An audience with…..Cliff Jones

On Monday January 30th we were “entertained” by Tony Jones (better known as Cliff Jones to us) who gave us a very interesting and entertaining talk about his time racing during the 1970s. He was a very capable racer and had great success on a Suzuki 250 T20 and also racing in Formula Bantam.

In 1974 he was invited to race a very special BSA Bantam in the 125TT. The bike was built by George Harris and although heavily modified still complied with the Formula Bantam rules. George had built a special short stroke engine with water-cooled barrel and head. This machine was capable of 110 mph and revving to 11000 rpm. Pretty much all the entrants were racing modern machines but the Bantam had only a three speed gearbox….Cliff finishing a very credible 8th with an average speed of 83.24 mph.

Cliff was “supported” by Roger Cope and Dave Locke, both well known and respected racers and and Nick Harris a Motogp commentator, all good friends of Cliff.

A total of 47 members/guests were present.

The event was held at our usual venue – The Red Lion in Cassington.

Event organised by Mark Howard, report by Graham Lay

Specials Day August 13th 2022

Despite the very high forecasted temperatures 40 plus riders attended our annual Specials Day gathering at the Red Lion in Cassington.

Our hosts Janice and Bill very thoughtfully erected 4 gazebos and placed parasols on the picnic tables to afford some shade.

The temperature reached a little over 30 C.

As usual these gatherings bring along not just members but many other local enthusiasts. Welcome one and all.

BMRCO Specials Day 2022

Italian Bike Day 2022 ( June 11)

Our 2nd event of the year was once again held in sunny weather and by all accounts was a great success. More than 125 Italian motorcycles called in during the day with some riders travelling more than 130 miles to attend. An unknown quantity of riders on non-Italian motorcycles also rode in to enjoy the atmosphere and sight of a wide variety of exotic machinery; these parked at the front of the pub…

A perusal of the images in the gallery show the eclectic mix of machinery. Many of the riders were long term owners of their machines and were very knowledgable. It cannot be often said that so many Laverda Jotas (8 in total) gather in one area.

Whilst a few of our members own Italian motorcycles the exotica ridden in today was quite breathtaking.

A big thank you to Jan and Bill for allowing us once again to use the garden.

Given a following wind we will hold this event in 2023 (on June 10th)

Best of British Bike Day 2022 (May 28th)

Very happy to report that the main event we as BMRCO hold each year has been a tremendous success. The featured marque this year was the Vincent and we were treated to 5 very different machines and owners.

In addition to these wonderful machines we played host to more than 125 other British bikes during the day, with more than 75 being present at one stage. Parked outside the pub during the day was probably the same amount of non-Brit bikes and also many turning up in cars or Morgans…..a wonderful sense of camaraderie was created.

Allen Millyard called in with his Velocette V twin. He has become a regular to our events.

I was personally reunited with many friends from the early ’70s and one of the founding members of the club (Member no 1) rode to the event from Christchurch.

We welcomed visitors from many other towns and cities and also Anthony and Josephine Lennarts, BMRCO members from The Netherlands.

A massive thank you to Janice and Bill Faulkner for hosting the event in the garden of Red Lion, without your co-operation this event could not take place.

Given a following wind we will hold the event again next year on the last Saturday in May.

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Best of British Bike Day 2021

Once again our Best of British Bike Day was blessed with dry and sunny weather, which undoubtedly helped the event be a big success. Many club members turned up, including quite a few who have been wary of getting together due to the Covid crisis. Wonderful to see them again.In addition to the club members there were many other riders in attendance, some new and some returnees from previous events held by us. All most welcome of course.

More than 150 bikes turned up during the day with non-Brit bikes parking at the front of the pub. As always, a massive thanks to Janice Bowerman-Faulkner and William Faulkner at The Red lion for allowing us to use their garden and serving drinks, hot dogs and burgers to keep us going.

Given a following wind we will hold this event again next year but it will probably return to its traditional date of the last Saturday of May. Keep safe, ride safe.

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Winter Meal 2019

On Saturday February 9th a total of 38 of us enjoyed a convivial meal together at The Plough in Wolvercote, taking over the entire restaurant area. The food was  judged to have been very good as was the service; they may well be blessed with us again next year.

Nobody appeared to be short of conversation with both areas of the restaurant making very good impressions of the Monday evening “noisy table”, but with 38 people all wanting to contribute. The mixing up of guests enabled animated and interesting discussions to be held, certainly on our section of the table.

Many thanks once again to Barbara for having organised the event, the bouquet of flowers she was given being a small token of everyones gratitude.

Report and images by Graham Lay

Cogges Steam and Vintage Motors Day – Sunday June 17th

Thanks to all that turned up today to support the annual Steam and Motors event at Cogges Museum. The motorcycle presence has become a major pull at this event now with many people turning up solely to see the bikes.

Members of the local AJS /Matchless and the Norton Owners clubs swelled the ranks. Cogges intend to hold the event again next year (on Father’s Day). 

Report and images – Graham Lay 

“Classic Bike Live” Peterborough October 28/29th 2017 – report

This October saw the club displaying at “Classic Bike Live”  for the second time (it’s in fact only the second time this show has run, does that make us “founder members”?). Originally we had asked of space for 13 machines, although in the end we had for various reasons 12 in total,  with 10 on show each day – two were displayed Saturday only, but being replaced by two different machines on Sunday. 

At first we thought there was going to be a problem as the space marked out for us was too small, we could not have got half of our machines into it. All turned out OK as it happened, the chalk marks on the floor were from a previous event that had not been properly cleaned off, so in fact we ended up with plenty of space.

Attendance at the show itself was a bit thin, better on the Sunday but that at least meant everyone was able  to see everything  easily without pushing or shoving. Of the trade show/jumble, the jumble was virtually non existent, and just how many cheap tool merchants do you need? Also some of the clubs were placed in a somewhat remote hall which some people never even found, which is not likely to encourage them to return.

That said there were plenty of bikes to see, some interesting people to talk to and even a few thing to buy, so all in all not a bad couple of days out.

Machines displayed :-

Racing Velocette, Aermacchi *, BSA B29, Wall AutoWheel, Norton Commando, BSA M24, Egli Vincent, Norton Model 40, Silk 500, Silk 700, Triumph Trident, Moto Guzzi V65 *

* Guest Machines

Photos show a general view of the Club’s display.

Report and images by John Lay (Chairman)

Rideout – Sand and Motorcycles (Leighton Buzzard) Sunday September 24th 2017 – Report

A total of 17 BMRCO members and guest riders gathered in sunshine at The Red Lion and enjoyed a meandering route to “On Yer Bike” at Westcot where we regrouped. The Ducati dealership appeared to be open with hordes of bikers gathered in the carpark. A more direct route was then taken to Leighton Buzzard.

One of the guest riders was riding a 1929 600cc fore-and-aft Douglas complete with hand change and manual oil-pump. 

The bikes ridden to the “event” included a variety of new and shiny bikes of all descriptions as well as a goodly collection of interesting old nails.

Thanks Bob, Rod and Mark for organising….

 

(NOC) Cafe Racer Day Saturday September 16th 2017 – report

A few images taken at the annual Cafe Racer Day organised by the Oxford Branch of the NOC and this year held at The Red Lion in Cassington.
Stan Dibben and Ken Sprayson (The Frame Man) kindly judged and presented the prizes for Best Cafe Racer (Featherbed framed Triumph Trident engine) and Furthest Travelled Cafe Racer (Norton Atlas – Southampton).
The “winning” bike was a true masterpiece incorporating an abundance of specially designed and self made components.
Bikers turned up from many parts of the UK either to enter their bike or simply to attend. This is the 5th year the event has been held and will almost certainly take place next year at the same location.
Many thanks to Janice Bowerman-Faulkner of The Red Lion for hosting the event, members of the Cassington Sports and Social Club for manning the bbq and dispensing coffee and tea and to Stan Dibben and Ken Sprayson for gracing us with their presence, judging and presenting the prizes.
The number of attendees was down on previous years, no doubt due to the weather forecast but the 60 or so present all enjoyed the day.

15 BMRCO members turned up and thoroughly enjoyed the event. 

Mark the event in your diary for September 2018.😉