Club Sections
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
We have a few ride weekends planned already for 2024, all include camping at cheap rates or free.
- Wales Weekend: April 26th-28th
- Kendal: 18th-19th May
- Heskin (near Chorley & Preston) Steam Rally: 1st-2nd June
- Mere Brow Transport Sshow & Autojumble: 8th-9th June
- Plenty more to follow, usually at least one a month throughout the summer April-September.
Check our Facebook page
or contact us through our club e-mail
for up-to-date details.
Everyone welcome.
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 29th 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 12th 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 2nd 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 30th 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 18th 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 14th 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 28th 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.
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.
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
South East Moped Enthusiasts (S.E.M.E) organise some rides during the course of the summer season. S.E.M.E events will be briefly outlined on this club’s web page calendar; 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 microcars 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.
We are now appealing to to all small bike enthusiasts in the Surrey, Sussex, and Kent border areas who wish to organise a ride out to get in touch with us. We will give full assistance in planning a ride in their local area. We have a policy of when riding as a group, to only travel as fast as the slowest bike; this ensures that we all set off together and arrive together. These days we are unable to provide back-up recovery, 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 reliable 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.
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…
Recent events: 7th January 2024 Mince Pie Run from Orwell Yacht Club to Shotley Marina.
The MPR has consistently been one of Suffolk Section’s highest attended events for many years, and now continued by Martin Gates and Rudi, but the time of year does mean that the weather forecasts are monitored during the run-up, and fingers are kept crossed.
With the ominous prospect of a continuing wet theme, forecasts started to improve the week before the run, until it looked like it might be dry, but cold. The Yacht Club car park was filling up pretty quickly, and as I was going around taking pictures, so it was obviously a strong attendance, but you never know the actual figure since people keep arriving right up to the start.
Most roads on the outbound route were fairly dry, with a few puddles in the usual places, excepting at Lower Holbrook, where Martin Gates was directing riders to pass the flooded road on the higher RH side.
At this point the group I was riding with came up behind Martin Kendall and Nick, again on the Itom Tourist Tandem, and causing a mobile chicane going uphill, but on flat reportedly hitting 50km/h (31mph)! That’s going pretty well for a cyclemotor powering 2 riders on a tandem…
As our group started pulling away, and Wayne (BSA B40) wasn’t sure of the route, I took over the lead and piloted the main group on and into Shotley, just as the rain started to arrive.
Walking around the car park in the rain, the count was 73 ikes, including some interesting machines: 2 Ambassador motor cycles, a 1968 Suzuki 80, Mandille et Roux/Sachs, LE Velocette, Hercules Corvette, Mobylette AV31, Zundapp ZD40, 1960s’ Bridgestone 100 and Kawasaki 150, Ex-WD BSA B40, a BSA Beagle, lots of fancy scooters, assorted ‘bandit’ bikes, and a classic Wartburg 3-cyl two-stroke car driven by David Whatling. There was plenty to look at, and people still viewing bikes around the car park despite the drizzle. Pretty good turnout for a cold and wet January day.
The return leg back to the Clubhouse was cold, wet, and steady, with a couple of machines failing in the final mile along The Strand, from whence they were recovered.
The collection raised £120 for Cancer UK to the memory of Dave Evans who was the run’s organiser for 20 years.
Next item on our Suffolk calendar (at the moment) is 17th April – Paul Nelmes’s Radar Run from Bromeswell village hall, with Mopedjumble. A hugely popular event, attracting consistently big turnouts, and a superb circuit around Bawdsey peninsula to the Ramsholt Arms lunchstop, with lots of military historical interest along the way: Martello towers, Bawdsey manor radar, WWII sites, Shingle Street—it’s a great run if you haven’t done it before, and if you have done it before, it’s still a great run to do again!
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 eigth EACC Northern Section Rotherham Rally is on 7th–9th 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.