The BSA A7-A10 Forum
Bikes, Pictures, Stories & more => Chat, Offtopic & Everything Else => Topic started by: jhg1958 on 01.03. 2026 15:42
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Club as in organisation not club in size of hammer. Perhaps another topic someday.
When I lived in North Derbyshire I joined the Cheshire BSA owners club. I had a couple of ride outs and generally enjoyed it. The problem was although it was the nearest it was over 1 hour ride to the club meetings. So I gave up my membership.
Now I am in Shropshire and thinking about joining again. The nearest being Wyre Forrest again about a 1 hour ride away. Now I know our friends in other countries might think a 1 hour ride is really near it does add to time for half the club rides.
I have an old Triumph so I could join TOMCC but that is little nearer but marginal. Plus I would hate to be burned off by modern Triumphs.
The last hope is Vintage MCC only 40 minutes away but I know little of the VMCC.
Does anyone have experience with VMCC and would they recommend me to join?
John
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Where abouts in Shropshire, John? I live a stones throw away from the Cheshire/Shropshire border. The Cheshire branch of the BSAOC meet up near Northwich.
Staffordhire branch are near Stone.
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Hi John
I joined the local section of the VMCC (sorry not close to you Suffolk), as there was no local section of the BSA club. We and most sections are very active. The nice thing now I have multiple old bikes is they are all welcome so both your BSA and Triumph would fit right in.
Every section is different, but I hope ours is very welcoming and I have 43 people on my email and text list to keep them up to date with our events.
The magazine is so good I cancelled my classic bike subscription.
Only downside is compared to other its a bit dear @ £49 per year, (£2 cheaper by DD) but membership mean that you can ride/meet with any section in the country get potentially a good insurance deal from Peter James + other benefits.
You dont have to join to go and have a look so I would do that first and see if it suits you. I am assuming you are looking at the Iron Masters section in Telford , they dont appear to have a website. If you send me a PM I can send you some contact info and or a chat if you want.
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I live between Ludlow and Much Wenlock that is not far from the Hereford boarder.
I went to the Northwhich BSAC meet once. I was at the Plumley meet a few times and the extra 15 minutes was just stretching me too far. The main part was the run outs that enjoyed very much. Ok when it went to Derbyshire but not so good West or South.
My first girlfriend lived in Stone a good cycle ride from Stafford. Now it’s about 1 1/4 hours away. A great ride from Ludlow but tough coming back in the dark.
John
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I gave up my membership of the VMCC as I didn't see any benefit for the massive membership fees. I'm told the VMCC is in debt up to its neck due to very poor management decisions so the membership fees are being used to bail the club out, apparently. According to my information the VMCC is a limited company which pays some of its officials, not how I want to spend my money, sorry! To the best of my knowledge, all the officials of the BSAOC are voluntary and a damned good job they do.
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VMCC sections get a lot of stick for being particularly unwelcoming to newcomers. No voluntary introductions, no meet-and-greet, too many in-jokes from the old timers, pejorative comments towards the new boy's choice/condition/make/age of bike etc.
In my experience it's all sadly too true, something recognised as realistic by the VMCC hierarchy as the main reason for the one-year-only member phenomenon.
And then you get the VMCC's love of rules just for the sake of rules. Any golf club member should feel immediately at home.. ;)
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Have to say I like the eclectic base of vintage and classic clubs which aren't one-marque (but living in France I don't know about the VMCC although I have friends who are members - I think it depends on which branch and who's in it).
But I really appreciate the one-marque ones. Some of them are well-nigh essential in fact, for those who own less well-known beasts. The energy put in by a handful of people often simply for the love of it, is incredible.
Geography and personal connections will always come into the choice of playmates as this thread suggests: some areas are less blessed than others. For me to get to any of the local ones i'm a member of here is over an hour each way. Luckily on ideal roads for classic machines - but they have to be reliable and they have to have (or should have let's say) lights that work.
There is a limit to how many clubs most of us can justify the subs for though, it does has to be said. The local management here thinks my 6 paid-up club memberships are probably 'enough' (more than, I've heard those words hiss through the beloved's lips . . . but I'm sure she didn't mean it).
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Hi all
Andrew (CheeserBeezer). I have to correct you. The VMCC is not in debt and has nearly half a million in cash reserves + its many other assets (its accounts are on public record). It did make an operating loss for a few years due to poor management but has since been turned around. The 'club' like many others became a limited company to protect those that 'run' it all of whom are volunteers and take no payments for their work (other clubs including the Norton club have done the same thing). It does have costs that other clubs do not have, its has 3 paid staff who run the membership (12000 member at present), and the library. The Library is a bit of a drain as it contains ALL the original factory record for all the major and most minor British makes, plus loads of old publications and information on lots of more modern stuff. This is a historic artefact and although I dont like the cost of keeping it, it would be a tragedy if it was all lost. Yes £49 is more then double the smaller one make clubs membership, but I now justify it by the quality of the magazine and the fact I am a member of one club that does stuff rather then joining the BSA, Norton, Triumph, Ariel and Royal Enfield clubs (which combined would cost more and none of which do anything in Suffolk)
Rex, Yes I have heard that about some sections, it is defiantly not true about my section as we go out of our way to welcome new members/visitors and I think now most sections are the same. There are and will always be some old die hards who think the club should only be for proper vintage bikes, but the founder started the 25 year eligiblity rule in the 1960's and these fosils are now rear.
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VMCC sections get a lot of stick for being particularly unwelcoming to newcomers. No voluntary introductions, no meet-and-greet, too many in-jokes from the old timers, pejorative comments towards the new boy's choice/condition/make/age of bike etc.
In my experience it's all sadly too true, something recognised as realistic by the VMCC hierarchy as the main reason for the one-year-only member phenomenon.
And then you get the VMCC's love of rules just for the sake of rules. Any golf club member should feel immediately at home.. ;)
Exactly my experience.
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Hi all
CheeserBeezer. I have to correct you. The VMCC is not in debt and has nearly half a million in cash reserves + its many other assets (its accounts are on public record). It did make an operating loss for a few years due to poor management but has since been turned around.
In that case, I stand corrected. However, the VMCC's finances have been the subject of criticism and the reason why many, like me, left the VMCC. I also feel that the 25-year rule has gradually stripped the Club of its personality. Anybody witnessing a typical VMCC run in our area would not notice any distinction between it and any other motorcycle club run, such is the personality vacuum of the bikes on the run.
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The BSAOC doesn't exist North of the Border. I attend my local VMCC branch (Clyde Valley) and they are welcoming and friendly with good events organised.
Since the destructive management were ousted, the VMCC finances are much improved and showing a modest profit.
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Interesting viewpoints, all of them. The subs I pay locally to retro clubs are about 30 Euros a year, the one makes (as an overseas member) about £30.
The French equivalent of MAG (the FFMC) is more, but also worth it and it's for different things that affect us all, including lobbying and being a serious pressure group deserving of support.
But I get back far more than the cost. Not just in pleasure - in very measurable areas, especially spares discounts in the one-makes, and locally, loads of free coffee and regular subsidies on decent lunches etc when we stop half way round on runs out.
The VMCC's sub is a bit higher, but as Angus says, there's a lot going on there behind the scenes and any org of that scale takes a bit of running. (We saw how it can go pear-shaped from some of its recent shambolic history but things are a lot better now, friends who are members tell me.) I shall be doing one of their events ( first time for me) in May in Yorkshire for a few days on some or other bike, and have to say the pre-event 'welcome' for a non-member has been very friendly.
The 25 yr rule must have an effect, as CB says, creating a bit of 'Whaaat?' in terms of machines that participate in activities. It's bizarre that my XJR Yamaha is VMCC eligible on that basis, although I doubt if I were a member I'd actually ever turn up on it.
For many years (until this one in fact) the majority of activities in one of the local clubs here were confined to "pre-1966" - but it had become unsustainable for the majority of events (and unpopular), so we're moving to a 40 year rule. I voted for that because I think it's about right and fair if we want any new members. A proportion of the current membership doesn't possess an old-enough machine under the old rule - that's no way to try to sustain numbers. No point joining if you can't play! When I first joined that club, the rule was, effectively, a 40-year non-rolling one . . . 20 years on, what's reasonable . . .???
There is nothing to stop any club organising events with stricter limits when appropriate. Our upcoming 'Tour of Calvados, an ambitious 4 day event held annually, is a case in point: over-subscribed as usual, and strictly pre-'66.
Despite any past prejudices I've been guilty of myself, I don't mind seeing early Japanese, some Ducatis, Laverdas, later Triumphs and Nortons and the inevitable Beemers: their owners have spent small fortunes in some cases sourcing parts from the USA, Japan and so on - it's not trivial restoring / maintaining some of these things. I've very recently even succumbed myself to the joys of an early Flying Brick triple, which is 40 this year and registered as 'historic'. (Feels 'new' to me!)
We're a broad church as is often said, and the variety of Clubs reflects that.
I wish them all well.
With values falling off a cliff everywhere, these pockets of true enthusiasm become ever-more critical to the preservation of our two-wheeled heritage. For the love of the things, not for 'investment' or any of that.
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I agree with Groily's comments, particularly the acknowledgement of those who are prepared to spend lots of money restoring German/Italian/Japanese bikes. I've been to some VJMC meetings and many of the bikes are absolutely stunning, with good performance as well. Maybe my experience of the VMCC is atypical and, to be fair, I've had some good experiences and met some really nice folk with the VMCC. However, I'm sure the vast majority of us would agree that 25 years old is simply not old enough to qualify as 'Vintage' (as the word is applied to old vehicles, not wine!).
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Yes indeed, and what seems even worse is when someone turns up on his mundane Yamadoowaki 400 when he's got a working 1934 Grindwell 500 sitting at home.
There may well be very good reasons (both mechanical and medical) for that, but then the whole ethos of a classic bike run out becomes diluted to the level of pointless.
The VMCC seems to have made quite a few wrong turns over the last ten years or so, and the 25 year rule was one of the biggest.
What destroys an old bike club quickest, too many newer uninteresting bikes there just to keep the numbers up, or not enough older bikes and riders due to Old father Time?
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We have two excellent enthusiast sections in Kent, but the central management decisions have had me toying on continuation.
25 year rule allows plastic-fantastics many of whom are incapable of keeping station and come roaring past.
Fees, since the cessation of seniors' rates my fees have all but tripled in the last few years.
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What destroys an old bike club quickest, too many newer uninteresting bikes there just to keep the numbers up, or not enough older bikes and riders due to Old father Time?
Well . . .
The former changes and undermines the ethos, no doubt about that at all Rex.
But the latter is an existential threat!
Neither is good, I agree totally.
What we really need is more younger people on old machinery. So easily said.
But it's quite some Ask given the knowledge, facilities and skills gaps, and the tendency of younger folk quite naturally to want things they couldn't have when they were starting out, like us with our own choices from days of our youth.
I only know a small handful of people in their 20s and 30s with what we would count as older machinery. We know they're just fantastic people - but their contemporaries think they're seriously weird!
When Classic Bike started publishing in 1978, I was 23. I had a 'classic' as my sole daily transport in London, but it was only 2 years older than me. (Funnily enough, it still is and I still have it).
What if I were 23 today, and had a 25 year old machine . . .??
Oh, I do, I have a . . . Japawuki.
A being from another galaxy might inquire "Why do you human people think a tired '53 AMC twin was a 'classic' in '78, but an '00 japawuki isn't in 2026?"
We know instintively why it isn't / can't be, and we ensure that these things remain so because we have the power to define them. For now! It can only go in one direction though, I reckon.
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Hi All, obviously I am biased as I love the VMCC, get to do 40+ runs a year with my local section (If I want) + attending multiple other events around the country e.g. Scarborough week, Weymouth Week etc.
Rex, The 25 year rule is NOT a new thing, it was brought in, in the 1960's by the club founder Titch Allen. With Hindsight I do think 25 years is not enough and it should probably be aligned with the DVLA rolling 40 historic classification. But change in any club is hard and we would could loose quite a few members if we went ahead with that. And what ever cut off you have eventually you are going to get what people feel are 'modern' bikes joining runs.
The club and sections do try and have events for specific classes of bike, e.g. girder fork runs, tiddler runs or runs like Banbury which stick to the clubs original cut off of before December 1930. We also sometimes have multiple routes for different types of bike (or members).
I think the bottom line is that as with every club or organisation, particularly a large one, it is hard to please all the people all the time.
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..........With Hindsight I do think 25 years is not enough and it should probably be aligned with the DVLA rolling 40 historic classification. But change in any club is hard and we would could loose quite a few members if we went ahead with that......................
Maybe, but not necessarily. If they enjoy the camaraderie, they might go out and buy a proper classic to continue to qualify for the events. If they're only prepared to join in on a Kawaplaccy maybe we're better off without them?
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It's all rhetorical for me anyway as my VMCC membership lapsed some years ago, and the high-handed pronouncements of the hierarchy plus the ridiculous annual fees added to the rancour and pomposity exhibited on the VMCC forum back then made my leaving a certainty.
I now enjoy the company of a bunch of like-minded riders (all older bikes) where the next location for tea and a bacon bap is more highly thought about than the strict adherence to Rule 3, sub 1, para 3 line 45 of someone's little rulebook.
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For the VMCC Maybe an idea might be dividing the runs up into chapters something along the lines of 'Pre-war and veterans', 'High days and Hey days post war up to say 65'. 'Late models and Domesday machines 65 - 85'. All British of course as an early eighties japanese 2 stroke is going to be a weapon compared to a last of the line parallel twin or push-rod single and generally appeal to a different style of rider. We have a separate club for Japanese classics which is very popular.
Our local BSA Club doesn't distinguish, any age BSA is welcome although we do have some rides during the year that are designated for small bikes ie. Bantams C15's etc. We still don't have any new Indian BSA's being sold here yet but I'm sure most of those that appear in the club will be existing older members looking for something that is easy to handle with better brakes and starts at the push of a button and who can blame them. We have a few new and old Royal Oilfields, Notruns and Trumpy's that show up but they always tag along behind the Beezers and park up a bit separate so as not to dilute the one marque effect.
We have a discounted registration scheme for vehicles over 25 years old with use restrictions, 50 days a year. This includes compulsory third party insurance. Not a bad scheme but I have to question why people driving rusty 25 year old Toyotas and Nissans with electronic ignition and fuel injection are admitted...are they really enthusiasts?
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I am in the CVMG [ Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group ] and the Ontario BSA owners group as there arent a lot of old BSAs around here anymore and finding spare parts is difficult .
I enjoy going to the swap meets I used to know a lot of people at them but the majority arent on the green side of the grass any longer .
I do agree there are a lot of rivet counters that put off people and not over friendly either , our local CVMG meets are at a pub I dont go as I dont drink and its so noisy in there I cant hear what anyone is saying even with my hearing aids .
if we cant get younger people to join and continue restoring these old machines I am afraid the hobby will eventually die off along with us.
Hopefully I am wrong .
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I joined the VMCC. There are very active groups near me that have routes that pass close to me.
I look forward to some good trips and long chats.
John