HDRCGB
 The Shipley Rally
The curious thing about Shipley is that it's in Baildon. By this I mean that the long-standing Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain's premier rally is actually on the moors just above the village of Baildon rather than in the town from which it takes its name. So much for that, I mention it only as I got hopelessly bewildered hunting around for a pub called the Malt Shovel in Shipley, not having been to the event for years but remembering the pub.
For me it was a flying visit, up one day back the next but that's life in the fast lane. Good weather blessed this year's do which is more critical than it might be given the high and windswept location on the moors. The rough stony track up to the site has raised a few winges over the years from the softy brigade but it really isn't that bad and the site has had showers and a cafe added since I last came. The cafe was not wonderful to be brutally honest though the girl who served me some rather greasy fishcakes was friendly and it was good to sit at a proper table and eat.
The organisers had invited MAG to have a stand with a view to signing up some members. Thanks to 'Boss' Paul Richardson who is also a MAG member and his committee for this.
Gary and Michelle staffed the MAG stand and signed up a higher than average number of souls over the weekend, though quite a few people there claimed to be members already. I'd met two of them earlier sitting outside the Malt Shovel where I clocked the Stormin' T shirt and if I'd not lost my notebook I would give them a mention by name.
 About the club
The Harley Riders Club, if I may abbreviate, is a little different from HOG. You'll find a higher proportion of the old models here and in consequence more tales of mechanical derring do entertain the readers of the club's bi -monthly magazine, The Harleyquin, which is edited by MAG member and good egg Andy Kybert. It's significant that one of the advertised benefits of club membership is access to specialist workshop tools for the lion hearted who like to have a go at things mechanical themselves.
The club's been going since 1949 when Milwaukee metal was as rare as hen's teeth this side of the Atlantic and the fashion icon status was way in the future.
Riders Club events can be a little less PC than HOG rallies and here and there one detects a qualified enthusiasm for the Motor Company's Corporate identity. It's a company that was sustained through its leaner years by the faithfulness of those who populate independent Riders Clubs across Europe and there are those who feel that their commitment might enjoy more conspicuous recognition. Having just written this I note that the club website displays a certificate from Harley-Davidson UK Managing Director Gary Brumfit recognising 50 years of support for the company, so somebody is listening, which is nice to know. Quite a few are members of both HDRCGB and HOG, the company sponsored club, and I sense that the borders between them, if not completely dismantled, are at least unmanned.
One thing the Riders club shares with HOG is a good 'attitude' free attitude if that makes a shred of sense. This from the club website:
"We are a truly National Club with over 1,500 paid up members. The National Club is divided up into 26 regions covering the whole of the British mainland and the Isle of Man; we also have members in Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands plus members in Europe and the States."
Each region has at least one monthly meeting. More and more of the regions now put on an annual Rally. In fact, from the end of April to the end of September an enthusiastic rallyist could attend a H.D.R.C.G.B. rally practically every weekend. On the rare occasion when the Club aren't hosting an event, there are the numerous events that the Club attends, or you could attend one of the dozens of rallies in Europe which Federation Clubs host. These stretch from Norway to Czechoslovakia and a warm welcome is guaranteed to you as a member of the H.D.R.C.G.B. Our own rallies range from an invitation to a private stately home in Cornwall, to a family weekend in Wiltshire, to our Annual National rally in Yorkshire with over 500 Harleys in attendance!
FULL MEMBERSHIP
All Full Members MUST own a Harley-Davidson. Each full member will receive a copy of the club magazine "Harleyquin" once every two months, be entitled to attend all club events, to which they may bring one pillion passenger as their guest. They have the right to vote at the club A.G.M. or at any E.G.M They may serve as an officer of the club if duly elected. £25.00 per annum
 Back to the rally
Having spent one night camping on site I made it into the village of Baildon for the big ride out. The whole village seemed to have turned out for this and perhaps the entire police force, I counted 3 officers, was mustered to control traffic and keep the neck-craning locals on the pavements. It's a bit like a mini Sturgis in Baildon for the weekend, with profiling efforts assisted by pavement seating outside the quintessentially Yorkshire stone buildings.
When a group of bikers flood a small town, the experience generates a theatrical sense of ownership, something like invading army syndrome. Farmyard patrons will have experienced this in Helmsley. It's a bit like the historic Hollister take over but without the aggro, nonetheless you feel you can get away with things that you can't normally. I parked on a wide pavement by the roundabout, opened up my monster bag and juggled lenses between camera bodies. A crowd of elderly ladies smiled and I left the bike in their care with one of them leaning against the seat as a spare camera dangled from the bars; it's good to trust people.
It's almost surreal how a sense of well-being spontaneously evolves in such circumstances as possession fuelled anxiety evaporates in the sunshine of positive karma. OK that's my contribution to Private Eye's Pseud's Corner.
Contrary to what some imagine, the locals love the spectacle which has become a fixture in the Baildon calendar. Visually it is something of a circus as the Riders Club is not short on characters. Outrageous helmets, frontier clothing, military machinery, more beards than an Alaskan mining town. Great to see some old faces, especially that of long term club and MAG member Dr Crippin and his unfeasibly pretty lady.
As the bikes roared down the main street, around the roundabout and out of town I lowered my image gun and packed up. Such is the pace of life in the frantic world of one man publishing that my time to stop and stare was over after less than 24 hours and it was up and away South again. Twin cam technology makes it not only possible but comfortable and by early evening I was nosing back into the other world of the heaving metropolis. Eee it were grand while it lasted.
Mutch
The Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain
HDRCGB, P.O. Box 62, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2QE
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Issue 133 : February - March 2004