OLD BUCKENHAM BIKE NIGHTS

JUST OFF THE A11, A MILE OR TWO (ISH) SOUTH OF ATTLEBOROUGH, LIES THE VILLAGE OF OLD BUCKENHAM, A TYPICAL NORFOLK VILLAGE OF OLD HOUSES SPREAD AROUND A FAIRLY SIZEABLE VILLAGE GREEN. IT’S A QUIET, FAIRLY SLEEPY LITTLE PLACE… EXCEPT ON TUESDAY NIGHTS IN THE SPRING, SUMMER AND AUTUMN WHEN IT GETS INVADED BY HORDES OF MOTORCYCLE TYPES.

Tuesday nights, you see, are when the Ox & Plough pub right in the centre of the village holds its Two-Wheel Tuesday bike nights, and the whole green in front of the pub fills, on a warm evening in the height of summer, to the gunwales with over 1,000 bikes, plus the odd hot rod, rat rod, classic American car, and other groovy four-wheelers.

Bike nights, to non-bike folk, sound weird when you describe them; you ride to one, have a beer or a brew, wander round the bikes, have another beer or brew, and speedy, blast up the A11 away (or a lengthy, round-the-backof-Will’s-mother’s, cross-country zigzag that requires me to leave work early), but it’s something that I do do a couple of times a month usually, and one of the highlights of TWT for me is a hot dog (yeah, I know, I’m easily pleased…) from the Flying Chef – the very cool Cossack (or Dnepr or Ural, I can never tell which is which) side-car converted to a mobile hot dog wagon that’s there most weeks. Their dawgs, with all the trimmings, are very good, and although there’s also another wagon doing Indian food, and often a barbecue too, that’s my first stop upon arrival. then ride home again. To us it’s a perfectly normal thing to travel 35-plus miles each way to do just that, but to Joe

(or Jo, let’s not be sexist). Normal it makes no sense at all. ‘Doesn’t anything happen when you’re there?’ they ask. Umm, no, not really, it’s just what it sounds like – lots of bikes turn up, park, their owners sit and/or amble about a bit, and then go home. And do you know what? Most o’ them’ll be back, week in, week out, to do it all over again, too.

For me, Old Buckenham is probably the closest weekly bike night to the BSH editorial hovel (both So Low Choppers and Krazy Horse In Bury St Edmunds have bike nights too, but not every week), and is, it has to be said, a fairly dull, but

During the long years of Covid (it might only’ve been two, but it feels like feckin’ forever), there were long queues outside the Ox & Plough for beers, but they did also have a converted horse trailer as an auxiliary bar. The queue generally moves quite quickly, it has to be said, but a separate coffee/tea stand for those of us who don’t want an alcoholic beverage might be a good idea chaps, y’know?

At the time of writing, the announcement of the first TwoWheel Tuesday night has yet to be made, but it usually starts around the middle of April (and runs until the end of September) – keep an eye on their Facebook page for more info.

NIK