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This years Mad March Trike Sunday at The Ace Cafe had me worried. For over a week before hand it had been snowing, I was stuck the other side of London (see Reps Report) and Gary (Kent Rep) who looks after our stall, lives at the bottom of a very steep hill. Would I get everything sorted in time? Would anyone turn up if was still snowing? And would Gary be able to get the van out of his road let alone all the way round the M25 through the snow?
Thankfully the snow held off and Gary and Sandra managed to get there with out too much trouble. Now all I had to worry about was would anybody bother to turn up as it was still bloody cold. Things didn’t look too promising to start with, by mid morning trikes were definitely thin on the ground. I then found out that there had been a major accident on the M1 and the Police had shut the motorway, one of the main routes in to London and several people were known to be stuck in the resulting traffic jam.
Suddenly though the car park started to fill up with trikes and all my fears were laid to rest. Trikes of all description turned out, from a huge BMW trike that looked like a cross between Mad Max and a Texas oil baron’s limo, to your full custom, covered in chrome trike.
For this years Mad March Trike Sunday we had decided to have a show and to present trophies for the best trikes. The Ace Cafe donated the trophies and Sue Sacre, the club secretary from the III Rivers Chapter of H.O.G. very kindly consented to be our judge. Third place went to Skull, a member of the Three Wheel Drifters, from South Ruislip on his Suzuki GS1000 based trike. Third place also went to one of the Three Wheel Drifters, their club president Tony the Trike from North London. Tony’s trike is called Soldier Blue and is based on a 1300 Auto Escort engine.
First place went to Jason Cooper on another of the Trike Shops creations. An absolutely gorgeous Triumph Rocket 3.
If ever there was a bike that would make the ideal trike, for my money it has to be the Rocket 3. Jason had heard about Mad March Trike Sunday on the disabled biker’s forum and had come all the way from near Yeovil in Somerset just for the show. It had taken him three hours in the freezing cold and one or two snow showers to get there. In his own words he was “chuffed to bits” to get first place and that it was well worth the trip. It was only after the judging that we notice that his trike was adapted. He is a right leg amputee and has had the original rear brake pedal assembly move to the left hand side. The Trike Shop had done such a neat job of it that you really had to look twice before you spotted it.
In the end I needn’t have worried. The snow didn’t happen, plenty of trikes braved the cold and everyone had a good day. And we raised some money for NABD (£306.33 to be precise).
I’d like to thank everyone that came along and helped out and to Steve Jones of Corabar Entertainment who supplied the music all day and turned himself into a human juke box by taking requests for donations to the NABD.
I’m hoping to make next years Mad March Trike Sunday show even bigger and better so keep a look out for details.
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