Brian and I made our way to meet up at Denham for 9am. On arrival Vinnie, Sam and Danny were waiting for us and Roger arrived soon after. As we were not expecting anyone else this morning we jumped onto M25 towards Chertsey and then onto Brooklands. Brian took the lead and nobody got lost apart from Brian going full circle around the roundabout not far from Brooklands.
On arrival the marshals were a little bit confused and sent us to park at different locations depending on the age of our motorcycles. After parking up our first stop was the tea rooms. Whilst enjoying our hot drinks we met Laurie, Max and Gordon. That is when Gordon revealed that he was waiting for us at the lay-by near the garden Centre at Denham. This is the meeting point on very odd occasions when we ride towards Aylesbury. So please check before each ride-out with a member.
As we walked around the museum we saw Terry and Alison. Terry was not happy as his bike was playing up and he had misplaced his beloved small spanner which he had owned for nearly fourty years. Convinced someone had picked it up. He assured me that it was not in his tool kit because he had already looked inside. I proceeded to take everything out one by one and guess what? Yes, I had found one small beloved spanner right at the bottom of the bag. He was now one happy bunny once again and with that he let me take a photo of him for our website.
Even though we come here every year Brooklands feels different on every visit and still enjoy the experience. It is a very special and unique place as it was the first purpose built motor circuit constructed by Hugh Locke King in 1907. It was the birthplace of British motor sport and aviation. With many engineering and technological achievements through eight decades of the 20th century. The museum houses and maintains a wide range of motoring and aviation exhibits. These ranges from giant racing cars such as the 24 litre Napier Railton to a unique collection of Vickers / BAC built aircraft including Wellington , Viking , Varsity, Viscount, Vanguard VC10 One-Eleven and Concorde. The BAC factory at Brooklands had a major input into the design and manufacture of Concord.
Every year we come to this Ton-up- Day event at Brooklands. Brian and I never get tired of visiting this place as there are so many interesting things to do and see as well as meeting up friends and ride with mates to this event.
As the Ace is not too far from me and the fact that I do not own a classic it was hardly worth taking my bike out of the garage and just to stop before even she got warm up.
So I jumped in my car and arrived shortly after 11:15 and noticed Pat, Brian and Steve had put up our Busy Bee club gazebo. As usual they have done a grand job setting up tables, chairs and merchandise. The car park was filling up very quickly with bikes as the weather was perfect. As usual the 59 club stand was next door to us and could not help noticing at least one more club stand was missing. As the day passed many of the club members dropped in to say hello.
It all started off so well and then the heavens opened up and poured. To begin with most of the biker stayed thinking the clouds would blow over but it was not to be and as a result a lot of bikers left as quickly as they came. Soon the car park was empty apart from few brave souls.
We were all trying to stay dry and cosied up under our small gazebo. Steve and Brian started putting up sides to the gazebo to keep the wind and rain out. After couple of hours the sun decided to come out once again but by this time most of the classic bike owner had left.
There was best classic bike competition and as usual first, second and third prizes went to member of the 59 club. Even though there were other worthy bikes in the car park. However Pat did win two pairs of tickets in the raffle. One was for the Brooklands Museum and the other for Beaulieu bike event. All in all not a bad day despite the rain. Also it was good to see Gordon and Ian all the way from Luton and I had heard Laurie had to turn back from A40 as the road was closed. Safe riding and catch you on the next one!
Bank holiday Monday, weather not too bad but cloudy and dry, Brian had decided that we would go to Knebworth so we set off around 10:30.
Unfortunately Brian had a (senior) moment and we were heading down M1 to Luton instead of A1. As I was riding pillion blame could not be put on me. However had we been travelling by car then almost certainly I would have been blamed for distracting him by way of talking.
Therefore we had to double back from the first junction possible to where we had started. By the time we arrived at Knebworth we were very cold. Colin had arrived earlier so we had a quick chat before going to the café for hot drinks and a warm up. Not so many vintage bikes on show this year, but loads of different cars, trucks and caravans some were very unusual.
Met Jane whose stand was called “Vintage Pin striping”. Whilst we were there she was working on a car, she also pin stripes bikes as well as cars and Hand bags amongst others. This is one talented lady and so if you need any kind of pin striping done then do look her up at (vintage pinstripe.com).
After mulling around all the stalls, vintage cars and bikes we had a long sit down and one last cupper of the day before it was time to head home.
Another enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend.
Five gallant Busy Bee-ers gathered at Otterspool Way to set off for far off Duxford and two more joined us at the Silver Ball.
We took the scenic route to the A10 via Hatfield Tunnel, where the hooligans amongst us reveled in the sound of their Harleys echoing off the walls of the tunnel, on to Hertford, the back road to Bengeo and Wadesmill to the A10.
A straight run to the Silver Ball at Reed, near Royston. Disaster struck! The Silver Ball cafe was shut for two days. No number two breakfast or even a cup of tea! We stood around trying to think of somewhere to go but could not come up with any suggestions. We pressed on thinking we may see somewhere in Royston but no luck. We stopped at a lay-by and decided to carry on to Duxford.
The traffic was unusually light and we were directed around the M11 roundabout into the top end of the museum. We stopped at the ticket booths where one member on a Triumph Sprint, who shall be nameless, gave the poor woman in the booth such a sob story that she let him pay just the disabled persons rate! We parked on a large area of hard standing and went off having made some arrangements to possibly get together for the flying display. The weather forecast had been for rain later in the day and I think that affected the numbers. Perhaps people had chosen to go on the Saturday. There certainly was not the atmosphere of previous shows. We had some light rain but the flying display started on time. There were some aircraft not seen before including some replica WW 1 bi-planes which were slow and sedate in complete contrast with what was to follow. The Bristol Blenheim was another plane making its debut.
The clouds were getting lower and by four p.m. the two planes doing close formation aerobatics were disappearing into the clouds at the tops of their loops. We agreed we had probably seen the best of the display and decided to make for home. We rode through some light rain on our way to the A1M but otherwise the journey home was uneventful
A beautiful morning for a ride out, set off early to meet Big Dave and Sam at Mc Donald’s in Uxbridge for a coffee.
Brian Watts turned up in his car to see us off. Unfortunately, he had hurt his ankle and as a result he is unable to ride.
After a good old gossip before leaving him to meet the rest of the gang at Denham. Steve, Bob, Len, Ray and Bill we’re wait for us. Not so many of us this year as lot of our gang had opted to go to Duxford VE-Day Air show instead which is very poplar and happened to be on the same day.
We had a very leisurely run to Windsor, the only person to go wrong was Brian (luckily) no one followed and we soon caught up with the rest of the gang.
Max turned up just after us so first stop was to the Pub for refreshments. There was no Barbecue this year but had plenty of choice on the menu. The weather was very kind to us as we had no rain. The Cellar run was not as big as it has been in the past, but there were still plenty of bikes and old faces to see and lots to talk about. About 2:30 few dark clouds appeared so a few of us decide to go down to the river and have photos taken outside the cellar where the bikers use to go in the 60’s. Before going to our favourite café for a coffee (in my case an ice cream). It was lovely just to sit and watch the world go by. Suddenly a few drops of rain made us decide it was time to go home.
