The OMCC Committee

Gary Baker has been Officer in Command (OIC, which is a military term) of the OMCC since Dec 18. He was one of the founding members of the OMCC back in 2002 and was responsible for setting up the early website and the current forms.

In 2008, he left the RAF for 9 years and returned in 2017 to fly again on the CH47 Chinook and become involved with the OMCC again. 

Biking since a very early age, he has never taken to Track Days and prefers to bike on his GS rather than hurtling around tracks! Since taking over the club, the committee and membership have grown substantially with the club becoming more diverse in its activities.

In line with this, charity donations have also grown and now the OMCC is the premier club with the military in the UK and held in high esteem on the Station. 

OMCC’s “Second-in-Command”, Seán Ahearne joined the RAF in 2014, and moved to RAF Odiham in 2018, where he flies the mighty Chinook on 27 Squadron.

Seán quickly found a home on the OMCC committee, first as Deputy Secretary, Secretary and latterly as 2iC, fitting in his club duties around deployments to Africa and the Middle East.

Seán loves riding 2-wheelers of all types and has an equally big grin on a Honda Cub as he does on a Harley Electra Glide. He does have a weakness for old and/or British bikes, and coincidentally maintains a close rapport with local breakdown services. 

Since joining the OMCC Seán has been increasingly involved in track riding and can often be found sparring with other committee members on his sky blue ’99 R1.  

Bikes:

• 1995 Ducati 900SS
• 1999 Yamaha R1
• 2004 Yamaha TDM 900
• 2006 Royal Enfield Bullet 500 

OMCC’s “Assistant Treasurer & Tour Planner”, Garry Cattle former Royal Engineer, completed 25 years deploying to numerous shitholes around the world before settling near Reading! 

Garry did his first ARD at Odiham back in 2004 but didn’t become a club member until after leaving the forces in 2016. 

Garry initially joined the committee as tour organiser, this has recently grown to include assistant treasurer as although he’s not fully retired, he won’t be deploying anywhere grim so can offer continuous support to the club whilst the serving RAF chaps enjoy their 5 star hotels and swimming pool………. 

After a couple of years on two wheels back at the start of the 90’s, I had a rather long break from riding motorcycles, jumping at the chance to head to the Armed Forces Driving School at Leconfield on a two week motorcycle dispatch rider course back in 2008. After a week of intensive training and passing our tests full we spent the following week doing advanced road riding techniques and a lot of off-road riding on Harley Davidson MT350’s complete with Jerry cans and gun racks (not always staying upright when trying to jump muddy tank tracks).

Not long after rekindling my two wheeled love, I purchased an old CBR600 steelie which later got upgraded to a CBR600RR which I still have now. I recently purchased a dedicated track bike at the end, a GSX-R750 and I’m looking forward to getting on track more.

I have been on the OMCC committee since 2009, in this time I have been deputy secretary, secretary, deputy treasurer, treasurer, and organised and run a variety of events from ARDs to BikeSafe and Hospital Toy Runs. The club really does offer a huge variety to tickle any tastebud, having personally done off-road riding, track riding, tours, trips to the BSB/MotoGP (both UK and overseas) and flat tracking.

After 20 years at RAF Odiham working on the mighty Chinook in various fields and locations across the world, I moved on to a rather slower paced life at Abbey Wood in Bristol and then very shortly (and gladly) on to Brize Norton to the almost as mighty Hercules (it’s big and green anyway!) where I currently am, hoping to return to the mighty wokka in 2023 (fingers crossed). Keen to stay involved with this fantastic club remotely I took on and currently hold the position of membership secretary, which mostly involves trying to answer or fix a multitude of queries and issues. Still returning for as many events as possible, I hope to see you soon and say hello 🙂

Bikes:

• Honda CBR600RR
• Suzuki GSXR 750 (Track Bike)
• Yamaha TTR250

I have been an OMCC member for 3 years, attending the ARD’s and track days. 

I noticed that the committee were facing challenges with their websites and offered my services to help bring the main website up to spec.

I was invited to join the committee following the successful launch of the new website in 2021.

I have been riding bikes since my mid teens, and worked as a despatch rider for several years, where I honed my skills of picking bikes up following accidents.

I have been track day riding with my mates from Bournemouth and Poole Bikers for the last 5 years, and the legendary Dave Nippard introduced me to the OMCC days which ‘The Usual Suspects’ attend regulary now.

Bikes

• Honda CBR1000rr 06
• Triumph Daytona 955i

I joined OMCC around the time that wheels moved from square to round and was quickly co-opted into the committee to help run events.  Subsequently I have supported most of the events that we operate including the commercial track events and the running of ARD’s and I have taken responsibility for the Mopedathon, which over the years has now raised well in excess of £10k for charities. 

My riding history is varied, and only occasionally embarrassing, with bikes ranging from a Honda CB400 Super(wet)Dream, a dreadful GPZ550 and an unreliable 1200 Bandit to more modern and interesting track bikes and the favourite; a 1979 Honda NC50 Express (race ready).  On the road I ride a 20 year old Yamaha FZS1000 Fazer which I have owned since writing off it’s predecessor (also a Fazer) on a patch of diesel in the Harz Mountains and love it to bits.    One of the highlights of my riding career was a 2019 tour of Colombia in South America on a Royal Enfield, a go anywhere bike that never missed a beat despite river crossings, monsoons, 4000m plus altitudes and sandy deserts.  I’ll be going back there as soon as the opportunity arises as it’s a stunning place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone.

Over the last few years, I have become involved in racing, largely due to the support offered by OMCC, participating in the No Budget Cup in Europe (later Endurance for Fun) for the first time in 2018 and have been hooked ever since.  For some reason (possibly to make them look good?)  the guys running the OMCC Orange team invited me to join and race their R1 with them and we ended the series third in class during my first season.  We have evolved the team in the last 2 Years into OMCC Little Chopper Racing and have competed in the Freetech Endurance 125 racing series in the UK ever since, participating in the first ever 24-Hour endurance race in the UK in July 2021 and supporting and helping the OMCC Riff RAF team in the same series.  This year we are hoping for more than one dry race……

Hi, I’m Andy Pretty (Slow Andy).  

I have been a member of OMCC for many years, and been on the committee for about the 6 years.  

I am involved in the racing side of things for the club.   

This was previously the European 90’s Endurance series, and we are now dipping our toes in the U.K. 125 Endurance series.  

My main role is bike maintenance and preparation of the clubs race and track bikes.  

I have been a keen biker for over 40 years, with a background of road, race and track riding, with the occassional off road foray, and still ride regularly.  

I am currently competing in the U.K. 125 Endurance series with 3 other “old boys” from the OMCC committee. 

Retired after 30 years in the fire service (London and Hampshire) Mark now has more time to ride bikes.

Having ridden since the age of 17 he has ridden a wide range of bikes to varying degrees of ability J.

His main interests are in trail riding, long-distance trials and more recently a bit of flat track racing.  

Current bikes are a KTM690 Enduro R, Sherco X-Ride and Honda Dominator being converted for flattrack racing.  

OMCC’s “Lock Up lacky”, Tony Joined the Royal Air force in 1990 as an Aircraft Engineer. Tours on Hawks, Andover’s, Jaguars, Harriers, Wessex, and Puma followed, before in early 2008 the alure of the mighty twin tub become too much to resist.

As with everybody who’s familiar with working “By Day, By Night” I soon found myself spending a great deal of time in some lively places. One advantage of these places is not being able to spend much! Arriving back in the UK with unexpected funds and a few weeks off work I wandered in to First Gear Motorcycle training and booked an intensive DAS course. Exactly two weeks later with a fresh Category A Licence my biking adventures began. While riding the road with mates is preferred to the track, I do love being in and around the pit area where I hope to catch up with/ meet as many OMCC members as I can.  

Bikes:  

• Street Triple R
• GSX-R 750 ( Due to be delivered in multiple cardboard boxes, expected to be complete prior to the end of Covid) 

OMCC’s “drunk”, Mick McCrudden was born….. sometime this last century, date unknown due to being found under a pack of Kestrel Super strength.  Mick has been with OMCC since almost the start of the club.

Is a key event organiser to ensure the smooth running of the day.  Ever helpful and always available to answer questions. 

Bikes: Tend not to have fuel in