My thoughts
In reality this is a club. Maybe we need to think about an events organiser for the whole country?
Id propose an SV gathering. No rideout just a gathering of sv’s owners club style. Find a field with hall, organise a band/disco/entertainment, food, drinks etc. Charge a fee per head or similar and just have a weekend of kicking back and socialising. I don’t see this as being too much of a problem, as the likes of the triumph owners club hold a rally near me every year at a local rugby club, but this would need planning and some work. Location? Dead centre of that circle.
The UK tour idea also sounds good. But if you think about having a lot of SV’s doing serious mileage at the sort of speeds that AR05 was at some of the time, this could be painful, but not to be ruled out. Maybe visiting the regional groups over a week period would be cool. However, I think that its only the southern groups bar Guildford, that meet weekly. Still, it can be arranged
Then there’s the annual rideout like what we have had for the past few years. Yes, make it a weekend. Have a designated campsite. Supply food n drink, but as said, have the ride on the Saturday. To be honest, I have been on a rideout on a Saturday before in the Stratford area, and it wasn’t as bad as you’d think. You seem to get more people ‘Sunday driving’ on the sunday, it is also good to relax after the ride and socialize, and not all dart off as you all need to get home kind of thing. So a 3 day event, ride on the Saturday, BBQ in the evening, then home on the Sunday.
Some problems that I see are that there is a high concentration of sv owners in the south. When AR05 was planned for location, the south actually came top if I remember, with Wales second, and the Cotswolds was a latecomer which we agreed on. Still, a majority of the southern riders didn’t make the effort. We had 50 bikes on the November run to Brighton last year alone. Ok, some of this may have been down to commitments, but I think that its more down to people not wanting to ride a huge distance. It would be good to get their views on this more than the people that came this year.
So there you have my ramblings. I think that we should keep the annual rideout and move it round the country. We have had Buxton, Box hill, Burford, North Wales, so Scotland/lakes would be the next logical choice, and a rally (ok then jamboree – it’s a bit 1940’s fate) somewhere central for all to come,
|