Bedfordshire
Section

The Vintage MotorCycle Club Ltd.

Home page

2019 AGM

Links

Contacts

Section notes

Events

Albert Brown run

Roger & Arthur King Memorial Run

Section Constitution

Welcome to the VMCC's Bedfordshire Section website.

The section meets at the Memorial Hall, Shefford on the second Thursday in the month from 8pm on.

The premier event for the section is the Albert Brown run which is usually held in early July. See the Albert Brown run page.

Events

In light of the Government's legislation with regards to social distancing all Bedfordshire Section meetings and runs are postponed until further notice.

This position has been reinforced by the Club's Board:

Against this background, the Board's position is as follows. For the duration:

• Section meetings should be suspended;
• the Club should not attend shows and suchlike;
• runs that involve a substantial amount of on-the-day organisation, and thus contact between participants and people such as marshals, sign-on staff or caterers, should be postponed or cancelled;
• formal or social runs may take place at the Section Committee's discretion, but should not include pre-run gatherings or stops at cafes, public houses or suchlike: if that is not practicable, the event should be postponed or cancelled.

BEDS SECTION MID WEEK RUN ARRANGEMENTS DURING COVID 19 RESTRICTIONS, FROM JUNE 2020

Don is keen to re-start midweek runs and has produced the following guidance which, for everyone's safety and legality, must be strictly adhered to. The full guidance is here: https://bit.ly/COVIDRideV2

Maximum of six riders: This is to be achieved by pre-booking with the organiser (see below for contact details). When the run is announced, riders wishing to participate should contact the organiser by e-mail or telephone. When the number of participants (including the organiser) reaches six, the entry list is closed. The date of the run and the contact details of the organiser will be published in the VMCC Beds Newsletter.

To ensure that riders not pre-booked do not join the run, the start venue will only be revealed to the booked participants.

If more than six riders express an interest in attending, a 'reserve' list will be kept in case anyone drops out before the start and, if enough are interested, the run will be repeated on another day soon after.

Social distancing: When meeting at the start, riders are asked to keep 2 metres apart.

Start/finish locations will be chosen to avoid coming into contact with other members of the public.

Route sheets will not be offered. Riding will be in a 'follow-my-leader' group or using the drop-off system. Wherever possible the runs will start and finish at the same place.

The distance of runs will be limited to less than 50 miles and so no provision will be made for toilet breaks or refreshment stops and at no point will riders be indoors. Riders will be asked to ensure that before they start they have enough fuel to get them from their home to the start plus 50 miles to avoid filling station stops.

You should consider whether you will need to bring with you a face mask, hand sanitizer and your own refreshments.

Please ensure that your machine is capable of completing the run without needing assistance from others.

At the conclusion of the run, if riders have brought their own refreshments, they will be able to consume them with social distancing of 2 metres. Riders will then disperse independently.

DATE AND CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE FIRST RUN

Don McKeand will lead a run on the morning of Thursday, June 18th. To sign up and get details of the start time and location contact Don either by email: donmckeand@hotmail.com, or by telephone on: 01525 720629.

Dave Watts

Dave passed away this morning, Monday, 1st June. RIP Dave. Our sympathies go out to Jennifer and the rest of his family.

The funeral will be held on Tues 23rd June at the Bedford Crematorium but subject to current Government restrictions. Jennifer has asked that we provide a motorcycle escort from Shefford to Bedford, leaving at 9.45am. Logistics are yet to be sorted out, but we won't be allowed to enter the crematorium grounds with the bikes, or attend the funeral itself. More details when available. There will be a proper memorial event later.

I'd known Dave for a long time but I didn't really know much about him. He came from the motor trade. His hearing was challenged but it didn't stop a cheery clubnight greeting of 'Hallo Will' and the rattle of the raffle money box. He was a long-term member of the section committee. He sorted out a replacement venue at short notice when we got gazumpted by the local PCC. He was a happy rider on a variety of twins and often with his wife as pillion.
Once again, RIP Dave.

VMCC Beds News

Bryan's email newsletter has metamorphosed into the VMCC Beds News and for those who haven't received their copy by email here is a link to the current issue.

July's club-night

We will be bringing you an on-line presentation each month until we can get back to the real thing.

The link for June's virtual club-night is:
http://wcurry.co.uk/vmccbeds/net_night_june/w_001.html
The link for May's virtual club-night is:
http://wcurry.co.uk/vmccbeds/net_night_may/w_001.html
The link for April's virtual club-night is:
http://wcurry.co.uk/vmccbeds/net_night/t_001.html

AGM 2019

The Chairman's, secretary's & treasurer's reports and the minutes of the meeting for this year's AGM are now available to browse here.

The website

When I took over the website it needed hosting. This was done thanks to the to the generosity of Section members Peter and Dot Jones who hosted the site on their server DJ Automation Engineering Ltd

For practical reasons DJ Automation can no longer host the site and I've therefore now moved it over to my server. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of both Peter and Dot, their support allowed us to keep on the net and helped the section to grow accordingly. Sadly Peter passed away but Dot still continued to help us, donating a really good projector that we use regularly for talks and presentations in the club-house.

For all of this the Section would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you", very much appreciated.

A request via Richard Stone of the Northampton section from Hugh Gallagher to try to identify a motorcycle.
Please email any suggestions to the email address at the bottom of this page for onward transmission.

Comments, suggestions and articles for inclusion to: Will Curry ()