Plym

outh Motorcycle C

lub P

lymouth M

otorcycle Club

Editor: EM

AIL info@

plymouthm

cc.org.uk

20122012

NewsletterNewsletter

MarchMarch

16th

Hi Folks 1, Monday Rides. Last year we had a discussion on the committee about Monday night rides. Some Committee members felt that because of the lack of riders attend-ing when the evenings get darker, we should not carry on riding until the end of Oc-tober. Instead we should finish the rides at the end of September and start doing Sun-day day rides instead. I emailed everyone and took a vote at the club on the 27/2/12 and decided to end them in September 2 British Heart foundation charity run is on the 8th April leaving Lee Mill indus-trial estate approx. 12.30. 3 This years Megaride is on the 10th June. We have chosen one charity which is the Macmillan Nurses Trust. We would like you to choose the other charity which must be local and must be a registered charity. Please email me with your choice and the charity with the most votes will be chosen. 4,Do you have any content for the next newsletter? If so, please forward it on to me. Thanks Ritch bounds The Ride of Respect through Wootton Bassett The ride is taking place on Sunday March 18th (Mothering Sunday). Anyone wishing to attend is invited to join some of us club members, who will be leaving Sainsbury car park Marsh Mills at 0700. We will proceed meet the guys and girls from Paignton Bike Night at the petrol pumps at Exeter Services at 0800. Then travel en-mass to Wootton Bassett. Anyone wishing to attend will need to register on the Ride of Respect site. I would suggest A.S.A.P. as your registration docs will have to be with them when you attend. Any questions ring Steve Ford on 719613 or email steve.j.ford@hotmail.co.uk. Many thanks Steve.

On Wednesday 22nd Feb myself, Pete Batten, Gordon Johnson and Colin Spence travelled to Newton Abbott for a fire-training course. This was a very interesting lesson on how to use fire fighting equipment.

A Fond Farewell and an Invitation! By the time you read this Norman and I will be living in Brittany and starting on an adventure that has been years in the planning! Before we met we each bought a property in France with the idea of some-day going there to live. Norman’s was in Auvergne, a very romantic location with views of the moun-tains. Mine was much more practical, chosen to be small enough for me to handle alone, big enough to do something with and close enough to England for people to visit easily. It had been my daughters’ idea, when she heard me talking about moving to France, that I should set up a biker’s campsite. I took soundings amongst bikers I knew and the consensus was to be about an hour from Roscoff, with easy access and safe parking. Round about that time I got my full bike license and joined the Plymouth Club. Being amongst the club members on rallies and charity events soon gave me ideas as to what would be needed of a campsite for bikers and the very first property I looked at when on holiday with Debs was the place I bought – a whole 6 years ago! I will admit I struggled, financially and physically, because the place needed a lot of cleaning up. It was an abandoned farm, and while the house was instantly “livable” the land had been left to go wild and there was rotting farm machinery and building all over the place. But I set to and demolished a falling down barn, found someone to haul away the worst of the obvious rubbish and another guy to take away the farm machinery. I learnt a bunch of French words that don’t come in the vocabulary of a schoolgirl and that a petrol strimmer gets started in much the same way as an outboard motor! Then along came Norman. We rode to his place and then to mine one long and rather cold October. We talked about our hopes for our future and our dreams of making some kind of life in France. We agreed that to my idea of running a camp site could be added his long standing wish to keep pigs and grow his own food. So we combined our resources, he sold his house and bought a little more land from our lovely French farmer neighbor in Brittany and we began doing our sums. There was enough to get a small tractor and the machinery to work the land. Our combined pensions will provide enough for us to get by. When we go over in March the first job is to rotovate and seed the campsite. Then I will be clearing out the barn ready to take the toilets and showers, the bike park and the undercover leisure area (it is an enormous hanger!) We have plenty of flat grassland that will eventually become our kitchen garden and pig food growing area. So, to our fellow club members we are extending an invitation to come and camp free of charge in our first year, use our facilities indoors and see how we are progressing with our dreams. We will be attending the rally in May near Lamballe and anyone wishing to extend their visit over for that event are welcome to contact us and stop over either on the way there or the way back. You can reach us through our website www.gardenmachinesbrittany.eu or through my email address which is tilla@talktalk.net Our French phone number will be 0296243807 and the address is 2 Le Bouillen, Mael Carhaix, 22340 France. It has been a real pleasure riding with you guys. We are aiming to make contact with French bike clubs, but I doubt I’ll find one to equal PMCC! Some of you have already seen the place in France and stayed over. We have both renewed our membership of the Club and intend to stay as members, even though in France. So come on, give us a call and STAY IN TOUCH!!!!

Charity Ride-Out In aid of The British Heart Foundation Charity number: 225971

Easter Sunday

Sunday 8th April 2012 Meet 12 o’clock midday

Leave 12.30 approx Lee Mill Ind Est.

£3.00 Per Person minimum donation

Barbeque and raffle available for further information contact

Ritch Bounds 01752 216675 or 0784 359 0968 Supported by and with thanks to the Plymouth motorcycle club.

Staff at the Royal Albert Bridge Inn, Mike Grainger and Jonathan Firmin of Nimriff RC Models Ridgeway Plympton

If you can help with this event please email me We need people to help set up ,stand on a junction, help marshall bikes at the RABI pub or sell raffle tickets. Any help would be ideal. Ritch

Hi boys and girls Just a little something for the news letter. As there is not much going on, a few of us have been doing some pre-year testing to our bikes.. Rick Crombie, on a new machine, to last year riding a 04 TRIUMPH SPRINT ST 955I, with lot’s of height requirement’s, needed, luggage installation, and various other nick knack’s to add and test, with my self and Pat on a different machine to last year, up from the 03 TRIUMPH TROPHY 900 tourer to a rebuilt 99 TRI-UMPH sprint st 955i, with an upgrade tune stage 2 it was practically a rebuilt, their was not a lot left on it by the time my spanners took a break, I felt like Edward Scissor hands (Ha-ha,) Rocket 111 ‘Steve Allen’ still with lots of pre; season adjustments and upgrades he is still working on,also screening stability and luggage but he has spent a lot of last season extensively chopping, sculpting body pan-els, foot pegs, gear and break levers, and brake up grades to 6 pot’s, r/rear shed loads of it, and he’s still going, Pete Batten, sporting some very nice sparkly bits but also very functional and safety orientated, like flick up break levers, check it out when u next see his trusty RED TRIUMPH DAYTONA 955555555555555 —or what ever it is? A new member late last year and just past her first CBT first time, with flying colour’s, well done Lynn Crombie, riding a 125 KAWASAKI SILVER CRUISER, tagged along with the big bike guy’s on this cold

Saturday 4th Feb was the day P.M.C.C had its club stall with our products and leaflets showing what the club was all about. The opposition BMW club also had a stall but even thought I am biased, ours was much better! The

weather was cold and even though the barbeque was on (and smoking us out) our exposed bits soon got cold (my knees) not anything else. Being vain I refused to be a granny and have a blanket. Paul, Joce, Vicky, Trevor Pridham and I took turns to man the stall until about 3:30pm. The turnout of people seemed more this year and there were definitely more club members there, even our dog Charlie came to support the event. We made £71:00 that day in memberships and product sales. (some new faces also asked for forms so guys & girls keep your eyes open on club

nights and make them welcome) So to me it was worthwhile giving up the day for the club. Sue.

A NOVICES VIEW. Being a fairly new bike rider, starting with a Yamaha Neo’s 100 to a Teo’s 125 and eventually a Burgman 400, I was lucky enough to be able to join the club ride outs knowing that there would be someone (a Marshall) looking out for me. I was lucky because I knew that this support was available. How many new riders don’t know this so don’t join our ride out? How can we get the word out? Any ideas guys & girls? Even though I’ve been riding for a little while now I would still class myself as a NOVICE rider especially in a group as there is a way to ride and a way not to, so if I do get a chance to go on the ride outs you’ll find me at the back with my Support Marshall. Sue

Hi Rich, How's things in good old Blighty. I'm glad to hear GT's re opening, I'd heard through the grapevine that they'd shut. My nearest bike shop is 50klm away, which is handy,'cos that means I'm exempt from roadworthy certifi-cates (Ozie mot ). Mind you, they are only needed when selling a bike or car or registering them for the first time in QLD. I'm running an old Yamy xv750 at the moment, for- runner of the Virago. Great old bike, 31 years old and only done 57000klm. Yes ,the starter is bloody noisy and the carburation is a bit out, I'm waiting for repair kits from Wemoto's of Brighton, cant find them here so I get a lot from them. I used them a lot when I was there and still use them 'cos they've got what I want when I want it and are reasonable priced, compared to here. Takes about a week to get here but my granddaughter's coming here in a few days so she's bringing the bits to save postage, and hey!, what's the rush,ha ha .Life's still good here, best move I've ever made. Weathers not been to hot just recently and we've had a fair bit of rain, though thankfully not as much as last year when we ended up with a waterside property. I made it to a rally here on new years eve, not used to going to rally's in sunshine, quite odd. Not quite like the Tankslapper or Steel pony but good fun anyway. I came joint first for oldest combined bike and rider, they gave it to the other guy 'cos he had an older bike than mine, an old Honda 750, one of the first ones. I went on my own in the end, couldn't afford for both of us to go and my missus knew how much I wanted to go so I went on my own. I was going to go on an old XJ650 rat bike I had up for sale but the day before the rally both fork seals blew for some reason, didn't fancy getting oil on the front brakes so I took The XV instead. Sham, cos I would have walked the rat bike prize with it. Wish I had Quosi here, but I'd never get it through the Ozzie import rules. Lets face it I only got it on the road in England at the time I did before they started clamping down on what you built. Would have blown a few minds here that's for sure. My missus and I get out on the bike as much as we can, she loves bikes, that's how we met, if you can call speaking on line meeting, and I'm bloody glad she decided to talk to me, sure as hell changed my life for the better. I've added a couple of pics, first one is my bike and tent at the Pickled Gallah rally, second is one of me and my wife at a previous outing to the site of the rally, its about a 80klm ride and there's a water hole and waterfall there so its a perfect Sunday morning jaunt, then the pair of us in the field beside our house with the first bike I had here ,an old GR650 Suzi, and lastly the water hole where the second one was taken. This is one beautiful spot, but involves a treck down a steep dirt track to get to it, but it's worth it once you get there. Well thats it for now, gotta get some brecky then off to town, 17 klm away, for shopping and fuel for the trip to the airport in Brisbain on Weds. to pick up my grangaughter. 250klm away and she arrives at 0640, but its on my birthday,29th Feb., so I'll forgive her. Only get birthdays every 4 years so this one will be extra special. Give my regards to anyone that remembers me, still wear the PMCC t shirt occasionally, haven't joined any clubs here, or to bloody expensive so keep to myself. All the best, Dave(quosi) Butterfield. (Look up Dave on the club website)