The Five Bells pub near Northampton has just closed the doors on its first Bike Night season.
The Bugbrooke pub have been running popular bike nights on the first and third Tuesdays of every month from March after reopening the boozer in December last year.
The pub had been closed since 2023 and reopened on the fourth of December 2025 after a £400k revamp.
“We invested in the refurb and started a bike night over there because one of our other establishments [The Carington Arms] does bike nights there, which are very big and popular,” said co-owner Denis Gill.
The Five Bells’ sister pub, The Carington Arms in Ashby Folville near Leicester, has hosted bike nights for the past 13 years, averaging a massive five to six hundred bikers every second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
“Myself and my business partner are both bikers; it’s something that’s a hobby and fun that we like doing,” Gill said. “Every single one of our pubs have got bikes in them… In The Five Bells it’s the Royal Enfield Continental GT .”
They started the bike nights to foster a community spirit around the pub, something they excelled at, with around 300 bikes turning up for their end-of-season event.
They even ran an awards ceremony for the bikers in attendance at their end-of-season bike night party with classes such as best classic, sport and custom, among others.
The co-owner said, “It’s just a great get-together for bikers to come, engage, and speak to each other.
“The feedback has been amazing with the Punjabi-style street food that we offer; we have the pizza shack at the back as well.”
They plan to start up again next year with a preliminary start date in late March.
“I think next year we’ll just build and build and get better and better,” the publican said.
We all know how powerful biking can be for fostering community and forging bonds, but nonetheless it’s great to see it’s great work in action at The Five Bells. We’re beginning to think that one or two of the world’s problems might be solved if a few more people slung their leg over a saddle.
Interested in almost anything mechanical, Tommy has written about everything from bicycles to politics. He uses his Himalayan 411 for absolutely everything and hasn’t cleaned it in two years.
motorcycle tinkerer, gaffer taper and rider both on and off the tarmac