Notes from earlier years can be seen with this link

Any section member having information for our section notes or an article for inclusion on this web site can

email me (Colin Atkinson) on btsc.moto@btinternet.com

April 2026

On Wednesday 26^th February we decided to have an impromptu section run on what promised, and turned out to be, the nicest day of the year so far. Roy led eight of us (Roy, Steve C, Ian S, Dave W, Geoff G, Lin B, Reg G and myself) away from Crown Corner, but only after Steve’s bike failed to start, or keep running to be more precise and had to be pushed to Roy’s home so that he could use one of Roy’s spare bikes. Roy then led all eight of us through Ongar and on towards Fyfield. Unfortunately amongst the traffic in Ongar Dave stalled and by the time he got going in the traffic he and Geoff had lost sight of those in front who had not noticed that they had lost part of the run. Eventually having caught up with Reg (as they thought) they followed him, except that it wasn’t Reg and they had unwittingly joined the run of another club. Still, they ended up only a few miles from Ashfield’s Country Club at Great Canfield where our run ended and arrived some 10 minutes ar so later after a phone call between Roy and Dave. We arrived at Ashfields to find that there was already a group from the BSA Gold Star club there, so the excellent weather had obviously encouraged other clubs to make the most of it as well. On the return run I led the way at first until we encountered a closed road and had to change our route. Ian then took over and found a route more or less similar to the route I had intended but with a couple of lanes that were new to me. After the return Steve, Roy and Dave worked on Steve’s bike at Roy’s and eventually got it running well with a new battery (Steve actually had a spare one with him but that was also too discharged to power the ignition) and carb’ rebuild. It had been an excellent run in fine weather.

The weather was not nearly as good on 4^th March when Roy, Steve and myself had a short run to the Grazing Station cafe at High Roding and back. This time though Steve’s bike started and ran well, although it still needs a bit of fine tuning of the carb’ to get it absolutely right. The day started with a little fog which was expected to clear, except that it didn’t and actually got thicker during the run, but fortunately never enough to cause us any real problems.

March 2026

Only two of our section went to the AJS & Matchless day at the Ace Café on Sunday 18^th January, Roy and Ian Savage. Roy reported at the club night on 22^nd January that although the temperature was a bit chilly it wasn’t bad and that there was surprisingly little traffic encountered on the usually very busy North Circular Road on the way there. There was a fairly small but reasonable attendance at the event, which included the president Andrew Stevens and a member who came all the way from Wales for the event, traveling up the previous day. The traffic had built up considerably by the time of Roy and Ian’s return run, so they stopped off at the High Beach tea hut for a refreshment break on the way. Roy made another trip to the tea hut and back on January 28^th to test run his just completed ‘bike of the year’, the one which he intends to use for all events this year.

On our 13^th February club night we had an Italian Meal night at The Woodman to celebrate Dudley’s 85^th birthday. ‘ Italian’ because that is what we know is Dudley’s preference. We were in the main room of the Woodman this time as our usual space was not large enough for the sixteen of us who attended. We sat down to a nice meal that also included a large chocolate cake baked by Roy’s wife Karen and we were joined later by Ian Savage for the evening. During the evening I learnt from Graham E that he had now finished the latest rebuild of the engine of his G15CS that has given him so much trouble. It has run statically for around 20 minutes without problems and he was now hoping to finally get everything back together again and get it properly run tested on the road before this year’s ‘International’ in the Netherlands.

February 2026

On Sunday 28^th December the weather was cold but dry when Roy led Geoff G, Steve C, Dave W and myself on a run through the lanes to our lunchtime stop at Rosey Lea’s café on North Weald Airfield where we met up with Reg (Harlow) Green and his son who had driven there by car. After a warming lunch break the run continued back to where riders peeled off at suitable points to make their own way back to their homes. As the weather since then has taken quite a downturn it seems that in this case we had chosen probably the best day for our run and it was good to get out on a bike for a run after Christmas before it turned really cold.

For our first club night of the year at The Woodman on 8^th January the weather was certainly different from that on the run as it was teeming with rain and the roads were awash on the way there while much of the country was awaiting anxiously to find out just how bad the approaching storm was going to be for them and the following morning’s news showed just how lucky we had been in this part of the country with just heavy rain to cope with compared with many other places that had been hit really hard. Despite the rain and roads ten of us attended and there was much discussion of who was going to be attending the various events and rallies of the year, starting with the Ace café meeting and extending to the International, the Sussex camping weekend, the West Kent Run and Jampot rally. With the weather as it is at present no section run has yet been scheduled but when it improves we hope to start having one or two runs earlier in this year than we usually do.

January 2026

The Section held our usual End of Year Dinner, arranged for us once more by Dave Walling, at The Plough, Bulphan on Saturday 6^th December. Our numbers attending were down on previous years this time, mostly due to medical reasons, which I suppose is only to be expected as we all get older. However the rest of us sat down to a pleasant meal and social evening.

During the evening we had the presentation of our two annual section awards, the section Clubman of the Year award for the section member having done the most to help the section during the year and the Piston Broke award for the person suffering probably the most bike related misfortune during the year, an award which none of us really wants to win and which I have now unfortunately won twice in the past. The Clubman of The Year award went to Roy Bellett, which surprised him somewhat as it was not what he was expecting. However it is difficult to arrange an award for someone who is involved in actually choosing the recipient without a bit of subterfuge and the award was well deserved. The Piston Broke award went to Graham Eaton for the trials and tribulations with his Matchless G15CSR over the year. Unfortunately Graham wasn’t available to receive it himself as he was ill and couldn’t attend, so it was accepted on his behalf by his partner Claire.

Subsequent to the dinner we had only two section events left in 2025, our last club night on 11^th December and our proposed section run on 28^th, both of which will have taken place by the time you get to read this. So it really just remains for me to wish you all season’s greetings and all the best for 2026, when of course we hope that all of our runs will have excellent weather. Happy New Year.

Colin Atkinson