Classic Mechanics Show, Stafford, October 2019
Was there a theme this year ? Yep, mud. Even as we arrived just before 3pm on Friday afternoon, the big yellow site tractor was already
dragging various hapless vans, cars and trailers out of the quagmire. We thought we'd parked sensibly but after we'd set the stand
up and were about to head off to the hotel, our van needed rescuing too. Saturday was even worse, although we managed to escape the wet field
without help that time. God knows what the campsite was like...
Oh, you mean a theme for the stand ? Well, no - we get so few offers of help these days that we're grateful for whatever we can get. As it turns
out, we ended up with an all-aircooled theme though, thanks to new bloke Andy and his super-rare Rieju GT404 50cc single. That was joined by Phil's
RD400F, Karl's modified KH250 and Andy's RV125 beach bike. Plus Tim's KS-II, which was the only one small enough to cram in his van at the last
minute. Weirdly, even though we'd told 'em we were only taking 5 bikes this year, the organisers gave us a plot much bigger than last time, which
provoked a few friendly (?) jealous comments from other exhibitors.
All we've ever wanted to do is get people to drag their interesting bikes out of the shed and show 'em off to a wider audience. We'd prefer not
to display the same bikes every year 'cos it's not just you who get bored looking at them, we do too. Only the little Kawasaki had been
shown before, but we got the feeling that our slight deviation from 80's race-reps and grey-imports misfired a little. Saturday was busier than
Sunday (the rain drives people inside) but no-one seemed particularly delighted to see us all weekend. Maybe all the other clubs experienced
that too, we're not sure. Being tied to the stand all weekend means we missed a lot of the show ourselves anyway.
Here's a few pics of stuff we did manage to see on our way to or back from the bogs (pun very much intended). Tom Mac's unveiling of the iconic
and long-missed 7-Up LC won a trophy, as did the little NSR50 and the Triples Club's recreation of a 1970's Kawasaki dealer shop front - all very much
well deserved.
So that leaves us wondering what to do next year. We've already had one enthusiastic offer to bring a bike along, but we've been doing this
for 14 years in a row and certain people must have earned a break surely ? What do you think ?
Big thanks to Andy, Phil, Andy, Karl, Tim, Rob, Sara and especially the chap that dragged the DS van out of the mud with his little Suzuki jeep.
