classic motorcycle forum
Motorcycle Discussions => British Bikes => Topic started by: mark2 on July 12, 2015, 11:43:38 AM
-
just got back from what is our local vmcc branch oldest run, it was very wet but warm, total attendance one , me, no one likes getting wet but I feel the reason for the poor turnout is more to do with the machines value, so buy a cheap bike anything and attend or these events will disappear for good
-
I see where you are coming from but I think that most of the people that own classic bikes are rather elderly like myself and there is no way that if I get up one morning to go to a classic bike meet and it is raining and the forecast is no improvement then I will not be going it has nothing to do with the value of the bike but simply I see no pleasure riding in the rain any distance just to stand around in the rain done it to many times in my youth. If the forecast says only light showers in the morning and dry in the afternoon then depending on distance I would go in the afternoon even though I would have to spend quite a bit of time cleaning the bike the next day because of the wet roads.
-
I understand but the forecast was Occasional showers with sunny spells , it was not raining when I left and the event /ride about 10 miles from me
-
I think wet roads and 30 year old tyres might also be an issue.I was riding around the back paddock on my Ariel the other day ,hit a piece of wood in the long grass,and came off,low speed in long[ish ] grass,shouldnt have hurt a bit.I was laid up for days,I shudder to think what would happen if I actually had a real crash on the road at speed.My 1950 Ariel is the one I use for riding,its not a recent resto,and wasnt done very well when I did it years ago,so a few scratches and scrapes are acceptable.Im only 64,not what I would consider old,but maybe I should rethink riding bikes.Regards John.
-
64 s not to old , I would like to ride until about 80 and then maybe a fatal crash , past 80 looks no fun to me
-
Almost 70, still ride my valuable 1938 500cc.
Difference being I stay well clear of the VMCC .
Never mind why.
But I have never felt the need to ride in a group or hang about in a pub car park looking at 1960s BSA and Triumphs.
Each to their own.
-
1938 500cc which one ? please tell us the VMCC story , may liven up the site
-
Matchless.
The Vmcc story is a two bottle story and not for here. Goes back many many years.
-
dam would like to hear it , maybe PM me , I am no fan of the VMCC myself and am not a member
-
take me to long to type with two fingers, probably mirrors your experience.
I joined the VMCC in the 1960s, quit in disgust over one incident involving spare parts, and prior knowledge of adverts.
Rejoined in the 1970s out of necessity, soon to quit again. double standards.
I met some great chaps, and found a lot more who were not, mostly in the heirarchy.
Its enough to say it still leaves a very bitter taste all these years later, oh, and if you give someone a trophy, its bad manners to ask for it back 30mins later, or to change the rules for the next time because someone doesn't like your face or trade.
Not once but several times.
Get the gist?
-
knowledge of adverts. .............. this is also my experience but I worked for emap so know this was/is insider dealing
-
yes MCN was very much the source of one particular 'enlightening' experience,when I saw the light for the first time.
Several magazines from the Midlands had close contact with VMCC royalty.
No names no pack drill, but can still be seen flogging rare spares at Founders day this Sunday no doubt.
One wonders where all this rare stuff comes from so regularly.
Several tricks could be pulled back then, such as printing one wrong digit in a phone number so no-one could get through on a really good item, well, almost no-one.
I was well pissed off, having skived a thursday afternoon off work, and lost pay, to go to one just published and huge sale of new vintage spares in west London to be told all the good stuff went last week, before the ad was published, sold to esteemed VMCC royalty and a couple mates strangely enough who came all the way to London from Leicestershire.
Wasn't it some VMCC star who was paying his/her mortage out of club funds some while ago? tip of the iceberg.
-
the only fair place to sell vintage spares now is ebay I hate to say , but at least everyone gets the same chance to pay far to high a price for that rare item . I sold parts through the vmcc mag some years ago (a mate was a member) it was a 8inch matchless silver arrow front wheel , sold straight away then a week latter the phone started ringing , some of the members where upset that it had sold when the mag was only out that day . again I saw the new owner at Stafford and he was a dealer
-
Curious isn't it. I too joined the VMCC in the 1960's and have had nothing but satisfaction. I bought my 1926 Matchless in the UK and then joined. I brought the Matchie home with me and have been a well pleased overseas member ever since. The Library service is terrific. I've had satisfaction from the transfer service and still find occasion to use their Marque Specialist Service. I've even had joy responding to ads in the magazine.
I've never been able to attend a meeting, nor any event nor autojumbles or shows but my VMCC membership is something I value.
Cheers,
-
On ebay you will get a chance to buy an item for what you can afford.
That way the seller gets the best deal.
As opposed to the good mate of the deceased who turns up on a widows doorstep and generously offers her a £1000 for that garage load of old bikes and junk her late husband was forever mucking about with.
"Such a nice man he took both those old motorbikes and all that oily junk in boxes, left the garage so tidy too. So glad he did because I didn't want it or know what to do with it.
I do hope he didn't pay too much because he was such a good friend of old Jim, so he told me."
A resume of a story too often heard by me.
Is Nick Kelly of the British two stroke club still around? He's got a good tale to tell, 'sell us that bike son its no good to you now you lost both legs' said the well known Vmcc member.
The individual members are generally good blokes, its the royalty that stinks and lets the ordinary ones down.
What model 1926 Matchless? not an OHC? have you discovered Christians AMC archive? http://archives.jampot.dk/
I worked at Matchless near the end, they had a little museum tucked away upstairs, allegedly donated, said rumour, to the VMCC, I never did find out where they ended up. I did say allegedly, as all enquiries met with silence. Who knows.
-
I think the VMCC like lots of clubs has changed over the years as the bikes have become more "valuable". When it started (and certainly when I was first involved in the 70s), most old bikes cost barely more than scrap value. As usual, where there's a scent of money, the vultures move in.
I spent a very useful day at the VMCC library this week researching my Sunbeam - very nice, helpful people whether staff or ordinary members.
There have been innumerable rumours of dodgy this and that over the years but rarely if ever have these been substantiated AFAIK. The only thing I am definitely aware of was Annice Collett's departure from the library which did seem to smell a bit but I see that she has now become an honorary life member so hopefully that episode is over.
-
It should be renamed the marmite club, its either loved or loathed.
All my grievances are from personal experience, theres nothing so calculated to create a grievance as giving a bloke a trophy then asking for it back 1/2 hour later; whats more being so gutless as to have to ask a 3rd a party to ask.
I used to live 200yards from Brian Verrrall long before he opened his Tooting shop, and can remember him selling such gems as, "1910 Triumph, no back wheel, £1.10.0" that'd be around 1965/6
[no idea why that one should have stuck so fast in my mind].
In 1967 I was given my pre war 500, and it was a runner. "It'll never be vintage lad," said the old geezers, as they tried to con me into swapping it for some flat tank villiers junk
It was one [Ian Thompson?] I think, who when president of that club was the first person to push a vintage bike, A P&M, through the £1000 mark, that was about the time I paid 250 quid for my 1928 Sunbeam.
Half the vmcc thought the world was about to end, the other half trebled their asking prices.
As for myself I have not bought another vintage bike since, as I reckon I was done on the 250quid Sunbeam, after all it needed new tyres. ;)
-
It's a 1926 Model R 250. The nice policeman wouldn't accept my Australian licence and insisted I start afresh as a learner to get a British one. Learners were limited to 250cc then and the first vintage 250 I found to put my 'L's" on was the Model R. I still own it.
Yes, I do know of Christians archive but have never had to use it. By the time the Web became routine and people like Christian could provide their help I'd been playing with Matchless some 25 years and had amassed all the Matchless info I wanted.
Finally, just to show it takes all sorts, as both a Matchless and Villiers vintage nut I couldn't have swapped a non-vintage Matchless for a Villiers flat tanker quick enough if some old geezer had made the offer. Also in the late 60's I was given a 1946 MSS Velo. I couldn't get rid of it quick enough. It wasn't even post vintage. It was just an old bike with girder forks that no one wanted.
Cheers,
-
"It was just an old bike with girder forks that no one wanted. "
much the same can be said about almost any 1930s bikes in the 1960s. There was a bike breakers yard called "the Graveyard" in Twickenham back then, in the 60s he always seemed to have a couple of complete original and generally oil soaked rigid MAC velos for around £7.10.0. A mate of mine then inherited the MAC Velo from one of the Earls Court show stands, first thing to go on it was a set of apehanger bars.......... :'(
I always liked older bikes more than modern ones so I started young, occasionally I got a real gem like my Matchless, several Sunbeams which I regret selling, and a 1933 A2 Levis, which in a rash moment I sold for a song, In my view one of the finest 30s bikes out there. That was an oily rag job that was forever having offers made for it, no way I would have swapped it for the 250SV New Imperial at one show. Mind you I did wind a few up telling them I was going to chop it. :o It went to a good home though.
The need to pay bills, feed kids and so on lost me many a bike.
its curmudgeonly old gits like me that saved 30s bikes when the VMCC were endlessly arguing about what was vintage or not.
Now they'll take anything over 20yrs old, which is one reason I do not attend their events, no pleasure for me riding amongst a lot of OAP tearaways on 'modern' bikes.
Theres another puzzle, not long ago I was asked, "don't you have a modern bike now?" I said yes I have a 1960 Matchless................well, to me it was modern.