Copyright @ 2005 Rainy City HDC

Thought we'd have a page to update you on things going on in and around the club, particularly things mentioned at the club meetings, just in case you weren't there.

We thought as more riders are coming out on ride-outs, it would be a good idea to remind members, both old and new, how we ride in groups on these rides. Please read the article and lets make sure we keep our excellent safety record!

The July meeting was reasonably well attended (holiday season and all that) with 10 Harleys in the car park including Jon's brand new (just collected) Night Train. Very nice!

Not much to say in the notices department so the quizzes got under way with Ken doing the honours with quizzes provided by Kev (I think). Ken certainly has his own style! The music quiz consisted of guessing the title for the first 6 words of the song. Some brilliant suggestions particularly when Ken read out the answer as being 'Breathless by the Cows'. A slight miss-reading of 'Breathless by the Corrs'! The classic one was Ken's reading of the lyric ' You'll remember me when the wee' A piss-poor version of Sting's Fields of Gold. Shouts of 'We want Ken, we want Ken!' The other quizzes Capitals and Faces produced the usual fight to see who could get the lowest score but Mick, Sharon, Barbara and Nitro showed us all how it was done with a magnificent 31 out of 50!

The weather was a bit kinder for the June meeting with 9 shining Harleys parked outside the Brown Cow. In fact it was such a nice evening that we couldn't get everyone inside to start the meeting! Eventually the meeting started with Barry's notices.

If you're going to Howlin' then meet at Knutsford Services at 5.00pm on Friday but let Barry know to expect you. If you haven't booked for Americana then you can still go and pay on the gate.

If you want to go to the Kempen Rally you need to let Barry know ASAP as he is booking the ferry VERY soon.

Thanks to Kev for the quiz. After 'comments' about how hard these quizzes were becoming, Kev decided to take them from the 'Janet and John' book of quizzes for 5 year olds and guess what? We still couldn't answer them! We ended up with a tie-breaker on 34 points out of 56! Gary's team won, well done!

A little surprise was waiting for me when I came to go home. My Glide which had run perfectly on the way to the Brown Cow was absolutely dead! Quick check of the battery (the obvious failing) nearly blew me across the car park when I shorted it. No problem there then! The AA turned up at 11.25 and I got home at 12.55. All I have to do now is to sort out what's wrong. Thanks to the guys (and gals) who stayed behind to help. Much appreciated, that's what clubs are all about!

D'oh! Sorry again, couldn't make the May meeting. My wedding anniversary this time. Yes, I know my priorities are still all wrong! As soon as I get some info about what happened, you'll know too!

************

Sorry I couldn't make the April meeting, its my daughter's wedding. Yes, I know my priorities are all wrong!

So thanks to Kev for his report....

The April meeting was a good turnout with plenty of bikes on show - especially Dave Taylor's newly-built bobber!

Other than the usual round of events and quizzes, we did announce a series of RIDER TRAINING events, which we hope members will attend. Arrangements were finalised for CIDER RALLY this weekend and the MASH and 2010 TOUR T-shirts were handed out. Mal announced that we had a couple of spare tickets for the rally as Vanessa Myers was having an operation this Friday to correct a broken collar-bone, picked up in India last year, which has so far refused to knit. We all wish Vanessa a speedy recovery. Mal managed to re-sell the tickets to a couple of our fellow Hatters HOG members.

Well, for the March meeting, unlike the February meeting, the room was FULL! It must have been the free food again. I warned Fergie not to play another MU match on the same night as my talk but does he listen? Still we had a very good evening with Bob's music quiz followed by the food followed by my talk 'Destination Sturgis' which, I hope, gave a good impression of Rainy City's trip to Sturgis in 2009.

Some notes from the meeting: If you want to go to Spring Fever (14-16th May) you'd better get your booking in soon as places are going fast, so are places for Circus Maximus (18-29 June). If you haven't booked for the Wallace, you're too late.

Pete from the Hatters was advertising the Hatter's Independence Day (you've guessed, its on July 4th) with loads of stalls. If you didn't get the flyer call Manchester HD on 0161429 5500.

If you want one of the Rainy City tour T-shirts (with the gold logo) get your order in fast or you'll miss out!

The February meeting was a little sparsely attended, not only were Manchester United playing at home, very inconsiderate of them, but there was a major hold-up on the M62 resulting in several members turning back after waiting in traffic for over 90 minutes. Still, undaunted we carried on with the quiz and the the run through some of the future events and showed some examples of the new 2010 TOUR T-SHIRTS and the M.A.S.H. shirt for the Cider Rally (military theme this year). Welcome to a couple of AIRE VALLEY HOG members who have relocated to the Warrington area and are looking for a new home. Hope we made you welcome and you'll come and join us!

Post meeting note...The Chalet rally was great apparently and we won the BEST HARLEY CLUB award! Unfortunately, during some 'high jinks' it got slightly broken! They just don't make trophy winners like they used to!

The January meeting was very well attended there were even some motorcycles (and Ken's Vespa) in the car park.

A few presentations were overdue. Helen was presented with her Secretary rocker and partner Steve with his 'without portfolio' rocker. Got to do things properly! Welcome to you both. Ken also was presented with a special 'VFM KEN' rocker, apparently that's Value For Money for reasons which escaped me!

Mal requested that we make sure we have a good turnout at Howling 10 (2-4th July) as these guys are great supporters of Rainy Daze. Mal needs your balances for the Cider Rally ASAP (contact her to find out what your balance is if you are not sure). Those of you going to the Southport Chalet Rally...note that Mal will have all the chalet keys to give out but you can't go into the chalets before 4pm.

The Normandy battlefields trip 16-20 June is going ahead. You should receive all the details with the magazine or at the meeting. If you want further information give Paul Richard a call on 07734 038397.

The quiz on 'Where on Earth?' and a 'Funny Guy' picture set was won by our own Stephen Fry, Nitro and Stuart's team. Thanks to Bob Taylor for his music quiz on the 'Where on Earth theme', come on, be fair... he only had to explain the idea of the quiz three times! Nobody won the special prize for guessing the singer of a piece of music from one of Busby Berkeley's 1935 musical 'Gold Diggers of 1935'. No, it wasn't Lady GaGa! It was Winifred Shaw, in case it ever comes up in another quiz! Thank again Bob.

The 2010 events list has been updated so get your year's rallies planned now. There's over 50 events for you to attend. Should keep you occupied!

The October meeting was the AGM with lots of free food. Maybe that's what's attracting them Barry!

Barry, the President, gave the introduction and thanked the out-going committee for their efforts throughout 08/09.

Ian the Road Captain, gave his report (via Barry). Rainy City had attended 15 rallies, held 46 ride-outs and had ridden a total of 98,623 rider/miles! Our best attendance was at the Cider Rally with 37 (we've already got 39 booked for next year)

Mal, Events Officer has produced 53 flyers with the help of her able assistant (whoever that was) and has booked 8 venues, made 238 individual bookings for 478 nights accommodation and, if that wasn't enough, she's looked after £15,372 of our money to pay for all these things. Well done Mal!

Kevin, the Editor of Hogwash, reported that he'd produced 6 issues which had 20 pages in each, sometimes 24, with 1008 photos, 72,954 words, and no spellong mistakes! He thanked the 27 contriutors for their efforts and requested more contributors to step forward to keep up the superb standard. As an ex-editor may I add my own congratulations to what must surely be the best H-D magazine in the country.

Norman (that's me) the Webmaster, reported that we were now up to over 9500 hits on the site. Sorry I was wrong, it is over 11,000! So somebody's looking at the site and I hope you continue to find it useful.

Chris, the Safety Officer, reported he'd done 712 miles this year but had observed safety from a distance. We had had several falling offs, falling overs and several rear-endings (nothing personal) but there were no significant injuries. So, all in all a typical year but we could do better.

Jon, the Finance Officer, reported that as a non-profit making club, we'd achieved our objective and made a small loss! But we did have a lot of fun. Rainy Daze 6 did make a slight profit but we have bought lots of scaffolding and fencing so they will be an asset for future events. Oh, no does this mean we have to do another Rainy Daze just to use the scaffolding? What a good idea!

The Ride-out winner, who attended most ride-outs, was Ken who won a tube or Preparation H and a bottle of Jack Daniels

Member of the Year was Barry and was presented with the Laurence Millett trophy. Well done! I'd have given him the award for his organisation of the Sturgis trip alone!

And finally....Gary wished to thank everyone who turned up for Kath's funeral and sent condolences. The gestures were greatly appreciated by him and Kath's family. A card signed by all the club was given to Gary.

With all these long distance riding plans, you want a riding club? You know where to come.

Check the Diary Dates page for the latest events news. New flyers get added almost weekly.

Lord, bless all riders that we may live long and happy lives, especially bless our leaders for they are all powerful.

Yea, as they lead us through the wilderness of the country lanes, though they know not where they are going.

Yea, though they lead us down the motorways and over the hills we shall feel no pain in our hearts

Grant them the knowledge to know their north from their south and their east from their west

And Lord, let the sun shine so as we may have the faintest idea in which direction we are travelling.

Give them the ability to count, so as at the end of the ride none shall have gone astray.

Spare us from breakdowns, punctures and the usual Harley failings and lead us not down dead ends.

Finally, Lord, let us arrive back home safe and sound for we are but riders in the storm,

Yea, though we are shattered, give us the strength to turn up for the next ride-out

Lord we ask this with tongue in cheek, ever conscious that many a true word is spoken in jest.


Copyright @ 2005 Rainy City HDC All rights reserved. Last Updated 28/07/2010		Club Update

		Thought we'd have a page to update you on things going on in and around the club, particularly things mentioned at the club meetings, just in case you weren't there. Latest information in white Lots to tell you...... We thought as more riders are coming out on ride-outs, it would be a good idea to remind members, both old and new, how we ride in groups on these rides. Please read the article and lets make sure we keep our excellent safety record! Now you've read the Safe Riding article how about some tips on Better Riding? *********** The July meeting was reasonably well attended (holiday season and all that) with 10 Harleys in the car park including Jon's brand new (just collected) Night Train. Very nice! Not much to say in the notices department so the quizzes got under way with Ken doing the honours with quizzes provided by Kev (I think). Ken certainly has his own style! The music quiz consisted of guessing the title for the first 6 words of the song. Some brilliant suggestions particularly when Ken read out the answer as being 'Breathless by the Cows'. A slight miss-reading of 'Breathless by the Corrs'! The classic one was Ken's reading of the lyric ' You'll remember me when the wee' A piss-poor version of Sting's Fields of Gold. Shouts of 'We want Ken, we want Ken!' The other quizzes Capitals and Faces produced the usual fight to see who could get the lowest score but Mick, Sharon, Barbara and Nitro showed us all how it was done with a magnificent 31 out of 50! ******* The weather was a bit kinder for the June meeting with 9 shining Harleys parked outside the Brown Cow. In fact it was such a nice evening that we couldn't get everyone inside to start the meeting! Eventually the meeting started with Barry's notices. If you're going to Howlin' then meet at Knutsford Services at 5.00pm on Friday but let Barry know to expect you. If you haven't booked for Americana then you can still go and pay on the gate. If you want to go to the Kempen Rally you need to let Barry know ASAP as he is booking the ferry VERY soon. Thanks to Kev for the quiz. After 'comments' about how hard these quizzes were becoming, Kev decided to take them from the 'Janet and John' book of quizzes for 5 year olds and guess what? We still couldn't answer them! We ended up with a tie-breaker on 34 points out of 56! Gary's team won, well done! A little surprise was waiting for me when I came to go home. My Glide which had run perfectly on the way to the Brown Cow was absolutely dead! Quick check of the battery (the obvious failing) nearly blew me across the car park when I shorted it. No problem there then! The AA turned up at 11.25 and I got home at 12.55. All I have to do now is to sort out what's wrong. Thanks to the guys (and gals) who stayed behind to help. Much appreciated, that's what clubs are all about! ******** D'oh! Sorry again, couldn't make the May meeting. My wedding anniversary this time. Yes, I know my priorities are still all wrong! As soon as I get some info about what happened, you'll know too! ******** Sorry I couldn't make the April meeting, its my daughter's wedding. Yes, I know my priorities are all wrong! So thanks to Kev for his report.... The April meeting was a good turnout with plenty of bikes on show - especially Dave Taylor's newly-built bobber! Other than the usual round of events and quizzes, we did announce a series of RIDER TRAINING events, which we hope members will attend. Arrangements were finalised for CIDER RALLY this weekend and the MASH and 2010 TOUR T-shirts were handed out. Mal announced that we had a couple of spare tickets for the rally as Vanessa Myers was having an operation this Friday to correct a broken collar-bone, picked up in India last year, which has so far refused to knit. We all wish Vanessa a speedy recovery. Mal managed to re-sell the tickets to a couple of our fellow Hatters HOG members. ********** Well, for the March meeting, unlike the February meeting, the room was FULL! It must have been the free food again. I warned Fergie not to play another MU match on the same night as my talk but does he listen? Still we had a very good evening with Bob's music quiz followed by the food followed by my talk 'Destination Sturgis' which, I hope, gave a good impression of Rainy City's trip to Sturgis in 2009. Some notes from the meeting: If you want to go to Spring Fever (14-16th May) you'd better get your booking in soon as places are going fast, so are places for Circus Maximus (18-29 June). If you haven't booked for the Wallace, you're too late. Pete from the Hatters was advertising the Hatter's Independence Day (you've guessed, its on July 4th) with loads of stalls. If you didn't get the flyer call Manchester HD on 0161429 5500. If you want one of the Rainy City tour T-shirts (with the gold logo) get your order in fast or you'll miss out! ******** The February meeting was a little sparsely attended, not only were Manchester United playing at home, very inconsiderate of them, but there was a major hold-up on the M62 resulting in several members turning back after waiting in traffic for over 90 minutes. Still, undaunted we carried on with the quiz and the the run through some of the future events and showed some examples of the new 2010 TOUR T-SHIRTS and the M.A.S.H. shirt for the Cider Rally (military theme this year). Welcome to a couple of AIRE VALLEY HOG members who have relocated to the Warrington area and are looking for a new home. Hope we made you welcome and you'll come and join us! Post meeting note...The Chalet rally was great apparently and we won the BEST HARLEY CLUB award! Unfortunately, during some 'high jinks' it got slightly broken! They just don't make trophy winners like they used to! *************** The January meeting was very well attended there were even some motorcycles (and Ken's Vespa) in the car park. A few presentations were overdue. Helen was presented with her Secretary rocker and partner Steve with his 'without portfolio' rocker. Got to do things properly! Welcome to you both. Ken also was presented with a special 'VFM KEN' rocker, apparently that's Value For Money for reasons which escaped me! Mal requested that we make sure we have a good turnout at Howling 10 (2-4th July) as these guys are great supporters of Rainy Daze. Mal needs your balances for the Cider Rally ASAP (contact her to find out what your balance is if you are not sure). Those of you going to the Southport Chalet Rally...note that Mal will have all the chalet keys to give out but you can't go into the chalets before 4pm. The Normandy battlefields trip 16-20 June is going ahead. You should receive all the details with the magazine or at the meeting. If you want further information give Paul Richard a call on 07734 038397. The quiz on 'Where on Earth?' and a 'Funny Guy' picture set was won by our own Stephen Fry, Nitro and Stuart's team. Thanks to Bob Taylor for his music quiz on the 'Where on Earth theme', come on, be fair... he only had to explain the idea of the quiz three times! Nobody won the special prize for guessing the singer of a piece of music from one of Busby Berkeley's 1935 musical 'Gold Diggers of 1935'. No, it wasn't Lady GaGa! It was Winifred Shaw, in case it ever comes up in another quiz! Thank again Bob. The 2010 events list has been updated so get your year's rallies planned now. There's over 50 events for you to attend. Should keep you occupied! ************** The October meeting was the AGM with lots of free food. Maybe that's what's attracting them Barry! The committee gave their reports: Barry, the President, gave the introduction and thanked the out-going committee for their efforts throughout 08/09. Ian the Road Captain, gave his report (via Barry). Rainy City had attended 15 rallies, held 46 ride-outs and had ridden a total of 98,623 rider/miles! Our best attendance was at the Cider Rally with 37 (we've already got 39 booked for next year) Mal, Events Officer has produced 53 flyers with the help of her able assistant (whoever that was) and has booked 8 venues, made 238 individual bookings for 478 nights accommodation and, if that wasn't enough, she's looked after £15,372 of our money to pay for all these things. Well done Mal! Kevin, the Editor of Hogwash, reported that he'd produced 6 issues which had 20 pages in each, sometimes 24, with 1008 photos, 72,954 words, and no spellong mistakes! He thanked the 27 contriutors for their efforts and requested more contributors to step forward to keep up the superb standard. As an ex-editor may I add my own congratulations to what must surely be the best H-D magazine in the country. Norman (that's me) the Webmaster, reported that we were now up to over 9500 hits on the site. Sorry I was wrong, it is over 11,000! So somebody's looking at the site and I hope you continue to find it useful. Chris, the Safety Officer, reported he'd done 712 miles this year but had observed safety from a distance. We had had several falling offs, falling overs and several rear-endings (nothing personal) but there were no significant injuries. So, all in all a typical year but we could do better. Jon, the Finance Officer, reported that as a non-profit making club, we'd achieved our objective and made a small loss! But we did have a lot of fun. Rainy Daze 6 did make a slight profit but we have bought lots of scaffolding and fencing so they will be an asset for future events. Oh, no does this mean we have to do another Rainy Daze just to use the scaffolding? What a good idea! Ken, the Photographer reported he'd taken hundreds of photos of thumbs The committee were re-elected with the following changes: Steve Cannavan, Committee Member Helen Moran, Committee Member and arm-twisted Secretary Gary has resigned. Road Captain position is vacant The Ride-out winner, who attended most ride-outs, was Ken who won a tube or Preparation H and a bottle of Jack Daniels Member of the Year was Barry and was presented with the Laurence Millett trophy. Well done! I'd have given him the award for his organisation of the Sturgis trip alone! The Member's club Raffle was won by Margaret Vicary. Well done! And finally....Gary wished to thank everyone who turned up for Kath's funeral and sent condolences. The gestures were greatly appreciated by him and Kath's family. A card signed by all the club was given to Gary. ******** Rainy City 2009 World Tour T-shirts are available. See the Merchandise section With all these long distance riding plans, you want a riding club? You know where to come. Check the Diary Dates page for the latest events news. New flyers get added almost weekly. Rainy City Rider's prayer...... Lord, bless all riders that we may live long and happy lives, especially bless our leaders for they are all powerful. Yea, as they lead us through the wilderness of the country lanes, though they know not where they are going. Yea, though they lead us down the motorways and over the hills we shall feel no pain in our hearts though our minds and arses are numb. Grant them the knowledge to know their north from their south and their east from their west despite what the GPS may say. And Lord, let the sun shine so as we may have the faintest idea in which direction we are travelling. Give them the ability to count, so as at the end of the ride none shall have gone astray. Grant, O Lord, sunshine at all times but not too hot, with cooling breezes but not strong winds, shade when needed and incomparable views when we stop. Spare us from breakdowns, punctures and the usual Harley failings and lead us not down dead ends. Finally, Lord, let us arrive back home safe and sound for we are but riders in the storm, the blind led by the blind. Yea, though we are shattered, give us the strength to turn up for the next ride-out for we are of the tribe stupid and know no better. Lord we ask this with tongue in cheek, ever conscious that many a true word is spoken in jest. So, if you want an active club you know where to come!! Any interesting odds and ends, (sorry, no sales and wants), please advise the Web Master.** webmaster@rainycityhdc.com