The Classic MotorCycle
Two-wheel life from a bygone age Something for everyone; the value of clubs
Something that I read the other day struck a chord with me. I learned that the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC) is the UK’s biggest motorcycle club, boasting over 14,000 members, which struck me as interesting, though also led me to think a little about the club and how it works. Indeed, about all clubs.
From the 1920s onwards, clubs were hugely important to the motorcycling movement, with events of all manner organised – there’d be trials, scrambles (motocross), hillclimbs, race meetings, as well as road-based events, include longdistance rides and grand tours. Club life was a crucial part of the joy of owning a motorcycle, with club night a social highlight, too. Not to mention where, in pre-internet days, you went for advice and knowledge of how to do things. The organisations were regional, or marque specialist, or quite often both. Whatever your motorcycling interest was, there was a club for it. And if there wasn’t, you started one.
When the VMCC was formed just after the war (1946 actually), it was purely for vintage era motorcycles – so those built before January 1, 1931. This wasn’t just an arbitrary date plucked from the air; it does represent probably the peak of motorcycling popularity in the UK.
In 1930 there were three times as many motorcycles on the road as at the outbreak of the Second World War. Right from the VMCC’s beginning though, there was a faction which wanted rolling eligibility date; this was eventually implemented, and now stands at 25 years.
Consequently, VMCC events now admit motorcycles up to 1995 for general club events, though there are a few with specific cut-off dates, the primary being the Banbury Run, which sticks to the founding members’ original eligibility criteria. But overall, with membership standing at the number it does, the formula seems to work.
That an average VMCC road run could attract both a 1916 Triumph Model H and a 1994 Ducati 916 might seem a strange concept – but it does happen, I’ve seen it myself, with everyone just carrying on and enjoying their own particular era from within the wide spectrum of eligibility. Hopefully, it’ll not be long before some of the club events begin to return, as while riding on your own is, of course, pleasant, there’s always something nicer about sharing the road with like-minded souls.
But for the average 100-mile VMCC road run of the type I undertake, on narrow, bumpy, single track backroads, give me the ‘H’ over the 916 every time, please.