Where do I start. Motorcycling is in my DNA. My father was always interested in motorbikes. He had a couple of Sunbeams and a Vincent (which he used to tell me fired every other lampost!). With one of these bikes he attached a sidecar when I came along and we used to go touring. Apparently, I went to the TT several times before I was 5 – need to get back sometime.

However, my first bike was a Honda C90 (as was my second – the first one blew up and it was cheaper to buy a new one than try to fix the first one). I used to ride it around my estate (council estate that is!) when I was 15 and passed my test at 16. Next up was a Royal Enfield Bullet (school headmaster wouldn’t let me mix with my peers riding mopeds as he thought I’d be a bad influence!!). It sounded wonderful but wasn’t reliable so moved on to a BSA Bantam Scrambler which wasn’t much better, then a Triumph Bonneville (first electric start model) and a few other odds and sods old British bikes.

Anyway, had a break like most of us for kids and the like and then moved to a Honda 250 Superdream for a while, then various bikes which included Honda VFR, Fireblade, Triumph T595 (had two of them), Hayabuasa, Ducati Monster, Suzuki GSXR750, Yamaha TDM850, Suzuki Vstrom, Kawasaki GTR1400, BMW K1300S & GT, Aprilia Shiver and currently ride a KTM 1290 Super Adventure and Honda CB1000R (I’m sure I’ve misssd some out). Along the way I met my gorgeous wife Kate, who works as a midwife but who sadly is not into motorbikes at all, and we have four kids between us and three wonderful grandchildren (at the latest count).

My career was mainly in Radio, Telecomms and the Computer industries, latterly moving into property which I’m still involved with. In parallel, I’m a National Observer with the IAM and do Blood Biking riding and coordinating with Severn Freewheelers

I came across the PEMC several years ago when one of my Advanced group buddies mentioned the group, and boy, am I glad I followed it up, as I’ve met some great new friends and been on several overseas trips which have been fantastic. At the time of writing (end of May 2020) we’re in the middle of the Coronvirus lockdown (although the rules have been slightly relaxed) so we can ride with one other biker whilst maintaining the 2m apart guidelines when we’ve stopped, but still can’t get any group activities underway.

Hopefully as we move through the year we can re-start our fabulous biking adventures, even if it’s just in our own gorgeous country – and now’t wrong with that, whilst looking forward to planning and getting out into Europe later this year, but more probably in 2021. Looking forward to being your Chair for the next couple of years. Please feel free to contact me at anytime to discuss any ideas you might have about how we might develop the club further – after all, it is your club.

Best Wishes, Bryan Welsh