Although I was fairly late to riding my own bike, I have not been far away from motorbikes all my life. My Grandmother rode a 1000cc Harley Davidson with a sidecar that she acquired in the early 1920’s (no I don’t remember it but I have photos!).  My dad always had a small capacity Honda that he used to commute to work on, I often had lifts back from school discos on dad’s bike in the days before I discovered boys. My brother took his bike test at 17 and has had more bikes than I can remember ranging from exotic European to classic British bikes. My hubby Pete also took his bike test as soon as he could and in our late teens we spent many a ‘romantic weekend’ replacing piston rings and other general bike faffing associated with him being an avid two stroke fan at the time.

For years at Easter time we would head off packed up with camping kit to watch the Transatlantic races and even went on our honeymoon to the south of France on a Yamaha XS 750, Pete knew how to spoil me in those days. I took my bike direct access test in 2008 spurred on by the fact that my son had decided to take his test. Passing my test is one of the best things I have done as it has allowed me and Pete to share a pastime we both really enjoy. To date I have only owned a few bikes my first was a Suzuki GSR600 that was an excellent first bike and on which I did my first European bike trip into France exploring the Vosges region. I loved it and wanted to do more touring. After 18 months with the GSR I bought my first Fireblade and knew it was the bike for me.  On my current Blade I have covered over 60,000 miles most of them touring around Europe, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

I joined the PEMC in 2010 and after enjoying several excellent trips and making some great friends I got involved with jointly organising European trips, our first joint venture I think was in 2013 Spain top to bottom.  I was delighted when I was asked to be membership secretary for the club in 2013 and enjoyed the role for 5 years.  Now, as well as dreaming up new trips and going on other peoples’ trips I also enjoy participating in the clubs Carpe Diem challenge seeing parts of Great Britain I would have otherwise never gone to.  2023 bought a new challenge when I took over the role as Treasurer and Events secretary from Martin Young who is a hard act to follow as he made everything happen so smoothly. 

If you are thinking of joining the PEMC or are a new member, don’t hesitate, get involved it is  great club.