Chairman’s Chunk

THE CHAIRMAN’S CHUNK...

Hello folks, I hope this issue of Open House finds you well and happy.

The past few months have been somewhat frenetic for those of us on the front-line of the NABD.

The 29th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally – 6th – 8th May 2022

Putting the 29th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally together was always destined to be a bit of a ‘labour of love’ after having two-years off due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As we suspected, a notable proportion of our regular traders and/or equipment suppliers for the event had not survived the financial ravages of the pandemic and, even more sadly, one or two had been taken by the disease itself.

What we hadn’t accounted for, when we set the ticket price in October last year, was the cost-ofliving crisis that arose over the first three months of this year. By the time we became aware of the huge incremental rise in prices in February we had already been selling tickets for two and a half months so we didn’t have the option of increasing our prices.

We were also unaware, when we started selling tickets on 1st December 2021, that a ban on the use of tax-free Red Diesel in our event generators and plant would be brought in on April 1st 2022 (The only exemption being for Golf Courses, you can draw your own conclusions on that one!).

As the event approached the rises in costs began to be a cause of great concern but all we could do was to hope for healthy ticket sales to prevent the event making a loss.

Thankfully, the pre-booked ticket sales went very well and we had a healthy turnout at the event. The profit level will undoubtedly be drastically down on previous years (we will know for certain when our Treasurer gives his final report on the event in September) but it should be in-profit to some extent.

As to the event itself, there were one or two ‘technical issues’ that caused headaches for some of our voluntary event crew but, in testament to the extremely fine and dedicated people that they are, none of these issues were allowed to spoil the event for our rally-goers, who seemed to enjoy the event immensely!

Being a part of bringing together and entertaining more than 2,000 bikers, after an enforced hiatus of two years, proved to be both fraught and joyous in equal measure though, looking back on how much

Our illustrious Open House Editor, Vic Hawkes, tells me that there will be good coverage of this event in this issue of the magazine. I look forward to seeing and reading about what went on beyond the blur of my own bailiwick at the event.

The 30th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally:

Next year we will be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the You’ve Been Nabbed Rally (though 32-years of the NABD) and though an increase in ticket prices is inevitable, we will be pulling-out all of the stops in making it a spectacular event with more ‘special features’ than you can shake a stick at!

Why not get it in your diary now; The 30th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally, The Royal Cheshire Showground, 5th-7th May 2023.

NABD Prize Draw 2022/23: (Can-Am Spyder Trike)

We launched the 2022/23 NABD prize draw on Saturday May 7th 2022 at the 29th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally. The first prize in the draw is a superb 2008 Can-Am Spyder 998cc Rotax trike donated by NABD member Ian Rothwell with runner-up prizes of £500.00 and £250.00 in cash.

The trike is in excellent condition and a real eyecatcher in yellow and black livery. (See poster elsewhere in this issue).

Draw tickets are just £1.00 each (yes, somebody will win this lovely trike for just a quid, how good is that!)

Tickets will be on-sale at all events that are attended by the national NABD information/advice stand until the draw itself, which will take place on Saturday May 6th 2023 at the 30th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally at the Royal Cheshire Showground.

You can also buy tickets online via https://nabd. co.uk/shop3/raffle-tickets/44-win-a-can-amspyder-trike.html Or over the telephone via 0161 749 7050

Please Note: Online ticket sales and telephone ticket sales have a minimum-order of 5 tickets with an additional processing and postage charge of £1.50 per transaction. All proceeds from this prize draw will go directly towards the core costs of the NABD to enable us to continue helping disabled people to enjoy the freedom and independence of motorcycling.

NABD Van:

As if we didn’t have enough problems this year, Phil Morris (NABD Information/advice stall manager) was involved in a minor collision after collecting a trailer we had purchased off eBay. Fortunately, nobody was injured but the insurers decided that the van was a write-off mainly due to its age more than the level of damage incurred.

The van was over 12-years old (we like to get our money’s worth at the NABD) and we had already had discussions about replacing it, though we were hoping to wait until the prices dropped once the microchip shortage had been sorted out.

After looking at all of the available options, the National Committee agreed that, due to the ridiculously high price of new vans at present, we would be better getting one on Contract Hire with a maintenance contract attached.

I spent five-days researching Contract Hire deals and getting prices together for the Committee. I found it incredibly frustrating, though I suppose not too surprising in our current unethical society, that the vast majority of websites offering leasing/ contract hire were advertising deals that do not actually exist in reality!

Time after time I would work out the costs on a website then phone the company to speak to one of their representatives, only for them to quote prices that were often £100.00 per month higher than their website claimed. Once that happened, I had no interest in the actual deal on offer because I refuse to deal with dishonest companies!

Eventually I found a company called Vanarama who had an honest website on which you could work out the cost of the deal and it was exactly what the final quote from their sales people. It had taken more effort and time than I expected to find the right deal but it was worth the wait because I got a good deal from an honest company.

We have settled on a Vauxhall Movano 3500 L2 Fwd 2.2 Turbo which is, in essence, the same van as a Renault Master with a different badge on the front.

We should receive the new van before the end of August (some places actually stated they could not deliver a van until May 2023 due to the shortage of microchips still affecting the manufacturing of vehicles).

Until the new van arrives, we are having to hire vans to get the national information/advice stall and its crew to those events that are large enough to justify the costs. For smaller events Phil is downsizing the stall to a gazebo he can transport in a car.

NABD Adaptation Grants & The Open House Magazine:

Some of you may have already noticed the increasing scarcity of adaptation articles in the Open House magazine over the past couple of years. One member I spoke to asked if this was due to a change of editorial style since Vic Hawkes took over the editorship from me, and I had to explain to him the somewhat embarrassing fact that it is actually due to very few of the people being awarded NABD Adaptation Grants in recent years actually bothering to send us photos and/ or articles of/about their adapted vehicles and the circumstances that led to the adaptations being needed!

We don’t expect everybody to be able to write a coherent and interesting article about their circumstances and adaptations, though it is always nice when somebody does, but in this dayand-age the vast majority of people have mobile phones with which they can take a few photos and send them in so that Vic can add them to a brief article based on the details we get on the grant application forms.

Surely it is not too much to ask that people who receive a grant from the NABD provide us with a photo of themselves on the machine and a couple of close-up photos of the adaptations funded by the grant?

Sadly, of the most recent 75 grants awarded, I think we have received just two or three submissions for Open House! This position has now become so intolerable that we are now making it a condition of the grant that we receive the necessary photos before the grant is paid out. has had an NABD Adaptation Grant since the start of 2019, if they have not already provided photographs, to send their original photographs in (not ones that have been re-sized for social media. We need files that are at least 500kb in size but preferably bigger) attached to an email to openhouse@thenabd.org.uk and, for those who feel comfortable writing a bit of an article to go with their photos, these would also be most gratefully received.

NABD Annual General Meeting 2022:

Once again the NABD Trustees have made the decision to cancel the AGM for the third successive year. Despite what the current government and much of the mainstream media would like people to believe, Covid 19 is still very much with us and numbers of cases are once again rising to the point where the NHS is being put under great strain.

As a disabilities organisation we have a duty of care to ensure that we do not put members in harm’s way and holding an AGM during this still very active pandemic would be an unjustifiable risk.

I would like to assure members that no constitutional changes or policy changes of great import will take place without ratification at an AGM and hopefully 2023 will see us in a much better position to get back to ‘business as usual’ (if anybody can remember what that was like).

In the meantime, the NABD Adaptation Grants Scheme is fully operational once again and the NABD Learner/Loaner Scheme is also back to normal.

I wish all NABD members and supporters a healthy and happy summer with, to quote a wonderful song by NABD Patron Stevie Simpson, “Fair Travels and Fine Times”!