Review of 2024

Our stand at the British SuperBikes at Thruxton this year

Looking back at 2024 we’ve seen lots of new faces at both our ride-outs and club nights. Its been a busy year for the Branch. We’ve met every Thursday with turnouts of 20 plus in the winter months, and 40 or more on dry summer nights. During the winter months we had presentations on touring in India and record breaking at Bonneville salt flats, a quiz night and bring and buy sale. We also adopted a new badge for the Branch and produced a new line of clothing and regalia with it on. We’ve had more 40 than rides organised this year and gone on visits to Cassington Bike Night, Triumph Day at the Ace Cafe, Triumph Day at Sammy Miller’s Museum and to the National Motorcycle Museum. We’ve also gone on the Easter Egg Run and Christmas Toy Run.

The highlight of the year was attending the TOMCC 75th Anniversary weekend at Shelsley Walsh. Another great weekend was spent with our Branch stand at the British Superbike Championship at Thruxton. At our home base at the BCSA we have hosted two lunchtime bike meets, our Old Motorcycle Gathering and a barbecue evening. We’ve also taken our Branch stand to several other shows including MAG’s Easter Show, Dr B’s, Popham Megameet and the Swallowfield Show.

Our Christmas Club Night

We had more than 60 people at our Christmas buffet on our last Club Night of the year.

See the video below to look back photos of the rides we have gone on this year.

Quiz Night Photos – Nov 24

Teams competing in the quiz in the club bar

We had our annual quiz night in November and once again, Bob Cromwell set a mix of motorcycle related and general knowledge questions. Prizes were awarded to the top three teams. There was a tie for third place, so Bob asked a further three questions in an exciting tie break round. There were some great prizes awarded to the three winning teams. See below for some photos of the event, including the three winning teams collecting their prizes.

See below for video summary of our quiz night.

Bike Meet Photos – Sept 24

We had dry sunny weather for our Lunchtime Bike meet on the 28 September. We had an interesting collection of about 80 bikes on show and with the bar open and a good selection of hot food available it was a fun afternoon. A great way to round off the bike show season. Here are some photos of the event.

Or check out this video of the day below. Note the title photo which celebrates 75 years of the TOMCC.

Swallowfield Show 2024 – Pictures

Historic Bikes on our stand at Swallowfield

We had a great August Bank holiday weekend at the Swallowfield Show. We had our Branch stand there with around 15 bikes on both Sunday and Monday and led the Classical Vehicle parade in the arena on both days. A video with some pictures of our time there is shown below.

Here are some more pictures of the event below.

British Superbike 24 – Pictures

Watching the racing on the main straight

We were at Thruxton for the entire weekend of the British Superbikes Championship, Friday through to Sunday in August 2024. We had our own stand there which we set up on the Thursday afternoon so it was ready for the whole three day event. We had a display of around 15 bikes there for each of the three days. Our members took it turns to man the stand, so everyone had an opportunity to see everything else at the event, including some racing.

We had a great time. See some photos below of the weekend.

See the video below for some great shots of the bikes we had on display on our stand.

A video showing the bikes on display on our stand at the BSB

An article about our weekend at BSB appeared in the November 2024 issue of Nacelle, the TOMCC magazine. You can read that article here.

Toy Run – 2023

Thousands of bikers turned out for the Toy Run in aid of the Dr Barnado’s children’s charity on the 3 December. Many Branch members contributed as marshals, transportation or as riders on the day. See highlights of the run in the video below.

Ireland Tour 2023

In 2023, a group of Branch members went on a weeks tour of South West Ireland, riding the Wild Atlantic Way, kissing the Blarney stone and drinking Guinness while listening to Irish music in the evenings. It was a great week riding hundreds of miles together. Watch the video below to see the highlights.

Overtaking safely on rides

We often have to overtake cars when out on rides and its one of the most challenging and risky maneuvers that we do. Safe overtaking is an important part of advanced motorcycle training. This video explains the right way to overtake with a number of examples.