Diff'rent Strokers

Classic Mechanics Show, Stafford, October 2010

When Darin and Tim started all this four years ago, they joked that pretty soon they'd be inundated with offers of bikes for shows and that all they'd have to do was choose the most suitable and then just turn up at the last minute and take all the credit for the display.  Well, that's not exactly how it works, but this show marked the first time that neither of them have taken any of their own bikes along.  There were six perfect bikes present, all of which had been volunteered by club members, which is great and just how we want this to work.

Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010

What was also fantastic was how many people off the forum popped along to say hello, whether a familiar face from previous shows or a recent member introducing themselves for the first time.  Whether or not this was down to the cake is unclear...

Cake ?  Yes, having recently started a club  Facebook  page, Darin jokingly put a message on it on the Friday inviting people along for a slice of 4th Birthday cake (the Stafford 2006 show was the birth of Diff'rent Strokers).  So Sara hurriedly purchased a big chocolate cake and then decorated it in the club colours.  There was even a candle.  The stand suddenly became quite busy for a while.

Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010

Never mind that, what about the bikes ?  Well, rather than a specific theme we went back to our roots and wanted a line-up of cool 250's that had never been shown before.  So club stalwart Rob brought his other KR-1S and newly-acquired RGV250SP, Tom showed his Marlboro TZR and Fred brought along an R1-Z that he'd just finished restoring for one of his mates.  We also wanted new people to join in and gratefully took up Simon's offer of his trick Nastro NSR250SP and the mint Mk.3 Gamma of Gary, who despite just having finished a painstaking 3-year restoration, rode the bike to the show and back rather than using a van.  You wouldn't get that with some other clubs, if the rumours of 100%-perfect restorations with no engine internals are to be believed...

Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010 Stafford, Oct 2010

The stand followed the same style as usual, with the grey flooring, black backdrop, lighting units and the red/white posts and chains that half the other clubs seem to have copied now.  Time for a restyle then ?  There should have been the pop-up vertical banners too but Darin forgot them - Sara to the rescue again with some red/black balloons to brighten the stand up and continue the birthday theme.  We did have the new shop counters again though, allowing us to sell the stickers and clothing and have the updated slideshow running again.  We didn't expect to receive any trophies or rosettes for the stand or the bikes but... we didn't.  You can guess where they all ended up.

Thanks to Rob, Tom, Fred, Gary and Simon for volunteering their bikes and for making it all so easy for us.  Thanks also to Sara, Chell and Nic for all their help and to everyone who popped along to say hello, including Ben from Classic Mechanics magazine who said he'd give us a plug and may be looking to feature some members' bikes soon.  Oh, and Travelodge, who didn't charge us for either the broken bed or for fumigating the room (no more curries for you Rob)...



Back to Home Page