About

After leaving an Islanders MC show back in August 1999, I saw a few bikers walking along the road. I hooted, waved and then thought "They look like they need a lift", so I pulled over. In got a few members of a club called Green Man MCC. We joked about being hung-over and I took them where they wanted to go. Little did I know that one day I would become a member…

In September of that year, I went to the Celtic Warriors show on my Metro trike with Rick on his V8 trike. All was going well until we hit the rush hour. Rick’s trike was overheating badly in the traffic. On bikes, we could have been on our way, filtering between the cars, but not on the trikes. We pulled over onto the hard shoulder, with a lot of smoke coming from Rick’s machine signifying the end of the road. We sat there wondering what to do, when Rick pulled out a calling card he’d been given a month earlier by the Green Man members. Ok, so they were based in Milton Keynes but that’s England eh? It was a long shot but maybe they could help.

One call later, we had directions to Milton Keynes and I was on my way. It was getting dark, so I took some time to get there, with me paranoid about breaking down myself! Meanwhile, Rick had the name and address of one of their members, waiting for an AA man to arrive. When he told the AA guy the story, he was a bit suspicious. "Guernsey plates but you live in Milton Keynes? What was that address again?" In the end he said "I don’t care who you are as long as I get paid. Now where are we going?"

That night, we were taken out around the local hotspots by a few members of the club. They even put us up for the night and locked Rick’s trike away safely in a warehouse, with mine just outside the front door. In the morning, we were given breakfast and went to see what could be done. One of the Green Men was a machinist, so while they were all talking mechanics, I was perusing the calendars and passing the occasional tool over. The technical term for the work was "re-machining the head and fitting a new home made gasket". Easy right? Well it took nearly all Saturday to do! Three of them worked on it and I was as much use as a chocolate fireguard. By tea-time, the trike was back in one piece and we said our farewells, exchanged numbers and set off again for the Celtic Warriors show.

We arrived late and pitched tents in near darkness, only to find that Rick’s tent had no pegs, so we shared mine. Everything was going wrong! We headed for the bar.

Sunday morning, we woke up early and had to leave to catch the boat, vowing to return and enjoy a whole weekend. We headed for Milton Keynes again to meet the Green Man club and as we got close, Rick’s trike started to overheat again, so there would be no way it would make it to Poole. They said they would lock it up safely, fix it and then get in touch to see about getting it back over. We rode two up to Poole and only just made the ferry.

It had been a weird weekend of just getting to know the Green Man MCC. They hardly knew us, but gave up their weekend to help two bikers who had broken down, put us up, showed us around and were happy to meet us again. That was when I started thinking "So this Green Man thing, what is it, how do I become a member and can I do it from Guernsey?" In December 1999 Green Man MCC was formed in Guernsey.

As told by our Founding Member.

And so it Continues...

Green Man MCC will celebrate its ninth anniversary in December 2008. During that time, the English chapter has dissolved, so we reversed the club logo to its current "green on black" and became an independent entity. We have tried to keep the same outlook and attitude as the original Green Man and our motto remains "We will party with anyone and anyone is welcome to party with us".

In just over eight years of existence the club has grown, with ages ranging from late teens to early 60’s and still has a small core of its founder members present. It is an active Motor Cycle Club, with members regularly traveling to both UK and Europe to get away on our bikes, and attend parties and rally’s whenever we can, as well as supporting any local events we can.

We have raised thousands of pounds for local charities, including Guernsey Kidney & Patient Association, BBC Children in Need, Wigwam Special Needs Unit, Guernsey Cheshire Homes, Help a Guernsey Child, Guernsey Animal Aid, The Oakley Waterman Caravan Foundation, Headway Guernsey and Les Bourgs Hospice. We have also organised annual Toy Runs just before Christmas and Egg Runs at Easter, when we collect and distribute gifts or Easter Eggs to local children’s charities and hospital wards. At Easter 2006 we organised a ride-out to raise money to buy two bikes for a guy whose motorcycle business was washed away in the Tsunami to get his business going again.

We have been involved in promoting and supporting local music over the years, mainly though our renowned Chaos Nights. In 2005 we took the plunge and put on a Chaos Weekend, with bikes, beer and music over the whole weekend. This was so popular we have carried on, growing from strength to strength over the years. We now have 3 stages playing over 3 days and over 1500 people on site during the weekend. 2009 will be our 5^th Chaos weekend, and promises to be the biggest and best ever, as always near our club house at Pleinmont Point.

Until then we will continue to ride and party, and live by our motto "We will party with anyone and anyone is welcome to party with us".