Club Profile: Busy Bee

BUSy Bee

This time, a club with real cafe racer heritage – the Busy Bee. ViNNie explains

Top left: On Brighton Seafront – Brighton Burn-up is a big event for Busy Bee Top right: Triton and Cafe Racer Day at the Ace Cafe Right: All powered two-wheelers are welcome

Contact: www.busybeemcc.com

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Want your club to be profiled on these pages? Email us: editor@bmf.co.uk What makes this small club extraordinary are its members, and we’ve got some cafe racer classics – both bikes and riders! The club takes its name from what used to be the Busy Bee Cafe on the A41 in Watford, just north of London, which was a popular venue in the 1950s for the cafe bar cowboys who would run to the Ace Cafe, down to Brighton and elsewhere.

The cafe itself is long gone, but the club was formed around 2000, has a membership of just over 100 and welcomes all who share an interest in bikes. We meet on a Wednesday evening at Broadlakes Social Club near London Colney, St. Albans from 6pm and organise regular runs across the year including charity runs and the usual places/events of interest.

Look out for our stand at events, such as Triton & Cafe Racer Day at the Ace Cafe or the Brighton Burn-up day, ably manned by our Chairman Brian Beasley and his wife Pat who give their time generously to ensure the club is welcoming and well run, so come and say hello. Wherever we meet, it's always friendly with the inevitable reminiscing, boasting, tall tales, good humour and general bike-obsessed banter.

Many members are still riding in their seventies and even eighties, a testament to great riding skills and no doubt a good deal of luck, despite their crazier days. They include former champions of road racing, trials, sidecar racing, the Isle of Man TT etc and have the injuries and replacement parts to prove it! Bob Brooks, Ian Stuart and Charlie Williams, to name just three, are often at our meets – all three featured in the Ace Cafe magazine and in that classic film, The Leather Boys.

Our annual reunion takes place on the first Sunday in September at the site of the original cafe, which is long since demolished, but now marked by a plaque in the grounds of the Hilton Hotel on the A41 – the Hilton provides our catering on the day which includes fundraising and awards, plus evidence that we don't take ourselves too seriously.

We produce a great magazine-style newsletter each year which is included in the ridiculously cheap £10 membership fee, and which states our aim on the cover: 'Keeping our heritage alive' and 'No Meetings, no Rules and no Politics,' which about sums it up.

Check us out at www.busybeemcc.com or if you’re ever around our way do drop in to see us and bring some stories of your own to share...if you can get a word in!