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Ride to Avebury – May 24

Dry sunny weather after a number of wet weekends attracted 17 riders for our Sunday ride-out to the ancient stone circle at Avebury. Our runs leader chose a scenic route through twisty lanes which was great fun to ride. We stopped at the Clubhouse cafe just which was between the stone circle and a cricket ground. The car park was full, but there was a grass area that we all parked out bikes in. There was a short drizzle of rain while we were in the cafe, but it had stopped by the time we came out for the ride home. So we all stayed dry. Here are some photos of the event.

National Motorcycle Museum – 2024

Norman Hyde at the National Motorcycle Museum

On the 27 April 2024, the National Motorcycle Museum (near Meriden) held a Triumph day in conjunction with the TOMCC, which included a talk by Norman Hyde, TOMCC Patron and legendary development engineer and world record holder. A small group of us from the Branch went up for the day, looked round the museum, met other TOMCC members and listened to Norman Hyde. Here are some photos of the event.

The first ever Triumph Motorcycle
The sponsorship wall
Slippery Sam
Norman’s Talk
Old bikes
An old trike

We had a great day. Norman Hyde spoke for an hour and a half without a break. Saw some crazy bikes. Especially liked the very old one where the passenger sat in a chair in front of the rider!!!. Also turns out we were one of the original sponsors when the museum was built according to a plaque on the wall.

The National Motorcycle Museum has a remarkable collection of British manufactured motorcycles, from the dawn of motorcycling in the early 1900’s to the present day. It is well worth a visit.

Nacelle Report – May 24

Below is the report published in the May 2024 issue of Nacelle, which covered Branch activities in March 2024

A joint effort this month.

Ton-Up Ted writes:

We had a good turnout for our Thursday night bring and buy sale. We had half a dozen tables laid out with various motorcycling goodies, from books to clothing to exhaust pipes and everything in between. The room was crowded with people browsing, chatting, eating and drinking.

The bring and buy sale at our Thursday club night

We started the month with seven of us riding to Waitrose’s Longstock Farm, where we had scones, clotted cream and jam instead of our usual bacon butties. We then had a mid-week ride to Choppers Café, a Sunday ride to the Iron Bull Roadhouse and then, with the sun shining, 15 joined on a ride to the Honey Street Mill Café. Our Branch stand had its first outing this year at the local MAG show on Easter Sunday.

Bibendum writes:

Meanwhile, here I am in Goa, India, impersonating a beach bum. Having hired an ageing Bullet 500 for transport, I took a slow ride north to the Triumph, Goa, dealer: B.U. Bhandari, in Alto Povorim. Interested to see what the cost of the 400’s would be compared to the UK. OTR prices are a little over half what you’d pay in Blighty.

The Triumph dealer in Goa

The Indian 400cc market is very competitive with Royal Enfield’s Himalayan models and now Harley-Davidson’s 440X at a very similar price to the Triumph’s.

I look forward to a 6 man Berkshire branch tour of the north of England in May, concluding at the Shelsley Walsh 75th celebrations. Maybe see you there…

Bibendum 

TOMCC – 75 Anniversary – May 2024

In 2024 the Triumph Owners’ Motor Cycle Club will be 75 years old and on 17th-19th May 2024 we will be celebrating the event with a party at the historic Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb venue set in the Malvern Hills of Worcestershire.

We’ll be attending and will have our Branch stand and a display of members bikes in the historic paddock. A lot of our members plan on attending and its also a chance to meet other TOMCC members and branches at a great venue.

There will be a bar, food, and music/entertainment. There will be demonstrations taking place on the hill of special Triumph machines from throughout the ages.

Its going to be a cracking weekend !!!

See here for more details on this event.

Nacelle Report – April 24

Below is the report published in the April 2024 issue of Nacelle, which covered Branch activities in February 2024

The times they are a changing!!  At our AGM this month, Branch members elected a new: Chairman, Treasurer, Scribe and Regalia Officer, while three existing members Bob Cromwell, Derick Nobbs and Mick Billing stood down from the committee. Many thanks to all three for all they have done for the Branch over the years.  Check out our website for who’s who on the new committee.  As well as that, the Branch’s got a brand new badge!! This combines the TOMCC shield with the “stag and oak” from the Berkshire county flag in the Branch colours of bottle green and silver.

Eric Patterson presenting at our Branch night

We had a good turnout one Thursday to hear World Record holder, Eric Patterson, give a talk and answer questions on his record breaking runs at Bonneville Salt Flats on a Brough Superior, which featured on Henry Cole’s TV show.

A joint ride-out with RAT to Popham

Despite wet and cold conditions, we had four rides this month. One was held jointly with our local RAT group and went to Popham Airfield. We also had a ride to Thruxton Circuit, to the Court Hill Centre and finally back to Popham.

We’re looking forward to better biking weather and to kick of the season, we’re having a Lunchtime Bike Meet on Sunday 14 April at the BCSA. What better way to spend a Sunday!!!

Finally, after nine years of writing the Branch reports, I will be resting my paws, so it’s goodbye from me. Watch this space next month for our new Scribe.

Keep on rolling!

Ton-Up Ted

Lunchtime Bike Meet – 14 April 2024

We are having a Lunchtime Bike Meet on Sunday 14 April 2024 from 11am to 4pm at the BCSA. It’s a great opportunity to meet other riders, see their bikes and have lunch and a drink . All motorcycles and riders are welcome. 

We will be holding a collection for Thames Valley Air Ambulance.

A wide range of food and drink will on sale in the club house.

See here for details of the venue.

See here for pictures from one of our previous Lunchtime Bike Meets.

New Branch Badge

The new Branch badge adopted at the 2024 AGM

For many years our Branch Badge had been a green oval with silver writing showing the Triumph logo from the Meriden era in the centre with the name of the Club and Branch around the outside. During the last few years a number of people in the Branch had started using the Club badge (ie: the black shield) with the word “Berkshire” underneath as an alternative Branch badge.

During 2023 some people in the Branch started talking about having a completely new design for our badge. There was a lot of discussion around a number of different ideas for the new badge. Various designs were produced and shown around at our Thursday night club nights and discussed. A few articles of clothing were printed with various designs, shown on club nights and worn on a few rides. One design emerged as the clear favourite and was presented to the members at the 2024 Branch AGM who voted to adopt it as the new Branch badge.

The new Branch badge incorporates the stag and oak from the Berkshire county flag and the shield and scroll from the TOMCC Club badge with the bottle green and silver colours from the old Branch badge.

The badge has no writing on it other than the TOMCC Club motto (ie:” “nulli secundus”, meaning “second to none”), which is a departure from the old Branch badge, and this was a subject of some discussion. The reason we chose to have no writing on the badge itself is that the badge can be shown adjacent to the name of the Club or Branch in different ways depending on the context. This is not unusual. For example, while some car marques incorporate their name in their badge (eg: Ford) others (eg: Mercedes) do not. Our new badge can be combined with text in different ways to be either portrait or landscape, while on its own it is roughly square (ie: equal width and height).

On our website, on our Facebook page and in Nacelle the badge will be already be adjacent to text that clearly identifies it as the Berkshire Branch of the TOMCC. On clothing, it might appear with the word TOMCC or Berkshire or the Club and Branch names in full. Here are some example below of different ways the badge could appear with writing.

The Branch badge with Branch and the Club names written in full in landscape.

The Branch badge with TOMCC and Branch name in landscape

The Branch badge with TOMCC in portrait

The Branch badge on its own ( square)

Ride to Longstock Farm – Mar 24

Members in the car park at Longstock Farm

We rode out to Longstock Farm Shop and Cafe, owned by Waitrose, one damp Sunday. Instead of our usual diet of bacon rolls we had scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Well, it was Waitrose!!.

Enjoying scones, clotted cream and jam at Longstock Farm Cafe