Shows a go go

This is the time of year to tackle all those outstanding household jobs; so I’ve bought a new sawbench…

The past two weekends have been busy ones. First, there was the Bristol Classic bike show. We just called in for a look round en route back from visiting friends but as usual, something unexpected cropped up…

It’s a 1919 Blackburne-powered sawbench, well minus the saw or the bench. Before Black & Decker commandeered the world of power tools it was quite common to take an old bike, saw off the forks and rear frame and use the rest as a portable power plant, often driving straight off the crank but in this case running through the Sturmey Archer gearbox. This one is slightly unusual in that none of the frame has been used; the front engine plates are there – largely to support the magneto but everything else is mounted to a thick flat strip, bent to shape with the whole attached to a wooden sleeper. It’s a good motor with excellent compression, the mag allegedly sparks and as a final touch the original handlebar levers are attached to the tank bracket. It wasn’t cheap but, doing the sums, it wasn’t over the top either. To its left you see alternative portable power plant, this time a mid-1920s Model P Triumph. This one still had its frame, albeit with the headstock sawn clean off. You can just see a belt pulley PTO (‘power take off’ not ‘please turn over’) attached to the crank. The full story will appear in a forthcoming Classic Bike but in essence, I bought the Blackburne because I happen already to have the remains of a frame and forks for one of these rare machines and so it made sense. To me anyway; and (fortunately) to Judy. Finbar accepted it’s entry to the back of the van with aplomb and after sniffing for traces of long-deceased rodents, returned to his bed for the journey home.

By the end of the day the Triumph had sold too so I’m not the only deluded optimist in the world. In fact it turned out to be lucky I shook hands on the deal before tearing off to borrow the money. Stallholders Jerry and David were men of integrity and Judy witnessed them turn away several other keen buyers in my absence. I was puzzled; surely they don’t all have frames as well! And one of them was a guy who looked more into customs than vintage bikes… But that got me thinking. The custom scene is now leaning heavily on bobbers and board trackers for inspiration. That Blackburne offers a complete power unit with mag and carb plus a very authentic original paint tank. It’s nothing for a custom builder to knock up a rigid frame and a pair of girders, stick on a pair of C90 hubs and you’ve got a cool board track racer; well you haven’t but it would certainly look the part.

The point was proven, really, this weekend at the MCN Show at London Excel. I was there Friday and Saturday representing Classic Bike.

These are repro Indian leaf spring forks on the Zodiac custom parts stand. Ideal for your Board Track project, Sir. Alongside were a pair of Harley Springers. Just goes to show how popular the Vintage look has become when a large custom parts manufacturer makes something like this as a stock item. They’d look nice on the Blackburne… well, maybe not.

Reminds me, I think somewhere recently I’ve seen a customised Triumph bobber fitted with Indian-type forks, maybe these ones. Seemed funny given that in the original bobber era, 1940s America, riders junked their antiquated native front ends and used the telescopic forks off British bikes (not forgetting their own proprietary designs, like Vard). If you fit a bobbed Chief or 101 Scout with Norton Roadholders, you’ve made a period-authentic bobber modification; but fitting leaf springs to a Triumph is a bit like building a Triton with a Dominator engine in a Speed Twin frame…

Anyway those wacky customisers, gotta love ’em; how about this Bullet for riding around the Punjab…

No, maybe better to go for a more traditional British single; I hear they’re making Ariels again…

Yes, believe it or not, this is the new girder fork Ariel. Er, make mine a ’38 Red Hunter.

Now far be it for me to call Harleys ‘tractors’ but you have to admit the footprints tell their own story…

Got to be honest, I never looked forward to the MCN show it in the past; I felt it was like watching motorcycling die in an old folks home. Middle-aged men sitting on huge cruisers for mobile phone portraits, bored looking kids in their wake tapping at hand-held gimcrack games. Petticoat Lane market stalls selling cheap gloves and cheap helmets; mo-dals handing out flyers and pretending to look interested… But now it seems different; it’s got a buzz about it and feels like a proper celebration of motorcycling. There’s too much doom and gloom rattled about in the VMCC and elsewhere about the lack of young people. I think it’s true to say that motorcycling lost a whole generation; the ‘nineties and noughties kids hardly took to bikes at all; partly I suspect because instead of being the preserve of the wild kid down the road, motorcycling became what dad did with his mates; like dominoes to a past generation. Now, it seems that kids think bikes are cool again – old stuff as well as new; (wow, totally retro…) Meanwhile the ‘hipster thang’ seems to be pulling in a few from that lost generation too.

I used to come back from Excel feeling pretty depressed but this year in particular has left me feeling it’s all going to be okay after all. Ah, takes me back to going up to Earl’s Court with me dad in 1979…

Cheers Rick