Author: Aynsley Brown

Venue: The Hall/ Moulton Bicycle Company, Holt Road, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1AH

The September Weekend is the Club's main Annual meeting where members can spend the weekend meeting other members, look at Moulton bikes, talk about them, buy bike bits and ride their Moulton bicycles!

If you can join us at the Hall, it will be good to see you catch up with old friends even if you're not a member.

Come and have a look at the amazing range and variety of Moulton bicycles that Members bring and that are on view in the Moulton Bicycle Company showroom.

The date for pre-booking has passed but you can pay at the gate. As in previous years, it’s Members (& immediate family) only, but if you are a non-member and would like to get a 'taster' to see what the Club is all about, we have created Weekend Membership for £5. If you decide to join the Club, the cost of the short-term membership will be deferred against your 1st year's membership subscription.

All adults attending need to pay either £10 for Saturday only, or £25 for weekend camping. For those who are 16 & under (when accompanied by an adult), it’s all free . Toilets & showers will be available for all.

Provisional schedule for the weekend

Friday evening from 6pm: Campers arrive to set up their tents or campervans. We then usually head down to the Swan Hotel in the centre of Bradford on Avon to meet up and have something to eat. If it gets really busy The Dandy Lion across the road is a good alternative.

Saturday – 8am: gates open, campers awake……..

Saturday morning – 10am:

Bring & Buy of all things Moulton - everything from a complete bike to a set of frame transfers, interesting components & spares from the Moulton factory. NO selling fees - whether that’s a van full of bikes or a few tyres. Sellers should bring their own tables.

Tea, coffee & bacon / egg rolls will be available to buy in the archway.

Saturday afternoon –

• Demonstrations helping to ensure you can maintain / fix your own bike, F-frames and spaceframes.
• Test ride the latest models from the Moulton Bicycle Company and news from the Moulton Bicycle Company.
• Guided Tours of The Hall and grounds.
• The Club's Open Forum and the Raffle draw.

Saturday evening – Bring your own food & drink to the BBQ in the Hall grounds or eat down town in Bradford on Avon to support the local businesses after the their tough times over the last 18 months.

Sunday – All meet and set off from the upper car park by the entrance gate to The Hall. There will be 3 rides -

• 8:30 am: the long ride (30-40 miles),

• 9:15am: middle ride (20-30 miles),

• 10:00am short family ride along the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath (10 miles).

Late afternoon: pack away your tents, clear up all debris, so we all leave before 5pm on Sunday.

Things to note:

Anything may change due to the weather or new Covid restrictions

We will have security on the gate from Friday evening through to Sunday morning.

Keep checking this web page and Facebook for the latest event news & updates.

If you can join us at BoA, it will be good to see you in September, catch up with old friends, make new friends AND ride in a group of Moultons.

In the meantime stay safe, healthy & happy

Please check the entry under 'Moulton Preservation'

Trust you and your family are all well, both physically & mentally after 12 months of restrictions. Currently the Covid 19 infection rates are declining in the UK, which is good news making our club meeting more probable later on this year.

This gives us hope for the lifting of government restrictions on large outdoor gatherings before the weekend of 17^th - 19^th September – unless a new vaccine-resistant variant emerges.

Unfortunately our members overseas may have travel & quarantine restrictions, making the visit to the UK for the weekend in Bradford on Avon impractical. However, none of us will know the precise situation until much closer to the date.

We expect the event to be similar to previous September meetings, other than there will be no Club Saturday evening meal this year.

Friday evening, 17th Sept. - Campers/motorhomes/caravaners arriving.

Saturday morning 18th Sept. - Bring & Buy of all things Moulton (everything from a complete bike to a set of frame transfers), those special replacement parts for F frame refurbishment (from Moulton Preservation), interesting components & spares (from the Moulton factory). Tea, coffee & bacon rolls.

Saturday afternoon – yet to be agreed

Saturday evening – Bring your own food to the BBQ in the Hall grounds or eat down town in Bradford on Avon.

Sunday 19th Sept. – 3 rides; long ride, middle ride, short family ride.

Please keep the dates free - 17^th to 19^th September

The booking form & more details will be in the next issue of the Moultoneer (Issue 133), expected to be with you late July/early August.

Keep checking our web page and Facebook for the latest club news between magazines.

It will be good to see you in September, catch up with friends, make new friends AND ride in groups on our Moultons. In the meantime stay safe.

Mark Taylor, BoA Coordinator.

Finally, 2020 is over. Hopefully 2021 will be better than last year. Probably not the greatest year ever, but better.

No April Meeting

In your Committee’s estimation, due to government restrictions and personal safety considerations for us club members, the factory team and the traders in the town, the current UK Covid recovery rate will not permit our usual April meeting at BoA.

Your Committee voted unanimously to NOT prepare for the April event or an event a month or two later.

September Meeting ~ Friday 17th to Sunday 19th

The Committee do think the September event is a possibility and we have agreed the dates with both the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust & the Moulton Bicycle Company.

We can now make tentative plans for the various services we will need and events & activities for the weekend.

The current plan is to have a much simpler event.

We’ll meet as usual from the Friday evening (camping on the lawns), have events on the Saturday and rides on the Sunday.

To make the weekend more flexible we will NOT have the usual sit down Saturday evening meal. This saves us having to book, pay and then lose deposits for a venue/marquee & caterers, if the Covid situation unexpectedly worsens and we have to cancel at the last minute.

Instead, we will arrange a more extensive BBQ facility at the Hall grounds for communal use or people can go into town to provide much needed income to the local pubs & restaurants.

This all assumes the UK will be free of restrictions on mass gatherings and that the UK vaccination program will allow us to safely meet in larger numbers. (We normally anticipate around 80-100 people on the Saturday)

We have no knowledge of what the international travel situation may be in September. Hopefully it’ll good enough to enable Moultoneers abroad to join us, but we will have to wait and see.

We sincerely hope our plans will turn into an enjoyable weekend of everything Moulton but we can't guarantee that BoA September 2021 will happen.

The most up-to-date news on the September meeting will be posted on the club website (www.moultonbuzz.com), Facebook (The Moulton Bicycle) and confirmed in your club Moultoneer magazine.

In the meantime keep safe, healthy & happy – ride your Moulton.

All 100 white fine bone china mugs manufactured in Stoke on Trent, England have been sold!!

Please do NOT place any more orders. These limited edition mugs were offered to club members through our Moultoneer magazine in commemoration of Alex Moulton's Centenary in 2020.

Also this year, all Club Members were given a free pin badge (see inset). They were delivered with the club magazine earlier this year. All members should have received one.

A huge thanks to everyone who contributed images for next year's calendar with the theme “Moultons on the Move”. The response to our request to send in images of Moultons was tremendous, totalling over 1100! Your Committee had a very difficult job of narrowing this down to just 13. You will be able to see the final choices for the 2021 Club Calendar shortly as this will be mailed out to you with your magazine in the coming days.

It is unfortunate that in this year of all years we have had to cancel all our meetings at Bradford on Avon due to the global pandemic, we hope to be meeting again in 2021, if the virus allows!

In the meantime stay safe, healthy & happy – ride a Moulton.