Phew, that’s been some month. It’s flown by, a full schedule of event and visits, with plenty of riding on a wide variety of motorcycles, from vintage to modern and others in between.
The type of events have been varied too – so it was down to the south coast for the Rickman Day (that was the weekend after Banbury), then a vintage and veteran weekend away, Morini Day at Cadwell and 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park, plus a few other bits and pieces thrown in, including tests/rides on different bikes, and a few visits as well.
The vintage and veteran weekend was a lovely opportunity to get some miles in on pre-31 machinery, in like-minded company managing 100-plus miles a day, both days.
I rode my Rex-Acme on the Saturday (after an aborted attempt on a fresh restoration ended before it had begun) and then swapped to my dad’s AJS K8 for Sunday. The K8 (1928 500cc overhead valve) is truly one of my favourite motorcycles of all to ride, it just does everything in such a nice, unfussy manner.
For something vintage, it’s possessed of ample performance, it’s light, the brakes are okay and it’s generally an easy starter. What’s not to love?
The machine I used for the Festival of 1000 Bikes was an AJS K10, my cousin Peter’s machine, which is on loan with me at the moment. It makes an interesting comparison with the K8 in many ways.
Whereas my dad has owned the K8 since 1968 (we think) and it’s been in use for much of that time, the K10 (1928 500cc chain-driven overhead cam) is freshly restored and only returned to the road (really) late in 2018, so this is its first season.
I’ll be writing more about the K10 later in the year, including a comparison between it and the K8, but, suffice to say, I’ve enjoyed my time on both greatly.
Bringing things into a more modern classic era, I also managed a day out on my Morini at the ever-superb Morini OC track day at Cadwell Park.
I’d also taken the Mk.I KTT along as well, so had an outing on that too, basically just to check it over before lending it to a friend for the Festival of 1000 Bikes (again more of that later) who enjoyed a good day on it.
And while undertaking all these adventures, I’ve been lucky enough to mix with some great enthusiasts and enthusiasm, with one person I should mention being Adam Rear, who spent a week on work experience from university with us. He turned up on his late 1970s Honda C90, wrote some ‘live’ copy (in this issue) and fitted in perfectly – well done that man.
James Robinson, Editor
