ok, ive been home for 24 hours now so im going to put a few words down about this years event. it has to be said that right upto friday we didnt know whether we would have enough bikes for the stand, but gareth bought his own enfield, ians bmw, and bill bought his srx and divine ducati single as well as my beesas and even a small italian moped got in on the act. but even though they all got set up in time, i just scraped through at the last minute and we literally rode the bikes up the ramp to the sound of the shutter closing.
friday night we all spent in the onsite pub serving a selection of synthetic tasting beers in plastic glasses in that modern way that large events have managed to perfect the art of removing absolutely every vestage of pleasure or satisfaction from having a drink with your mates, honestly, thy might just as well have lined us all up and instructed us on when to drink and when to put the glass down with a loudhailer as a drum was beaten. anyhow, they had food of a quality to match any soup kitchen or military encampment under fire, served with all the joy you might imagine from such a place.
saturday dawned wet and slightly blowy but that didnt put the punters off, and it gave us all the chance to take a bit of time to wander round the show and the autojumble. some of the prices were in a comedic class of their own, and this was only reinforced by the appearance of henry cole and his cohorts trailing a film crew behind them, lots of the bikes in the buildings were polished and pampered to within an inch of what could be seen as decent, a fetisistic level of constant rubbing with various fluids and potions that seemed to have infected gareth as he treated the enfield to several rub downs with something he furtively kept hidden in a bag under the table, but there were plenty of nice examples of both brit and japanese classics as well as european exotics. (gilera mopeds aside)
it was noticeably quieter in the autojumble outside with fewer traders there and there were also a few european traders with large stocks of eu registered bikes for sale which im guessing is due to the weak pound. they had some nics stuff and were all advertizing that they had th nova documentation for sellers to register bikes in the uk.
saturday night we decamped into stafford and had a good meal and a few pints in the town centre, stafford is a lovely little town and well worth a visit for a night out, we got a taxi back only to discover that we were locked out, the gates were shut and the staff had scarpered, so we all climbed over th gates, not easy in the dark, 8 foot high with spikes on top and us all somewhat less than sober, but nobody got skewered so that was all ok.
sunday was much the same as saturday with the weather being dry and clear thus attracting more punters, though the car parks were a muddy mess and the site had engaged a jcb 4x4 tractor to drag out vehicles even on the saturday afternoon, so what the public car parking was like by sunday is anyones guess.
people started packing away earlier than in past years and by 5pm we were ready for the off. if any of you havent done stafford before, i can only say that you should give it a go. if we get a stand for the april show, then we will need some different bikes to display, so, stick the date in your diary and come to have a good weekend with us all, you wont regret it, and as we noted, in april, the rain is warmer......
