Extraordinary General Meeting: Saturday 10 September 2016, Anglesey Circuit, Ty Croes.

Attendees:

Swinn

Peter

Brian

The meeting was again poorly attended and, despite a recent reminder, no apologies had been received. There being no written constitution, it was unclear whether there were sufficient attendees for the meeting to be quorate. Peter suggested that his pal Brian be co-opted as a temporary member in order that business could proceed as planned.

In between talking about Tridents, C15s and his improving health, the meeting was notionally chaired by Peter.

Peter had ridden 200 miles from Lincoln and Brian 220 from Richmond on their T150v and T160 Triumphs respectively - and used lots of fuel. Swinn drove 85/115 miles (*see note below) from Chester in his ancient Nissan Note and used hardly any.

The chosen venue was the annual Trident/BSA 3 owners rally and trackday where riders who were still stuck in the 1970’s could both admire and abuse their bikes and boast about how their engines were now almost oil tight (hundreds of hours/ thousands of pounds later). Most track riders were at least 70 years old and had invariably ‘put on a bit of weight’ but were still squeezing themselves into leathers bought some 50 years previously (either that or strutting round in brand new, no expense spared, made to measure stuff ). Guy Martin  made an appearance with his Wall of Death Triumph and evening entertainment had included a talk (sales pitch) by a well known motorcycle event organiser keen to promote his new book (ideal Christmas present).

To mark the 45^th Anniversary of Edale, Peter had chosen to camp this year and suffered lashing rain and gale force winds on his first two nights at the Circuit. Fortunately his tent was large enough to get his bike inside and, sedated by fumes of 95 Ron he had slept through it all. His bike also remained rust-free and its electrics dry. Saturday, the day of the meeting, was warm and sunny.

A guided tour of his machine took place: lots of impressive clocks showing lots of impressive information, full Craven luggage, phone-app gps, also his set-up for phone charging. The latter proved unnecessary due to poor mobile signal at the circuit. A live demonstration followed with an engine start – albeit accompanied by loud tappet noises (cold engine apparently). Peter’s tent had a port-cochere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte-coch%C3%A8re) arrangement to minimise manoeuvring his bike - he could simply ride it in one side and then out on the opposite.

https://youtu.be/j_64LZMCiLs

This year’s theme for Beezumph was ‘Specials’ and it was clear that Tridents attract a wide range of enthusiasts willing to spend many hours to develop machines which are ‘better’ than the original. Who would have thought of a v6 for instance?

After a good look round the paddock and time hanging over the pit wall the meeting closed at around 5pm when Peter and Brian took their machines to the ‘show and tell’ ring and Swinn made his way home.

No further meetings prior to the January AGM were anticipated.

* Swinn’s journey to the Circuit had not been without its problems. Having enticed him on to the island and advised him which road to take the lady from gmaps stopped talking. This was not unusual as she usually only said anything when a change of direction was required. This went unnoticed by Swinn until he arrived on the east coast of Anglesey rather than the west. Disgusted that she had chosen to lead him astray he continued to navigate by compass and glovebox map - which showed only A roads. (There are hardly any A roads on Anglesey and even fewer signposts). The 85 mile journey which should have taken 1.5hrs turned into 115 miles and took him well over 2.