History

The club was formed in circa 1973 when it was based in Southend On Sea and called "The Southend and East Essex Sidecar Club".  With the advent of more and more solo riders joining the club it was decided that it should evolve to take into account the demands of the changing membership.  It moved to the Wickford area with meetings held in a nissan hut in the town centre.  The name of the club was changed to its present form, and at this time the club badge was a simple white outline of a racing bike on a black background.  Since then it has evolved over the years to the current incarnation viewable on this web site.  The Union Jack was included in the badge around 1985 to take into account that the membership was increasingly going to continental rallies.  The small central Dutch flag was added in 1992/3 in honour of our twinning with the Dutch club M.C. Zoetermeer.

1980 saw the club move its meetings to an all new community centre in Laindon.  1984 saw a further move to the Wheatsheaf Pub, Rettendon, where it would be fair to say that the club enjoyed a purple patch with its own clubhouse (in the form of a demountable classroom located on land at the rear of the pub).  The landlords at this time were John and Wendy.

In 1981 we held the first of our "East Of Essex Rallies" on the county showground at Chelmsford.  It's reputation and popularity grew and grew and in 1985 over 1000 riders booked in from all over the United Kingdom and Europe.  The feature of these rallies was that entry could be gained by invitation only and, we kid you not, all those that attended were personally known and invited by members of the club!

1985 saw us stage the first (and so far only) winter rally we have held, the "Seaxes Rally".  The venue was the Wheatsheaf Pub and our clubhouse; yet another success despite the foot-and-a-half of snow that fell over that weekend.  This was the club's peak  and sadly it  lost its way and fell dormant with key members leaving for a great many reasons.

1990 saw a few of the old members returning to the Wheatsheaf Pub.  The club house, now derelict and neglected, was being used as a changing room for local football teams.  More so, the new landlords made it clear that the clubhouse was theirs having being purchased, they said, as part of the fixtures and fittings of the pub when bought from John and Wendy. So we were re-starting the club with no home.  We salvaged what we could of the club's property from the old clubhouse.  Fortunately, we were still able to salvage the old club accounts and records which, surprisingly, were rediscovered in an old filing cabinet. We still use the signing in book! The club moved to the Clacton-On-Sea area and took up residence in the Tendring Tavern Pub, Weeley Heath.

Such was our friendship with the Dutch club M.C. Zoetemeer - originating from the "East Of Essex Rallies" - that in 1992 the two clubs formally twinned.  We are very proud of this link and members always attend M.C.Z's "Sweet Lake City Rally", always fielded in the last weekend in September.  We are also proud to be associate members of the B.M.F (British Motorcycle Federation) and have in the past marshaled at the B.M.F show.

The club has informal foundations (you can view the club rules on another page) and takes into account all aspects of riding:  including rallies; ride-outs; camping weekends; evening meets etc.  In fact, any member's ideas can be put into practice. All members are encouraged to play an active part in the club and any full member attending a committee meeting is automatically considered a 'committee member' for that meeting with all the voting rights for any decisions made at the meeting. It doesn't matter how long you have been a member, you can have your say and influence the day to day management of the club. True democracy.The club has for it's members stickers, badges and of course, T-shirts and sweat shirts.

If you want to know more, please feel free to contact us at:  eastessexmcc@hotmail.com.  Our club motto is "Ride Forever In Friendship" - we cordially invite you to do just that!