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The story so far........
Founded in 1983, this year is our 21st anniversary
Back in the summer of 1983, in a pub just outside Derby a small bunch of us, wanting a club without all the rules and regulations
of other clubs, decided to form our own.
At the same time, a bunch of us who used to meet up in a Bass pub, in the little village we lived in got involved with this
new club, and from little acorns as they say, things began to grow.
We were mainly grass roots bikers, starting on the peds at 16, progressing onto the new powerful superbikes, GS1000s, Z1s
etc.
We used to meet every Wednesday night, but a pub in Belper had topless barmaids on a Wednesday night, so we moved to Thursdays,
which we still meet on. Nowadays we meet at The Smithfield, Meadow Road, Derby, from about 8.30pm
We always have been, and still are actively involved in the rally scene
The club consists of a Chairman, someone to sign club cheques, and a Rally sec. We have only one rule, in true Monty Python
character Rule 1- There are no bloody rules. The club is, and has always been open to anyone interested in bikes and partying
hard. We dont stop people joining just because they havent passed their test, or got a bike, everyone in the club is equal,
and have found this policy has encouraged quite a few folks to take their test and get a bike.
After 5 years we decided to host our own rally. We had no idea what we were doing, but one marquee, plenty of beer, and lots
of enthusiasm we pulled it off. Each year as we did it again, things just got bigger and better, but still retained the atmosphere
of the first one. The sword pull is a game that we have done each year, and has attracted quite a cult status over the years,
in fact we have heard of folks training before hand to try and win the trophy. The rally isn&t run like a military operation,
in fact most years we make it up as we go along, and has a reputation of being laid back with little respect for licensing
and entertainment regulations. Yes there will be fires, and dogs are allowed as long as you can get them here on a bike. After
a couple of years of being hosted at a venue, it was back to being a marquee event, cheap beer, good cheap food, in fact not
so much the Asda of rallies, more like the Netto or Lidl of rallies, cheap, cheerful and a character of its own.
After 21 years the long hair, lycra, and denim of the past has been replaced with shaved heads and leather, but the enthusiasm
remains, with even a couple of original club members still actively involved. We are aiming to make this years rally as traditional
as possible. Several folks have attended every year, and welcome our rally as a break from the manufactured money spinning
events that have sprung up over the years. In fact we rate the rally not by how much money it makes us, but by how little
debt it gets us into (although one year we did see a profit, in true Excalibur fashion we retired to the pub and managed to
drink all the profits)
What the next 21 years brings no one knows, but even if it comes to fitting a big four stroke onto our Zimmer frames then
I think most of us will do
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