BMW Motorcycle Club Pretoria

BMW Motorcycle Club Pretoria

Clubs are usually formed where and when a group of enthusiastic people with a common interest get together to do their thing as individuals, yet collectively to achieve a specific goal.  Such a goal can be to serve, to strive, to retain, maintain, produce, prevent, protect, preserve, collect, destroy, enjoy or whatever other verb the reader would care to conjure up.  Motorcycling people can be said to serve any number of these goals, including wanting to destroy the bad image associated with two-wheeled powered vehicles on the part of the ordinary and motoring public.  To this end we are committed to do our utmost.

The BMW Motorcycle Club Pretoria is of recent origin, a product of the middle of the last decade.  For many years Pretoria-based BMW bikers wishing to participate in Club activities had to do so through Club Central which is the name of the Johannesburg motorcycling equivalent.

But eventually big clubs tend to break up into smaller clubs, for whatever reason.  There was a time when travelling the odd 120 km round-trip to JHB was not the hassle that it is today, what with the price of petrol, crowded roads, drunken drivers and the multitudinous criminal acts encountered all over.  Also, we wanted to establish an own biking culture, which is difficult to describe accurately, yet is all pervasive in a ‘local’ area.

Beginnings

The Club started off as a monthly after-work social held for friends and customers at Bruce Meyers` previous bike shop called Frates Motors, in a road by the same name in Rietfontein.  The idea caught on and soon bikers from all over Pretoria were popping in for a drink and a chat and looking forward to the next get-together.

When Bruce moved to his new premises in Ockerse Street, the crowd naturally followed suit and that was when the idea of our own Pretoria club, (initially affiliated to ‘big brother’ in JHB) was hatched.  Our first problem was: What do we do for a club house? But Bruce and Wendy showed the way out by kindly offering, without obligation, part of their premises for this purpose, plus free food at the monthly first-Friday socials every other month (since changed to every month).  We naturally accepted with gratitude, convened a general meeting where guys and gals offered their services for free, and before long we were in business.

Vision and mission

The Club’s vision is also its mission, namely that of ‘fostering fellowship, through safe, supportive and responsible riding, and enjoyment of BMW motorcycles in a courteous manner’.  Its motto is ‘Shared Riding Pleasure’, borrowed partly from the BMW slogan of ‘Sheer Riding Pleasure’.

Grand opening

Under the heading ‘BMW Bike Club for the Jacaranda City’, the first Club newsletter, a two-pager (it had no name then but after some experimentation, has become ‘Spoke `n Piston’ ), announced that 7th July 1995 was an auspicious occasion for BMW bike aficionados in Pretoria.  This was when some forty guys and gals gathered after work at Bavarian Motorcycles in the heart of the city to celebrate the birth of the first BMW motorcycle club in Pretoria.  The late Barry Brody, (then) Manager- Motorcycles at BMW, opened the evening’s proceedings by congratulating the many Pretoria and environment BMW bikers on the Club’s formation, adding that BMW motorcycle clubs seem to be blossoming throughout South and Southern Africa, even as far away as Windhoek in Namibia.  This is good news for BMW bikers and all clubs should work towards establishing strong ties with one another, for the common good.

The Committee

The first Club committee comprised James McClelland: Chairman; Kim O’Connor: Secretary; Lodewyk Steyn: Treasurer; Francois Swanepoel: Events; and members Vic Alloway, Rob Hughes and Max Youngleson.

Since then, we have had four other chairmen, being: Adriaan Scheepers, Richard Hussey, Mike Hennessy and sitting presently, Deon Gericke.  Committee meetings were held at the Club House during the hour immediately preceding every Noggin.  This was fine with a small-membership club but nowadays these meetings are held over an entire evening every month, showing what intricacies are involved in running a club of this nature.

Growth

The list of paid-up members of this newly formed Club numbered seventeen on opening night.  (Of these only five are still members.) By 1st August, it had grown to 32.  By the end of 1999 with a membership of 160, the Club exceeded the minimum requirement of 100 members to enable it to earn a seat on the BMW Clubs Africa Management Committee.  A proud day for Pretoria BMW bikers indeed!

Country membership is also provided for at a reduced fee because of the impracticability of such members` travelling long distances to attend functions and to participate in rides.  Bona fide students also form a sub group at a reduced rate.  We have six honorary members;  Hennie de Beer has been with us from the beginning and fullfilled the function of barman for many years, Henri Heyns, long time editor of our club newsletter, Spoke & Piston, and Allie Scheepers, who performed the unenviable task of club secretary for many years.  Bruce and Wendy Meyers, as well as Simon Pilfold, as owners of Bavarian Motorcycles, have supported the club in numerous ways since its inception, and were therefore also unanimously nominated as honorary lifetime members.

Membership is open to anyone interested in motorcycling and/or BMW products.  This means that you don’t even have to own a motorcycle to be allowed into the Club, but there are enough enthusiasts around who will do their best to get you mobile on a bike marque of which many types and sizes exist, making a decision on which one possibly the most pleasurable but difficult exercise in one`s existence.

It has been said that your motorcycle is a placid and exciting friend, yet a treacherous and vicious companion.  It waits until you’re careless or drunk and then turns on you.  Enjoy your biking but take care so that you will arrive at where you wish to be.

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