Winterlude...the Carole Nash/Classic Bike Guide Show

08 January 2015

Winterlude...the Carole Nash/Classic Bike Guide Show

Something to look at when it's too cold to ride

John Newman

The snap of cold weather and snow immediately after Xmas day, added to my reluctance to get into the garage and head towards 2015 on a positive note by progressing my two bike projects. The MZ660 is dismantled and the frame and plastics need to be thoroughly cleaned before I present them for powder coating. And there are lots of decisions to be made as to wheels and brakes, engine dismantling and cleaning, tank replacement and general rebuilding spec...it's complicated, as the film title says.

The other project is more straightforward, as I'm placing it in the hands of someone who knows about these things. It's a 1988 Yamaha FZR250V4, that I bought on a whim of enthusiasm at last year's weather-ruined Thundersprint. Not quite old enough for classic racing – 1986 is the cut off year – but I'll use it to enter selected hill climbs, sprints and a maybe a couple of track days. Classic and Modern bikes in Droitwich will be setting it up and looking after it But I do need to clean, inspect and sort out a specification and budget.

I don't know about you, but when I go to shows, race meets and events it always rekindles my enthusiasm. Warmer and lighter days have a similar effect, but we've a couple or three months before we begin to turn the seasonal corner. So to keep the enthusiasm juices flowing I took myself off to the Newark Showground where the two day Winter Classic show was taking place on 3rd and 4th of January.

I used the car, but there were a few brave souls on two wheels. Respect; the temperature was only showing three or four degrees and by mid morning a steady rain had put a further damper on proceedings. The outside traders were looking decidedly miserable, and the ice cream stall looked forlorn and out of place.

Bike shows follow a familiar pattern with static displays and stalls punting recognisable products. But such is the ingenuity of bike builders that there're always ideas or innovations that have never been displayed before. Like the bloke who has built a cafe racer with a Vincent engine. Just one part of a build that used seven different bikes from which to source components – a picture was difficult to impossible to shoot as the private entry displays were lined up with little space between.

The Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club (VJMCC) and others crammed so many bikes into their display space that it was a strain to see the metal from the plastic so to speak. The specialist clubs such as Straightliners, the sprint organisation, the Classic Motorcycle Racing Club, and the classic trials clubs all had their 2015 programme leaflets available. Very useful for anticipating and planning the spring and summer ahead, and scheduling a few of the less conventional motorcycle sport events that we can publish in Wemoto News.

Steve Plater, the former BSB, TT and North West 200 racer was in attendance to interview John Reynolds the three times winner of the British Superbike Championship (BSB) who retired in 2005 after a serious crash and injuries at the final round of that years championship. The large exhibition hall at Newark is not the warmest place on a dank winters day, but the audience huddled round the small podium to listen to tales of yesteryear racing from these two.

Did this excursion kick start any in garage activity? Yes, in as much as I have entered he little Yam in it's first hill climb event in April so in the coming days I have to get it cleaned, sorted and in a van heading south to Worcestshire so that I give Gary at Classic and Modern enough time to complete the work.

If you're missing motorcycle based activity, and are fed up with the constant re-runs of last years races dished up on Eurosport. Here are a few shows and events organised over the coming weeks. And it may even be mild enough to put some miles and warm oil through the engine before planning spring rides: