Save the old BSA building

Here's a link you might be interested in...and some great historical photos at the bottom of the page - www.bsatrust.org

Stafford - pics up.

Pics added to post below for Stafford. Enjoy.

Stafford; been there, done that, and I got a tee shirt!

Well, what a weekend. Up at 5am, Mrs BC ran me to the station, hopped on a train to Dundee, met Shorty, picked Bill C up, and zoomed off south to Uttoxeter to meet Muckle Flugga Man for tea. Sat'day, off to the show, weather lovely, blue sky, sort of 'English' in atmosphere. Left Pete and MFM to queue at the gate while I swanned in with my advance ticket. No sooner was I in the grounds then people started to contact me to arrange meeting up. Some were new faces and people I've only 'known' through the blog, while others were people I've known for a while but hardly ever see. So in no particular order it was great to meet you / see you again - SFB and Gus, Robin of Wales, Ivan Rhodes and his lovely lady Joy, Mr Pres of the VMCC (had to drop a Cubbie souvenir off to him), Stuart and his good lady, Pilot Rae and his neighbour (the poor chap is being initiated into the world of 2-stroke MZs), Editor Britton from Old Bike Mart / Classic Dirt Bike fame, Slick Vic from Scotland, plus PeterO from Scotland (you go all the way to England and bump into people from your own backyard), Annice from the VMCC Library and Moz, and Rick Parkington of, shhhh, Classic Bike fame, oh there are too many to list! Who else did I meet? It'll come to me.

OH, and I bumped into the guys from Greystone Enterprises, Adrian and Derek. Never met them before, but spoken to one or both on the phone and they're always helpful with advice and Cub knowledge, not to mention being one of the main suppliers of spares. What to my wondering eyes should I spot on their stall as I chatted to them but a big white envelope with "GBC" written on the front. Hmmm. Sensing danger, I enquired, "what does GBC stand for?". The answer was obvious, it was me. Apparently, I must have said something last Christmas about the lack of a festive card from the guys and somehow, word must have ping-ponged its way back to them, so lo and behold, here was my first Xmas card for 2010! Thanks guys!

Ivan Rhodes kindly took the time to introduce me to his friends on the Pioneer Motorcyclists stand, and that was the first chance I'd had to sit down all day, plus I met a load of the Velo Owners too.

I missed out on a look at the MZ stand as I had to retreat from that hall and witness my Editor popping his B40 trials bike up and over a scrap car. The trials display that followed was quite good, with Tim providing commentary on the bikes and riders. The chips, it has to be said, were hideously overpriced, and I thank all those who treated me to elevenses / lunch / afternoon tea / food. I do need feeding up ya know. At some point over the weekend I managed a visit to the Real Classic stand where I met Rowena H, and then finally made it up to the balcony above the main hall for a look. And what did I see? A lovely little Tiger Cub, all dressed up in shiny chromey bits and looking good. Also saw the new Jawas, wouldn't mind a shotty on one of them. Ah yes, how could one forget. PeterO lent me and MFM his Bonhams catalogue so that we could have a look in the secret hall - the place were hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Vincents were up for auction, along with lots of other perhaps less hyped up machines. We got there just as the Vinnies were going under the hammer, and had to sit down; silly, SILLY prices for these things. Surely no lump of metal is worth 20k, 30k, 40k??? Especially the rusty project ones.

In the auction room...



Up on the balcony...

And around and about again...



Go on, it's a 'Onda, that's for sure, but what do you think it is? No cheating, if you were there and saw it keep quiet!

Saturday was mostly taken up with chatting and a general browse around. There were so many people it was nearly impossible to stop and look at anything, so Sunday proved the best day for looking at project bikes and raking through rusty bits and pieces, and buying boxes of mixed washers, nuts and O rings. Oh, I bought Cubbie a special pressie - a new cork for the fuel tap. Last of the big spenders eh! Just got to get round to fitting it now.


Sorry, couldn't resist that one!

So after a day off on Monday for sightseeing, it was time to hot foot it back to Cubbie Towers where work work work and more work of one kind or another, awaited me. Plus the exciting news that after Mrs BC had dropped me at the station on Friday, the fuel tank went and detached itself from the truck and the truck was stuck at a garage down the road that we've never used. Ho hum, back to the grind!

THANKS again to all who took time to meet up and have a chat, must do it again some time.

Winter.

Oh Lordy, that's the first lot of snow for this winter. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

It ain't much, but it's enough to say winter is just around the corner.

Stafford.

I nearly, oh so nearly, made it to the April Stafford show, apparently that's THE show to go to, but illness intervened and I couldn't go. I even had my accommodation arranged and a lift booked. But anyway, I've got plans to be there this weekend - accommodation sorted and travel sort of sorted, just need to get me a train ticket and we're off. There is one small problem at the moment; I don't have anything to, er, wear. I mean, I'm bound to be able to find something suitable in the pile of clean washing that passes for the contents of my wardrobe, but the tee shirt I really, really need is out on the line in the rain. Along with my jeans. Oh dear, the trials and tribulations, you don't understand.

So what am I after at Stafford? Well, a trials 'zorst and petrol tank for a Cub would be good, and some kind of 'seat' to go on a trials Cub, plus any Terrier bits and pieces would make my eyes light up, and maybe some odds and ends that you've just got to buy when you go to these jumbley places, you know, mixed nuts and bolts, bungeeeees, Cub projects, nothing big ya know...

And I quite fancy seeing the Classic Dirt Bike hall where my editor from Old Bike Mart (incidentally, have you seen the Suzuki test www.oldbikemart.co.uk/news/bike-test-stepping-stone in there this month?) who is also the Ed of Classic Dirt Bike, will be demonstrating how to ride a trials bike over a car. Hooligan. I suspect he might make the odd couple of dabs on that one, but we shall see. He certainly couldn't compete with the World-International-Ariel-Trials-ish-Sidecar-Champ (aka GBC) in such matters. NO, that is NOT a challenge!

So keep your fingers crossed for a fine day tomorrow and if you're really unlucky, you might see me hanging around the VMCC stand at some point on the weekend.

Gee-Bee Chick

So, now what? I'm on that Fleecebook thing as Gee-Bee Chick, thinking that no one would know me and I wouldn't have any friends, but oh no, as soon as I got logged in about 300 names were listed for me to select my 'friends'. Scarily, most of these names were people I was at school with. How do 'they' know who Gee-Bee Chick is for goodness sake? Anyway, I've got A Page now, don't know what to do with it, don't know how to direct you to it (not that there's anything on there to look at, cos I've got a blog for that) but I'll see how useful it can be in the future. I'd better keep an eye on the hit counter and see what happens....

So welcome to any of you who have popped over here from over there, feel free to browse around, hit the archives and see what you've been missing. Please also feel free to leave a comment and let me know you've been here.

Facewhat?

Well there y'are, I tried to set up a Facebook thingy for the bike club, and one for someone with the initials GBC, but on both accounts they've failed to send the necessary confirmation emails. How bizarre. Any of you lot on the dreaded Facebook?