February, Shepton Mallet

Friday arrived overcast and cloudy. I left home early thinking I might get ahead of the rain but I was so wrong! Once on the top of the Mendips the cloud was low and it started to rain and the wind blew. The road past the quarries was wet and covered in mud so I arrived at Nunney Catch café with a filthy dirty bike. After Mo had helped me clean it to its best earlier in the week it looked a mess! Immediate call to TC and he put cleaning kit onboard and then a call to Ivor and he loaded polish and cloths to clean the bike. Breakfast ordered and Rob turned up followed by TC. Once we had masticated we headed for the show ground with Ivor showing us the way in, spot on 12.00 as planned.

Security was very strict and once on site the priority was to clean the bike. There was a tap close by and once the mud was removed the bike was wheeled back in to the stand. Next to arrive were Archie and Mark followed by Jeff and Steve all eager to follow my example and wash the filth off.

My old lounge carpet covered some of the floor and the table was set up along with chairs and the all important kettle. Clive arrived later and partially cleaned his bike as he had to do some work in the morning. Many thanks to Steve for hanging on to give him a lift back to Weston. It just shows the level of commitment by our members. The bikes were roughly positioned ready for more cleaning in the morning.

Saturday arrived and Ivor was spot on time with Steve on board to take us over to the show. It was wet and windy with water coming in under the marquee and all across the floor soaking the carpet which squelched as you walked over it! Some last minute polishing and we were ready for the day ahead. Mo arrived all ready to buy new leathers! Outside traders were open to the elements and quite a few packed up and left as it was so wet and windy outside. The roof of the marquee was flapping and the overhead lights were waving around like crazy. We thought the roof was going to come off! However the inside exhibitors seemed to be busy and lots of people visited our stand. Hopefully we have a few new members as a result.

Sunday was a lot nicer and we arrived to find the carpet was holding water so it was cut up and disposed of as soon as possible! It was a lot busier and many of our lot took the opportunity to buy, as did Mo with a visit to Leather City where we got a good deal for a waistcoat and jeans personally fitted by Ali in the disabled toilets! Sue and Mo had great fun trying on the hats at a nearby stall

and Archie ended up with hair on his head for a change!

Some new helmets were seen to have been bought and I got a new belt with the JD logo on it. The day went well and again we believe we have got more new members to show for our efforts. It was noticed that the local side patch group had a lot of learner legal bikes on their stand so maybe they are recruiting youngsters as prospects? I wonder what we could do to increase our membership. Maybe we should put on a marketing idea or two. We should consider more of what our club actually does like the rally scene and all the ride outs we do? How about some more ideas? We packed up rapidly as the rain looked likely and headed home. We almost beat the rain back but not quite with a heavy downpour just as I got back to Weston.

We had a busy weekend with many cups of coffee consumed in great company amongst good friends. Many thanks to all those who assisted under such horrible weather conditions and hopefully all who attended have been mentioned.