The Western Region Action Group
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June 2004 |
On April 6th Bristol MAG held their AGM at The Wagon and Horses, which was well attended.
The Bristol Bike Forum was discussed and it was mentioned that the authorities were not showing much enthusiasm towards the forum. Also discussed was the success of their campaign to get free passage for bikes across the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Richard Stilling is pushing the authorities for friction testing of manhole covers, as this is not currently done
All the usual suspects were duly re-elected to office, with minor adjustments. Bristol MAG are looking for people to help with Marshalling The Bristol Bike Show, so if you are available, and you like bossing people around contact your Rep and he will pass your name on.
On Monday 10th of May the first meeting of this new group took place at the Mount Pleasant Inn, with Representatives from Bristol Gloucester and Weston travelling up to Cinderford to give their support to this new and hopefully successful group.
They will be meeting at the Mount Pleasant every 2nd and 4th Monday at 8:30pm, so if you are in the area, pop in and see the Foresters, Robbie and his pals would be pleased to see you.
On the 19th of May W & NS MAG held their AGM, and with Ian stepping down a new Rep was elected in the form of Andy Watton, who hopes he can do as good a job as Ian. Brian has switched from Treasurer to Club‘s Liaison with Bill Harding taking over as Treasurer, both Bill Pugsley and the Troll has remained in their respective rolls.
The group successfully campaigned for the Bike Park on the seafront at Weston, and had a second successful BikeFest, and are also actively campaigning on other local and national issues.
W & NS will be holding their 3rd annual BikeFest at the Town Square in Weston-super-Mare on the 31st of July so bring along your Bike and show it off.
Also if you can lend a hand marshalling please let your Rep know and he will pass it on.
Bristol hold their Bike Show on the 21st August at St Nicholas Markets, Corn Street, Bristol. Again bring along your Bike and if you can help marshal at the event please tell your Rep and he will pass it on.
For those of you who were at the most excellent Duk Dik rally, and were sober enough, you may recall that the raffle was split between MAG and a Children‘s Hospice Charity, and Jill and Stephen Bliss came along to tell us about their sponsored Bike ride.
So if you have the time and want to show support, you may like to know that they will be passing thro‘ our region visiting Cathedrals on the 29th June and 1st July on their Yamaha XJ900, on the 29th at 12 noon they will be at Wells, at Clifton at 12:45pm, Bristol 1pm and Bath at 2pm. On the 1st they will be at Gloucester at 9:30am. For more information ring: 01684 560 236.
A MAG member sent in this odd item.
It appears cricketer‘s reaction times are slowed down and their judgement is affected by the wearing of helmets.
So what does this say about motorcyclists wearing a helmet?
If any MAG members in the Chippenham Trowbridge area read this please get in touch as the Mid Wilts Group seem to have disappeared, are you still out there, and where do you meet? Is the group still active, if not do you want to reactivate it? Please ring: 0117 957 2401
Or come along to the next Regional Committee meeting on the 13th June at the Waggon and Horses, Stapleton Road, Bristol at 1:00pm.
As the remaining Police forces sign up with the Safety Camera Partnership, it could mean another 1,000 cameras. At present there are about 5,000 cameras dotted all over the country, but this is likely to rise to 6,000 over the next year
A new hand held Camera can catch speeders up to a mile away, before they can spot them and slow down, is being used by Dorset police. The old radar guns only had a range of 500 to 800 metres, but the new ones are effective up to 2,000 metres.
Some of the scurrilous sobriquets heaped on Joseph Lucas.
Such as, the reason the British drink warm beer is that they have Lucas fridges, or, Joseph Lucas prince of darkness. (This slogan particularly prevalent among owners of old British motorcycles)
These and others, which are quite unprintable, are from time to time heaped upon the shoulders of Joseph Lucas. This is really quite unfair and displays a basic inability to comprehend the simple principals of motor vehicle electrical systems.
Forget all that nonsense about magnetic fields and the flow of electrons along a conductor, for its just that- Nonsense. A myth put about by auto-electricians to support their lavish lifestyle at your expense.
The reality is SMOKE!!
When you think about it, it all becomes startlingly obvious-smoke makes all the electrical devices function, if the smoke escapes, the component stops working.
EXAMPLE: - The last time you had to grovel under a car to replace a starter motor, did it not start smoking before it ceased to work? The wiring loom in your vehicle carries smoke from one device to another, pumped around the system by the dynamo/alternator and when the wiring springs a leak it lets all the smoke out and everything stops. The starter motor requires a lot of smoke to work properly, so it has a very thick wire going to it.
The battery stores up a lot of smoke dissolved in battery acid which is why they were once called accumulators, until it was realised that we, the unwashed home mechanics, would twig the secret.
Naturally, if you try to dissolve too much smoke in your battery it will escape through the little holes in the top, this is why those new-fangled batteries with sealed tops explode when they get to much smoke in them.
With regard to Joseph Lucas and his wrongfully sullied reputation- why is he so maligned? Why are Lucas components more likely to leak than Bosch or Marelli? Because Lucas is British through and through and British things always leak, British engines leak oil, British sports cars leak rain, British hydroelastic units leak fluid, and British Governments leak military secrets.
So, naturally British electrical components leak smoke! By PETE GILBERT
The Motorcycle Action Group accepts no responsibility for the content of this publication and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Editor or MAG.
The Wrag is sponsored by Megaliths are Us, suppliers of quality Megaliths, Standing Stones, Henge’s and Stone Circles, hewn from ancient Welsh Granite official suppliers to the Druids.