Contents

Introduction

• Contact Us

The Club

• History
• Members
• Meetings
• Events

Stories

• A Pillion View
• L'Ardeche
• Euro '97
• Birdman 2001
• BMW Off Road Skills Course

Classified Ads

• For Sale
• Wanted
• Events

Links

• Organisations
• National Clubs
• Local Clubs
• Print Media
• Websites
• Shopping
• Insurance
• Travel

Credits

History of the Club

By: Hog.

The Early Years

The original Abbot Motorcycle Club was founded way back in the early 1970's. At that time it met at a pub called the Bricklayers Arms in Barnet, just on the outskirts of north London. Only two exisiting members remember this part of the club's history, and the main expansion came from 1977, when it moved to The Crooked Billet pub in Colney Heath (John was going out with the landlord's daughter at the time, and the pub sold Abbot ale - so it seemed logical).

An early trip where willy and Glob try to make charcoal as Dave, Tubbs and Old Man Kanaar discuss Gob furnace stoking.

Over the next few years the club grew and prospered, eventually splitting into two separate clubs, the Abbot - which moved to Welham Green, and the ABC (A Bike Club - gettit?) which stayed at the billet, and may well probably still be there. The Abbot however, ceased to exist as a real club in the late 1980's as members got married, drifted off to the Merchant Navy (I wonder where Michael is now?) or moved away. Over the years however, a handful of members have kept in touch with each other and we have all been on runs, rallies and holidays together at some time or another.

The club drew a number of its members from the local RAC/ACU training scheme, which itself became the St Albans and District training scheme with the advent of compulsory training and sited itself at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. With the Scheme's demise earlier this year (1999) it was felt that there was a need to carry on the social side of things, consequently the Abbot was officially reformed in June of this year, from the remaining scheme money, meeting at the Three Horseshoes pub, smallford, near St Albans.

The current membership consists of a host of old farts from the "good old days" who will burble on about Kawasaki Z1's, XS1100's and the like, and enthusiastic younger riders, who will carry motorcycling into this new millenium. The combination of experience and youth makes the club very friendly and caters for most motorcycling tastes.

The Abbot Now!!

Jane arrives at a meeting fresh from a rally

Our current membership ages range from 40 plus (the plus is quite a lot in some cases!) to under 1 (associate membership is free for children). It includes people with a range of interests. Some, like Jon, Tubbs et al. enjoy getting cold and wet at rallies all year round, and frequently hack off into the sunnier climes of the Continent to dry out. Others enjoy building and modifying bikes ( yes James, I mean you!) and some adrenalin junkies are bonkers enough to have raced on the Isle of Man (that's me, not know for hanging around).

Me at the Manx GP in 1991

We aim to be a fun, welcoming family club, as many members are now married with children. We are also spread over a reasonable range geographically in the South East of England, so we hope to arrange meetings at various venues other than the St Albans base.

Well, that's about it - I hope you've been able to plod through all that without getting too bored. Please contact us and we can arrange a run either way, we're keen to forge links with other clubs all around the country (World even!) so drop us an e-mail and let's get together.