Black Country MAG

"Sort of Xmas rally"   

November 9th - 11th. 2001

    This isn't going to be much of a report because, to put it bluntly, it wasn't much of a rally.  As a camping weekend, it would have been fine, but as a rally, and not a cheap rally at that, it was a failure.
    I popped down on the Friday night, just to see what was going on, before heading back home and picking the trike up.  To say it was cold would be an understatement - minus 3 Centigrade - but at least there was a decent fire to stand around, which was useful seeing as the atmosphere in the pub was "cool" to say the least.  If the pub owners don't particularly want bikers in the place then why did they let 'em hold the rally there ?  The impression I got was one of " we want the custom, but we don't actually want the customers."
    Still, tomorrow's another day. 

    Saturday, and the weather had taken a turn for the better.  It was positively mild considering the time of year, so, without further ado, I loaded the trike up and set off on the 19 mile journey to Alveley.  By early afternoon I arrived and set up camp before heading into the pub for some dinner.  WRONG - the pub decided to close early.  Hmm - I can see there being problems here.
    Luckily, there is an excellent "bikers" cafe just down the road, so I headed off the and got fed.

 Having fed, I returned to the site, where a grand total of 11 people had booked in.  There were even a couple of traders who had set up their stalls in the hope of making a few bob out of the weekend.  The one guy was selling leather gear at very reasonable prices - I grabbed a pair of leather jeans for less than £ 70 - which was the only sale he had made so far during the weekend.
    By now, the disco was being set up in the "marquee".  I use the term marquee loosely - it was an ex army catering tent, which was fetched at short notice from up Middlesborough.  If nothing else, Black Country MAG did all they could to try and make a "going concern" of this rally.  A 400 mile plus round trip to pick a tent up shows dedication, to say the least.  Considering the effort that went in to obtaining the tent, it seems a pity that the disco was playing to an invisible audience.
    Once again, the atmosphere in the pub was 'unpleasant', so I wandered back outside to where the band was now playing.  The band attracted a few more bodies than the disco did, but you could still count 'em on one hand.
    By now, I had decided to make the best of a bad job and headed for bed. 

    I hope Black Country MAG have learned a few lessons from this weekend ( myself included, seeing as I am a member of BCMAG ).

• Winter rallies are notoriously difficult to make a success off - a camping weekend / party would have been a better idea.
• The pub was not ideal - The landlord has bought another pub apparently, and just didn't want to bother with the customers in this one.
• The extreme cold weather on Friday may well have put people off.
• Perhaps BCMAG should stick to just the Summer rally, which was a decent rally apart from the few "bikers" who turned up in cars.

 Anyroad - despite my general moaning and ranting, I had a weekend's camping and trike riding, the weather wasn't too bad for the time of year and I managed to get a decent pair of leather jeans.

Cheers.

^..^

Lone Wolf

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2001