Bike nights remain popular

Sponsored by local bike shop Millard & Co, the nights run outside the White Rock Cafe on the second Wednesday of each month between May and September, from 6.30 until 8.30pm.

Host and club member Jason Rostron said that the nights had raised more than £35,000 for charities, including Headway and the RNLI, since the first one was held a decade ago.

‘It’s an occasion for anyone to come down, socialise, and look at a range of different motorbikes. Usually we get about 300 each night.’

A self-confessed petrol-head, Mr Rostron got the idea for the nights during a trip to the UK 11 years ago.

‘I was in Poole and noticed these bike nights happening near the harbour there. It seemed like a really good thing to do for the community as there was so much support for them,’ he said.

The club was granted permission by the White Rock Cafe to host the nights outside its premises in 2013.

Mr Rostron said that very little about the structure of the nights had changed since.

‘That stretch of road is not used in the evenings so it seemed like the perfect place, and advertising the nights has been easy too as we can post on the Guernsey Bikers Group Facebook page, which has over 4,800 members,’ he said.

An avid biker since he was young, Mr Rostron expressed his gratitude for the support the nights had received from fellow bike enthusiasts, as well as the wider community.

‘The last few years have presented some incredibly challenging times for people, so we feel very lucky to receive the support that we do.

'Millards has also been generous in donating bikes that people can win in the raffles we host at the end of each year.

'Last year a young chap won a brand new Royal Enfield bike, for example.’

The nights have even attracted some famous faces, with the late Zef Eisenberg, entrepreneur and ultra-speed motorbike racer and esteemed custom bike builder Allen Millyard among the attendees in previous years.

‘To be able to put something on that other people enjoy is very humbling, and we’ve never had any accidents or hassle with it.

'I’m obsessed with biking but even I see something new or different at every event.

'I think the diversity is what people enjoy the most,’ he said.