11 September 2005
Ace Café, Brighton
We arrived at Madeira Drive, dark and early to a rather disorganised set up regime. Eventually we sorted out our location (about a mile down the Drive) and set up the display tent, in between bump starting Ian Stroud’s bike and trying to find some breakfast tea (as Dean’s thermos broke journeying down on the SERV bike).
Well the day worn on and the biker crowd thronged in. We were flanked by Sussex Police and American Motorcycles so we had a lot of passers-by with their families. So it was "Would you like a SERV bug son? OK Mum/Dad that will be a £1, Ta very much!"
It was very, very busy with bikes arriving by the thousand (no kidding). There were bikes everywhere and just to be helpful we stored peoples' helmets for a contribution of course. Highlights of the day were letting parents photograph their kids on the SERV bike, closely examining the Sussex Police Yamaha R1 (strictly for training courses of course!), spotting which biker (male or female) had the most tattoos (first on their bodies and then on their heads) and then the arrival of the Tuttles of the Orange County Choppers complete with police escort and filming by Discovery Channel and thousands (yes really) of fans.
The weather stayed fair and consequently we had a very good day collecting as many people were very generous but the downside was our sore feet and the long queues for cups of tea.
Very well done and many thanks everybody who grafted away over two long days to collect this terrific amount. This was a fantastic effort by everyone concerned.
Attendees roll of honour:
10 September 2005
SERV attend the national speed trials at Brighton, Madeira Drive
We set up our display tent just outside the entrance to the paddock in Madeira Drive at 7am accompanied by the noisy arrival of many types of competition cars and bikes.
The weather held fair and we set out our wares and got ready to relieve passers-by of their cash. The petrol heads and photographers among us benefited from the SERV reflective jacket as it gained free entry into the pits for a good look at the cars and bikes and the start line activity.
As the day went on we were kept busy telling various car owners not to park next to the SERV stand. Again the SERV jacket gave us authority as they thought we were marshals!
We had a reasonable day collecting cash with the highlights being the competition between Don Waller and Dave Godden as to who could get the best looking female to sit on their bikes and Don’s ‘see if you can put enough money in the bucket on my bike’s wing mirror to tip the bike over’ offer – very popular with the females and young people.
However while it didn’t rain the seagulls had it in for us, as they scored direct hits on the SERV bike, Dave Godden and his Goldwing. We finished the day at 5pm and got the SERV kit ready for next day in Madeira drive.
Article by Dave Romaine
