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Sponsored by

www.greatwesternhog.co.uk

FEBRUARY 2012 Official newsletter of The Great Western Chapter

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Hi All, What’s up with the weather this winter? The last two winters were Arctic conditions and up to now this one has been almost balmy by comparison, will it last? There is an article from our Safety Officer Andy Kendall about Bike Safe Courses. Having attended one of these courses eighteen months ago I can thoroughly recommend them. The course I did was run by the Avon & Somerset Police Motorcycle Section and they made it very enjoyable and entertaining (the officer myself Tony James & Bill MacDonald were out with let his BMW patrol bike roll off it’s side stand!). So get yourself booked on and you learn a lot of good tips on riding better. Thanks to all who have submitted articles, please keep them coming . Please send them to me at :- brakemj@blueyonder.co.uk

. Badger & Lyn

Article Guidelines for all members to be aware of:- Any article submitted for the RoadHOG cannot be longer than 2 A4 pages in length using Arial and size 10 font and in two column format please, this should take into account any photos being used.

Jokes and stories direct from the internet are not to be submitted unless specific to our Chapter, Harley- Davidson or HOG.

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS Mike & Lyn Brake

SMALL PRINT This magazine represents the views of our club and its

members which may not always represent those of HOG, Harley-Davidson or the Dealerships.

All articles are published in good faith.

The Editors reserve the right to modify or refuse all submissions.

Bristol Club Nights are the 2nd TUESDAY of the month at the RIVERSIDE INN THE SHALLOWS SALTFORD BS31 3EZ.

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DIRECTOR’S CUT By Andy Ball

Hi everyone, In mid January I attended the Director’s meeting held at Windsor, turned out to be a great weekend and thor-oughly enjoyed it, good to meet up with the guys and gals from all the UK Chapters and Ireland to discuss what’s gone on in 2011 & on the agenda for 2012. Satur-day afternoon we were treated to a bit of light heart-ed ...re-phrase a competitive game, split into teams of five given a Samsung tablet (ipad) with a load of trivia questions & tasks on it, and proceeded to run around Windsor for almost 3 hours, squeezing ourselves into telephone boxes, flying paper aeroplanes, dressing our H.O.G rep in a paper suit and setting him on fire ...just for the fun of it..He he, the team I was in came fourth...Oh well it’s the taking part that counts, or is it? All I know I was knackered and my legs ached on Sunday morning. We were given the results for the Chapter mileage chal-lenge, remember those forms you completed last Octo-ber...I think we’ve got a bit of work to do. Total mileage of all the 8 Chapters that registered was 1, 462,604 miles. 1066 Chapter completed 496,046 of those and were duly crowned as winners...Congratulations to them! 1066 had 134 members enrolled. Greatest individual mileage was Trevor Newman from Dunedin Chapter with a very impressive 28,603 miles in about 8 months. Where did we come I hear you ask! ... Well let’s see, we had 33 members enrolled, with a total of 192,477 miles covered, with an average mileage per person of 5833. With that we came a creditable third overall, thank you to all those who took part, let’s see what we can do this year. This year the competition starts on March 15th and ends October 31st. I’m going to make sure we’ve got forms at Club nights, Natter nights and at Riders for you to pick up and get signed and stamped, so let’s make a real effort this year, even the mileage on the hire bikes on USA trip counts, so with many of us going to Portugal, our local and European rallies plus our day to day riding it all totals up...and as Anthony Worrall Thompson says ...every little helps! ;-))

Early January I took the first ride-out of the year, a nice easy route with a limited number of bikes I thought... 34 bikes turned up and I was highly impressed, thank you for attend-ing and to the ride out team also. For Febru-ary we have Brecon & Blenheim to offer you for your monthly ride-outs .It looks like we’ve missed the snow and heavy ice this year...Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that! So hopefully a full ride-out calendar for this year. Chatting and listening to the other Directors they’re well on their way selling their rally tickets, we’ve started with our rally but we need to step it up a gear, if you can reg-ister and pay for yours now before the mad rush of the bigger rallies start e.g. Sofer and Brum (going to be big this year) and you won’t find yourself forking out money every couple of weeks. Just for info there are about a 100 tickets left for the Cider rally camping or off site ac-commodation only, you’ve got to get in fast on these ral-lies! We tried a new venue for January’s natter night, the Cross Hands Hotel at Old Sodbury, a report to follow, for February we’re back at the Ferry Inn at Chepstow on the 28th. I was pleased to see the response for Vicki & her sewing machine at January’s club night, Vicki will be at our rally in July but if we get enough enquiries I’ll get her to make another visit at club before then. For March’s club night at the Riverside we have a gen-tleman from the IAM the institute of advanced motorists, who will be giving us a presentation.

That’s all for now, safe riding

Andy

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SECRETARY’S UPDATE By Yvonne Roberts

GWC Secretary’s Update Howdy Pardners, I am writing this in sunny Tucson, Arizo-na, 5,500 miles from home! We’ve just returned from a bike ride to Tombstone to see the gunfight at the OK Corral. Great fun! We did check out the H-D shop there, and Peter bought himself a tee shirt. We’ve hired a glide for a week, so we’re looking for-ward to a few more adventures on it. It was great to see such a large turnout at our January Club night at the Riverside, and we had a select gathering for the Cangen Club night at St Mary’s. Many members took advantage of the opportunity of having patches sewn on their biking gear at the Riverside. Sales of patches from the merchandise stock were brisk as a result! Mark Chinnick was very pleased to be presented with an engraved tankard for being the winner of the GWC Rideout Challenge for 2011. He also received the 2011 Spanner Award! Bill organised the monthly raffle at the Riverside which raised £100, and Peter collected £35 for the raffle at St Mary’s. I also sold some pins and patches for £1 each, which were donated by Riders, making £26 for charity. So the total which members have donated to the Orchard Trust in January is £161. Thank you to all concerned.

I met Ed Cole, a new member, from Bath at our Club night at the Riverside. 2012 promises to be yet another fantastic year for Great Western Chapter. I’m looking forward to the great rideouts, the European Rally in Portugal in June, taking the leisurely route there and back, the California Trip in September, and especially our very own Hogs in the Hay-fields in July.

MERCHANDISE February 15th is the deadline for ordering your 2012 On the Road Again Tee Shirt! There will be none available after this date. You received an order form with your December RoadHOG, which give details of the design, styles, sizes, and costs, or you can download a form from our website, or I will have some copies of the order forms with me at our February Club nights. For 2012 we are offering all the T-shirts in black, in both ladies and gents sizes, in 100% cotton, unless otherwise stated, but in a variety of styles: * Round neck, both long and short sleeved * V-neck short sleeved * sleeveless vest All the details are on the order form. Your order must in-clude your payment please, either send it to me, or give it to me on Club nights. Please see the Merchandise page on our website for de-tails of the rest of our stock which includes: GWC rockers - large £15, small £7, Eagle patches – large £15, small £7, GWC Wings and Bridges reduced to – large £5, small £2.50, L.O.H. patches – large £15, small £7, GWC H.O.G® pins £5 Micro-fleeces are still selling well, gents style sizes M - 2XL at £15 each, and lady-fit style in sizes 12 - 16 at £18 each, all in black. Last but not least, our mugs are selling at the bargain price of just £1 each! I am always available at Club nights to answer any ques-tions, and you can also contact me by phone on: 01225 751017 or by e-mail: yvonne.s.roberts@gmail.com Ride safe,

Yvonne

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN By Chris “Hardarse” Harding On The Road Again 2012 Your 'On The Road Again' team has come up with trips to suit many tastes this year. We try to make it easy for members to get the most from their Harleys, researching routes, accommodation, itiner-aries, channel crossings, comfort stops and travel packs. You get the chance to see new places, meet new people and be a part of a unique experience - Great Western on Tour! Building on previous years' successes, including trips to Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain and good old UK, here's where the organised trips for 2012 are headed: Big Brum Bash, 25-27 May Located at a West Midlands Water Ski Centre, this camping weekend is in its 3rd year. Expect good bands, lots of laughs and maybe just a little bit of getting wet… Contact Chris Harding to register for information on the ride up. European HOG Rally, Cascais, Portugal, 14-17 June Lots of ways to get there, we’ve organised a ferry to Santander and a quick route down and back. 10th June – Plymouth to Santander 11th June – Santander to Leon 12th June – Leon to Seia 13th to 17th June – Cascais. Many members staying at the Vila Gale Hotel, campsite details available 18th June – Cascais to Porto 19th June – Porto to Leon 20th June – Santander to Plymouth For more info, contact Dave Roberts (LBD) or Jan Stan-worth who are co-ordinating this trip. Hogs in the Hayfields, 6-8 July In its 5th year, support YOUR Chapter’s rally. Tickets from Tony James, Rally Co-ordinator.

Tour of the Somme, 3-5 August Following on from last year’s successful tour of the Ypres Battlefields. 2nd August – Stay at Ashford 3rd August – Chunnel to Albert 5th August – Back to Blighty with optional stopover in Ashford Register with Andy Kendall (Senior), andy.kendall@virgin.net Spaces limited to 20 bikes. South of England Rally (SOFER), 3-5 August Organised by HOG, this (mainly) camping weekend is great for new rally-goers. Contact Chris Harding to register for information on the ride up. Cornish Cream Rally, 24-27 August This rally only happens once every 2 years, its always popular, there’s superb riding and its by the sea! Contact Graham Roach or Chris Harding to register for infor-mation on the ride down. Thunder in the Glens Rally, 24-27 August For those that want to travel further afield, this rally (camping and accommodation) has amazing scenery, rideouts and a Scottish welcome! Contact Bill MacDon-ald for details. USA Trip, California, 4-19 September Our 3rd trip stateside, we’ll be visiting Yosemite, Joshua Tree, San Francisco & the Pacific Highway. Bookings have already been taken for this trip.

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AT A GLANCE YEARLY CALENDAR by Barry Aggett

At a Glance

2012/2013 Yearly Calendar Contact Barry Aggett if you have any other event you would like to see listed. Tel/Text 07802 217770,

e-mail baznjac11@o2.co.uk For further details on any event listed visit GWC website “What’s On”

Date Chapter Events Organiser Details February

8th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 12th Ride Out Graham Roach Bikers Blast Brecon 14th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 26th Ride Out Alan Stokes The Blenheim Blitz (Blenheim Palace) 28th Natter Night Andy Ball

March 11th Ride Out Graham Roach Rolling Thunder Rides 13th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 14th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 25th Ride Out Barry Aggett Wandering to West Bay 27th Natter Night Andy Ball

April 1st Charity Bill MacDonald Forest of Dean Half Marathon

10th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 11th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 15th Ride out Graham Roach 24th Natter Night Andy Ball 29th Ride out Nigel Garnett

May 8th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 9th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 13th Ride out Graham Roach 20th Ride out Steph Pocock The Salisbury Spectacular 22nd Natter Night Andy Ball

25th to 27th OTRA Chris Harding Big Brum Bash June

2nd Activity Barry Aggett Brian Johnson Curry Weekend 3rd Ride out Graham Roach 5th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 6th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed

14th to 17th OTRA Chris Harding European Hog Rally Cascais, Portugal 24th Ride out Barry Aggett Rambling in Radnor Forest 26th Natter Night Andy Ball

July 5th Activity Barry Aggett W-S-M Bike Night American Power

6/7&8th Hogs in the Hayfields Tony James Cleve Rugby Club, Bristol 7th Ride out Alan Stokes Hogs in the Hayfields – Tetbury Trekker 10th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 11th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 15th Activity Barry Aggett Treasure Hunt 24th Natter Night Andy Ball 29th Charity Bill MacDonald Orchard Trust Summer Fete

August 3/4&5th OTRA Chris Harding South of England Rally SOFER 3/4&5th OTRA Chris Harding Somme, Northern France.

8th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 12th Ride out Graham Roach 14th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol

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AT A GLANCE Continued By Barry Aggett

CANGEN CYMRAEG BRANCH MEETING

St Mary’s Hotel Golf & Country

Club

Pencoed (Within 2 minutes from M4)

Home of the Cangen Cymraeg Branch of the Great

Western Chapter

get together on the 2nd

Wednesday of the month.

7:00pm — 8:00pm start

See you there!!

August 19th Ride out Nigel Garnett

23/24/25/26&27 OTRA Chris Harding Cornish Cream Rally 24/25/26&27th OTRA Chris Harding Thunder in the Glens Rally

28th Natter Night Andy Ball September

4th to 19th OTRA Peter Roberts USA California 9th Ride out Graham Roach 11th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 12th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 23rd Ride out Steph Pocock White Horses of Wiltshire 25th Natter Night Andy Ball

October 9th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 10th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 14th Ride out Graham Roach 23rd Natter Night Andy Ball 28th Ride out Alan Stokes The Shaftsbury Scambler

November 13th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 14th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 11th Ride out Graham Roach 25th Ride out Barry Aggett Evo's to Evesham 27th Natter Night Andy Ball

December 11th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 12th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed 16th Ride out Nigel Garnett

January 8th Club Night Andy Ball The Riverside Inn Saltford, Bristol 9th Club Night Andy Ball St Mary’s Hotel, Pencoed

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PETE and DUNCANS PUMP STOP

By the time you read this, we’ll be back to Winter but, for the moment, it’s wall-to-wall sunshine, warmth and azure skies, out here in the Arizona desert.

The detail and pics are all on our blog which, according to the stats, a hell of a lot of you have been following. So, I’ll not bore you with repetition.

Thinking about the two USA trips we have organised for the Chapter, and the third coming up later in the year, has got me pondering on the American dream, where we ride our Harleys out on a long desert highway, or cruise along iconic roads like Route 66 or Big Sur. Undoubtedly this imagery has been fed by films like “Easy Rider”, or even “Wild Hogs”, but, if you’ve been with us, construct-ing the fantasy road trip to blow your senses every single day truly is reality.

However, rather than riding the construct, what if you actually live out here on the edge of the Arizona desert? The sun shines over 320 days of the year, it never snows, and the only corrosion you’re likely to get to your chrome is caused by sand blowing across the highway in the warm desert wind. So, like us, you hop onto your bike in the morning and head off for a day’s scenic riding of around 200-250 miles. Perhaps surprisingly, though, after a couple of weeks new high impact scenic day rides become increasingly difficult to find and plan. As we’ve found, you can have a spectacular outward ride and then be faced with 100+ miles of dull desert scrub scenery on the homeward loop!

Americans are quite parochial and tend not to travel the vast distances that separate the wonders of this country. Contentment on your Harley might simply be just cruising around Tucson and local environs (seems to be what the local Chapter mostly does, with a rideout down to Tomb-stone or Bisbee being quite adventurous). In a nutshell, we may moan about our UK weather and the limited (climatically-pleasant) riding season, but it is never difficult for us to construct manageable day rides, through gorgeous countryside, to interesting destina-tions.

And, getting back to thoughts of UK weather . .

For most of you it will be time to uncover your pride and joy, clean off the corrosion -protectant, check the battery and fire her up. All three operations should be straightforward following these simple steps. 1. If you have used any ACF 50 or corrosion protectant make sure you remove it with the same cleaning product. It will not come off easily with any other, and only wash it off by spraying on the cleaner and hosing it off after-wards. Do not use a sponge, as this may scratch your bike if dirt has stuck to the protectant. 2. Batteries that were on an Optimate should be ready to roll. Check the charging lights on the unit; if they do not show fully-charged switch the unit off on the wall and this will reset it, allowing your battery to be topped up. If your bike has an alarm, it may be in sleep mode. Do not wor-ry, just turning the ignition on will reset it; just have your alarm fobs to hand. 3. When you come to starting your bike, if it has a carbu-rettor, give the throttle a couple of turns to start the fuel running. If it’s fuel-injected, leave it alone. Crank the en-gine until it fires up - DO NOT rev it. Allow the oil to circu-late around the engine until warm before revving to avoid any long term damage. If unsure, or you have a problem, give me a call.

Hopefully by now the sun is out, your bike is ticking over lovely and you’re about to put your gear on and go for that first ride of the season that we have all been waiting for.

Safe riding

Duncan@riders and PeterPeterPeterPeter

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SAFETY OFFICER’S UPDATE By Andy Kendall Snr

One of my roles as the Chapter Safety Officer is to pro-vide Motorcycle Safety Foundation type information to members and educate members about Safe Rider Skills programs. Bike Safe is a police led motorcycle project that is run by most forces throughout the UK. The main aim is to reduce the number of bikers being hurt on the roads. Great Western Chapter think that riding should be fun and by improving skills, knowledge and hazard aware-ness it will hopefully make riding safer and more enjoy-able. The Bike Safe workshop explores the main issues fac-ing today’s bikers. It also explores the principles of ad-vanced riding through the on-road element. The Bike Safe Observer will give assessment and feedback which will highlight areas where the rider needs to de-velop. Bike Safe is about starting on the right path to develop-ment as it "Bridges the Gap". Riders should continue to train throughout their riding years and not just stop once they have passed their bike test. To this end I would like to highlight the Bike Safe scheme to our members. New members as well as the more established members would benefit from attend-ing one of these courses. Many of the Chapter mem-bers have already attended and have brought positive feedback and stated that their riding skills have been enhanced. There is a cost implication with attending these courses which have to be met by the member concerned and not the Chapter. If you live or work in some areas, the courses are heavily subsidised. For example, if you live in the Somerset area the Council subsidise the course so instead of paying £35, by using the voucher code SOM101 the course fee is reduced to £5. Most police forces in the area covered by the

Chapter support this discount. (Avon and Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Gwent, Dyfed Powys and South Wales). There are two types of course. The one day Bike Safe course or a two day, (and in the case of Avon and Som-erset Constabulary a two day residential course), called Ride to Arrive. Bike Safe is about £35 and Ride to Ar-rive is £130 to £160 for the residential course, before discount. Once you have attended one of these courses you can be eligible for discounted bike insurance with some companies. Also if you are thinking of being considered for a position as Road Marshal or later on Road Cap-tain, you would have to have completed a Bike Safe Course. To apply for these courses simply go to www.bikesafe.co.uk and then select the police force area you wish to take the course and follow the instruc-tions to book a place online. In each police force area there are a number of different locations used and a choice of dates that could suit your availability. Couldn’t be simpler. Please contact me if you have any questions. Andy Kendall Snr. Chapter Safety Officer Mob. 07905397474

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CANGEN CYMRAEG By Graham Roach Hi All, Well so far its been an extremely mild winter, lets hope it continues, I have managed to get out on the bikes most weekends so far for mostly local rides. Heated gear cer-tainly helps this time of year although for my last 300m round trip to Riders in the first week of Jan, my left heat-ed glove packed up, had to stop a few times to run the old hand under the taps at the services, at times like these you begin to appreciate how good heated clothing really is, I would recommend it to any rider or pillion that clocks up winter miles. I have decided this winter to only use the water-bucket (v-rod) while the salt is on the roads, I have smothered the bike in ACF-50 and will leave it on all winter and not clean the bike until spring, only the lights, at present it’s got a lovely rat bike patina, brings back fond memories of Rainy Rich Starnell’s Heritage (no offence mate), it will be interesting to see how it performs , I must say it feels quite liberating not having to bother cleaning the bike. Well with Christmas well and truly over, our own party and the Bridgwater party long distant memories its time to look forward to upcoming events for the year ahead, a lot happening and something for everyone to get in-volved with, so make sure you have a good look at up-coming events and decide well in advance which ones you will take part in. Unfortunately I missed Andy Ball’s rideout, apparently 33 bikes turned out, I don’t know what’s happening we seem to be getting more bikes for the winter rideouts than

the summer rideouts, I remember a few years ago we would be lucky to have 6 bikes in January. Some Chapters don’t even do winter rideouts, just goes to show how good ours is. On a different note if any members feel they have the experience and are prepared to give the commitment to become Road Marshals and eventually Road Captains on the Welsh side then please feel free to get in touch with myself for a chat, either at Cangen Cymraeg club nights or by phone. That’s all for now folks ride safe. Iachydd Da, Graham.

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PARTY TIME!

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REMEMBER

The deadline for the next issue of ROADHOG is: 20th FEBRUARY 2012 Articles to brakemj@blueyonder.co.uk

FROM THE FRONT By Alan “Big Al” Stokes

Hi All It’s been a while since I last wrote a few lines. I have been on holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand over Christmas and the New Year. This meant I missed the January magazine deadline, hence no article from me. Apolo-gies for that. For a change, I thought I would share some of my Far Eastern riding experiences with you. I hope you enjoy them. There are lots of bikes for hire in Thailand (including Harley’s) and its many islands. There is a main Harley dealership in Bangkok and its worth a visit if you’re ever in town. My advise is to get a taxi and get it to wait while you look around. The Thai’s love bikes but unfortunately not many of them can afford anything large let alone a Harley. You will however, see many hundreds of them riding 125 and 250 c.c. vehicles. Expect to see anything from one to four people on a single bike. Mum, dad and two kids is the norm. This time around, I decided to give hiring a Harley a miss. Instead I opted for watching the clowns who hire the “twist and go” scooters. I love people watching with a cold beer in hand, it’s so much fun and I knew I would not be disappointed in Koh Samui. Now, I can honestly say, in all my travels, I have never seen such a display of unsafe and poor riding by tourist as on this holiday. When hiring a bike the Thai’s generally don’t look at a license and it showed. I bet 90% of the people that hire a bike have never ridden one in their lives. On one oc-casion, I watched a 20 something girl in vest, shorts and flip flops kangaroo down the road to a halt. Once stopped, she let off her pillion (unbelievably laughing) passenger. She then had to call a taxi driver over to show her how to turn the scooter off and then show her where the side stand was so she could park up. It really was quite scary to watch her let loose on a busy road. It also explains why Thailand has over 700 fatalities / year from scooter accidents. Koh Samui is well up there in the countries top ten. On another occasion I watched an Irish lad struggle to get onto his flight as a result of the head to foot gravel rash he had down his right hand side. By his own admission, it ruined the last four days of his holiday and he didn’t look to pretty either as a result of his injuries. I thought I would also share a few facts for anyone trav-elling to that part of the world. If you are thinking of hir-ing a bike be advised. On the positive side, driving is on the same side of the road as the UK ….. but most of the Thai’s start riding around 14 years of age. Most never take or pass any form of driving test and 95% of locals riding around don’t have any form of insurance. Helmets are compulsory but you will be lucky to see anyone

wearing one, including the tourists. How-ever, the police are known on occasions to stop tourist and impose an on the spot fine for not wearing one. This normally amounts to how many Baht (Thai currency) you are carrying. The golden rule is to carry a separate amount of money in another pocket and only get that out. It usually does the trick. Don’t expect a re-ceipt and certainly don’t push to get one. You will only bring more grief upon yourself. Put it down to experi-ence as it’s the way things work in Thailand. Outside of the main cities the roads can be quite inter-esting. The roads vary in condition and there are lots of pot holes on the islands. Added to that, the traffic is manic. You also need to be aware of the wildlife in rural areas. On one occasion, I stopped and watched a cobra make its way across the road. That said, it is a great experience to get out and explore the countryside. Sat astride a Harley you get complete freedom. Get off the main roads and there are fantastic jewels to be found around most corners. You just need to have your com-plete wits about you and particularly watch out for holi-day makers on scooters in the resort areas. They really are the biggest danger. My advise, hire a bike from a more reputable dealer. I love riding when I’m there, so don’t be put off, just take care. Anyway, back to reality, good old England and the win-ter. We have already got a couple of rides under our belts in January and so far the weather has been kind. So what’s ahead? 12th February 2012 – Graham Roach and Team “Bikers Blast Brecon” Meet at Cardiff West Services M4/J33 for 10.00 a.m. Be fuelled up ready and ready to depart at 10.30 a.m. The ride will finish back at Cardiff West Services. This ride is classed as Level A and is approximately 120 miles.

CONTINUED BOTTOM OF NEXT PAGE……...

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LADIES OF HARLEY by JANE SCOTT

Hello Ladies, Well there’s not a lot to report back on this month. I didn’t make the first ride out of the year, well not on the bike anyway so Stu and I popped down to the Ferry Inn in the car, it was lovely to see so many, plus we had a nice Sunday Lunch too. Looking at the calendar for the monthly rideouts we have some great places of interest to visit this year, so hopefully something will be of interest to you. Our next gurzels meeting is February 18th approx 12:30 at Riders (in the back room) to discuss entertainment for our rally, so LADIES YOUR CHAPTER NEEDS YOU!, there is also a thread on the Great Western blog so please leave any comments on there, if you wanna come along just for a natter then feel free. There is also a thread for the Forest Of Dean Half Mara-thon, Anita, Julie and myself are in training, are there any more LOH doing it ?, if so come forward and share your training progress on the blog, everybody keeps asking how long will it take me, I will just be happy to step over that finishing line.

I have some news from the Bridgwater LOH rep,(I know its not yet but you may want to have a think about an outfit) anyway they are proposing a Ladies Sunday rideout at this years Cider Rally with a dress theme from “Moulin Rouge”/ Burlesque so if you fancy doing the ride or are a pillion, then it’s a Basque or fancy top, and makeup you will need to acquire, then add the skirt when returning for dinner, of course there is a matter of safety on the bike so please be aware of this whilst planning your outfit. That’s about it for this month Jane Contact details Janescott61@hotmail.co.uk Mobile :- 07894086626

FROM THE FRONT Continued…………………….. 26th February 2012 – Big Al and Team “The Blenheim Blitz” The ride will leave towards Cirencester and make its way through the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire coun-tryside en-route to Blenheim Palace, the birth place of Winston Churchill. The plan is have a 2 hour stop for lunch at the Palace. This will allow those who want to visit the house time to do so. There is an en-trance charge, we are looking at a group booking (approx £11).

Meet at the Compass Inn M4/J18 for 09.30 a.m. Be fuelled up ready to depart at 10.00 a.m. This ride is circa 130 miles and is classed as Level B.

11th March 2012 – Graham Roach and Team “ Rolling Thunder Rides”

Meet at McDonalds, Pencoed M4/J35 for 10.00 a.m. Be fuelled up ready and ready to depart at 10.30 a.m. The destination is Thunder Road, Bridgend. This is a Level A ride of circa 100 miles.

25th March 2012 – Bazzer Aggett and Team “Wandering to West Bay” Meet at McDonalds, Brislington (opposite Riders of Bristol) for 09.00 a.m. Be fuelled up ready to depart at 09.30 a.m. The ride will be approximately 130 / 150 miles but is not complex. Suitable for all riders. This is classed as Level B ride. For last minute updates please call the “Hotline” on 08444 994508 Please see below some guidance details of the rides: Level A - Short and easy below 100 miles round trip. Level B - Fine for average riders but may be a bit long-er. Level C – Can include some complex sections but mainly a longer duration. Until the next time, have fun and ride hard. Alan “Big Al” Stokes

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BAZZER’S PAGE By Barry “Bazzer” Aggett

Hi All, Looking at the year ahead it is already crammed with rideouts, rallies and out of the country adventures, and as if that was-n’t enough, we throw in a few other activi-ties for good measure, see below for de-tails.

26th February Blenheim Palace

The rideout by Big Al & Team will include a two hour visit to Blenheim Palace. YOU WILL NEED A TICKET TO ENTER THE GROUNDS. Alternatively Dave Roberts LBD will be arranging a ride into Oxford for lunch. Basically there are two ticket options:- 1) Palace, Park & Gardens, normally £20 per person but with group discount for 15 or more it's £11.00. 2) Park & Gardens, normally £11.50 per person but with group discount for 15 or more it's £5.80. For details of all the attractions please visit the Blenheim Palace website www.blenheimpalace.com Anita Cockwell will be collecting your money for this one as we need to book the tickets in ad-vance to benefit from the group discount, so if you are interested please contact Anita at :-

accockwell@yahoo.com and pay Anita either cash or a cheque payable to Great Western Chapter. If you need to post a cheque please send to the following address:- Anita Cockwell 7 The Heritage Camerton Bath BA2 0AU Closing date for the group booking payment is the 18th February 2012.

1st Apri 1st April Forest of Dean Trails Half Marathon

I’m very pleased to announce GWC in conjunction with the Orchard Trust is planning to enter the Forest of Dean 2012 Half Marathon on April fools day!!, seriously, I’m entering so feel free to join me, and don’t panic if you happen to be washing your hair on that day and cannot make it, you will have an opportunity to play your part with a charity donation, Bill MacDonald will have more details nearer the time. For registration please visit: http://www.forestofdean-halfmarathon.co.uk/ and when prompted about entering as a team type GREAT WESTERN HOG CHAPTER. Please visit the GWC website to download an Orchard Trust sponsorship form and Gift Aid declaration form. Deadline for entries is Sunday 29 February 2012. Please let me know if you are interested. Watch this space for other events which are in the pipe-line and as always, if you have an idea please contact me to discuss. Mob 07802 217770 Email baznjac11@o2.co.uk GWC Blog Bazzer

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GWC Treasure Hunt 21st August 2011 by Mark Chinnick Well this was my first treasure hunt and the first GWC one as well, so was not sure what to expect being told to bring a camera, pens and 2 x fifty pence pieces. I got up to look at the latest weather forecast which showed sunshine, a rare sight on the weather map lol. Went to the garage to get the trusty steed and the sky looked like it was going to bucket down. Started the bike and off I went to the Gordano Services, I must say it was a little disappointing with the number of bikes that had turned up, however it was enough to make 5 teams of either 2 or 3 bikes. Each team started at 3 minute intervals with a count-down and chequered flag start, during the countdown the bikes were revved very hard, which kept the onlook-ers bemused, wondering what was going on. We were off, the sun came out, the directions were good and the clues were challenging, we stopped at a Kissing Gate and a poor woman who was walking her dog got kidnapped and cuddled by my team members for a pho-to, I think she enjoyed it because there were no com-plaints or objections. On a roll now, we spotted Gorilla sculptures and of course the team jumped on to them for more photos, despite the big letters that said DO NOT CLIMB ON THE SCULPTURES, we didn't see those until afterwards your honour. Found out what the fifty pence pieces were for ( Toll across the Suspension Bridge x 2)

The hunt took us to a farmyard where we met the biggest gay in the village, this turned out to be a big surprise to us all, lol (more photos), I realised at this point this team loved having pictures taken. No time to stop for lunch this was too good, the route took us to Portishead and Clevedon, we high-jacked the model train got the driver to wear a GW waistcoat and when he wasn't looking tied one team member to the tracks while another drove the train, fortunately the train was so low it didn't run anyone over. All clues completed despite attempted sabotage by other teams we were off to The Royal for a very tasty looking late lunch and more fun in the form of colouring a picture of Dale while supping a cool bevi in the now very hot sunshine. Prizes were awarded, and I think there were enough so that everyone got one. What a cracking event, it was almost too much fun to handle in one day. A very big thanks to Jeff and Julie for all the planning and organisation and to all who took part. Mark

Treasure Hunt back for 2012, 15th July so mark it in your diary. If you missed the treasure hunt last year you certainly won’t want to miss it this year. Even Mr Too Tall got carried away in the atmosphere and ended up snogging with Mucker! To give you an insight into the fun day ahead please read on.

TREASURE HUNT FOR 2012

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Blenheim Palace is situated in Woodstock, eight

miles north of Oxford, within the Oxfordshire

Cotswolds.

The Palace, conceived in 1705 by Sir John Vanbrugh

and finished in 1722 is a masterpiece of English Baroque

architecture. From the vastness of the Great Hall to the

intricate detailing in the State Rooms, the Palace interi-

ors beautifully balance the delicate with the awe-

inspiring. Guided tours run throughout most of the sea-

son (except Sundays and bank holidays), with enlighten-

ing facts on the people, history and events that shaped

the Palace. The walls are decorated with beautiful por-

traits and a fascinating collection of tapestries commis-

sioned by John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough. An

exquisite collection of Boulle furniture graces the Third

State Room, which leads, in turn, to the timeless sophis-

tication of the Long Library.

Home to the 11th Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace

is also famed as the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

Visit the rooms where he was born in 1874 and gain a

fascinating insight into the life of our most beloved lead-

er.

A permanent visitor experience, ‘Blenheim Palace: The

Untold Story’ is open upstairs within Vanbrugh’s awe-

inspiring Palace. Enticing tales of the last 300 years at

Blenheim Palace are brought to life by the household

staff through moving figures and talking portraits. The

experience is self guided and takes about 35 minutes. It

adds a new dimension to the tours of the magnificent

State Rooms downstairs and introduces visitors to some

of the more colourful characters from the past.

The splendour and tranquillity of 'Capability' Brown land-scaped parkland and the Formal Gardens is unrivalled in Britain. From the Secret Garden, Water Terraces and Rose Garden to the Grand Cascade and lake fringed by majestic oaks, maples and chestnuts, beauty abounds. The gardens and parkland are ever changing with the seasons; from the beautiful spring flowers to the burnt oranges of leaves in autumn. Walks of between 45 minutes and 1 ½ hours allow you to fully appreciate the beauty of the Palace within its awe-inspiring surround-ings.

FOR DETAILS ON BOOKING TICKETS TO ENTER SEE PAGE 14 (BAZZER’S PAGE)

PLANNED BLENHEIM PALACE VISIT 26th February

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OTHER RALLIES FROM On The Road Again 2012

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MEMBERS CARDS AND MERCHANDISE

M E M B E R S C A R D S

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Due to ill health, doctors have advised me against camping, so our new tent has to go... Its a Gelert Lakesbury 5. Hy-drostatic head 3000. Weather checked. Fire retardent. Approx. 5m long x 3020 wide x 2m high. It has 2 bedrooms and is 5 berth. Full sewn in groundsheet and separate pro-tective footprint, plus carpet for living room. It has 3 openings, 2 at the sides and 1 at front that can be lifted to make a canopy. Comes in 2 bags for ease of transport. Used only twice. Offers around £200. Contact Charlie Grey on 07902311400

FOR SALE CHAPTER COMMITTEE

Sponsoring Dealer - Duncan White - 0117 9588777 Director - Andy Ball - 07970 271 151 Assistant Director - Peter Roberts - 07540 164 157 Assistant Director & Webmaster - Chris Harding - 07801 562 011 Treasurer - Peter Roberts - 07540 164157 Secretary & Merchandise - Yvonne Roberts - 01225 751 017 Head Road Captain - Alan Stokes - 07766 237 242 Activities Officer - Barry Aggett - 07802 217 770 Safety Officer - Andy Kendall Snr- 07905 397474 Editor - Mike Brake - 07806 558 069 Photographer / Historian - Tony Yendle - 07787 551 612 Ladies of Harley - Jane Scott - 07894 086626 Charity Coordinator - Bill Macdonald - 07989 987189 Cangen Cymraeg Rep - Graham Roach - 07973 459036

Road Captains - Nigel Garnett - Andrew Ball - Paul Bromhead - Dave Pocock - Chris Harding - Andy Kendall - Stephanie Pocock - Barry Aggett - Alan Stokes - Graham Roach - Dave Roberts - Stuart Scott - Paul Groom - Tony Yendle - Sean Gully - Mark Chivers

Road Marshals - Steve Crook - Dave Bennett - Darren Sharp - Ian Johnson - Mike Brake - Dale Jenkins - Andy Kendall (RKK) - Jane Scott - Ian Mead - Martin James - Greg Payne - Tony Cole - Simon Griffiths

Rally Co-ordinator - Tony James - 07940895921 Email syston@btinternet.com Editorial Assistance - Jan Stanworth & - Neil Lewis

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CHAPTER NUMBER - 6655

REMEMBER

The deadline for the next issue of ROADHOG is:

20th FEBRUARY 2012 Articles, Suggestions /Articles to

brakemj@blueyonder.co.uk

NOW SOLD

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WHAT’S AT RIDERS