What fun! Sunday saw the AGM of the Pre65 Motocross Club at the Bungalow Café, Marks Tey. The great and the good of the membership attended, including our Hon. President John Giles, and everyone had their chance to have a say on the running of the Club and its regulations. I was going to take some photos but decided it would be just that bit too gruesome for public consumption!
The preceding autojumble had a couple of interesting Greeves for sale and one notable committee member was spotted squirreling away a gearbox, forks, bars and other assorted bits and pieces that he would, no doubt, have to hide from the wife on his return home. The meeting proper started with its normal promptness at precisely 12:14hrs. with the Chairman clambering on a chair to tower above the seated throng. Following his customary introduction and thanking of all the members that had helped make the 2008 season such a success, he went on to announce that the June meeting would be a memorial meeting to Roy Patten and John Waylett at a new track at Lamarsh. Some members visibly blanched when it was announced that the land included hills and that the tracks would take full advantage of the terrain – we’re not known as the Essex Branch of the Flat Earth Society for nothing!
Once the financial review had been completed and the officers of the Club re-elected we came to AOB – always a lively (if lengthy) debate at these meetings. Importantly, after much debate and a four way vote on options put forward from the floor, the smaller capacity class for pre 1965 bikes has been set as “up to 350cc”, overturning last years ruling. Most people seemed happy with the decision although I did overhear one of the faster riders discussing how far he could over-bore his Greeves in a bid to keep up with the trick four-strokes. Other topics discussed covered signing on and the use of pegs for practice sessions to segregate Racers from Clubmen, authority at the start gate, and changes in eligibility for Cheney type frames, all of which were fascinating to the people there but would be of little interest to the wider public so I will gloss over them.
It is strange, however, that the most vanilla of subjects often provoke the most heated debate when you get a group of passionate people together. So it was when the subject of riding kit was raised. Our regulations state that outer clothing should be of ‘period appearance’ but in the last couple of seasons a growing number of riders have been wearing modern shirts and jeans with dayglo graphics. Claim and counter-claim was made over the relative costs of modern and traditional motocross jeans with leather varieties supposedly costing between £70 and £400, depending who you believe. In the end it was left to the riders to exercise discretion and try to minimise the encroaching ‘dayglo menace’. I will be interesting to see the effect at the first meeting in March!
In an effort to toe the corporate line my race shirt for the coming season is a replica of the 1960’s BSA Works Team shirts in black and it looks like I’ll be dusting off the old leathers that I noticed had mysteriously shrunk the last time I attempted to wear them. As I’m organising the meeting in August, I might well enforce a dress code just to stir things up a bit. Cravats and monocles all round! Pip Pip!
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