Whenever I’m in their area I stop by a small coffee shop where the owner’s main passions are music and motorbikes. Some of his guitars adorn the walls and he’s got a few bikes both inside and out of the place, including an old Super Cub and a CL90.
I was in there one afternoon on my Hunter Cub having a very decent scone and cup of tea (yes, very British I know), and the owner mentioned they’d be closing for a morning the next weekend as they’d be attending a user group meet-up which was open to all.
This is the Shonan Cub group (FaceBook), and now and then they meet up for a few hours down in Chigasaki in a gravel car park near the famous South Beach ‘C’ installation.
Despite the rain that morning, I decided I’d pop down and I’m glad I did. There was a stream of people coming and going for the hour I was there, but there must have been an average of sixty or seventy machines parked up at any one time. Some were, like mine, quite stock, but these are Japanese enthusiasts, so I expected a myriad of mods and I wasn’t disappointed.
Many were very practical or tongue in cheek, acknowledging that the Cub ethos is adventure on a budget, so many ‘top boxes’ were self made – a bit like my old one – and there were a lot of stickers, sandals, caps any everything else attached to the machines.
Many had rally stickers on them (e.g. SSTR), many had screens, bags, boxes and other stuff, some bare, some sporting some very nice paintwork. One had three brake calipers on each wheel to deal with the supercharger (?) they’d fitted. Yeahhhh right.
People were very friendly; I got some great advice on that SSTR application since it’s on my Japan bucket list, and I could at least exchange tales of my coast to coast from last year since I’m new to this Cub world, bit this is a place for fun stories of things going well, and things not so well, but most mods had their own stories.
Of course, I had to pick some stickers up, and I had to put one on the bike because that’s just how things are done. Essentially this was a big wet car park of enthusiastic men and women showing their bikes, talking about rides, and then getting out on the road, which is how it should be! It was definitely worth going to, and I’m watching their social media for the next event.
Was there anything missing? A cup of tea or coffee wouldn’t hurt, but then I always say that.
Definitely take time to look our for these owner group meetings if you’re something of a solo rider – there’s definitely fun to be had, but also a lot of things to learn too.
