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plymouthm

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20132013

NewsletterNewsletter

JANUARYJANUARY

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WELCOME TOTHE FIRST NEWSLETTER OF 2013

First Aid Sunday 20th JanuaryOur Annual first course was heldat the Cornwood village hall in at-tendance were Alison Ford, SueCave, Toni Turner, Jill Darton,John Varndell, Trevor Pridham,Terry & Vivienne Johns Mark &Christian Hull, Denis Secker, RobWalls , Mark Hancock and Steve Ford (Instructor) our thanks to all thatattended and to Steve for giving up his time and to Sue and Alison forlaying on the Buffett lunch.................................

Web Address ChangeIn case you were unaware we have changed our website address tohttp://www.plymouthmcc.co.uk. The reason behind this is down to cost,We emailed Easyspace our service provider to see if we could reduce thewebsite size to save money and their response was No we cant so the onlyoption was to buy another Domain name this has taken our bill toEasyspace down from £300 per year to £50 per year a huge saving. Tovisit the website type in the ADDRESS BAR NOT A SEARCH ENGINEwww.plymouthmcc.co.uk and click search..

Marshalling and RideoutsThe club always needs Marshal’s to help with Monday club Rideouts. Weneed people to go out with other Marshals and Route Mark a junction,This entails standing on or near a junction and pointing the direction oftravel that the ride is taking. You will be fully briefed on the route and ifyou are still not sure the route marshal will take you out with them anddrop you off at the junction you are marking, as soon as you see theTailend and Safety bike (orange Hi-Viz) you follow on behind the ride un-til instructed by the rear marshals to re-join the group. Where have youbeen over the winter?????. I cant believe you have all been in hiberna-tion (cant blame you if you have though) Been out and about?? Do youthink the places you have visited would make a ideal Monday route??Then we would love to hear from you we are always glad to learn aboutnew routes for Rideouts............

STAR INN CHRISTMAS TOY RUNThe day after the Christmas party 7 of us met at Sainsbury's , for the Annual Christmas toyrun organised by Lisa from the Star Inn at Old Liverton near Newton Abbott. On arrival atthe Star we were treated to Tea and Coffee. We then left at 11am to ride to the RoyalDevon and Exeter Hospital . We were met at the main entrance and directed to the chil-dren's ward where we were met by the nurses for Photo’s to be taken as we handed overgifts to the children, We left and headed up to Torbay Hospital to hand over more gifts. Theday ended with some of us heading back to Captain Jaspers for TeaJohn Varndell....................................................

Maccess AccountWhen you renew your membership your new card will have a Maccess account number on it615 5640. Maccess is a car parts discount store and is located at unit 12 St Mowden roadParkway Ind Est Plymouth PL6 8LH When you arrive there you have to show your membershipcard and sign in, Don’t forget everything is plus VAT......................................

AGM 2013The AGM on Monday 28th January saw some out going and incoming committee members JonMac decided not to re-stand for election our thanks go out to him for giving his time to theclub committee and Dave Glynn after 8 years as Treasurer has decided to take some time outso a huge Thank you Dave for your continued support over the years (now we can start meet-ings on time he he). Ken Bush has taken over from Dave, Ken has been on the committee be-fore “Welcome Back” Gerry Pattison has joined us for the first time (where’s that Gavel ofmine). This Years chosen charities are British Heart Foundation and the Plymouth Foodbank.The Scribe for the AGM was Kevin Freer and vote Counters were Rachael Bounds and AlisonFord…..Here is the full list of committee membersPRESIDENT PAUL JOCE

CHAIRMAN RITCH BOUNDS. VICE CHAIRMAN TREVOR PRIDHAMSOCIAL SECRETARY STEVE FORD . MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY SUE BOUNDS.GENERAL SECRETARY KEVIN FREER. TREASURER KEN BUSH.RIDEOUT CO-ORDINATOR RITCH BOUNDS. SAFETY OFFICER KEVIN FREER.PRODUCT OFFICER SUE BOUNDS. EDITOR STEVE FORDCOMMITTEE OFFICER JOHN VARNDELL COMMITTEE OFFICER GERRY PATTISON

NON COMMITTEE ROLESWEBMASTER PETER BATTENLIFE-VICE PRESIDENT MIKE GRAINGERLIFE-VICE PRESIDENT PETER BATTENI would like thank all the committee for helping to keep the club running smoothly and to alsothank Denis Callicott For his work behind the scenes Thank you all.

Thanks to Tilla in France for this articleBikers in France, whether residents or visitors, have started 2013 with good news: the Frenchauthorities have recently announced the full and permanent scrapping of previous plans to forceall bikers riding a machine of more than 125cc to wear 150cm2 of reflective clothing anywherebetween the waist and the shoulders. Under the previous proposals, bikers who were caught notwearing the appropriate reflective clothing from 1st January 2013 would have been liable to a 68euros fine payable on the spot and two points taken off their licence.

French bikers, with the invaluable and continuous support of the French Federation of Angry Bik-ers – FFMC (Fédération Française des Motards en Colère), can now enjoy riding all over Francewithout wearing any reflective clothing if they so wish.

Manuel Valls, French Interior Minister, has permanently scrapped the proposed compulsory re-flective clothing for bikers! Thank you, Mr Valls!

Manuel Valls, the French Interior Minister (right), announced the good news to the biking commu-nity earlier this month and a large number of bikers celebrated their victory of what had been along battle that took several months. Manuel Valls has now officially decided to permanently scrapthe ludicrous and non-sense proposals put forward by Claude Guéant, his predecessor, who hadbeen ejected from the French government following last year’s presidential elections. The battle,which involved a series of national demonstrations gathering over 100,000 bikers and bringingthe whole country to a complete stop, has obviously paid off and brought a fantastic result.

Guéant initially proposed the compulsory wear of reflective jackets and, with the enormous pres-sure he was put under with thousands of angry bikers who kept blocking the roads all over thecountry, he decided to back off and restrict the reflective clothing to only 150cm2 between thewaist and the shoulders. But this was not good enough – the bikers demanded full scrapping of theproposals, which they have now finally obtained.

This was one of the most laughable and absurd proposals we had ever heard of because a) reflec-tive clothing is precisely not reflective during day light, b) it is already compulsory to ride withheadlights turned on, which makes riders clearly visible and c) those who ride machines of up to125cc would have been exempt from wearing reflective clothing on the grounds that they don’tride a powerful enough bike to be considered dangerous on the roads! Let’s not forget that a verylarge number of motorcyclists who ride a moped or a 125cc bike are precisely those who don’thold a full motorcycle licence and have only attended at the very most a one-off 7 hour trainingcourse all together.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FFMC AND ALL BIKERS IN FRANCE!

There is nothing more productive than get together, stand up for our rights and fight against lu-dicrous public decisions that discriminate bikers against other road users and make our lives dif-ficult when we use a mode of transport that should be encouraged, as it is the golden SOLUTIONto reduce road congestion and air pollution. Demonstrate, stand up for our rights, fight againstour government’s ludicrous proposals that put the future of motorcycling in danger – are thesewhat perhaps British bikers should do more by following the example of their French neighbours?

Whilst French bikers have remarkably won the reflective clothing battle, they now have to con-tinue their fight against their government to make traffic filtering (or “lane splitting” to use theNorth American terminology) legal in France.

LETS PARTY!

That’s just what we did at the club’s xmas party there were some new faces and some ofthe “old regulars” . Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves eating, drinking dancingand chatting. The DJ was on the ball and soon sussed our taste of music and even I had ago with my “space boot” at dancing “what a sight that must have been , still you got do it.”.People did complement him and his music well done Kevin. (problem is we don’t have his con-tact number as he was the pubs DJ) . Detective time coming up.

We had the traditional Star prize 4 winners cash prize that paid for their drinks for thenight., and of course the BIG raffle this year we didn’t do envelopes so everyone choosewhat they wanted. Don’t know if that was a good idea as no one has said what theythought as yet.

The food was brilliant which is no surprise as we have a great catering team, Pat, Alison,Sharon and me. I think most of the food went and some got a “goody bag” to take hometoo. Waste not want not.

This is my chance to thank everyone who helped organise and run the party you know whoyou are. Cheers everyone and can I book you for 2013 Xmas party PLEEEASE.

Here’s to this years Xmas do. Hope to see you all there. Sue Bounds..................

Plymouth Megaride 2013The Plymouth Megaride are inviting club members to help choose a charity for this yearsevent, Ideally it needs to be a local based charity so that the money raised stays local and acharity that does not mind helping out on the day the closer the charity the easier it is forthe charity to send people to help out. If you have any suggestions please come and seeme...................................

Some Dates for you.Next Club night 11th February1st club rideout (long) 1st April20th April MAG bike show2nd May First Plymouth Bike night3rd May BMAD Festival Paignton

DON’T FORGET WE MEET EVERY FORTNIGHT DURING WINTER MONTHS

End of year rideoutThis year we took 35 bikes and 37 people to the Inn on The Green at Paignton Sue managedto get a lift up with Mr Tibbins in the van as she did not want to miss this one. Nice foodand a dry day what more could you ask for. Thanks to everyone that came along.