Author: admin

Ride to Lasham – Mar 25

It might only be mid-March but it felt like the summer riding season had begun. With the temperature rising to 15C and dry roads, 12 of us met up for spirited ride to a new venue for us, the cafe at Lasham Airfield near Alton. Three more members met us there and we enjoyed the refreshments and chat before heading our various directions home. Good to see so many people out on their bikes again and we had one new member going on his first ride with us as well. Looking forward to more days like this going forward. Here are some photos of the ride.

Brooklands Veteran & Vintage Motorcycle Day – April 25

Brooklands Museum are holding a Motorcycle Day for pre-1940 motorcycles on Sunday 6 April 2025.

Enjoy a day filled with pre-1940 motorcycle displays, Test Hill ascents (weather permitting), race starts, demonstrations, 1920/30s style Gymkhana events and talks! Enjoy live music by The Knightingales vocal trio.

All pre-1940 motorcycles are welcome to join.

For more information on this event, click here.

If you are a Berkshire TOMCC member and want to go, there is a discount available. Contact us to obtain the “promotional code” for the discount.

TOMCC AGM 2025

The venue for this year’s TOMCC AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the TOMCC CIC will this year be held in Rotherham in Yorkshire on 13 April 2025. The agenda and details of the propositions to be discussed at this years AGM together with the financial accounts and the minutes of last year’s AGM are published in the April 2025 issue of Nacelle. There are some important issues to be decided at this year’s AGM, so all Branch members are encouraged to read the information in Nacelle. Several members of the Branch are planning to attend the AGM this year, but all full members of the TOMCC are welcome to attend and are encouraged to do so. See here for more details of the AGM on the main TOMCC website.

Ride to CTL Cafe – Mar 25

Outside CTL Cafe, Cirencester

We went on a ride to the CTL Cafe, which is named after Cherry Tree Lane, where it is located, just outside Cirencester. A favourite biker venue, it has a large car park, pictures of bikes all over the walls, the lampshades are made of tyres and there is a large garage next to the cafe which you can walk around with has a cracking collection of bikes. We had a great time looking around as well as enjoying the food, and of course, the ride there. Here are some photos of our time there.

Rides to Loomies – Feb 25

Our bikes parked up in Loomies car park

A group of us went for a ride to the ever popular Loomies Cafe in mid February. It was the first Sunday ride out of the year when the temperature was above 5 degrees. The weather forecast said it would rain, but it turned out dry and the rain did not start until after we got home. With plenty of room in a warm cafe, it all felt like luxury after some of the rides we had earlier in the year. Here are some photos of the ride.

Nacelle Report – Mar 2025

Below is the report published in the March 2025 issue of Nacelle, which covered Branch activities in January 2025

With a few bright days at the end of January and the first appearance of snowdrops in the hedgerows, spring is finally in the air.  By the time you read this I hope winter is a dim distant memory.  But we’ve been making the best of the dark evenings and held our annual Bring & Buy sale in mid-January. If you were there I hope you grabbed a bargain.  I know an absolute bounder who snaffled a rare Smiths instrument, less said, the better. A good evening with a presence of over 40 members.

Bargains galore at the annual Bring & Buy sale

A fortnight later saw Richard Wheadon present a talk on his role within the TOMCC; that of Machine Registrar.  Richard described the necessary forms to be completed in the pursuit of obtaining a registration, either repatriated machines requiring age related plates or a “home” barn-find with an old-style log-book to retain an original registration.  He touched on dubious stampings and emphasised the importance of doing your homework on the machine before parting with your hard earned cash.  He further explained how matching numbers had become so desirable, that the temptation to doctor numbers to match one another, now appeared to be on the rise.  So, branch members, hope for another presentation by Richard on fakes; perhaps next year.

Richard Wheadon, TOMCC Machine Registrar, presents…

March’s presentation will be by John Bottomley, VMCC, on “The development of Ducati Racing machines” and will held on 6th March.

At 2deg C it’s a little nippy on the Ridgeway

Meanwhile, weekly ride-outs continue, albeit it’s been a little nippy…

Bibendum

John Bottomley – GP Racing Development

500cc GP Race Bikes in action

John Bottomley will be giving a presentation to the TOMCC Berkshire Branch and invited guests on Thursday 6 March 2025, starting at 8pm at the BCSA.

In his presentation he reviews the 500ccc world championship from 1947 until the introduction of the MotoGP format in 2002 and traces the winning machines and the increase in engine performance.

He shows how Ducati fits into this picture and picks up the academic background of the key Ducati designers and the design aspects they introduced. He concludes with a look at as much of the technical detail as he has gleaned regarding Capirossi’s 2002/3 MotoGP bike.

In addition, he answers the question of why they had to put GPS on the bikes. I didn’t know they had. Did you? Come along and find out.

Branch AGM 2025 – photos

The committee at the 2025 Branch AGM

The Branch AGM was held on the 13 February 2025 at the BCSA. There were 32 members in attendance. Here are some photos from the meeting.

The existing committee were re-elected to their existing roles with the exception of the Runs Coordinator role, which became vacant. Therefore runs will be organised by a number of different people going forward See here for more details of the current committee.

Lunchtime Bike Meet – 3 May 2025

One of our previous Lunchtime Bike Meets

We are having a Lunchtime Bike Meet on Saturday 3 May 2025 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. 

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

A collection will be taken for Blood Bikes , which is a charity which uses volunteer bikers to deliver vital supplies like blood to hospitals. See here for more information about Blood Bikes.

See here for details of the venue.

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