Having been at the Miners Standard with another event I'd just like to say what obnoxious entitled knobheads this group presented themselves as.

Noisy, shouting and running about by the toilets at 1.30 AM.
Cramming tents in on top of ones already there to the point guy ropes were crossed, regardless of if people were part of their group.
Panhandling of schemes to "sponsor" their holidays.

Needless to say the HU brand has been damaged.

If this was an official event @Grant might want to discuss this feedback with the organisers, but needless to say my time on here is now done.



Andy

Threwheelbonnie. - You are mixing us up with another group.
Not a single sentence you have written is true of anyone attending under the H.U. banner.

I can personally vouch for all but one on the Saturday night (and Friday).

Please delete/amend your post and apologise to all.

Thankyou

Glynn Roberts

Sole host and organiser of the Meeting.

I have had other reports, and I don't think it was our people causing the late night issues.

An email from one of our attendees in response to Threewheelbonnie's comment in a PM to me:

"I don't have a clue what this bloke is on about but there were three separate groups of motorcyclists in the campsite and two other groups of party people who were playing music until 4am... I don't recognise anything that he describes as coming from us unless I missed something."

Glynn also said to me:

"I don’t know who he is or where he camped. It certainly wasn’t us! And anyway we were all in bed by 11pm!"

We have been running events since the first one in the UK in 2001, in a multitude of countries, somewhere around 200 of them, and have NEVER had any issues remotely like this. In all those years, the worst would have been the one guy who got a little rowdy (but not remotely in the league of what you're talking about, I know, I was there), and was put to bed by our people at around midnight. He had been dragged there by a friend and had no interest in what we are about, so partied too hard. He was convinced to leave in the morning, very embarrassed.
ONE venue has suggested they wouldn't have us back - not because we're a problem, but because we didn't drink enough and they made much more money from a wedding where everyone drinks a lot and gets hammered.

So no, it doesn't sound like our people at all. And given there were 5 other groups, 2 of them there only to party, I don't believe for a second it was us.

When ask us about our events, we tell them clearly, it's not a big booze-up, it's not a party, we don't have loud bands and wet t-shirt contests or burnout competitions - it's more like a conference for travellers - most people don't even get on their bikes again until it's time to leave. It's all about inspiration, information, learning, and connecting with other like-minded people.
It's a VERY unusual motorcycle "event", and we've had people who would never again go to a "motorcycle rally" get convinced to come, and love it and come regularly - and it's the ONLY motorcycle event they go to. And by the way, Glynn's comment about everyone being in bed by 11 - yup, although I think 10 is probably more common!

Our group was at the Miners once previously, and there were NO issues whatsoever, and they were happy to have us back.
For a better idea of what we're about, see https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/about-hu/press for many many very positive articles about us.
You can be sure we won't be back to the Miners without assurances from THEM about the quality of the people they seem to have attracted - and possibly allowed far too many.
I am very distressed that you had this experience, but I hope you can see your way to lay the blame where it seems to belong.


Threewheelbonnie - write me directly to get free entry to ANY HU Event anywhere in the world, so you can see what we're really about.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

After lengthy countrywide discussions with folk from Devon, Manchester, Stoke on Trent, Alfreton and Winster, I now have a clearer idea of what happened…

The hippy bus halfway up the hill on the left played music until around 2pm at which time one our group told them to turn it off which they did. They then sat around being noisy until around 4am.

The group halfway up on the right with the sad sporty cars was a stag group of 12+ young lads……. Guilty!

I’ve spoken to the landlady at the Miners Standard who has received 1 complaint today. She knows it wasn’t us, was very apologetic and is going to email the person who made the complaint to put the record straight.

I pointed out to her that if we were 40 years younger we might have joined in, but with most of our group around 60 years old and some of them owning an MZ for gawds sake…. Sadly those days are long gone….

Good to hear Glynn, and thanks for the sleuthing!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I used to think your utterances on the HUBB were some of the few useful ones worth reading. Now I think your HUBB account may have been hacked.

Have you ever attended a HU event? I'm well into double figures: UK, USA, Germany and Bulgaria: Never have I come across man-children running around in the early hours annoying the locals! From a liveliness point of view, HUBB events just aren't.

My most annoying memory at a HUBB event was a PA announcement at a UK event at Baskerville on a Sunday morning at 8am reminding the dozen ladies (out of 500 or so blokes) that the women's breakfast was commencing in 15 minutes. The reply from the multiple hungover blokes making morning cuppas and bacon butties isn't repeatable on a family forum. (Glynn wasn't involved in organising that meeting).

Asides:

Crossed guylines: Your point is? Had such a situation at Peel at the Isle of Man TT, 15 years ago when some dawk tried to put his tent up between me and my mate. A "what the fcuk do you think you're doing?" question sufficed to persuade him to move himself and his tent elsewhere.

People allegedly thinking they're a new self styled influencer wanting "sponsorship": Welcome to the social media age (if they were actually part of Glynn's crew, which I doubt...). Just like touts the world over since the dawn of time, don't make eye contact and ignore or "politely" request they jog on.

If camping anywhere, I always carry ear plugs. If you don't like the sounds of the great unwashed on a campsite, best book a hotel room elsewhere with sound proofing.

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Update!

The meeting went off as planned! The weather excelled itself - far too hot to ride, a humid 30’ in the shade! It was as much as we could do on the Saturday to wander down to the church for some well earned tea and cake!

Attendance was a little down but deffo some interesting people and bikes! (And camper vans) A few day visitors and a dozen or so campers made it a very friendly and welcoming meet

Hats off to Mark who rode the 230 miles each way on his 125cc, Julia on her Enfield and Phil on his … 1974 MZ 250…..

Watch out for dates on next years meet in the New Year!

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What did you think of the French meeting?

I tried to fit in at least a presence at the U.K. one but the timing was just too tight with the other stuff I had to do.

Well, I can honestly say that it was a non-event for me. I had a flat tyre about 60km away so abandoned the idea of getting there for the Friday - I then spent the whole of the next day getting it sorted and the end result was I got it sorted but too late on the Saturday to get over there for the meeting - hence, for me, it was a non-event

So I failed badly - I was running very late when I was packing the bike to leave home and so when I couldn't find my tyre irons I didn't pack any of the tools needed to sort out the bike if I got a puncture - no tyre irons means I can't get to the tube to repair it. Same was true of the camp stove, I couldn't find that either, so no point taking the kettle etc.

Just to add to the fun I got another flat on the way to the ferry home on the Sunday - still no tools and had to get recovered (yes, I know, I copped out). I ended up back home 3 days late.

Lots of lessons learnt:

1. Pack earlier than the day of travel
2. Motorcycle shops in France are not open on a Monday
3. Do not rely on your recovery insurance to sort out the technical issue on a motorbike, take it on yourself as you probably have a far better idea than the assistance people about motorcycle - they were good for the accommodation and the recovery elements though
4. Make sure you have your kit ready to roll - so get it ready to grab easily - so when you are running late it doesn't cause issues
5. Adventures take many forms - not necessarily the adventure that was planned
6. Part of being on an adventure is to be patient
7. I am much happier in my own skin than I was back in 1994
8. The Dordogne has some lovely riding roads and needs to be revisited a number of times - plans now in place for June and September 2024
9. Toll routes and highways really are as boring as I thought they would be
10. Convert the tubed tyres to tubeless - the wheels have the safety bead so it is safe
11. DFDS ferries give a 20% discount to people over 60 years old on the ferry fare and cabins if you phone up and book it - the discount is not available on line
12. Consider using the Newhaven-Dieppe route instead of automatically going for Dover-Calais and use the last sailing of the day on the summer timetable as you land and have the whole day ahead of you
13. My waterproofs aren't bad but torrential rain always makes its way in
14. Being stuck in France without a bike is frustrating but it is still better than being at work
15. I need to work out a list of excuses for being late back. See lesson 14.

EDIT
I have just seen your post and review of the French event - I will get there next year I hope. I was sorry to see that it wasn't just me that needed the recovery service, hopefully you are back on the road.

__________________
You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.