After sunshine all week, the weekend weather was a little disappointing but at least it was dry. Gus was up at the crack of dawn this morning, in spite of the clocks moving forwards, because he wanted to watch roundy roundy racing on the telly. I stayed in bed to try and catch up on some sleep and was woken up with a nice cup of tea at 9.00am.
Having sold the XBR and the Serow and not having got around to MOTing either the Morini or Herbert the XL185, the only road legal and running bikes at the moment are the Tribsa and Horation the XL185. Gus took the Tribsa and I took Horatio. After filling up with petrol, we headed off through Much Wenlock and along Wenlock Edge towards Church Stretton and then to Wistanstow. It was a little chilly for my kevlar jeans (bargain Triumph ones from the Stafford Show - only £20!!) but not uncomfortably so.
Arriving at the show earlier than I ever have done before, it was clearly very busy and we had to queue for a little while to get in. The entrance fee was a reasonable £3 and there was plenty of parking space, with a field for overflow parking as well as the village hall car park. There was a huge variety of bikes of all ages and genres and it took a while just to cross the parking field. We spotted a new Norton Commando - looks better "in the flesh" than in the pictures, I think - and a new W800 which looks every bit as good as the pictures. A shame it doesn't have a kickstart, like the W650, but still a lovely looking machine.
I won't say much more about the bikes, you can see them in the slideshow, but it was good to see Tim's Royal Enfield on the road at last. He and Myles have put a lot of time and effort into it and it looks and sounds lovely.
There were several of the North Staffs BSAOC there (they do get about a bit!). Colin P. was having some clutch trouble but, as always, Myles could be relied upon to have suitable tools so Colin and Captain Kipper were able to fix the problem. I did spot a rather nice looking cake in Myles' trailer - a whole cake that is, not just a slice. Still, it is probably all gone by now........
After a quick drink in the local pub, we headed for Ironbridge to have Sunday lunch at the Robin Hood Inn. I rather enjoyed following the Tribsa for a while - it's nice to hear what your own bike sounds like to other people. It sounds good btw! I even managed to overtake things on the XL185, that was fun. One of the good things about small bikes is that 60mph feels exciting! The Tribsa seems to have decided not to leak as much oil as it used to (yes, it does still have oil in it!) but could do with me getting around to fitting the new barrels and pistons.
