Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show 2023

Feb 27, 2023

:

Paul Wirdnam

The annual Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show took place last weekend at the Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet and the Dorset Section had a stand as usual. I’ll leave the words to Andrew Rae (our stand organiser) who, with his group of kind volunteers, did an excellent job over the full three days.

Well that’s, another Bristol Classic Bike Show completed , and I feel 2023 was rather a good one! We arrived at noon on the Friday and the Team were already present and due to a lot of luck and some confusion Mortons had parked us in the Showering Pavilion, the posh hall, so with a little improvisation our stand was created. There was just time to put the kettle on when in a steady stream throughout the afternoon the generous section members and others who had been imposed upon arrived with a wonderfully mixed selection of Specials ( as requested by our esteemed leader ) we had motorcycles modified to go fast, some to travel through mud and a few that could do both, eleven machines in all, and so home for tea.

Bright and early on the Saturday the crew assembled and throughout the day tea, coffee and cake was provided for members and enthusiasts alike, the hall was indeed very crowded all day, sage advice and information was provided by the Team and the many owners of the display machines who helped out with the technical questions. At one point we nearly ran out of milk having consumed around half a gallon and a swift run to Shepton Mallet Co-Op was required. By the end of the day stocks were low in the cake department and our Ace Chefs worked overtime, baking on a Saturday evening!

Sunday, another cool dry day and the crowds only slightly thinner than Saturday but at a guess more than the norm. The day progressed in a similar fashion with some brief excitement at one point with an electrical problem. The trip switch shut off with a bang, the offending item located, isolated and normal service resumed promptly. While we may not have won any prizes the fact that we had a range of non standard machinery attracted a high level of interest. At four pm the motorcycles were reclaimed and in no time the stand dismantled and we were on our way. There are three important things to mention all of them a Thank You and forgive me for not mentioning names for there are far too many to list. Firstly the Dorset Section Show Team who have done all the back breaking stuff as well as tracking down fascinating exhibits and coaxing owners into trusting us with them. Secondly Thank You to those owners many of whom have created these Specials and then competed on them with great success and then allowed us to display them in a draughty hall in February, without you there would be no show! Finally and in my opinion most importantly an enormous Thank You to Bette and her team of Ace Chefs who spent many hours creating a wide variety of delightful cakes (all this for a pastime not always their prime personal interest) and then stood in the aforementioned draughty hall and with their cake provided tea and coffee to all comers ; indeed support beyond the call of duty. The result of all this hard work is that donations to the Somerset & Dorset Air Ambulance totalled £415 more than double last years amount, let us hope we can get the same stand location next year.

The bikes on our stand were: