Old News 2010

12^th December   Roger Carter's Charity Haircut

C16's Rt Hon Roger Carter had a charity haircut this weekend & raised over £700 for the Mary Rose School in Portsmouth.

Click the above picture for the video of Rogers Haircut

24^th November   VSOC Joins Twitter

The VSOC has now joined Twitter. You can be informed of any website updates as they happen automatically when you follow us on Twitter, and you can contact us quickly in a similar manner. Go to www.twitter.com/ViragoStarClub or register at www.twitter.com 

23^rd November   St. Columbanus Day - Patron Saint of Motorcyclists

Patron Saint Of Motorcycling 

The Vatican has officially endorsed an early Irish saint, Columbanus of Bobbio as the patron saint of motorcyclists. He was born on the Carlow/Wicklow border in the year 543 ad, and died at the monastery he founded in Bobbio, in what is now Northern Italy in 615 AD, after many years of travelling around Europe. His bones still lie interred in his church there. 

A handsome rugged kind of chap, he left Ireland to escape the clutches of lascivious women who were irresistibly attracted to him. According to the biography of his life written by Jonas, one of the many miracles attributed to him involved the multiplication of bread and beer, as follows: 

"A while after, Columban went to the monastery of Fontaines and found sixty brethren hoeing the ground and preparing the fields for the future crop. When he saw them breaking up the clods with great labor, he said, "May the Lord prepare for you a feast, my brethren." Hearing this the attendant said, "Father, believe me, we have only two loaves and a very little beer." Columban answered, "Go and bring those." The attendant went quickly and brought the two loaves and a little beer. Columban, raising his eyes to heaven, said, "Christ Jesus, only hope of the world, do Thou, who from five loaves satisfied five thousand men in the wilderness, multiply these loaves and this drink." Wonderful faith! All were satisfied and each one drank as much as he wished. The servant carried back twice as much in fragments and twice the amount of drink. And so he knew that faith is more deserving of the divine gifts than despair, which is wont to diminish even what one has." 

His Feast day is the 23rd November 

The second one is: 
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church grounds in Colebrook, New Hampshire. Our Lady of Grace, aka Our Lady of Crete and Our Lady of Centaurs was declared to be the Patron Saint of Motorcyclists by Pius XII in the 1940s. There's a yearly blessing of bikes service here,

15^th November   International Rally Denmark 2011

Information is now available on the Danish website. Please do NOT use the "Sign Up" tab on the Danish site. I have agreed with the Danes that I will monitor and establish how many members intend to attend this event. This info will be given to me via Centre Reps. Members should inform their Centre Rep that they will be attending the International Rally in June in 2011.

I have spoken to both Just Ferries & Nutt Travel and see below the prices set for the Harwich - Esbjerg Ferry crossing. For other routes and rates, speak to either company for quotations.

I know some may travel via Newcastle-Rotterdam and ride up into Denmark via Holland & Germany, also via Dover-Calais and maybe Harwich-Hook. Suffice to say that the rally site is only 45 miles from the German border at Flensburg.

More details about the Danish rally...

There will not be any "Rent-a-Tents" at the Danish Rally next year. The venue has a hostel on site, and there will be an opportunity to use this type of accommodation as the weeks progress. The Danes will update me when the final negotiations have taken place, and the latest flyer will be updated with further details on it. I will ensure this is made available to you as soon as I get it.

For those who are taking the Harwich-Esbjerg route, the Danes are planning a special welcome for our arrival. They will be meeting us anyway from Esbjerg.

For those intending to arrive at the Rally site early, and/or stay over on site for a few extra days, this will be possible, but there may be an extra charge. There will be food available, apparently due to the site having accommodation as mentioned above. There will be a segregated area for those staying-on at the Jels site after the Rally.

If any Centre is planning to stop at the Yamaha Custom Club DK clubhouse after the Rally, you must let me know, so I can let Jan know how many to expect. There may be Finns and Swedes stopping over also, on there way back home from the Rally, so numbers are crucial, again nearer the time via your Centre reps or directly to me please.

I will be travelling from the Rally site on the Sunday morning, to the YCC clubhouse, and will be happy to lead any group there. Distance is around 170 miles.

When I receive more details, they will be published here. Any questions, please contact me.

Regards,

Kevin Hoyte
Chairman - Virago Star Owners Club
Tel: 01438 316095
Mob: 07711 073477
e-mail: chairman@vsoc.org.uk

10^th November   Who Won All The Trophies?

Every year the club awards trophies for sixteen categories of bike, four at each rally throughout the season.

At present there is no nationally held record of the members whose bikes have won those trophies, simply because no one has ever offered to do it!

Starting next season there’s going to be a few new twists, Nick Lappage will set up a page on the web site with sixteen places and titles. I will photograph the winners at each rally and upload them afterwards, so by the end of the season all the spaces will be full and be a permanent record of their achievement. I’ll also write an article for Clatter along with a list of that years winners. This will also make another section of the clubs history to hang up in the shop.

Are you a former winner? If so I’d like to hear from you, email me a photo of your bike and one of your trophy to blackjack.bob@virgin.net, include the year, rally and category, this will enable me to compile a register going back through the years.

Now here are the twists, I will stake out an enclosure at the rallies beside the shop, complete with signs for the four categories to be judged that weekend. The judging will be done early on Saturday morning and a rosette placed on each winning bike, this will be a nice surprise for the owner when he wakes up! That bike can then come out of the bike park and take its place in the winner’s enclosure. This means that when the presentation is held in the bar that night the owner knows he needs to be there and the rally host calls out a name rather than a registration number, which are not always recognised!

As an ongoing recognition of those wins, behind the new winners in the enclosure there will be spaces for former winners, this will act as a backdrop for “The New Boys”. All that the former winners need to do is bring an A4 laminated photo of their trophy to hang on their bike and they park there instead of the bike park.

This will make a great display as its made up from the best bikes this club has got to offer and it will change every time depending on which ones attend that rally.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Blackjack.bob

28^th October   Discounted Oil

Hi all. I have registered the club at Opie Oils who are offering some great discounts on all types of oil. I have already used them and found them ok. Just register at the site for your discount.

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/bike-clubs.aspx

Bob Aldam - Centre 6 Rep

25^th October   YCC Belgian Rally

Hello everyone, 

We would like to invite you all to our annual YCC Belgium Rally, which in 2011 will be held during the weekend of May 13 - 14 - 15.

To make things clear: There will be no additional costs for foreign YCG clubs or members if they pay on arrival.

YCG members don't have to pay before arrival. YCG members are members of VSOC, VSCN, YCC (Denmark, Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden) Stars & Wings Germany, Virago MC Club Denmark, Virago-club Schweiz

Only members of clubs on special invitation must pay in advance

My best greetings,

Luc Van Meerbeek
nick: Lucske
YCC Belgium Int. Public Relations & Secretary

See www.yccb.be or http://belgian.yccrally.eu for more details.

Get the flyer here

6^th September   Numbumrun - Thank You!

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's took me a while to email you, it's been a busy couple of weeks leading up to and after the event.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came and supported the Numbumrun.

We completed the event over the August bank holiday weekend, over 5 days, covering 980 miles. This in itself is not a massive achievement even on a 125cc scooter you may think, however to complete this with only one arm is an amazing achievement.

The event went very smoothly, which for a 5 day event was quite incredible. At the least we had half a mile of motorbikes supporting us and at best we reached over 2 miles and a full police escort which resulted in the M62 motorway being closed for a short time.

This was more that just a bike ride, it was a journey of emotion which will be hard for me to relay to people in just an email, if you were there you will understand.

We were met by Andy's colleagues in Warminster, the same colleagues that pulled him from the battlefield when he got injured. These are the men who effectively saved Andy's life, emotions don't run any deeper than that ! 

Then we laid a wreath at Spean Bridge in Scotland, which is a memorial to our fallen soldiers. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for that. Being an ex-serviceman myself this was extremely moving for me personally.

En-route we collected just shy of £5,000, which brings our total to £27,000 and still rising.

This has only been made possible by generous people and companies such as yourselves who are willing to help people like me raise funds for our servicemen and women.

I have attached a photo of Andy laying a wreath at the Spean Bridge memorial I think that this captures everything we set out to achieve.

Your faith in me to commit to this charity run will enable more soldiers like Andy to walk again and continue with a normal life.

You should be very proud of yourselves !

Thank you on behalf of all the Numbumrun Team and our Servicemen and Women

If you would like to see any more pictures from the event go to http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000621687368&v=photos

Kind Regards

Cliff Williams Mob 07709 825141

http://www.justgiving.com/numbumrun

http://www.numbumrun.co.uk

http://www.fullchatter.com/

2^nd September   Baby Raider is Born

The Raider has new colours again for next year, but no further changes. Another blue option, red, and black.

Interestingly, there is a new "baby raider" called a Stryker. It is a 1300cc option with many of the lines and features of it's bigger brother.

Rumour has it, it is to challenge the Honda Fury in the USA.

We may see a few Stryker's via KJM's and other importers at some point. There are 3 colours at the moment, Raven, Reddish Copper & Impact Blue.

The link below shows all the Star Range for 2011, by using the tabs accordingly.

http://www.starmotorcycles.com/star/products/modelimagelib/653/8/1/0/image.aspx

Regards,

Kevin Hoyte
Chairman - Virago Star Owners Club

10^th August   Back to Skool Rally Video.

Hi all 

For those that went and have not seen the short clips taken at the Back to Skool rally check out this link

http://www.youtube.com/5staryorkies

I have now put all this years photos for our annual competition "Where in the World is Clatter" on the VSOC site, as the judging and prize giving is not until end of October there is still time to get that unusual photo with clatter in for judging.

regards 

Terry (Yorkies rep)

25^th June 10  IAM Motorcycling Poll

Hi

If you have a list of people willing to take part in the IAM polls, we would be grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to complete our new poll for motorcyclists, which is available online at www.iam.org.uk/iam_polls/

Feel free to pass it to any bikers you know who are not IAM members, as we are seeking a wide range of views. 

1^st March 10  City of Leather 15% Discount on Website Prices

Basically this entitles all VSOC members to City of Leather products to be bought on line at the Show price instead of the website Prices. www.cityofleather.com

The Discount Coupon Code for your Club members is VSOC

This entitles you to 15% of the website prices.

The discount coupon code appears on the last page of the payment page.

Kind regards,

Aly

15^th February 10     Greetings from Columbia to all the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZTBc7fL1I

Carlos Julio Arroyave Acevedo
Coordinador Internacional YCC para América Latina y Europa
Yamaha Custom Grupo Latinoamerica
http://www.ycglatinoamerica.com/

10^th February 10     Grannucci Seats

The Granucci seats has been manufacturing high quality seats for motorcycles for several years and the whole production of the articles, from the designing to the final product, takes place in Italy. Starting from the selection of the material used each phase of the production is carried out with the best care and attention.

You can have a look at the on-line catalogue on the following web site www.granucciseats.com or send an e-mail to the address info@granucciseats.com

If you are interested and wish to take advantage of a 10% discount to VSOC members, please contact us at:

GRANUCCI-Tai Ji - - 21100 VARESE-ITALY.

Thanks in advance,

Giovanni Granucci
Granucci Seats
info@granucciseats.com
www.granucciseats.com
Via Dalmazia 44, 21100 Varese, Italy
Phone: +39 0332 280429
Fax: +39 0332 280429

5^th February 10     VSOC Website Goes Green

The VSOC website is now hosted by www.HostPapa.co.uk which means, very nicely, that the VSOC website has gone environmentally friendly. From their website..

HostPapa has taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data centres, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space. These energy sources supply HostPapa's entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as wind and solar-powered energy.

So now that means we're almost green ourselves... I think?