Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to Dunwich Beach.
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:00 onwards for 09:30 departure.
The lunch stop will be at The Café on Dunwich Beach.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at Wally’s, Long Melford.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 94 miles, return approx. 84 miles.
Ride organised by Keith Barrell.
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to Wivenhoe, on the bank of the River Colne.
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at the Rose & Crown Wivenhoe, followed by a short walk along The West Quay.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at Finchingfield.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 60 miles, return also approx. 60 miles.
Fuel for 120+ miles please.
Telephoned from halfway coffee stop to book table.
Pub has limited seating but they arranged tables so we all sat together.
Good basic pub food.
Tide was out and the river was very low. Very picturesque location well worth a revisit when tide is high.
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be weather dependent but is planned for Market Harborough.
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at The Waterfront, Market Harborough.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at Olivers, Kimbolton.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 77 miles, return approx. 60 miles.
The return shown is a quick route using A14 & A1198 (approx.1 hour) however there is an option to leave the A14 after 7 miles and head for Finedon and then Kimbolton and St Neots (approx. 1.5 hours)
Very popular location.
Should book if the weather is good.
View over the canal basin. Good quality food and very attentive staff.
Royston & District Motorcycle Club are pleased to support this event.
Meet at Tesco, Royston for 8.45am or La Pergola, Harlton for 9.15am.
Alan Evans will lead from Tesco, Royston to La Pergola and afterwards join with the Cambridge Bikers Easter Run.
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to Serendipity Café, Shoeburyness (Southend).
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at Serendipity Café, Shoeburyness.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at Snak Shak, A120 Eastbound, Great Dunmow.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 72 miles, return approx. 63 miles.
A short walk from the parking area to the beach with view out to the English Channel.
The café has plenty of seating and limitation is the ability of the staff to keep up with demand rather than seating.
After a short wait the staff rearranged tables so that we were all seated together and another delay before the food arrived.
The food was excellent and worth the wait.
Royston & District Motorcycle Club will lead Sunday’s ride leaving Stevenage Old Town at 11:00.
Club members can meet at Tesco Royston leaving for Stevenage at 09:45, or go directly to Stevenage for the ride briefing at 10:30.
Ride leader for RDMCC is Richard Cassidy.
The route will take approximately one hour and is shown on the gpx file and map below.
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to Needham Market.
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at Alder Carr Farm Café, Needham Market.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at Wally’s Café, Long Melford.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 60 miles, return approx. 60 miles.
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to Startops End, Tring
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at the café at Startops End. We last visited Startops End February 2023.
A halfway coffee stop is planned at The Oval Café, Harpenden.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 55 miles, return approx. 43 miles.
Once again a good day’s riding for 14 members with only a few drops of rain to worry about. Normal start from Silver Ball Café to The Oval Café at Harpenden for coffee stop. After coffee we continued through Whipsnade, Ashridge, Aldbury and Tring to the Startops End Café on the Grand Union Canal at Marsworth.
Nice lunch as usual at Startops End followed by a more direct ride home via Ivinghoe, the edge of Dunstable and Houghton Regis, Hitchin, Baldock and on to Royston. Nice dry roads including some narrow country lanes to keep us on our toes.
Startops End Café has new owners is called Waters Edge, Marsworth and the menu has changed.
The excellent all day breakfast was a favourite with our group.
The new owners were keen to have a group photo of the bikes and bikers and we were happy to pose for them.
Report & photo by Keith
A presentation by Julie Emmitt from Bike Trac about motorcycle security.
Wednesday 1st October, 8 p.m. Whaddon Village Hall.
On Wednesday evening we were visited by Julie Emmitt from Bike Trac who gave an interesting talk on bike security.
A couple of quick take away points:
Use a disk / shackle lock through your chain and sprockets rather than a front disk. Much more tricky for the ‘little darlings’ to remove (and messy).
Use a ground anchor on a wall and leave slack in the securing chain. Harder to get a purchase on than if it’s taut or lying on the floor.
Use ‘sold secure’ products.
Not all tracking products are equal. Do your homework.
So thanks to Julie for giving us some food for thought – and hopefully what’s ours will remain ours.
Here are some links that may be useful:
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/news/2025/uk-motorcycle-theft-stats-crime
https://issuu.com/alltrac/docs/motoguardian_issue_2 https://issuu.com/alltrac/docs/motoguardian_issue_3_rgb_pages_v2
Based out of Silverstone in Northamptonshire, BikeTrac has developed its own technology and now protects thousands of machines. The team proudly boast a recovery rate of over 90% and have recovered over £10m worth of stolen machines in this time.
The BikeTrac story is one of two halves and one that on first inspection would seem to be a simple story of a large organisation developing a new product. But the creation of BikeTrac stems from two individuals who had a passion for both bikes and technology to create the product and service we know today.
See the rest of the story on Bike Trac website: Home | BikeTrac
Hi All,
This weeks ride out will be to The Maltings, Ely
Meet at Silver Ball, 09:30 onwards for 10:00 departure.
The lunch stop will be at The Riverside Bar & Kitchen, Ely.
A halfway (ish) coffee stop is planned at Olivers Café, Kimbolton.
Routes as shown on attached map and gpx files. Outbound trip is approx. 80 miles, return approx. 35 miles.
What a great early Spring day for a ride, and that’s exactly what 13 of us did today. Silver Ball start with coffee and then off to Olivers in Kimbolton for more coffee and one Hot Chocolate. Then across country through Catworth, old Weston and on to Ramsey on the super B660 to Ramsey st Mary’s. We then worked our way east through Chatteris to our destination in Ely – the Riverside Café down by the River Great Ouse. We were joined for lunch by Peter Carre (long standing member of the club) . The food was top quality and the Riverside Cafe looked after us very well, arranging a table so that we could sit as a group.
A lovely relaxed ride out.
Report & photo by Keith