Brooklands Bike Show 2023

 

Brooklands Bike Show 2023

 

Always things seem to happen on the same day, Wey Valley Observed Sunday and the Bike Show. My usual is to support the shop and spend the morning helping out. This Sunday I would finish early and head over to Brooklands to support the club stand at the show. It was quite profitable at the shop and I finished early but not before I had taken photos of the bikes in the car park and pretended to be part of the old stock.

It was quite busy at Brooklands as I threaded my through the crowds to the Club Stand near the Jackson shed. I parked the Buell with the other machines on the display. Next to the stand was another bike club with an interesting display of machines among them were a supercharged Aermacci and a seven cylinder radial engined creation called Radial Nerve. The owner started this one up for us and with minimal exhaust sounded really sweet. I could feel a similar project brewing with my spare Valiant frame. The radial engine is produced by a Czech company for use in period model aircraft. They do two sizes, the seven cylinder, 360 cc and fourteen cylinder 720 cc versions.

During the afternoon I did a walk about viewing the test hill and some speedway bikes that cleared it extremely quickly keeping an eye out for John from the LE club and his Valiant as he had got it running and said he would be there or I could have just missed him. Not far from the hill was the ABC stand. Notable because they are Granville Bradshaw’s creation that were made close by in Hersham. I like the ABC flat twins because of the ingenuity of the design in particular the leaf spring suspension. Something I have mentioned before but not I have had a chance to talk to someone about the ride. It is as good as I thought it would be. Able to soak up really rough roads to make a smooth comfy ride. An excellent system for the technology of the day (1919). The only drawback was the lack of suitable damping at that time. He could have used friction dampers as on the 1930’s racing Guzzis.

There was an excellent selection of classic British lightweights with a smattering of Continental glam. Electric bikes from Zero and Maeving were across the road from us and doing a grand job of providing test rides. I don’t own one but I have range anxiety just thinking about it. Eighty miles is not far and my trip to Cobham then to Brooklands and home clocked 75 miles. There would not be much be much left in the battery  after that trip.