HOC CLASSIC 2023

Report by Jon Stone

Over 300 bikes attended Sammy Miller's wonderful motorcycle museum in England's New Forest national park for the Honda Owners Club (HOC) Classic Show. Museum staff pulled out all the stops for us. A window of sunshine during this showery summer we're all experiencing enticed members from 10 HOC branches and places as far as Colchester, Bristol, Barnsley and ... Aberdeen!

Steve Cribbin and Jude Browne have worked tirelessly in the lead up to the event and this facilitated the presence of Allen Millyard, Honda UK and Bikerpics.

Visitors were treated to a fantastic day, lapping up the enthusiasm of Sammy and Allen who were clearly enjoying themselves with workshop tours, informal laps around the car park and a willingness to chat and pose for personal photos with fellow bikers. Some of these will be treasured when we are (even more) old and decrepit than now.

Sammy had prepared the 50cc 1963 Honda RC110 Production Racer and the 1967 500cc Honda RC181 - as raced by the great Mike Hailwood and Jim Redman. Allen Millyard fired up his Honda 6 which sounded amazing. Honda UK supported us displaying the new Hornet, Transalp, and a CL500. And Bikerpics were on hand taking pix of Hondas as they arrived and later on during the event. Honda UK kindly arranged this meaning that free downloads of their photos were available - a unique offer for the HOC, taken up by so many riders. 8 new members were signed up (plus 1 renewal) and over £500 of regalia sold.

Dave Thomas and Charles Deakin stepped in to try and bring some order to proceedings as Sammy and Allen helped judge the 40+ bikes in the concours - winners were presented with some unique slate plaques engraved by Zoe and Tony Surridge. Keith Roberts provided a new dimension with some fantastic drone footage.

We had 26 Members of HOWL attend - some were faces who have moved away from our local area, so it was great to meet up again with Andy B, Andy C, Richie, Peter and Nicole. Dan Walton marshalled the bikes into the concours area. Steve Hill lead in a posse which had met at the Hogsback Cafe. We provided a 'bike wash' facility to give a last minute opportunity to spruce up your bike - which John Flynn took advantage of for his award winning VFR. The photos indicate the fun of the whole event. Well done everyone for supporting the event including - Tom, Mike S, Brian, Stuart, Petar, Mark, Ian, Graham, Gary, Cindy, Martin H and Jeff and Brian.