Evening pub meet, 30th July 2026

A small, lucky group of us enjoyed a fine sunny evening sitting outside shooting the breeze at The Bell, Chittlehampton. Fortunately, no Morris dancers were around to amuse us this time.  Gordon sent his apologies, having set out from Tiverton only to find the link road blocked, followed by long delays on the diversion, so a return to base was required.  I'm ashamed to say that I was so busy enjoying my beer and balti that I forgot to take any photos.  Apart from this one, which feels like a quintessentially English village scene, except, of course, for the illegal Italian alien! 

 

Baton relay and mystery run 190726

 

With a much better day forecast, we arrived at Jonsey’s café Winkleigh for this baton change and run. Ian would normally lead today but with the sad passing of his wife Jean, Cliff had agreed to set a route instead. The Dartmoor section arrived at 1120 and the changeover took place, the baton being passed to Cliff on our behalf, now we will hold it until a changeover to the Somerset section at a later date. I had brought a photographic booklet of the 60th baton changeover which was of interest to all though I must admit that some of us look much older or have passed on.

I had to drive home at this point as I still can’t yet wear a crash helmet but I understand that Cliff lead a great run down to Tiverton then back up to South Molton. Unfortunately, it appears that Ian S appears to have had troubles at the start from the café and apologies have been given all around for not noticing.

Next outing is 30th July at the Bell inn at Chittlehampton.

Magical Mystery Tour - June 2026

The long-awaited summer heatwave arrived just in time for Pete’s summer solstice mystery run. All was revealed when we headed out from Bideford to Bude via Holsworthy.   Stopping for lunch at Bude quay we met up with a few Velocette club riders, including Mike K – it was good to see him out and about again.  After enjoying our pasties in the sunshine and getting in the holiday mood there was a swift run back up the A39 – probably helped by having three NHCA supremos in our squad.  Finally, a few refreshing shandies were taken to cool off in the garden of the London Inn at Kilkhampton before heading home.  Thanks to Pete for leading and making it an enjoyable day out.  

Exmoor Explorer, May 10th 2026

This would normally be Gordon's run but unfortunately he wasn't well enough this weekend so Cliff stepped up to the plate.  Leading out from the Quince Honey Farm, Cliff took us on a well thought-out, scenic route encompassing a nice variety of lanes plus much faster open roads. 

We ended up at the Bridge Tea Rooms in Exford for our lunch break where we all munched happily on some first-rate bacon or sausage sarnies prepared by the friendly American proprietor.  This was not before our two end-markers had enjoyed a little detour down, and then back up, Porlock Hill owing to an unscheduled pee stop and a missing marker, what fun.  It has to be said that Dick’s newly rebuilt vintage Thunderbird tackled The Hill with great aplomb.  

Finally, there was an enjoyable, swift run back via Dulverton and the B3227 to end at Woodside Services near South Molton. 

Thanks to Cliff for leading a super run and we send best wishes to Gordon, we hope you feel better soon. 

Evening meet 230426

 7 members arrived at the Stag Inn at Filleigh on Thursday for our first of the year evening meet. The weather was very sunny and warm ish so we sat outside to put the world to rights. It was good to see Mike after his trials of the past year and Chris who has not been able to make our runs for a while for health reasons. Farmer Bruce put us in the picture regarding the recent rise in fuel prices affecting the farming community, apparently, they have suffered an almost doubling of the red diesel prices. Well now the next run is my Exmoor one which starts from Quince honey farm on the , 10th May, the run will be similar to last year with a meal at the rest and be thankful for lunch.

East Devon escapade 120426

With a fair worldwide collection of steeds, Ian’s East Devon escapade met at the riverside site at South Molton for this our first run of the year, 10 arrived with 9 finally setting off with Ian on his daily workhorse in the lead and with John and myself bringing up the rear. The weather was dull and a bit cool but we only had two showers all day carefully managed to occur when were at our lunch stop. Once through North Molton we found ourselves riding around a good little run taking in parts of Exmoor and some of East Devon. lunch was at Withypool and the run ended on the road back to South Molton, one ford was encountered which everyone managed ok. Thanks to Ian who gave us a good start to this years run calendar, don’t forget the evening run at the Stags Head in Filleigh on the 23rd of this month at 6.30pm.

 

2026 Calendar