In search of CX500 outfit rider

I think it was in the late ’80s that a group of bikers paid a visit to a special needs school called Fountaindale, just outside Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

Some of them had sidecars and they took some of the children for a ride in them. I want to trace the lads who did this, as I am working as a carer for one of the children who had a ride in a sidecar.

It was a Honda CX500 with a custom built sidecar made in Holland by a policeman named Van-Der-Ven, in red and white.

It was later sold to a member of the South Yorkshire Sidecar Club in Doncaster. It would be great to find the bunch of lads who cared so much as to give these special needs children such a treat.

As a biker myself, who had an outfit too, I want to find out who did this and probably have a reunion at the school. I hope that somebody might read this in MCN and say, “Hey, that was us”.

The school is to be demolished soon to make way for a more modern one, and they are trying to find and document as much history as they can. I have a photo of the outfit which in itself is very appealing to a combo rider. Here’s hoping!