EACC—Our Events

Essex

We currently have no co-ordinator in Essex but, nevertheless, The Reservoir Dogs Run continues as an established Essex Section event.

Lancashire Slow-Riders

Paul Morgan
07709 914134

Monthly Club Meetings

We now meet on a regular basis, at least once a month but no set date, at the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, King Street, Leyland, PR25  2LE.  Easy acsess from the M6 and signposted.  Café, toilets, free parking all day.
We meet on a Sunday morning from 10:30–12:00 and if weather permits the meeting is followed by a ride.  We did a trial run in October and this place proved very very popular with record numbers attending.

Dates of our next meeting will be posted on our Facebook page or contact us through our club e-mail
Everyone welcome.

Hangover Ride, 15 January 2023

A ride was discussed and planned today at our December section meeting.
The ride was previously organised by the late Mike Hurst, so we will try and keep it going in his memory.  We are planning to ride to the junction at Rainford were the VMCC will be holding an event—refreshments available.  We will be attending as the EACC Lancashire Slow Riders section, but everyone is welcome to join us.
The plan is for our Preston/Leyland area members to meet at the Leyland Museum, to leave at 10:30am, ride to Parbold Hill and meet the rest of the group at 11:00am.  Then we’ll ride to Rainford.  If you can’t make the times or miss the meeting points then you can make your own way and we can all join up at the venue.  Obviously everything will be weather-dependant, and ride or drive what ever you choose.  If you intend making the way points, please let us know, and if you can’t make it on the day vice versa.

Welsh Ride Weekend, 6th–10th April

Our first rally weekend of 2023 will be held in North Wales, at Dyserth near Rhyl.  Held over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend with rides planned each day Friday–Sunday. Stephen Taylor and I did a recce of the area last year along with our Welsh member, Martin Williams, who lives locally and knows some great routes.  Camping is available but this needs to be booked in advance. There’s limited availability because it’s peak holiday time at the weekend.  £6 per person, full facilities.  The routes do involve a few inclines, but alternative routes can be made for low-powered machines.  Full details available on our Facebook page or contact us through our club e-mail

Paul

Mid-Shires

Ray Paice
07709 914134

After a promising start to the Mid-Shires section, about three years ago, we met regularly at the Sywell Aviator Hotel but the numbers slowly dropped off to such an extent we had to give up on regular evening meetings.  I have no doubt that everyone had genuine reasons from the messages I received but it was disappointing.  However, five of us retired members have refused to give up and we have been meeting for a lunchtime meeting at least once a month throughout the Covid period, following the rules of course, and it’s always good to go to a pub!  Shortly after ‘Midshires’ started we arranged a 42-mile ride out starting at the beautiful Grafham Water, which was well supported by EACC members but only a few members of our own section attended.  Since then four of our five have been travelling around the UK supporting and enjoying rally weekends.  From Rotherham Roamers annual weekend, where one ‘famous editor’ had an unfortunate loss, to the Kent meet for the annual challenge of Rye Hill.  That event was well attended last year and had some 30 bikes lined up for photos on the Sunday before we all went home.  We would be more than happy to increase the numbers and recently I have been contacted by a couple of people who are interested in joining us so we are trying to arrange meetings, whereby those busy having to work for a living can join us.  If we can get the numbers up we would be interested in organising more formal group rides or maybe even our own rally weekend.

Ray

North Hertfordshire

North Hertfordshire section holds the annual Steeple Morden Run; this is a mid-week event in September organised by David Osborn.

Additionally, the section is involved with the VMCC Cyclemotor Section’s ‘Nasty’ Run each April and the NACC’s Vincent Run in October.

Norfolk

Dave Watson
07483 210625

Matthew Hodder organises the regular second Wednesday of the Month pub meetings.  Meet from 7:00pm at The Bluebell, Bacton Road, North Walsham.  I don’t do pubs these days myself, but I did ride in with Will on my JDL powered Raynal for the August meeting.  It was a well-attended enjoyable evening was had.  We arrived back at Will’s in the dark.  Here’s a little resume of jaunts…

Sat 29^th July: five riders departed from Martham for this run to Hoveton including ‘Reedham Ian’ and his son, Will, and John W with his grandson over from Italy who was pillion on the scooter.  They met us there.

Sat 12^th Aug: Very hastily arranged this time, five riders including Rob B and Chris E on trial type bikes and Matthew H on his brand new Royal Enfield.  We met John W on the flying Cyclemate at Bacton.

Sat 2^nd Sep: just Davis for the run up to Bacton, this time on his recently restored and registered MZ to meet John who was already tucking in to his breakfast having arrived on the Cyclemate again.

Sat 30^th Sep: four riders up to Bacton where we were joined John on the Cyclemate; Chris big bike and Martin joined us.  Rob K joined us in his car having to pedal the Trojan Mini-Motor back home six miles.  Chris returned to Norwich and John led us on the flying CM to North Walsham and on to Aldborough to visit the Martin Hall collection.

Mon 18^th Sep: thanks to Chris Wright of Sheringham we were invited to an open night at his private collection.  Several members attended.  Memorable bike for me was an Excelsior Minor, a very rare machine from 1948.  It looked like the 2-speed Goblin autocycle engine but with a kick start lever instead of pedals in a motorbike frame.

Sat 14^th Oct: intermediate one this.  Mike and I called for Will, we then went to John’s at North Walsham who led us up to Northrepps Airfield where we met Jon and Paul down from Cromer.

Sat 28^th Oct: initially to be ‘Turn Back The Clocks’ run on the Sunday the weather forecast was dire so it became ‘Turn Back The Clocks Eve’.  An old route was revived which is an amalgamation of the two Village Hall based runs we had before the dreaded Covid scuttled them.  The day started very quietly with just Mike who lives opposite then John on his 1928 BSA flat tanker arrived.  Dead on the 10:00 start time Will arrived on his little Panther.  10:10 and nobody else—we departed and met Paul on his modern bike coming in the opposite direction.  A great day was had (well I enjoyed it) calling at Waxham for coffee, pee at Horning, lunch at Ranworth and onto Potter Heigham for ice-creams before dispersing.  45 miles and six hours later, Mike and I arrived home.

Not announced runs: ‘2 Wheel Tuesday’ on James bikes with our Chris W, some visits to Friday bike nights at Whitwell, solo visits to Aldborough, North Walsham, and Weybourn, and a recce to Northrepps have all been done with no issues on autocycles or my little James Comet.

Special note: Four Bikes have been registered: Moto Morini for Martin H was easy as it was only 48cc (no NOVA required) and we had an Italian document.  Thanks to Andrew P for doing the necessary for the V765 scheme to enable a restored James Superlux to retain its original registration for a guy I met at Whitwell and thanks again to Andrew for the dating certificates: a Cyclemaster for our Chris Way and a Mobylette AV32 (NOVA done) for me.

Happy days
Dave Watson.

Read more…

Mid-Shires Section

Ray Paice
07799 662203

A really great day at our Inaugural Mid Shires Ride from Grafham Water with some 24 Riders at the start, a couple of breakdowns on the route to the lunch stop which, due to an eleventh hour change of venue, was at the Three Compasses in Upper Dean,  They opened their doors with a great welcome.

The following pictures give an idea of the run and also the fantastic venue for the event; made even better with the glorious weather.

Those supporting the event made all the effort of Ray and myself worthwhile.

THANKS
Matt Embleton.

More pictures…

North East Tiddlers

Ron Paterson

You could be forgiven for thinking that the North East section of the EACC doesn’t exist—but you'd be wrong.  It was late 2019 when I put my name forward to start the north east section and my e-mail address has appeared in The MAC ever since.  It’s true that a certain unplanned global event (that shall remain unspoken) has transpired to slow things down but we are making progress, albeit slow and steady, up here in the North East.

First, we have our own Facebook Group, called ‘NE Tiddlers’ with 50 members currently.  Activity level on the Group page is ‘regular’ but can always be improved, so please search for us, join and comment and help us to grow.

During our first year we managed to have two group rides: the inaugural ‘Twin Peaks Challenge’ and a more relaxed ‘Mid-Teesdale Tiddle’. Both were held in good weather and thoroughly enjoyed by all participants.  As everyone knows the North East is not that flat, particularly as you head inland, so what better way celebrate our area than riding the Twin Peaks Challenge?  Starting at Wolsingham in Weardale we had ten participants, one of which was a rather nice Bond 3-wheeler who offered to ride tail end Charlie.  Our route started with a gentle ride up the valley to Frosterly before turning south, crossing the river and climbing up and over the hills into Teesdale.  We turned right just above Langdon Beck and headed up towards Harthope Moss at 2,240 feet above sea level. Amazingly, we all made it to the summit.  After lunch, we ventured further up the valley towards Wearhead and Cowshill.  A truly memorable, 48-mile, inaugural event that was thoroughly enjoyed by all and will be repeated this year.  Why not join us if you are ’ard enough?

The Mid-Teesdale Tiddle ride was a much more leisurely event, starting from the Roman Fort in Piercebridge. The route took us north west towards Hamsterley forest on quiet country roads, with a lunch stop at Teesdale Cheesemakers in Copley.  The return leg took us over the UK’s oldest road suspension bridge at Whorlton, opened in 1831.  (The bridge has since been closed and is awaiting major structural repair, so we'll need an another route for our 2021 event.)

These events will be repeated this year and I hope to add some new ones.  Watch out for the dates and please come along and join us if you can.

Ron Paterson

Scotland

I noticed in the latest magazine in the sections asking if anyone wanted to create one.  I live in Glasgow and I just wondered if there are any other members living in Scotland?  I’ve made some arrangements with some like minded mates to have a wee outing on Saturday 18 June.  We are going to ride down the east side of the Mull of Kintyre to Campbeltown.  It’s not a very long ride but this will be our first run out on our wee bikes.  So far there are three of us: two Honda Chalys and one Chinese made Monkey bike.  We are overnighting at the marina at Portavadie then taking the ferry to Tarbert and on from there.  It was our intention not to publicise doing this as we wanted to keep the number down to not exceed about ten.  There are another couple of potential participants and if all goes well enough we think we will try and do some more runs.  One is a circuit of the Isle of Arran (Arran TT?).
I've been active in several clubs and helped form a couple and, at almost 73, I don’t really want to get too embroiled in any kind of official section.  It would be nice if there are some other members not too far away and if we do our first run and get involved in doing others, should they or indeed anyone else one to come along that would be nice.  I don’t know if this is of any interest but I would be OK to hear from any others and what I would suggest is that I let you know how our plans evolve and when we have something set up I’ll let you know.
Cheers,

South Somerset

Joe Walker
01458 251127

If you would be interested rides or meetings in the South Somerset area, please give Joe a call on 01458 251127.

S.E.M.E. (aka South East Moped Enthusiasts)

Sharon
07771 705627

The South East Moped Enthusiasts (S.E.M.E) organise at least eight events a year: three weekend and five midweek ride outs (runs) during the summer riding season.  S.E.M.E events will be briefly outlined on this club’s web page, also follow us for much further information on our S.E.M.E group page on Facebook.  We welcome all types of small engined bikes and micro cars to our events, though it must be pointed out that the nature of the terrain where most of our ride outs take place may require the use of a slightly more robust small-engine machine, unless of course you are extremely fit!

We look forward as always to meeting friendly enthusiastic people who share an interest in riding their small-engined bikes.

Throughout the last two tumultuous years S.E.M.E has carried on holding its scheduled runs, a total of 16 in all.  It’s occurred to us there is never a more socially distanced thing to do than ride a moped with other enthusiasts!  Our runs are usually well attended and the fact that we seem to specialise in mid-week events seems never to affect our turnout attendances.  For 2022 we hope to introduce two new rides and, In ensuing years, we hope to do the same and rest some of our regular events and maybe return to them at some point, we’ll just see how it turns out.  We now look forward to a fairly busy summer schedule and hope that we will see more new riders join us.  Already there has been plenty of interest shown by our Facebook group members.  Incidentally, at the time of compiling this, we are running at about 520 Facebook group members, from every hemisphere of the world.

As usual Sharon—our master route planner—will lead most of our rides and our policy of riding as a group and only as fast as the slowest bike mostly ensures that we all set off together and arrive together.  These days we are unable to provide back-up support, which incidentally was much needed in our early years.  The need for this has largely been eliminated as our riders have mostly switched to slightly more robust machines owing to the nature of the terrain we have to negotiate.  Not to worry however, should a breakdown occur we will not abandon you on some lonely country lane, you will be rescued.  These days we do not issue run notes for our events, however if you feel you would like a copy then please contact Sharon before the event and she will email you a PDF attachment for you to print out.

It is advisable if you are coming along to one of our rides to let us know by e-mail, text or phone.  In this way we can keep you informed if for some reason the ride has to be postponed.  To this end our Facebook page and all our regular riders will be updated before an event.

Suffolk

Neil Morley

Mark Daniels, 52B Levington Lane, Bucklesham, IPSWICH, IP10 0DZ
01473 716817

Although the club has members all over the country, Suffolk is the county that’s best represented in the membership, simply because that’s where the club started.  Therefore, we’ve had a full programme of events in Suffolk since the club was revived in 2007.  Regular Suffolk Section events are the Mince Pie Run in January, Radar Run in April, the East Anglian Run in May, Peninsularis Run in July, Coprolite Run in September and Kneel’s Wheels in November.  Additionally, the section organises the club’s presence at Copdock Motor Cycle Show.  Members in the Ipswich and Felixstowe area regularly meet every week—on Tuesday evenings at Walton Falcon.  Read more…

17^th September 2023, 20^th Coprolite Run from Suffolk Aviation Heritage Museum
The event starts from the Air Museum site of the three big radio masts along Foxhall Road, Ipswich.  It is open to visitors on the days of our runs.  On the day, 24 riders took the classic course to Felixstowe Ferry Boat Inn for halfway lunch stop.  They included quite a number of locally based teenage riders who joined us for the day … great to see them.  It turned out cloudy, but temperate enough for everyone to sit out on the green at The Ferry.  We were all happy with the scenic ride, which was further attended by riders from Norfolk, Essex, Kent, and Guildford!  Thanks to all who supported the event.

12^th November 2023, Kneel’s Wheels Run and EACC AGM at Coddenham Village Hall.
The was frost in the morning, which foretold it was going to be a cold day.  This undoubtedly compromised the turn out, but people still turned up, and we got the AGM underway by 10.15am.  This was completed within 40 mins, and well in time to formally observe the two-minute silence at 11am, before preparing for the start.  Despite the cold, some 20+ riders lined up for the off, but not quite all seemed to get started for the start… sadly, the interesting MR Sachs 98cc motor cycle didn’t seem to get away.

Somewhat unusual motor cycles seemed to be the feature of this event, Bridgestone 100, Kawasaki 150, and US-spec Honda CB175, but the real action was Martin Kendall and Nick trying to keep their Itom Tourist powered tandem going, as it seemed to start killing spark plugs… before finally eating the rear pedal set crank-drive cotter pin on the uphill pedal out of Tuddenham, which effectively disabled the tandem.  Martin and Nick set about exchanging the dead cotter with one from the front pedal set, equipped with our own meagre tools, plus a hammer and adjustable spanner scrounged from a local household, while I hammered the mashed cotter back into refi t-able shape on a cast iron drain cover in the road.  From the top of the hill, M&N managed to make a restart from just the rear operable pedal set with Nick doing all the work, while Martin could only operate the controls from the front, and using the disabled pedal set as footrests.

Using ‘Dalek’ to cover the junctions ahead, M&N managed to coax the tandem to the halfway stop, leaving just enough time for Nick to recompose himself with a couple pints before the return leg, knowing a couple more significant hills lay ahead.  Nick pedalled to a standstill on the first long sapping hill, before team tandem walked the Itom to the crest, to get going again, then onto the final hill into Coddenham.  Following M&N struggling up the hill, I caught movement in the field beyond the far right side of road, and turned to see three mature Red Deer stags, with full antlers.  They were galloping at full tilt, in-line across the downhill field on an intersection course toward team tandem ahead!  Nick was head down while pedalling hard uphill, while the stags were fast closing unseen from back right.  The first Martin knew of their perilous situation was when the lead stag burst through the hedgerow in front of them.  It galloped across the road, then leapt the left hedge into the lower field.  M&N’s next shock came as the second stag crashed through the right hedge, then followed by the third, charging across the road right in front of them.  They jumped through the left hedge to follow the chase across the lower field.  Phew!  That was a close call!

The next event is on Sunday January 7th 2024.  It's the 41^st EACC Mince Pie Run from Orwell Yacht Club, Wherstead Road, Ipswich, IP2 8LR.  Meet from 9:30am/run sets off 11am, to the lunch stop at Shipwreck Bar, Shotley.  The Mince Pie Run is dedicated to the memory of Dave Evans who was the run’s organiser for 20 years.  For details and directions contact Martin Gates, mob: 07944-058644 or e-mail: .  The MPR has always been a well attended event, with last year’s numbers being in the mid-60s, so it’s busy.

See you on the road,
Danny.

Wiltshire

Steve Hoffmann
07891 251118

We have our own private Facebook page (The Wiltshire Whizzers), currently with around 112 members.  The Facebook site includes regular posts on restorations, runs, events and all things related to our passion for small bikes: take a look.  This site has replaced the The Whizzer magazine, which is no longer in production.

There will be a full calendar of runs in 2023, taking place both mid-week and at the weekend.
Regards,
Steve Hoffmann

Rotherham Roamers

John Bann, 23 Westvale Grove, Thrybergh, ROTHERHAM, South Yorkshire, S65 4JA.
07798 731951

Gentlemen,
Our sixth EACC Northern Section Rotherham Rally was on 10th-12th June at Hooton Lodge Farm camping and fishing site, Kilnhurst Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.  Showers and toilets are available.  There are electrical hook ups should anyone require them, but these are limited.  Also open to non members.  Should anyone require further information on our next rally, you can contact me via the contact details above.
John Bann

Any more?

If you’re interested in starting a section in your area, please get in touch (the e-mail address is at the bottom of this page).  Above all, we want the club to be driven by the enthusiasm of its members so, if you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to let us know them.  If you’re tempted to have a go at running an event, we’ve prepared some guidelines on how to do it … but if you have any questions at all, please ask.