Some background

I first came across Meetup when I was trying to find if anyone was organising mid-week rides in my area (Bucks). I’m a big fan of Maynard Hershon who writes in MSL. He often tells of the pleasure of weekday riding in his home state of Arizona with his ‘Monday’ riding buddies. My introduction to riding every Wednesday was with MCForum, based Essex-way. What an unexpected pleasure. Small, well-organised leadership team. Convivial coffee time, followed by brisk national-speed-limit country roads, a sensible leg stretch and then arrive at lunch spot – invarably a charming country pub.  Being introduced to pretty empty, fast country roads between the golden hours of 10am-3pm was a revelation!

Fast forward

Listening to some members at our last AGM followed by a chat with Dave Tomlinson it seemed clear that there were other members who were able and were keen to ride regularly during the week. Long story short, the Club agreed to fund a 6 month subscription to Meetup.com to trial frequent weekday rides. A full programme was created for 2020. Only one rideout so far as nasty Covid-19 came along to delay the season. Not for too long hopefully. Everyone gets a copy of the satnav route prior to the ride courtesy of MyRoute-app. We also ask folks to chip-in £2 a ride to support the invaluable work of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.

Signing up

Pretty straight forward but two stages.

• Join Meetup – either website or smartphone app
  1. Go to meetup.com in your web browser and click Sign Up.
  2. Choose to sign up with your Facebook, Google, or email address by clicking the option.
  3. Enter your name, email address, and choose a password. Then click Sign up.
  4. Verify your email address by clicking the link in the email Meetup sends you.
  5. Click Log in.

•  Join “ BMW Club Oxford Motorcycle Riders “.

Search for our group. Click on the group name to view the details page, where you should then click                    the red ‘Join Us!’ button.  Then wait for an email or notification/confirmation that you have been                          accepted into the group.

Attending events

Easy. When rides are posted you get an automatic notification. Click the red ‘Attend’ button. See who else is on the ride. Download the route to your satnav. Turn up with a full tank and a smile. Safety briefing. We’re on our way!

For the moment

During Covid-19 we are still meeting but online. Join us on Pub Social nights and enjoy some Zoom chat, a motorcycle theme film plus a ‘Pub Quiz’ with a very valuable (probably) prize to the winner. Our scheduled rides through to Autumn are all on our Meetup page. Dates may change subject to any restrictions still in force.  Enjoy browsing ………… and just imagine the smell of that Castrol R early in the morning  . . . . . .