Stafford Show

Along with my good friends Jack N. I visited the Stafford Classic Mechanics Show yesterday, at the Stafford Showground and we were blessed with quite good weather for the time of the year. The only slight down side was that the autumn show is really dedicated to Japanese and other 'foreign' bikes. There were some interesting stalls and a fair few of the british owners clubs present but the ratio was greatly in favour of the Japanese machines.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Japanese motorbikes, in fact I greatly admire the engineering capabilities of the said genre, however I have never owned a eastern machine and have a greater love for British bikes (followed of course by American and European)

Below are just a few of the machines I could lust after:

A Brough Superior SS100 It was a similar model to this that T.E. Lawrence (Laurence of Arabia) rode, and eventually crashed and killed himself.

This is a lovely Ducati 175cc overhead camshaft engine with desmodromic valve gears. That means the inlet and exhaust valves were opened and closed mechanically thus doing away with valve springs and therefore valve bounce. a lovely example of 1960s Italian design.

This is a Douglas, I didn't make note of the model or the year, It is certainly 1920s and an horizontally opposed twin cylinder probably 350cc. Note the external flywheel, exposed primary chain, and almost complete lack of a front brake.

This is a Royal Enfield 250cc Crusader Sports. (approx 1964) I well remember as a young schoolboy waiting for my bus home near the bus station in Ardwick, Manchester, there was a motorbike shop and for quite a while that shop had one of these in the window. Just the same, signal red, clip on Handlebars and that big sporty looking front wheel hub. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Secretly I would still love to own one, though I doubt I ever will.

Finally this is a War Department Triumph TRW. A sidevalve 500cc parallel twin, I believe the engine was originally designed to power static generators and later adapted to fit in a motorcycle frame. I don't know why but I have always admired these machines, you don't see many on the road but they have a certain charm. I would rather own one of those than any 200mile per hour Japanese rocket ship. OK I admit it I'm a sad old sod.