The Road to Show Down Pt. 1

It starts here. Skooter Farm Dave drove down from Wigan with the stand in the back of his LDV. Stayed Wednesday night and we left to meet Ben at 5am Thursday.

My (GI's) licence is so filthy the insurance company wanted an arm and a leg to cover me, so Ben and Dave had to share the LDV driving. One drove, one slept. I was the kitchen staff. Cheese cracker and Adnam's Beer Chutney anyone? Wine Gum?

We headed over to Paris to visit a few friends and took the time to call in at Thierry Vincent's Mumbaikers photo exhibition that was opening in a Royal Enfield shop called Tendence Roadster. That's Thierry the photographer with his arms crossed. The shop's owner Guillaume Tirard is on the right. And yes, Josh in the photo on the wall is wearing a Sideburn T-shirt.
This lad is one of Tendence Roadster's mechanics. He's the youngest bike mechanic I've seen for years. Good going, lad!
Thierry even made his own picture frames. If you want to display the Mumbaikers shots in your shop/gallery/palace, contact Thierry through his blog. The artwork is for sale too. The Vintagent called by later in the evening, though we didn't know he was in town and missed him, unfortunately. Unsurprisingly, he's written a great post on the exhibition. Read it at the Vintagent Blog.This photo, on the wall in the shop, was taken in the 70s. The Norton is in the shop and so are those leathers. They're tiny, but so cool. We'd love to meet the owner of them.

These are the leathers.Also, in the Tendence Roadster, an old Rudge displaying my favourite ever bike company logo.

Next stop Dimitri's... G

JAP speedway engine

As seen in many a bike on this very blog, the mighty 498cc two-valve OHV motor developed by JA Prestwich of Tottenham, North London, specifically with speedway racing in mind. It was long-serving engineer Stan Greening who created the motor, working closely with top Stamford Bridge (London) speedway riders, Bill Bragg and Wal Phillips, during 1929/30. The motor, influenced in its finer details by the then leading four-valve Rudge, went on to dominate the sport right into the 1960s.

This gorgeous drawing is probably by John Ferguson, who did a stack of great work for the British weekly The Motor Cycle (aka, The Blue 'Un). The advert below is from 1950. MP

Rudge-Whitworth

On the early dirt tracks, before Douglas, before JAP, before Jawa, a Rudge was the motor to have. With a four-valve OHV head and four-speed gearbox as early as 1924, they held sway in all aspects of motorcycle sport, so when speedway hit Britain in the late Twenties, a Rudge 350 or 500 was an obvious choice for those who could afford one. Great logo, taken mainly from the Whitworth company when the two bicycle manufacturers merged in 1894. The first Rudge-Whitworth motorcycle offered to the public came in 1911, making this the 100th year of Rudge motorcycles, though production ended in 1939. MP

Stafford Classic Bike Show

Had a great ride out to the Stafford Classic Show last Saturday with Ben Miller and Chippy. We met up at the trucker's cafe at the side of the A1 in Colsterworth for breakfast, sausage and egg sarnie, two cups of tea. I don't have breakfast out nearly enough. What a treat.
£1.29 a litre + 27-litre tank = ouch!

Bumped into loads of people I knew including these two, Dave Skooter Farm buying a Gary Nixon shirt from Julian Ryder. Jules is a legendary motorcycle journalist, author and also British Eurosport MotoGP commentator (along with the excellent Toby Moody). He, for me at least, was the soundtrack to Fogarty winning all his World Superbike titles and for that alone his furry fizzog will always have a special place in my life.
Julian had a stand selling lovely, weird motorcycle collectibles...
Including these pre-advertising era speedway vests. Coventry Bees and Poland, pictured.
Loads of neat stuff on the Davida Helmets stand. Including this Death Spray Custom design...
And Hugo Wilson and Fiddy...
The show is huge, fantastic, packed with owners clubs. Like the Raleigh Owners Club...
... and the CZ Owners Club
...and the Rudge Owners Club
This was parked next to the Wall of Death
Good friends Eastie, Steve DL (making dungarees look surprisingly good) and Capt Simo and Louis.
Mr and Mrs Part in 30 years time?
Anthony Co-Built in 30 years time?
The Guzzi kept up well, didn't let me down, even though I was riding with an Aprilia Mille and Bandit 1200 (they obviously could've left me for dead, but the Guzzi didn't embarrass itself). Sun shined all day. Can't beat it. The next one, the Classic Mechanics Show, is in the Autumn. Same place, many of the same stalls, but a bit more focus on post-60s stuff. And Eddie Lawson is guest of honour. G

Gorgeous Rudge

Rudge Speedway bike for sale on UK eBay. Thanks to Tom for the tip-off.

Rudge Whitworth

1935, I think. Lovely. Nice old fella owned too.