BMW Club Oxford Section Report for January 2016
Another year to look forward to good company, rides to interesting places and of course good food. Since the last report in December there have been a couple more Christmas dinners that were well attended and enjoyed by everyone as a lead in to the big day dinner of course. Around 30 people attended the dinner at the Sun Inn, as can be seen on the Section Blog, with thanks to Phil and Tracy for organising this event.
The last of the indoor meets at Uffington for 2015 took place on the 13th December and, after a fine repast provided by the section cooking team of David & Rosemary Hicks with a supporting cast, a full hall settled down to hear about Steve & Catherine Moxey’s trip to the land of the midnight sun. Their ride up through Norway wasn’t blessed with the best of weather as it seemed to be a test of the waterproof capabilities of their clothing. They did manage to see some interesting places though. The scenery should have been one of the highlights of the trip and, in spite of the weather; they did have some superb photographs of wild Norway. It was interesting to see the photograph of the famous bridge on the Atlantic Ocean Highway in less than perfect conditions; not at all like the publicity shots in the sunshine. They did make it eventually past the Arctic Circle and on to the North Cape in spite of landslides blocking the road in some places. As Steve said “with all the bad weather at least the mosquitoes kept away most of the time” but then they don’t fly as fast as Steve on his GS. The return journey via Finland and Sweden had the real hazards of reindeer and even more dangerous, Moose to look out for as hitting any of these on a motorcycle would really spoil your day. We have to thank Steve & Catherine for providing us with this very interesting story of their travels.
Just as the last season finished with food we started the new one with more food when more than 50 members and friends turned out at the Lock, Stock & Barrel in Newbury on New Year’s Day. Although the conservatory end of the pub had been allocated for the section the numbers soon filled that and half the rest of the pub as well. What an excellent start to the year. Although I telephoned prior to the day even I wasn’t expecting that many people and we really have to thank Jason Collicott and all his team for coping so well with us all at the Lock, Stock & Barrel.
Those who have not been along to the various Pub Social evenings have been missing out on some good food and banter. The 28th January will be the first of the new meeting locations “up north” at the Red Lion, Evenley where we look forward to seeing many who live in the north of the County. All meetings here will be on the 4th Thursday of each month. Check out your calendar for the dates and locations of the other pub socials.
Now that you have all received presents that might not quite be what you were hoping for you have the chance to offer them for sale at the Bring & Buy on the 10th January. This might be the time to clear out the garage or the spare room. Always fun to see people arrive with ‘stuff’ and then depart with even more ‘stuff’.
Our friends at Bahnstormer, Maidenhead are having a special BMW Club Service day on the 23rd January where you can learn all about how this is accomplished on the range of bikes. This should be a very interesting day and there should be more food available.
The ‘Biker Down’ Course on the 4th February has proved very popular and I have a reserve list already. If this extends to 14 people we could try to ask for another day to run the workshop again.
Whilst thinking about the unthinkable, we are all indebted to the work of the Air Ambulance that is only flying because of contributions. The Section managed to collect our target of £750 for last year and so we have raised the height of the thermometer on the blog to £1,000 for this year. Contribute where and when you can.
The 14th February will be another indoor event at Uffington Village Hall where our speaker will be Nigel Adcock relating his tales of riding Royal Enfield’s on the Annapurna Trail. Although not on BMW’s this will be very interesting to see the scenery and to hear how the riding went.
I started this report on food and I’ll end it on more food. The annual Section Sunday Lunch will take place at the Sudbury House Hotel, Faringdon on the 21st February with the usual excellent food and great company. If you haven’t booked your place you need to contact Bob Mack very soon.
The good news is that it is getting lighter later!
John L Broad
