August 2009
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ello all and welcome to the August edition of the news letter, so we all know the truth, the met office cocked up, the BBQ summer hasn't happened, and they are now saying August could be changeable, so we just have to make the most of what we have got, you could hang on for the Indian summer, best bet is sod it and get out on your bike, you can still have fun in the wet, so drag out the water proofs and get out on the club rides! In this months edition I will be covering the Bike Club France Rally and The Longest day ride out, and look out for the caption competition, I would also like to thank all of you that contributed to this months news letter be it over the phone or by email and even text message, your input is important and very welcome so send any input you have for the newsletter to markhull@blueyonder.co.uk So remember make the most of the summer we have got, see you all out there. Mark Hull Editor PMCC
A Few Words From The Chair Hi guys and girls
Editor: Mark Hull Tel: 01752 784025 Mob: 07709183738 Email: markhull@blueyonder.co.uk
Plymouth Motorcycle Club
The last charity ride for this year went well, with a fair few overnight campers, despite the rain and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves. This years PDLF charity run had to be cancelled due to not having a venue. If you have any feedback on this years JJ charity run please let me know. This years Christmas party is on Saturday 12th December at the Mermaid Pub Eggbuckland festivities start at 7.30pm till 1145pm, The food list so far includes cheese/ham/egg sandwich's, quiche's, pasties, cold meats, and chicken wings are a few items on the menu, if there is anyone who would like to something else on the menu this year, please let me or Sue know and we will see what we can do. The Christmas ticket price will be £4 which includes a star prize for members and raffle tickets will be £1 a square both will be on sale at the club. Ritch Bounds Chairman PMCC
The longest day. 19 hardy souls got up before dawn for a 3am departure from novatel on the “longest day ride out” to Minions in Cornwall. The weather held out for us to have a dry run (some would say that’s thanks to Mr Batten inclusion as it’s always dry for this run when he’s around). The normal route had road works on this year so we took a much longer diversion via Kelly bray, on arrival at Minions car park Ritch had convinced himself that the sun was due up at any moment and we still had a mile to walk, so the gentle amble turned into a route march. All determined that after getting up at f*ck o’clock, no one was going to miss the sun up. We arrived at Minions hill to be greeted with the most spectacular view, it was just starting to get light, mist was lifting and drifting in the valleys below and we had just enough cloud in the sky for a breath taking sunrise. We had half an hour to wait before the sun broke, but it was worth every minute. After the oooss and aaahhss , we headed off for our bikes at a much better pace, all with the thoughts of breakfast in our heads. We chose a different and quicker route back via Liskeard, and all made a b-line for Goodbodys for an extra large breakfast and entertainment from the local nutter, who made the mistake of asking Royston “how long he had been riding?”, Royston not letting the side down by telling him “about 20 minutes mate!”, made us all laugh, and he left us alone after that. I beat Big Mac in the breakfast eating competition AGAIN, you’re going to have to put in a much better show next time Mac. I went on this run the year before but it was so foggy it was called off, so this was my first, and for those who have never done it, I have to tell you it’s well worth it. Bren B.
And now for something completely different! The Bike Club France Rally 2009 When I first joined the club the thing that I wanted to do was travel on the continent, so when my chance came to go the Valencia Moto GP in 2004 I jumped at it, what a trip that was, 17 bikes 1400 miles in two days it all went wrong but that was the best biking holiday I have ever had, stats summed it up it was all about camaraderie, I didn't know many of the group but we all became good friends, over the many fuel stops, I enjoyed it so much when the Celtic rally came around the next year i jumped at it, Me Ritch and Sue great trip great rally, and the following year I took six bikes round the Normandy beaches and then on to the Celtic Rally, the following year I couldn't go little were we to know it would be the last Celtic rally. Last year Bob, Lu, Titch and Mandy visited the Bike Club France Rally, they came back and told the rest of us how much of a great time they had, could this be our new destination for the last week in June each year? Well 21 of us set out to find out, only 17 made it to the rally, via different routes, Roger Yettons crew were all partied out by the time they reached Caen, they had travelled further than the rest of us via Belgium, fair play to them, so follows is our little bit about the BCF rally I went with Ken Bush, Denis Seker and an old mate Steve Hill, we went via Roscoff the first day was to travel to Caen our base for four days, while we toured the Normandy beaches, so we left the ferry myself and Ken with hangovers, following the free whiskey tasting session in the ferry shop (for a change Kens Idea) followed was the first breakdown of the trip, Steve's XT660, after about an hour a French chap pulls up, cant understand a word he says, so I say merci, he comes back about 15 mins later with his wife who speaks English, they then took Steve to the local Yamahe dealership, helped with the recovery and then negotiated a warranty repair on a three year old Yamaha, I love the French ! Ken and Denis had already gone on to Caen and sorted the accommodation we arrived at about 19:00 we toured the be3aches for four days and then travelled to Brionne, to stay with an old friend of Denis, Tony ex marine who in the true spirit of the marines had lived life to the full, I saw his photo album if he wants to put it in print fair play, not for me to do, after a days shooting and a BBQ thanks to Tony and his wife for being such gret hosts, on the Friday we headed off to the rally We arrived at Bellefontaine mid afternoon checked out our cabins got sorted and started our weekend, Friday night was all you can eat curry night, great location with a great view good cabins, so the weekend started Saturday was our chill out day, with Saturday night being the hog roast, BBQ and the focal point of the weekend, it was a good night the lead singer of the first band missed a few notes, well most of them really, but he did better than I would have done, the second act was better and it must have been a ggod night cos I cant remember going to bed! Sunday was the day we went for the ride out, the fastest ride out I have ever been on, it was nuts thought I was giving it a big handful and then Sparky the stunt guy went past me on his back wheel, rained on my parade, Sunday night was quiet compared to Saturday, and Monday we left the site for the ferry, good trip home apart from the big black cloud over blighty Thanks to johny Mac for his input via email We started in dribs & drabs Dave, Mick and Jenny went up to Poole on Sunday eve to get the night crossing, I was to follow on the early morning crossing meeting then in Cherbourg. as I met them before we set off to Caen, we had coffee and got the satnav out and ready to roll, on way down we had a break , for dindins & coffee, got to Caen, had a shower then after that met a motley crew Mark, Steve , Ken , & Denis . had a few beers went to bed . Day 2 set off to Le Mans met up with John t , went out to get tea sat out in the open scoffing lots of goodys & more beer 8.6 firewater Day 3, set off to Fougeres stayed there before but saw more of the town & all about. Day 4 off up to Avranches, then we set off to Mont Saint-Michel, and had a good day riding about all over the place, had big ice creams too Dave paid , nice man ya knows, then bed and ready for the ride up to the rally at Bellefontaine. Got there ok all settled in, went out on bikes to find food , came back to rally & started ( as u do ) avin a few beers, all was great met fouksie stayed up as long as we could , drinking . Saturday ready for the rideout (2 rideouts) we went to dormat ish, after a few hours there we set off to finish the rideout ? but Tich had a problem , so we lost a bit of time , and dint finish the ride but as i had satnav I took the rest back to Bellefontaine , had a good time Saturday night trying to get pissed but Mark tried to beat us to it & Sunday morn me & Dave set off to Roscoff to go home Mick & Jenny were heading of to Spain on Monday so there were ok , got to the ferry in time and home we was, good time was had by all Mac
Thanks to bob for their input on behalf of Lu, Titch, and Mandy by phone This was Bob, Lu, Titch and Mandys second Rally, a good time was had by all, they did the Saturday rideout when Titch had problems, they worked around Titches breakdown, got it fixed at an alleged Honda dealer but he got it wrong and Sunday came with more bike problems, but with the help of others they managed to work around it and didn't let it spoil the weekend, after the rally they went on to Brest for the Monday night , and then home on the tuesday
Thanks to Mick and Jenny for their input via email Following a fantastic 3 days at Bellefontaine Park for the French rally, we'd planned to travel down through France and Spain to Murcia - don't look that far on the map!! We left the park early with a journey of around 500 miles ahead before our overnight in Toulouse. All was going well as we approached the services about an hour from destination when we were surrounded by 3 French policemen pointing to the slightly deflated back tyre. We had an interesting conversation- them in French, me in Yorkshire resulting in us understanding we had a puncture! One of them, noticing a nail in the back tyre was about to remove it but, to my relief, was stopped just in time by one of his colleagues. Great! Just happen to have a can of 'Green Slime' with me (it would turn out to be the best 7 quid I could have spent)! so that went into the tyre and I prayed it would get us out of trouble - only about 60 miles to Toulouse. It got hotter, the roundabouts were multiplying, a few wrong turnings and eventually made it at around 8p.m. Next morning through the Pyrenees, a bit up and down!! Still some snow up there and a little cooler, stunning scenery. Yes, the tyre is still up! Further south it really hotted up 40*C felt a bit over dressed in leathers when a bloke on a 'Blade went past in T shirt & shorts!! We had a couple of days in Murcia, but the heat got to us so now heading North through the middle of Spain. That area is right out of a 'spaghetti western' with miles of empty landscape. Did an overnight at Albacete. Next day Madrid! That was a bit scary after Toulouse, so we had time to make it to Valladolid (we called it Valladero)! Here no-one spoke a word of English and was the 'real' Spain from around 30 years ago. Friendly folk and pretty villages. There is a vast contrast between the barren 'Costas' in the south and the lush green mountains of the North - know which I prefer! After another couple of days and stop-overs near the North coast much cooler and more interesting roads now - we boarded the ferry for home. 2 weeks and 5 days seems like 2 months. All in all around 3,000 miles. Looking forward to the next short run out!! So that was it the rally over and done for another year I spoke to most of the people who went to the rally only a couple said it wasn't their thing but looking through the photos , I personally think that with over 170 members we should be able to provide a better turn out than we had at the best of the Celtic rallies, as I said at the beginning it is something completely different, so don't come expecting it, if that is what you want then I think the closest you are going to get is the Bulldog Bash, been going for years, But if you want to cross the channel and do something completely different the BCF rally is for you, its a chill out weekend the Celtic rally should placed with the great memories of trips gone by, its gone, its sad but its a fact, I had great time Red wine San Agure and bread good company, especially the brothers hospitality, what more could you ask for? BCF made an easy option this year go to a site let someone else run the bar and do the food (even if they don't get up to cook the breakfast on Monday morning) but in my opinion that was the right choice, 2nd year who wants to risk loads of money it was a shrewd move that made a good weekend. Final mention to the guys who organised the weekend faulksie andy and gizmo and the rest of you let everyone know who you are, that's the problem with being web based, I met Sparky on the Fougeres run top bloke went round with a bag of sweets Google stunt dad BBC 3 on U tube, you will see what I mean, this rally can only get better and with our support grow, yep it isn't a cheap weekend but its a god one hope to see more of you there next year Mark Hull Editor PMCC
Caption competition OK guys just for fun please send me your captions or speech bubbles via email or text, the winner will win a fabulous dinner with either Dave or John (from the buffet at the Christmas party) and also don't be nasty this was obviously a tender moment, thanks to Mick and Jenny for the photo
breakthrough breast cancer Charity Ride 13th September 2009
Last year Mandy told us about a charity ride from Bridgewater, in aid of breakthrough breast cancer, called the bra run. A few of us went up and had a really good day out, it was very well organised, starting and finishing at VJ’s motorcycles in Bridgewater, food and bands were at the return as well as the 2 bike shops and a dyno tester. Well this year is the 4th run and the route will be out from Bridgewater taking the A39 through Street, Glastonbury, Wells, Chedder and the gorge then back onto the A38 to Bridgewater. The route looks fantastic , and if the welcome was anything like last year it should make for a great day out. The date for this year’s run is 13th September 2009 leaving Bridgewater at 1000, all that’s asked is a £5 donation, a few of us will be leaving Novatel at 0800 to get us into Bridgewater in good time. Please come and have a fab ride out for a good cause. Please contact Brendan Bailey on 07736087731 or preferably email brendanbailey@blueyonder.co.uk
CLUB FORTHCOMING EVENTS …. In the next few months July ‘09 Monday 27th
7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out
August ‘09 Monday 3rd Monday 10th Monday 17th Monday 24th Sunday 30th Monday 31st
7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 9am Plymouth side of the Torpoint Ferry, “Cornish Triangle Run” More info from Roy Pike on: 0790 3961 645 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club
September ‘09 Monday 7th Monday 14th Monday 21st Monday 28th
7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club
October ‘09 Monday 5th Monday 12th Monday 19th Monday 26th
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7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Long Ride out 7pm Plymouth Novotel, Short and last evening Ride out 8pm Club Meeting, City Bus Social Club
LEASE NOTE: The above is subject to change or cancellation, so before making any travel arrangements check the above details are correct by visiting on the club website on: www.plymouthmcc.org.uk
OTHER FORTHCOMING EVENTS … in the next few months July ‘09 Sunday 26th Donington Park, British Motorcycle GP, BBC One coverage Wednesday 29th Paignton Bike Night August ‘09 Wednesday 5th Thursday 6th Friday 7th Saturday 8th Sunday 9th Wednesday 12th Wednesday 19th Wednesday 26th Monday 31st
Paignton Bike Night Calstock Bike Show, camping, live music etc. info on 01822 832866 Calstock Bike Show, camping, live music etc. info on 01822 832866 Calstock Bike Show, camping, live music etc. info on 01822 832866 British Superbike, Brands Hatch, British Eurosport coverage Paignton Bike Night Paignton Bike Night Paignton Bike Night British Superbike, Cadwell Park, British Eurosport coverage
September ‘09 Wednesday 2nd Wednesday 9th Sunday 13th Wednesday 16th Wednesday 23rd
Paignton Bike Night Paignton Bike Night British Superbike, Croft, British Eurosport coverage Paignton Bike Night Paignton Bike Night
October ‘09 Sunday 4th Sunday 11th Sunday 25th Sunday 25th
Hartland Quay, Motorcycle Hill climb, North Devon British Superbike, Oulton Park, British Eurosport coverage British Summertime ends, Clocks go back 1hr Portimao, The Algarve, Portugal, World Superbike Championship
November ‘09 Sunday 8th Friday 27th
Valencia MotoGP, Live coverage on BBC2 from 1230 First day of the NEC International Motorcycle Show
December‘09 Sunday 6th
Last day of the NEC International Motorcycle Show
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LEASE NOTE: The above is subject to change or cancellation, so before making any travel arrangements check the above details by visiting the organiser website.