Riders with more than one bike
Many riders own more than one motorcycle, so MemberCrew records each bike separately against its owner. A rider with a road bike, a restoration project and a historic bike on the Scheme has three vehicle records, and only the Scheme bike carries a log book.
Each vehicle record holds the plate, make, model, year, colour, engine and VIN, and whether the bike has historic registration. This matters more for a motorcycle club than most. Bikes can change hands between members, projects come and go, and a register built from a spreadsheet tends to collect the same bike twice under slightly different details. MemberCrew lets the committee review duplicate registration records and merge them, so the register stays one bike, one record.
Here is how a rider’s garage might look, using the Demo Club’s sample member:
| Bike | Registration | Log book |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Chen’s 1978 road bike | Historic (on the Scheme) | Current |
| Chris Chen’s 1996 tourer | Standard registration | None |
| Chris Chen’s project bike | Unregistered | None |
The log book belongs with the bike, not the rider. The Code says an owner must not hold more than one current log book for a vehicle (the Code, clause 3.5), so when a bike is sold or its log book is replaced, the old one is cancelled and the new one starts its own history. You can open any bike and see every log book it has had.
Where motorcycles fit in the Scheme
Motorcycles are named in the Code. The historic category “can also include motorcycles and trailers” (the Code, clause 1.3), and the individually constructed vehicle category covers a one-off “motor bike” or “motor trike” (the Code, clauses 1.12 and 1.13).
For a historic bike, the test is age: 25 years or more since 1 January of the year it was made (the Code, clause 1.2). The age rolls forward every year, so each 1 January a new year of bikes becomes eligible. A bike made in 2001 became eligible on 1 January 2026, and a 2002 bike becomes eligible on 1 January 2027. If your members ride a model that is about to cross that line, expect a few new Scheme applications in the new year.
A modified bike can still be historic, as long as it can legally be ridden in its current configuration, with a section 163AA exemption if one is needed (the Code, clause 1.3). A home-built bike is a different category altogether; the left-hand drive and ICV clubs page explains what an individually constructed vehicle needs before it can join the Scheme.
Membership types that suit riders
Motorcycle clubs often price membership differently from car clubs, so MemberCrew lets you set up your own membership types, each with its own price. You might set up types such as full, pillion, family, pensioner, life and honorary, or whatever your constitution provides for.
Life and honorary members are deemed financial and do not renew, which saves the treasurer chasing people who should never receive a renewal notice. Every other type renews each club year, and the committee overview shows renewals outstanding and the amount still to collect, broken down by type.
The Scheme cares about one thing here: whether the owner of a Scheme bike is a financial member. A pillion member who owns no bike on the Scheme affects your club’s numbers but not your Scheme duties. A couple who own a bike together are different: if a bike is jointly owned, all owners must be financial members (the Code, clause 3.1). When you set up a shared membership type, check that both owners of any shared Scheme bike are covered.
Ride days, runs and rallies
Rides are the heart of most motorcycle clubs, and MemberCrew treats each one as an event. You can publish a public event page with the date, meeting point and details, share the link, and see the RSVPs come in so the ride leader knows how many bikes to expect at the start.
The Scheme adds two things worth putting in the ride notice for anyone riding a bike on conditional registration:
- Record the journey before leaving. Owners must write the date and a brief description of each journey in the log book before it starts (the Code, clause 3.6).
- Overnight rallies use two days. A journey that crosses midnight counts as two days of the 90 (the Code, clause 3.7).
These are the rider’s duties, not the club’s, but a line in the event description saves a member an awkward conversation at a roadside check. The log book rules guide covers the owner’s duties in full.
Keeping an eye on the 90 days
A bike on the Scheme can be used on the road for no more than 90 days in each 12 months of registration (the Code, clause 3.5). The rider counts those days in their log book, and the club does not track them day by day.
What the club does track is whether each log book is still valid. A log book lasts for up to three years from the day it was first issued (the Code, clause 2.28). In MemberCrew, each log book shows as current, expired or cancelled, so your registrar can see which riders need a new book before the riding season starts rather than finding out at the first run.
What changes when a rider leaves
When a member resigns, the club must cancel their log book (the Code, clause 2.29). Motorcycle clubs see plenty of members move between clubs as their riding changes, and the same clause covers transfers: the change of membership is entered in the log book, the book can go back to the owner as part of the bike’s history, and the new club issues its own.
MemberCrew keeps a list of lapsed members who still hold log books. After renewals close, that list shows exactly which riders have Scheme bikes but are no longer financial, which is the same group your club reports to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles each year. The vehicles and log books feature shows how the register and the list work together.