The OMCC Committee

OMCC’s new Officer in Command (OIC, which is a military term) having moving up from “Second-in-Command” in 2024, 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, 2iC and now OIC, 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 

Following my divorce I decided to do something for me that I had always wanted to do and learnt to ride.  This means that I am relatively new to all this compared to most of the rest of the committee and have had a lot to learn and fears to overcome. The support, encouragement and tuition provided by the club has meant that not only has my riding improved massively but that I have made loads of new friends as well! 

I am a civvy, and work as a project manager and now it’s seems my skills are being put to the test on the committee and it’s become my job to keep these men and their testosterone in check! 

Being vertically challenged means that bike choice for me is limited.  

Bikes:

• Track – CBR 600RR
• Road – Triumph Tiger XRX Low

Chris Drake

My part with OMCC is to produce the Newsletters and Instruct at ARDs and track days.

My motorcycling career started in C1970 when I bought a Triumph Tiger Cub in a box from a school mate Ian. Having a bike was strictly out of bounds, but hey what do parents know, which will tell you something about me. 😉

Scroll forward many years and notably I joined TVAM and quickly became an Observer with them, tutoring IAM advanced road riding for 17 years until I got bored with it. But having said that, the star that was David Jacobi arranged for TVAM to hire the Nürburgring twice which was entertaining.

Looking for a new challenge apart from Off Road riding (green lanes) and scuba diving, I joined OMCC in 2012 and got involved with ARDs, Mopedathons and track days, subsequently using my TVAM skills to Instruct as there is a cross over between the two.

I have toured Europe and the UK with Hilary my wife (the reluctant pillion) in the past, and done UK and Euro track days. Favorite’s being Oulton Park and Portimão.

Current bikes:

• 2013 Ducati 848 SE EVO Corse
• 1990 Honda VFR400R NC30 UK
• 1955/1960 Triton 650
• 2008 Honda XL700 Transalp for the current shite roads

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………. 

I had been an OMCC member for 3 years, attending the ARD’s and track days, but 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, and have been looking after the site ever since.

I have been riding bikes since my mid teens, and worked as a dispatch 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 a number of 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

Gary Baker was OIC of the OMCC from Dec 2018 handing over to Seán in 2024. 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 he took 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. 

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 now Membership Secretary. I have organised and run a variety of events from ARDs and 2-Day track events, 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!) after briefly returning to the mighty wokka in 2023, I am now based at HQ Air Command. Keen to stay involved with this fantastic club remotely I took on and still 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 (Road)
• Suzuki GSXR 750 (Track Bike)
• Yamaha TTR250 (in bits!)

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, after the series stopped, we turned our attention to something closer to home (although the long trip to Rowrah may as well be abroad!) and dipped our toes in the U.K. Freetech 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. 

OMCC’s very own “potty mouth”, Mick has a penchant for kebabs and Fosters (the famous can can be seen firmly in his grasp at many an event!). 

Mick has been with OMCC since almost the start of the club, and is key to the running of the club events, ensuring the smooth running of the day, but not one to mince his words (along with a few expletives) but ever helpful and always available to answer questions. 

Bikes: Tend not to have fuel in (something he loves being reminded of…)