Fellow Morgan owner Henk Steevens is also the chairman of V.I.M. - "Vereniging Interessante Motorrijwielen Noord-Holland" (roughly "North Holland Club for Interesting Motorcycles"), and seeing the Hesketh, he invited me along to a motorcycle convoy they were organizing down to the annual national veteran motorcycle event at Woerden, west of Utrecht.
The membership criteria for V.I.M. specify that the motorcycles have to either:
- Be more than 30 years old, or
- Be of a marque/brand that doesn't exist anymore, or
- Failing the two rules above, be of sufficient historical and/or technical interest.
Jan Schokker was interested in joining as well, so he contacted Henk, and Jan was allowed to join in on the ex-Dutch Army Moto Guzzi (so the KTM had to stay home).
Koog and de Zaan, Saturday, 26 September 2009 08:57 (A)
The convoy started at the club building of another motorcycle club, the touring club M.C. Mozamo in Koog aan de Zaan.
On arrival, I was greeted by a nicely diverse collection of older bikes (and owners), and more kept arriving as we admired the bikes in the clear and fresh morning air.
The Mozamo club house not only housed a great-looking workshop, but a sizeable cafe/bar/meeting room facility, kindly offering us a cup of coffee and a goodie bag (not to mention a much needed pit stop).
This Ducati scrambler had a very interesting electrical system.
Mozamo clubhouse, 09:22
Henk explained the program for the day, as well as the "follow up" convoy system, whereby participants take turns acting as route markers - a system that works great with bikes (that easily can allow other traffic to pass), but wouldn't work that well with cars.
Start of convoy, 09:33
Gentlemen, (kick)start your engines!
Henk took the lead on his 1946 500 cc Velocette MSS, and the rest of us followed, in a slight haze of blue smoke...
Assendelft ferry pier, 09:49 (B)
To get to Woerden from Koog and de Zaan, we had to cross the IJ / North Sea Canal.
The normal way to cross is the A10 Amsterdam ring road, no fun on an older bike, so Henk had a better alternative for us - the Assendelft-Spaarndam ferry.
Waiting for the ferry gave another opportunity to admire the bikes - here every 15-year-old's dream - a 50 cc Honda Dream to be precise.
Great, very British, color scheme on this Triumph Tiger.
"I had one of those!" - A 1978 Yamaha SR 500, just like the one that was my first "real" bike after a 125, back in 1979.
Hoofddorp, 10:43 (E)
Passing the ghost town of empty offices in Hoofddorp, it seemed the traffic light system was confused by all the motorcycles, leading to a long wait and some rather warm engines.
Geerpolder, Leimuiden, 11:04 (F)
A pause to wait for the support van provided a much needed opportunity to stretch our legs.
Woerden, 12:06 (G)
"Got there!"
Arriving at the event we found the field completely full, so we parked our bikes close to the entrance.
Bikes, bikes, bikes....
Those canary yellow Triumph Thruxtons do stand out.
Zundapp-pap-pap-pap...
Old mopeds never die, they just go to Woerden.
The rotary-engined Suzuki RE5, "the future of motorcycling", was only manufactured for two years, 1975 and 1976, with most of the 7000 bikes going to the US.
A last look around the field, and then it is time to head home - this time the quickest route on the highways.