BERF'S PAGE
.........Well back in August 1979 I went on a Euro run with some guy's & gal's from Hert's section of a well known custom bike club to St Tropez in the South of France there was only 7 of us in total ! Dennis the then Rep of Hert's on his sidevalve 750cc Harley Chopp Ray & Julie his Mrs on the roughest A10 Lowrider I'd ever seen ( but it turned out to be the only totally reliable bike with us) Bunny from north London with a Zundapp thingy & Ian on a Honda 750cc Landboat complete with more fibreglass storage and body part's than the top of the range Sunseeker Cruiser.and finally Me with my then lady, Rose on her Harley Sportster.
.........I'm not going to go into all what happened in the two weeks away apart from it was HOT we had a great time and we rode all the way apart from Dover to Calais ( That's Bounemouth- Dover ..Calais - St Tropez AND BACK ) MY ASS FUCKIN HURT !! that was the first encounter with my last club.
........After getting back I kept getting chased on my A10 Chop by a bloke in a van finally he managed to speak to me it was a bloke called Shep the rep for the Dorset section of said club, it seemed nobody wanted to join up in Dorset as at that time we had our own thing going in the custom bike scene " BAY AREA POOLE" etc etc well to cut it short he persuaded me to take over being the Dorset Rep as he was fed up with the negative attitude from all the then chop builders.
........I think I took over with about 3 to 4 members that was in Jan-Feb 1980 by the start of 1981 I had signed up about 21 more and I had 25 guys which was about the average number for the club for some time ( most of the member's now are from those early years) I put my first trike on the road in mid 1981 only to find on the Dutch euro run Gary Morris had built one using the same donor vehicle but like everything Gary done it was perfect, mine was more like a wooden box trailer behind a dirtbike ( I even got everyone from Dorset stopped and all the bikes examined in Guilford on one run because someone reported " a bike was towing a box trailer with a woman sitting in it " so finally two & half Hrs & 25 chops later the Guildford boy's in blue gave me a ticket for no speedo & the indicators flashing at the wrong speed ( the twat used a stop watch Sad Git ) and one of the others for no horn and no brake light what a useful way to spend the tax payers money but the vehicle examiner was well impressed with my rear wheel nuts (14 per wheel ) 4 holding on adaptor plate No 1 then 5 more holding adapter plate No 2 to adapter plate number 1 then 5 more holding the wheel onto adapter plate No 2 and they all had to be took off and put back without a wheel spider he couldn't get it to fit ( sad init )
......In April 1983 I put my famous Berf's (Bathtub) Trike on the road it was the most reliable one I'd built and I'd built a few by now for other people as well as my own! Engine was a " mini cooper S" at first with limited slip diff the works and it stuck to the road like shit to a blanket it really did handle well, None of that front wheel hopping on corners this could power slide the rear end out on a bend and you could hold the slide till the end of the corner without backing off or losing it !
Trike pic
......I finally left the other club in about 1996 for a 3yr break then started at the bottom as a hang around and got my patch back on the German run in Aug 2002 on my trusty old Honda 400/4 ( I only bought this as a run-around while I built a 750GSX lowrider I can't see the 750 in the garage now (covered over with years of junk ) because the 400/4 has never let me down on a run two up with all the camping gear and just enough room for two to sit on ( see photo)
Honda 400/4
.....Then in 2004 the final farewell to the other club I don't regret any of it I've had some really good times with really good guy's but all the politics were getting in the way more and more of the main reason for the club " To have fun" I'm glad I was in it at the end after building it up to 25 plus for so long and to be there when Dorset section disbanded !!
AND
...................Now hopefully another 24yrs of runs and party's with the "Ex members Club"
....................................................................Berf.........................................back