It was a nice sunny morning when I set off for the classic car and bike show at the Chiltern Open Air Museum. I was riding my 1960 Matchless G3 Dispatch Riders bike, it is quite a rare machine being 1 of 457 built for the Home Office to escort the Green Goddess fire engines in the event of a nuclear attack!! There is only 150 of these bikes worldwide thought to have survived, and this is very original.

By the time I got to COAM my clutch was in need of adjustment, so I parked in the field with the rest of the Busy Bee members, there was a good turnout, Brian, Pat, Steve, Frank, Johnny, Rob, Karen and Steve, Ian and Bob. I borrowed some tools off Steve that he carries in his Outfit and adjusted the clutch which needs to be done from the gearbox end. Busy Bee get free entry and a free cup of coffee as part of our entry as a club member, which is good. The open air museum is very interesting, and it is a great place to have a car and bike show. There were plenty of classics to view while you sampled a barbeque cheese burger.

We all sat around and had some great discussions as usual! Towards the end of the day a man was having trouble starting a lovely 500cc Velocette. Brian and I offered to give him a bump start, but this was not successful! We took the plug out and yes it was soaking wet with fuel, after cleaning and re fitting the plug, Brian said could I give it a kick as I seemed to have the most puff left out of the 3 of us! I did my procedure for starting a big British Single, gave her a kick and she burst into life, that lovely vintage machine sounded great!

Everyone started to drift off and me Brian and Pat were the last to leave, we had a nice little ride down the country lanes to Denham with a Norton Electra, Brian and Pat on their FS1E and me on the Matchless which made an unusual sight! A great day at a local event and the weather behaved itself!

Pete Barton

This particular Sunday we had three event on the same day namely Brooklands Ton-Up day, Jack’s Hill Café Ton-up Day and Triton & Café racer Day at the Ace. I had sent What’s App message to that effect. My choice was straight forward as I was suffering from flu since Friday and did not want to venture out too far on a bike.

Got to the Ace Café for 11am and there I saw quite a few members already sitting under the Busy Bee gazebo. We had Ray, Bill, Peter, Bob, Gordon, Ian, George and of course Pat and Brian. The weather was warm but much cooler then Saturday which was a bonus. We were all having a good catch up and banter. I noticed that the 59 club stand was absent today which worked out in our favour as we ended up judging and handing out best bike on the show prizes.

1^st prize went to Frank from South End for his Gold Star.

2^nd Prize went to Tim from Finchley for his Triton and finally

3^rd Prize went to Ray Hemel Hempstead for his Triton

As the day went on more members turned up like Rob, Chris, Steve and Richard. Despite three events taking place on the same day turn-out at the Ace was quite strong. While we were giving the prizes away a member of the FIVA (Federation Internationale Vechicules Anciens) to hand out Annul badges and reminded us that it was International Motorcycle Week.

We had at least six new members joined our little club and that is good news. Hope to see them at the club nights on Thursdays so please do make them feel welcome and hope that they join us on the ride-outs. After intake of more food and drinks and more banter it was time pack up as the vehicles for the next event were coming in. With the help of Chris, Peter, Pat, Brian and myself we packed the gazebo in the back of the car and left. This was a great relaxing day and many thanks to Mark and the Ace Café.

Vinnie

I woke up to what looked like a dull, damp day, however, the clouds pulled back by 10am and so I set off on the little BSA C12 I had just acquired, a nice bike for an old timer like me to potter about on, and long may it continue! I had just got to Ivinghoe Beacon when I ran into a wall of heavy rain. I thought I would turn around at the bottom of the hill and head home. At the bottom of the hill however, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeping through the clouds, so on I went to the show. As I parked up Frank appeared, “Where are all the others?” I asked, “You are the first” he said. So I sat there all day on my own in the sunshine.

It’s a great show these days, the field was full of Classics, the back field had the Steamers and Military stuff that was full as well plus lots of food stalls, no need to go hungry!  As it was Father’s Day, I set off for home about 3pm. As I was leaving I met Colin and Frank again. It seems to me that the others missed a great day out, you were all missed!

Peter Mayne

The weather was cloudy but rain was not forecast. I was riding my 1957 Triumph Trophy 650 TR6 and I made my way to Denham meeting point. On arrival Dave on a Triumph Bonny Scrambler, and Ian on a Sinnis 250 were already there waiting. Then Bill and Ray turned up on their Tritons, then Maxy on a Norton Atlas 750, then Roger on his Norton 750 Commando. Brian and Pat arrived on their Hinkley Bonneville.

I suggested that I ride behind Brian who was leading, as I did not have the braking power of the other bikes to ride at the back of the pack, at the back you get the sling shot effect of constantly speeding up then heavy braking. We set off and had a great ride through Slough and Windsor, which made a classic sight and sound with these mostly old British bikes, just like the old days! Most of us were dressed in old kit as well, with open helmets, goggles, and leather jackets, jeans and boots. We got to the Black Horse pub in Slough and were the first to arrive, so we parked our bikes at the front and Brian, Pat and I decided to walk down to Costas for a large coffee, when we came back the place was full of lovely old British machinery and a few foreign bikes, Eric Patterson even turned up on a Matchless. There was food available at the pub or you could pop over to Tescos which was opposite.

About 20 Mods turned up on their classic old 1960s Scooters, Lambrettas and Vespas decked in lights and mirrors, they were very welcome at the pub and the whole scene was very cool. After a lot of bike talk our group of Busy Bee decided to ride down to the Cellar Coffee Bar in Windsor. It was a great feeling to be re-living history riding these old classic bikes around the corner to the Cellar, as we arrived some Scooters were just leaving which made a great sight for on-lookers who must have thought it was the 60s again! The night club above the Cellar was owned by Diana Dors, I wonder if she ever popped down for a coffee and to put a record on the Jukebox! The whole place is now a kind of hotel.

When we decided to leave, Rogers Norton would not start, and after loads of attempts by us to fix the problem which was electrical he decided to call the breakdown people. The bike did eventually start as it was an intermittent fault.

Pete Barton

The weather was quite cold on the morning of the run, I was riding my 1970 Bonneville and was hoping Brian would be on his 70 Bonnie as well, as our bikes are only 2 of 200 made for the UK market in 1970, so it would be quite a special thing to have them together on the run.

Steve was already at the meeting point in Denham at 8.45 am and was riding his Kwacker side car outfit. Rene and Sam came next on a Kwacker custom and Harley Sportster. Brian and Pat had running issues with a fouled plug, but eventually came roaring along on the 70 Bonnie. We had a good ride to Fleet on country lanes through Windsor, but the traffic was quite heavy and eventually we got split up, I managed to stay with Brian, Pat and Steve, there was already loads of classic bikes parked as we sorted our entry and then had egg and bacon rolls and coffee.

At 11am the run started and I followed Steve on his outfit with Pat in the chair, we had a great cruise through some wonderful countryside in the cold chill air, Brian had got delayed talking to people and missed the start of the ride, but he did eventually do a shortened version of it. At the pub stop for lunch there were 2 pubs used next to each other, and it was a fantastic sight seeing all the classic bikes arrive, lots took a pack lunch as the food and drink was very expensive, Karen and Steve arrived on their lovely 70’s Yammy 250 in yellow with expansion pipes.

Back at Fleet we all had to park in sections in different decades for the judging. There was even a few 60’s scooters with their mirrors and lights, mod style, all the machinery made a wonderful sight. There was an amazing Indian 4 cylinder from the 20’s which I really liked. It was fascinating to see the Japanese bikes in the 70’s section, and think that in a few sort years they completely dominated the market and completely closed down the British motorcycle industry! Very sad!! Why didn’t our government at the time step in to save them? Like the Italian government did with Ducati and Moto Guzzi ! But I think British motorcycles will always dominate this type of event as they are more cherished and easier to restore than the Jap bikes.

After ice creams and coffee it was time to ride back, it was a really good meeting and day out, and my Bonnie performed faultlessly so I was very pleased with that.

Pete Barton.