BMW Club Oxford Section Report for April 2016
What a superb final indoor meeting of the section at the Uffington Village Hall and a good prompt for trips yet to come as John Ottaway presented his grand European tour to a packed room. As he explained, having heard some great talks on various group trips to different parts of Europe the thought struck him that he could do that. With good health, a good bike he reckoned he could do it all in one go – in a couple of months and solo!. He crossed to Holland and headed north through Scandinavia and, having made it to the top of Europe at the Nordkapp everywhere else would be south. Through Finland and across to the Baltic States, down through Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Spain and back through France to England – Wow! The bike carried everything for camping as well as staying at B&B’s or hotels with John a free agent to travel when and as long as he wanted each day. He endured weather from freezing cold to, well, far too hot for all that bike gear and rain to sunshine. A total of 12,425 miles, 49 days, and 27 countries visited. The only problems were a wasp sting in the corner of his eye that looked very uncomfortable and, on the bike, just a dipped beam headlight bulb. Of necessity, due to the time constraints of the hall hire, he had to be very brief, which was a shame in some ways as it was obviously one massive journey that we could have listened to him all afternoon and into the evening. What a trip and we have to thank him for sharing just some of his experiences with us in such an engaging manner.
Around 20 members arrived on bikes including 3 nice old “K”s. As I write this it is the spring equinox where the daylight hours match the night time and of course the clocks went forward 1 hour on the 27th March to mess up our body clocks.
To get the riding season off to a good start, Rob Allin organised a hotel weekend in Bournemouth from the 1st to the 3rd of April.
John is away so has asked me to write a short report on the visit to the Hotel in Bournemouth, well here goes Take 2!!! (I lost the last one). A few people rode down together to the hotel via the obligatory lunch stop. Thank you to those who organised the weekend from the planning to the ride outs and especially for whoever booked the great weather. The hotel staff gave us great service, the food was lovely and plentiful, the hotel in general was very good value for money.
We had entertainment on the Friday and Saturday and were able to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Geoff organised a ride out on the Saturday to Dorchester via Shaftsbury and Cerne Abbas to see the Giant carved on the hill side. The roads were a good mix of sweeping bends, hairpins and a bit of dual carriage way. It didn’t go completely to plan, (unless they were trying to give me the slip) on the way to Shaftsbury a few of us found ourselves circumnavigating the same roundabout a few times looking for our marker. We were saved by a member with local knowledge and an old email sent from Geoff, we met up with rest of the group, more food and then off to see the Giant, no probs. Most went off to Dorchester, however I believe the expression ‘Dropping off’ was taken quite literally for the next incident, Rob duly awarded wooden spoons to those he felt responsible/worthy winners of the prizes.
Sunday a few people went off to Sammy Millers (Can’t say much else not had chance to speak to anyone and report had to be in) I’m sure there has/will be more put on Face book/Website.
Also on Good Friday Chris Bond led a few of us to a ride out to Reading for an annual Easter egg run for charity. There were about 500 bikes in total, great fun, lots of chocolate eggs, eggcellent weather, so thanks to you for leading us.
Wendy
Back to John…..
The section regular monthly ride outs begin with Geoff Clough taking members to the Toddington railway centre on the 10th April. Sounds like a fun visit and countryside in that area is superb to ride around. A ride followed by tea, cake and steam should be excellent.
Quite a few section members are planning to ride up to the BMW Club AGM at Kegworth on the 16th April to support Ian Dobie’s nomination as a vice president. I understand there might be a few other issues to sort out as well and so as many of the Oxford Section members as possible should try to attend please.
BMW Bahnstormer, Maidenhead will be running a special touring day on the 23rd April and the Oxford Section is supporting this. There will be a breakfast gathering at the Dashwood Arms, Piddington from 08.00 followed by a ride out to Bahnstormer led by Tim Bolderston at 11.00. It should be a fun day with the Dashwood Arms putting on a super breakfast and lots of interesting stuff at Bahnstormer.
As the weather improves, at least the rain might be warmer, and the daylight hours stretch out towards summer, the section has some great rides planned. The pub social events are also getting more members attending, so, if you haven’t been along to one yet, get out there and meet up for good food and a chat with other members.
Volunteers are still required to help at the ACU National Road Rally where the section will be peopling a check point at Carterton; names to Andy Lawson please on 01993 212561 or harvest.moon@ntlworld.com as soon as possible.
Whilst on the subject of volunteers, the huge Cassington Bike night on the 27th June relies on volunteers to assist with the running of the event and the Oxford Section has in the past been very supportive. We will have the Section gazebo at the event but I need names of those who can pop along and do an hour or so to help please. Nothing onerous and you get to see some great bikes and a free soft drink and burger for your efforts.
John L Broad
