We can’t wait for this year’s Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in a few weeks! In the meantime, take a look back with us at last year’s event.
Words by John Milton Photos by Gary Chapman
I always regard the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at Stafford as the time when I start thinking about a winter project. October, after all, is when the days shorten and winter seems all too close. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a project from this show, but I’ve thought about it a lot…
Normally I visit the Stafford shows on a Saturday, having this idea that it’s the quieter of the two days (I’m pretty sure that’s not actually the case but old habits die hard), but a prior commitment meant this year I would be there on Sunday. This turned out to be a very good call as the rain fell on Saturday – and kept on falling. But Sunday was a lovely sunny autumn day although a little mud in the autojumble area bore testament to the fact that the previous day had not been so clement. I always aim for the autojumble first – that new project might be waiting for me – and it seemed as busy as ever with more bikes than ever. From dubious old choppers (like the Triumph with twin shocks and a sissy bar you could hang your washing on) to copious amounts of trialies and trailies to the AJS with a £20,000 price tag and the nearby Vincent Comet, there was something for all tastes. I was particularly taken with the 1921 New Hudson combination, but I didn’t even dare ask the price.
Likewise, the gorgeous 1930 Montgomery Fast Tourer on the H&H stand in the main hall (it was being offered in a forthcoming auction) was far, far beyond my budget, but it didn’t stop me going weak at the knees for a while. Here I will share a secret with you: I actually rather prefer the autumn Stafford show to its more glamorous spring older sibling. As fine an event as that is, this show seems to cast its net wider and that’s no bad thing. The classic world needs to constantly attract new blood and, for many of those (slightly) younger folk, their personal memories will perhaps be of Japanese machines. Some of the biggest crowds of the day, and certainly the most misty-eyed, were around two stands that took youthful desire from one extreme to the other; the exceptional display of Yamaha FS1Es and another of Honda CBXs (I would have happily taken the cutaway engine home with me for my living room!). That these machines could sit happily alongside flat tankers shows how inclusive the classic motorcycle scene can be. In fact, the Best of Show prize went to a Honda CB750, a model so many of us remember and owned back in the 1970s and 80s. This particular example belonged to Ray Robinson who had rebuilt it over the last year, although it had taken him the previous seven years to persuade the owner to part with it.
As you might expect from a motorcycle celebrating its 75th birthday, there were many Bantams on show, in all sorts of guises – road, delivery, racing and even a Gollner Bantam trials machine, while I made a mental note to tell the editor that next year is the 95th anniversary of the British Two-Stroke Club. Like Goodwood, OBM does like an anniversary. Away from the hall there was the added attraction of the Bonhams auction which never fails to throw up some interesting and quirky machines, one of the less quirky of which went home with James from OBM’s sister magazine, The Classic MotorCycle (no, it wasn’t the Commando!). Once again, I left the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show not with a project, but with a headful of ideas and the satisfaction of having had a really good day out. And now I will shut up and let you look at the pictures…
