduce the website size to save money and their response was No we cant so the only option was to buy another Domain name this has taken our bill to Easyspace down from £300 per year to £50 per year a huge saving. To visit the website type in the ADDRESS BAR NOT A SEARCH ENGINE www.plymouthmcc.co.uk and click search..
STAR INN CHRISTMAS TOY RUN
The day after the Christmas party 7 of us met at Sainsbury's , for the Annual Christmas toy run organised by Lisa from the Star Inn at Old Liverton near Newton Abbott. On arrival at the Star we were treated to Tea and Coffee. We then left at 11am to ride to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital . We were met at the main entrance and directed to the children's ward where we were met by the nurses for Photo’s to be taken as we handed over gifts to the children, We left and headed up to Torbay Hospital to hand over more gifts. The day ended with some of us heading back to Captain Jaspers for Tea John Varndell....................................................
Maccess Account
When you renew your membership your new card will have a Maccess account number on it 615 5640. Maccess is a car parts discount store and is located at unit 12 St Mowden road Parkway Ind Est Plymouth PL6 8LH When you arrive there you have to show your membership card and sign in, Don’t forget everything is plus VAT......................................
AGM 2013
The AGM on Monday 28th January saw some out going and incoming committee members Jon Mac decided not to re-stand for election our thanks go out to him for giving his time to the club committee and Dave Glynn after 8 years as Treasurer has decided to take some time out so a huge Thank you Dave for your continued support over the years (now we can start meetings on time he he). Ken Bush has taken over from Dave, Ken has been on the committee before “Welcome Back” Gerry Pattison has joined us for the first time (where’s that Gavel of mine). This Years chosen charities are British Heart Foundation and the Plymouth Foodbank. The Scribe for the AGM was Kevin Freer and vote Counters were Rachael Bounds and Alison Ford…..Here is the full list of committee members PRESIDENT PAUL JOCE CHAIRMAN RITCH BOUNDS. SOCIAL SECRETARY STEVE FORD . GENERAL SECRETARY KEVIN FREER. RIDEOUT CO-ORDINATOR RITCH BOUNDS. PRODUCT OFFICER SUE BOUNDS. COMMITTEE OFFICER JOHN VARNDELL
VICE CHAIRMAN TREVOR PRIDHAM MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY SUE BOUNDS. TREASURER KEN BUSH. SAFETY OFFICER KEVIN FREER. EDITOR STEVE FORD COMMITTEE OFFICER GERRY PATTISON
NON COMMITTEE ROLES WEBMASTER PETER BATTEN LIFE-VICE PRESIDENT MIKE GRAINGER LIFE-VICE PRESIDENT PETER BATTEN I would like thank all the committee for helping to keep the club running smoothly and to also thank Denis Callicott For his work behind the scenes Thank you all.
Thanks to Tilla in France for this article Bikers in France, whether residents or visitors, have started 2013 with good news: the French authorities have recently announced the full and permanent scrapping of previous plans to force all bikers riding a machine of more than 125cc to wear 150cm2 of reflective clothing anywhere between the waist and the shoulders. Under the previous proposals, bikers who were caught not wearing the appropriate reflective clothing from 1st January 2013 would have been liable to a 68 euros fine payable on the spot and two points taken off their licence. French bikers, with the invaluable and continuous support of the French Federation of Angry Bikers – FFMC (Fédération Française des Motards en Colère), can now enjoy riding all over France without wearing any reflective clothing if they so wish.
Manuel Valls, French Interior Minister, has permanently scrapped the proposed compulsory reflective clothing for bikers! Thank you, Mr Valls! Manuel Valls, the French Interior Minister (right), announced the good news to the biking community earlier this month and a large number of bikers celebrated their victory of what had been a long battle that took several months. Manuel Valls has now officially decided to permanently scrap the ludicrous and non-sense proposals put forward by Claude Guéant, his predecessor, who had been ejected from the French government following last year’s presidential elections. The battle, which involved a series of national demonstrations gathering over 100,000 bikers and bringing the whole country to a complete stop, has obviously paid off and brought a fantastic result. Guéant initially proposed the compulsory wear of reflective jackets and, with the enormous pressure he was put under with thousands of angry bikers who kept blocking the roads all over the country, he decided to back off and restrict the reflective clothing to only 150cm2 between the waist and the shoulders. But this was not good enough – the bikers demanded full scrapping of the proposals, which they have now finally obtained. This was one of the most laughable and absurd proposals we had ever heard of because a) reflective clothing is precisely not reflective during day light, b) it is already compulsory to ride with headlights turned on, which makes riders clearly visible and c) those who ride machines of up to 125cc would have been exempt from wearing reflective clothing on the grounds that they don’t ride a powerful enough bike to be considered dangerous on the roads! Let’s not forget that a very large number of motorcyclists who ride a moped or a 125cc bike are precisely those who don’t hold a full motorcycle licence and have only attended at the very most a one-off 7 hour training course all together. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FFMC AND ALL BIKERS IN FRANCE! There is nothing more productive than get together, stand up for our rights and fight against ludicrous public decisions that discriminate bikers against other road users and make our lives difficult when we use a mode of transport that should be encouraged, as it is the golden SOLUTION to reduce road congestion and air pollution. Demonstrate, stand up for our rights, fight against our government’s ludicrous proposals that put the future of motorcycling in danger – are these what perhaps British bikers should do more by following the example of their French neighbours? Whilst French bikers have remarkably won the reflective clothing battle, they now have to continue their fight against their government to make traffic filtering (or “lane splitting” to use the North American terminology) legal in France.
LETS PARTY! That’s just what we did at the club’s xmas party there were some new faces and some of the “old regulars” . Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves eating, drinking dancing and chatting. The DJ was on the ball and soon sussed our taste of music and even I had a go with my “space boot” at dancing “what a sight that must have been , still you got do it.”. People did complement him and his music well done Kevin. (problem is we don’t have his contact number as he was the pubs DJ) . Detective time coming up. We had the traditional Star prize 4 winners cash prize that paid for their drinks for the night., and of course the BIG raffle this year we didn’t do envelopes so everyone choose what they wanted. Don’t know if that was a good idea as no one has said what they thought as yet. The food was brilliant which is no surprise as we have a great catering team, Pat, Alison, Sharon and me. I think most of the food went and some got a “goody bag” to take home too. Waste not want not. This is my chance to thank everyone who helped organise and run the party you know who you are. Cheers everyone and can I book you for 2013 Xmas party PLEEEASE. Here’s to this years Xmas do. Hope to see you all there. Sue Bounds..................
Plymouth Megaride 2013
The Plymouth Megaride are inviting club members to help choose a charity for this years event, Ideally it needs to be a local based charity so that the money raised stays local and a charity that does not mind helping out on the day the closer the charity the easier it is for the charity to send people to help out. If you have any suggestions please come and see me...................................
Next Club night 11th February 1st club rideout (long) 1st April 20th April MAG bike show 2nd May First Plymouth Bike night 3rd May BMAD Festival Paignton
Some Dates for you.
DON’T FORGET WE MEET EVERY FORTNIGHT DURING WINTER MONTHS
End of year rideout
This year we took 35 bikes and 37 people to the Inn on The Green at Paignton Sue managed to get a lift up with Mr Tibbins in the van as she did not want to miss this one. Nice food and a dry day what more could you ask for. Thanks to everyone that came along.