Welcome to
Ripon Motor Club

Latest News

19.11.25

Our annual membership for 2026 is now available to purchase.  We have kept it at £10 for anyone aged 16 and over and FREE for youths aged 4-15.  You will need to be a member of our club to ride our Summer Series or Easy & Beginner Series Trials.  In order to gain an ACU Licence you will need to be a member of an ACU club.

We are pleased to say that Riverside Quarry have agreed to sponsor our 2026 Easy and Beginner Series and Acklams Beta & Harrogate Van Centre have agreed to sponsor our 2026 Summer Series.  We can’t thank Neil, Paul and Joel enough for their support to both our club and the sport of trials.

We are looking forward to the annual Kirkby Xmas Trial, which is on Saturday 13th December.  Entries go live on Sunday 23rd December at 7pm, you will need to have your finger at the ready as these entries sell out fast!  Our 2 charities this year are Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Diabetes UK.  You never know when you may need the Air Ambulance, especially in this sport at all our rural locations so it really is a worthy charity.  Diabetes was put forward as one of our committee members was diagnosed in August this year with Type 1 and several of our observers and club members also live with this life threatening condition.  For people diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, it is life changing and Diabetes UK is vital to help make living with the condition easier with an eventual hope that a cure is found.

Our championship points are now on the results section of our website, so take a look and see if you will have an award to collect.

The Youth Party and Presentation will be on Saturday 6th December at 1pm, in North Stainley Village Hall.  All youth members have been sent an email to complete the form if they would like to come.  You can access the form by CLICKING HERE.

We are looking at dates for the Adult Presentation incorporating our Landowners Dinner and will let you know as soon as something has been booked.

We are looking for new committee members to join us, we would really appreciate anyone who could help with the following;
Social Media, Spreadsheets, IT, Website, Setting out of Trials, Helping before and after the trials, photography, etc.
Please do get in touch if you are able to help us, it doesn’t have to be onerous but we really could do with more people so we can spread the load.

You will have seen in the press that the ACU have increased the annual Licence Fee for Trials but have decreased the Insurance that clubs have to pay.  As a club we don’t just pay Insurance to the ACU along with the levies and Stripe Fees for every trial, we also pay our landowners, observers and a toilet.  On top of that clubs also have all the other costs associated with putting trials on, printing out paperwork, websites, etc.  With this in mind, we are not reducing the cost of our entries or membership but we are keeping them at the same levels they have been for a number of years.  We do hope you understand and support us in this decision.  Trials is still the cheapest motorsport and we really hope you all enjoy riding our trials in 2026.

Ripon Motor Club was founded in 1909 and is a small, friendly Trials Club catering for all ages and abilities.  We are affiliated to the Yorkshire Centre of the ACU.

To ride our trials you will need to be a current member of the club and also a member of the ACU.

A Brief History of our Club

Tom Ellis was a stalwart member of the Ripon Motorcycle Club along with his wife Mary, who did much of the paperwork associated with Tom’s interests.  He first discovered motorbikes in 1940 with a 150cc Francis Barnet.  However, the war and the Royal Navy intervened until 1945 when a 350cc Panther was purchased to compete in trials, an interest of his brother Jack.  The Panther didn’t last long and was replaced with a new 500cc Matchless.  Tom soon started to have some good results on this bike and was occasionally included in the works team.

Unfortunately, Tom’s brother Jack passed away at a trial and Tom decided to organise a trial in his name, The Jack Leslie Ellis Memorial Trial, which continues today.

Tom continued to ride and had success in the 1947 Scottish Six Day (SSDT) with a 10th place and an 8th place in 1948.  He was also 2nd in the British Experts Trial which was no mean achievement.  A Royal Enfield was obtained for a ride in the 1950 Welsh ISDT but mechanical failure caused a retirement and a subsequent works BSA ride was negotiate

Tom became a valued rider in the team and competed at the highest level, ISDT medals representing Great Britain and gaining many awards in trials at home and abroad.  The Scott Trial was a regular and favourite ride and he collected 12 Silver Spoons in 14 rides.  Joint 7th was his highest total, which again is no mean feat for any trials rider!  Tom also enjoyed the SSDT and was seen in the company of Arthur Lampkin at the Pre-65, apparently the journey to Fort William in Arthur’s Porsche was something of an adrenaline rush for him!

In 1956 Tom retired to Ripon where he opened a motorcycle shop and became active in the Club.  He also became interested in the sport of car trials and tests, driving with great verve and commitment, as he always did.  He observed in many trials but will be remembered by the riders at his favourite section, on the Fleetham’s farm down by the bridge.  Sadly he will not have seen it in its new rebuilt form, but it will still be “Tom’s Bridge”.