2014 Plymouthmcc Parkway Social Club
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July News Letter
Bikers all revved up for 20th Mega Ride By Plymouth Herald | Posted: July 16, 2014
MOTORCYCLISTS are gearing up for the biggest event of the year as Plymouth MegaRide is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The huge event, which will see thousands of motorbikes take over the Hoe, is set to take place on Sunday, August 17. With new traders, a different pin badge, and XLR as this year's band, the organisers are hoping it will be the biggest and best MegaRide yet.
Editor Cheyenne Johnson Email chey15@hotmail.co.uk
Plymouth Motorcycle Club
There will be a children's fun fair, face painting, Motorcycle traders, food and drink and much more. Radio Plymouth, with Jemma Jones and DJ Ian Calvert, will be host the entertainment throughout the day. Ritch Bounds, MegaRide organiser, said: "The MegaRide has been run by Plymouth Motorcycle club members from the beginning as a way of raising funds for charities close to their hearts. "What started as a few hundred bikes going for a ride has grown to a few thousand bikes all different shapes and sizes from all over the world. To promote the charities for this year and encourage people to donate. Plymouth Motorcycle Club held a photo shoot with representatives from Diabetes UK and Scope, along with band members from XLR. "The weather was kind to us with no rain to dampen the fun of the day. “At the MegaRide bikers are asked for a donation of ÂŁ3 per person and the bikes will leave Lee Mill Industrial Estate at 11.30am on Sunday, August 17, arriving on the Hoe at around 12.15pm. It would be nice to have as many people as possible to line the route and cheer the bikers on."
Looks like we have some serious coverage here folks, print ups like this can do nothing but good and is just what we need. Fingers crossed for a good forecast now and we will be assured of a good turn out, surely with the extra attractions this year every body will want to be at the 20th MegaRide? Yea, course they will.
Triumph Live - Sat 12th July 2014 Gaydon Hertigae Motor Centre What is Triumph Live? - This year was the 3rd year that Triumph Motorcycles of Hinckley had hosted this “bike rally” for all Triumph motorcycles owners and enthusiasts by celebrating its past history and allowing the public to get up close to their latest models, with factory tours, demo ride’s, stunt rider shows, trade stands and live bands. Along with nearby camping on the Friday and Saturday nights for the weekend. Where and what is Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre? - Gaydon Motor Centre is located on the site of the old WW2 RAF air base and has a great car museum with conference centre and is located just off junction 12 of the M40, a few miles north of Banbury in Warwickshire. The event was first advertised early in the year with the offers of discount on the event entrance and camping which a few of us took to save a few £’s, by the middle of June most of us had sorted out their event tickets, factory tour time slot and camping. Come Friday 11th July ‘14 the opening day of the event campsite and Triumph factory there were three groups heading up country, Roy, Pat, Rick, Sharon and Steve heading direct to the campsite, Kev and myself going directly to the Triumph, Hinckley or the afternoon factory tour and Dave and Alex taking the scenic route to the event campsite. Kev and myself made good time getting to the Triumph no.2 factory at Hinckley were the tours were self guiding so you could go just about anywhere you wanted and take as many pictures as you like, because most of the factory workers had been given the day off, leaving just a few key workers just answer any questions whilst making sure we did not come to any harm. The weather was holding off so it was back on the bikes with just a few spots of rain as Kev and myself worked are way through the south bound M40 Friday afternoon traffic to the campsite. Roy had pre-booked us into the campsite and left some tent space, so we all managed to get camped together. We spent Friday evening roaming around the Gaydon site seeing what was where and all looked pretty good for the next day. Saturday morning soon came around and after breakfast during which Steve displayed a amusing sat backward stunt on his bike, it was time to get into the event site which was really starting to fill up with the loads of motorcycle stunts shows, car stunts, Triumph exhibitions and seminars, three huge Triumph themed marquees all with live bands, trade village, White Helmet motorcycle display team, car stunt driving all with blistering sun so ice creams and cold drinks were very mush of the day. The event day was fully enjoyed by us all getting to see everything or demo ride on a few Triumph’s and chat to some of the Triumph technical staff with a few questions. After a campsite evening meal it was time to get back to the main area with the evening main event live bands taking to the huge stage. The first band up was Toseland and heavy rock band headed by the ex-WSBK world champion James Toseland, who had just returned from a tour supporting the American rock band Aerosmith. The Toseland band gave a very slick professional performance and even managed to change into Triumph t-shirt during show to delight of many of the ladies. During the band break Sharon and Pat disappeared to the side of the stage with the intent to get James Toseland autograph or picture, after we tracked them down we found them with phones in their hands with pictures of them with James Toseland. Alex then decided he was going to do the same as his sister Brid was also a Toseland fan, with mission completed and signed autographed CD’s and Facebook updates done. James Toseland was a real gent by not leaving until the last request for a picture or autograph was done, we even managed got a group picture with him. With the rain just holding off the head liner local band from the Birmingham area really blasted off with some great songs and really got the crowd bouncing on their feet with great songs and encouraging banter with the crowd. We all managed to get back and into our tents before the rain started properly for the night, the early morning campsite voices indicated that the majority of people were trying to get their tents down and packed before any more rain. The return early morning Sunday journey home was completed pretty quickly by us all by our chosen routes. All in all a good value for money weekend and roll on the next Triumph Live in 2015. Kev, Alex, Dave, Roy, Pat, Steve, Rick, Sharon & Pete
I have had an e-mail from Mark from MSC motorcycles (above) saying that the total sum raised for the Devon Air Ambulance ride was £260, a fantastic amount considering the weather conditions. Mark would once again like to thank every one who helped out and turned up and braved the weather conditions especially on the A38. A sum well worth braving the conditions for I’m sure you will all agree.
OUR TRIP TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL Submitted by Mac
Sunday 6th of July, sat at Millbay waiting to board the Pont Aven at 15.30, bugger its pouring down good job i had an umbrella to stop the 4 of us all getting soaked. Eventually we made our way to the check in booths, luck was on our side, it stopped raining and that saved us the bother of having to keep our passports dry. An hour and a half later we were wondering around the ferry having secured the bikes and sorted the cabins, at last, the ferry sailed on time.
Monday 7th Arrived in Santander around 12ish to a wet looking sky, so, do we put on wet weather gear? i did not, but the others put theirs on, i thought it would be ok until we got to Potes in the Pecos Mountains; we got there at 3ish after stopping for a drink and go to the loo. In Potes we had a walk about to show Alan around who had not been there before, we stopped for a coffee then on to Riano, one of the big lakes about 30 miles on through the Pecos mountains, from there on to Leon where we stopped overnight.
Tus 8th/Wed 9th On the bikes to another hotel in Portugal, we arrived at Braganca staying there for 2 nights. We did a round trip of about 130 miles over the mountains & twisties a great ride stopping at a typical Portuguese cafe, coffee was cheap. Onward we went without seeing very many cars at all only to see as we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie a lotus 7, they were Brits as well, they stopped to take photos the same as us, onward to our Ibis hotel. Cafe across the road so that was us fixed up. Thurs 10th/ Fri 11th Porto was our next stop, hell that’s a big busy city; the temp was far too hot to be getting hot under the collar. Hotel Ibis Porto, nice hotel just out of the city, was told by locals go to the fishing village you’ll find good fish to eat, we did too, we had sardines salad and wine, mmm nice. Next day we decided to leave the bikes, got a taxi to the bridge, a boat trip up the river, then a bus trip, the boat trip took about 90mins, bus about the same.
Sat 12th/Sun 13th Next stop Estoril, 250 odd miles trying to dodge the toll roads, we failed, 1st one cost us 12.50 yoyo’s. Got to our next stopover at about 3ish in Estoril the “Beachouse” it was named, funny, 4 blokes 3 beds? gulp!! the 2 virgins had bunks as they would not sleep in the same bed as David so muggins had to, but i just happened to have a roll of razor wire with me so sorted that ok. It was very nice there as i have been there before a few years back, went to the moto GP. Found a local eating place where all the locals were stuffing their grub down um, it was a kind of everyday happening but very nice food, on the last night we had Chinese.
Mon 14th On the road to Castelo Branco 160miles bugger twas hot!! 98f blow torch job, nice place to stay, nice room, out we went for a beer; across the road next to the pub was a garage what’s that i hear?? a Norton 350cc 1955 model 50 in good nick. From there a bus into town to get some eats, after a lot of walking found a nice café/restaurant. Time to get a taxi back plz to our pub, had a few more beers, & a few more beers, only 90c a bottle so we stayed , we had a few as the landlord shut the doors and left us to drink up, i said, we shall still be here in the morning.
Tues15th Long ride to Palencia about 265miles, hell was it hot, open plain dessert ride on & on blow torch again at 99f hell that was hot, but, as we are proper bikers we took it in our stride.
Wed 16th Last day of our hols, on the road by 9am easy ride really only 125 miles, stopped on the way just to kill time. Got to Santander about 2ish, put the bikes in ferry line then off to sort out dinner, the cafe on station was great 3 course meal + a bottle of red wine for 2 cost 8.50 yoyo’s each. We were on the ferry by 8ish where we found our cabin had a shower cooled down i had a bottle of red wine Jeff & i supped that, Dave went to catch up on much needed sleep we all chilled out.
Thurs 17th Ferry was only running on 3 engines we were told, so would be late getting in on Thurs, not at 4.30 but 6.15, then we hear from ships tannoy they fixed the engine we would now dock at 5 pm . To sum up, in all we had a very good time, no incidents no falling out apart from the farting snoring & general abuse, brill. Myself ( Mac) Dave, Jeff and Alan.
Many thanks to Mac for supplying the above story
The Government has confirmed that the demise of the tax disc will coincide with a range of new rules. To clarify, from October 1st 2014 no vehicle will be required to display a disc in its windscreen. Even valid discs that expire (say) in January 2015 will be superfluous. Why the change? Because discs are simply receipts that can be checked by the police to ensure vehicles are taxed. This is no longer necessary as compliance is enforced via a computer-based database. The Government has also revealed that motorists will be able to pay by direct debit annually, sixmonthly or monthly. Those that pay by instalments will incur a five percent surcharge and payments will continue until cancelled. However, there will be some people that cannot pay in this manner such as those with first registration vehicles, in fleet schemes and with HGVs (paying the Road User Levy). And there will be more changes. Motorists that sell cars privately will no longer be entitled to offer the “unexpired tax” incentive that adds value. Why? Because the absence of discs could make it easier for sellers to misrepresent how much tax is remaining. So, sellers will have to claim refunds for remaining months from the DVLA. Buyers will then re-tax online, at post offices, or via the phone before taking to the road. History Of The Tax Disc In The United Kingdom The first tax disc appeared in 1921 as a circular piece of paper with a grey background and black markings. More colourful versions followed in 1923 which incorporated a vertical band of (say) green. These discs were not perforated so motorists had to cut them from their surroundings with scissors or craft knifes. Alternatively, some people folded the squares into a round shapes and shoehorned them into their mounts. Perforations followed in 1938 then vanished in 1942. They reappeared in 1952. This gap might have been caused by the destruction of the necessary equipment during World War 2. Furthermore, until this point every disc - irrespective of when it was issued – expired on December 31st. This was a nightmare for the issuers that were inundated with applications over festive periods. Mercifully, from 1961 drivers could pay for a twelve month disc at any point of the year. This coincided with rigorous anti-forging measures that included circular vignettes (designs), bands of colour plus the half-tone background. - See more at: http://www.motoring.co.uk/car-news/new-rules-for-road-tax-fromoctober-2014_61677?