Welcome to the 2021 season!

We still have the global pandemic with us, which has curtailed our plans somewhat, but rest assured that the committee have already met this month (January 11th) to discuss the way forward.

We have already seen the Scottish Six Days and Loch Lomond Two Day events being cancelled, so multiple day events don’t look likely until 2022. Our Highland Classic Two-Day in June will be reviewed in March, we have nearly 200 entries for this prestigeous event at Alvie Estate.

The committee and directors are fully aware that our members are keen to get back out on their machines at an event, however the situation in Scotland is still serious and the long awaited vaccine is only now beginning to be administered to the public in a controlled manner.

Already we have had to unfortunately cancel the club trial planned for the 17th of January at Fairburn. This decision was taken, not because we did not have a permit or insurance, but because we were conscious of the potential risk to our members, the landowners and anyone who might have exercised their right to roam across the land that we planned to use. The instructions taken from the Scottish Government website did not indicate that we could not run an event, but the decision was taken by the committee taking into account all the factors and information available to us. We feel that the correct action to cancel was the right one to adopt at this time.

We have a no spectator, no catering policy at the moment, but that doesn’t stop people from passing by when the event is taking place.

In short, we have tried our best to put on events for our members, but we are curtailed by a variety of factors, which includes the Scottish Government directives on Covid.

Our next event is planned for 21st February at Cannich organised by Inverness Trials Club (AMCA), dependent on permit availability. Having said that, we may have to cancel/postpone at very short notice.

Our new ‘online entry system’ is working really well and early reports indicate that members prefer this method than trying to send by e-mail. We will be using the pre-entry system for all club and open to centre trials going forward. It helps the club plan for an event and allows us to communicate with everyone intending to take part quickly and efficiently.

Coupled with the entry fee ‘SumUp contactless payment system’, we are bang up to date with technology for both our clubs.

So, in short, the club is attempting to be more active this year, but members will have to bear with us and the level of expectation needs to be controlled.

We all want to be able to ride our bikes, but the welfare of our members and the wider community has to be top priority during difficult times.