Stafford 2002
The Classic Motorcycles Mechanics Show
Stafford County Showground
Stafford.
The Club has landed. And landed firmly on it's feet. We had a last minute booking at the show and rather hurriedly the wheels started to turn and the plans where made for the first Z1300 Owners Club public appearance.
The response was fantastic, people where walking into the Sandylands Hall and stopping in their tracks with wide open mouths as they stared at the impressive sight of six of the finest machines on the road.
Many of you guy's came down to meet us and it
was great to see you all, I felt privileged to part of such an enthusiastic
club. I would think every club would be envious of the commitment and support
you all showed. I will certainly make the Stafford Show an annual event.
Friday saw Tim drop his Tourer of and shoot back home because he had to work. He brought his own formula one team with him who unloaded, assembled then polished his bike for him. Well done lads. Dave and Phil arrived so much to my relief we had four bikes on Friday night. Fingers crossed that Pete was going to turn up on Saturday.
All of us on the stall had a great time, despite mother nature trying to freeze us in our beds at night. On Friday night we huddled in a van and slowly got pi$$ed in a bid to numb the ever increasing cold that was descending upon us. We may look happy and warm but that was just a show for the camera!
We decided the only way to get warm was to either burn Dave's van or go to bed. We chose the later option. I left a half drank can of beer on my car roof. It was frozen in the morning. Before heading to the hall I poked my head into Dave's van where he was heating a can of all day breakfast just to melt it because it had frozen solid and he couldn't get it into the pan.
Here's our tent, just image the ear bashing I got because I was too tight to book us into a bed and breakfast. The frost was on the inside as well, which prompted an emergency phone call to Tim who was on his way back up to the show after dropping his bike off yesterday to bring Sandra a hot water bottle!!! Cheers Tim Sandra will ever be in your debt.
Whilst on the stand a guy came over and said he had a Voyager in the main hall on the Classic Kawasaki Stand, so I wandered over and took a few pictures of it. It was a nice looking machine.
The genius Alan Millyard was there with a few of his creations. Below are a couple of pictures.
Saturday saw Pete arrive with loads of time to spare. We unloaded his two machines, one of which broke the plank we where using as a ramp! Heart attack time but we got it off okay with some help from other stand holders. (Cheers guy's) The day flew as you guy's visited us and chatted to us. The show was vast I didn't get chance to fully look around. I know you guy's found loads of bargains. Saturday night we called for a mini bus and headed into Stafford where we... yep had a drink or ten (Phil). Below are photo's of us enjoying the warmth of a local public house.
Here are some bikes and stands from the various halls.
Alan Millard won best of show with the V12 but this RD400 air-cooled deserves a special mention. I have had several but non looked anything like this. I bet it'd give my 13 a run for it's money.
I don't know how many people visited the show but it was a big show and looked constantly packed I'd guess 25000 people. I'll let you know the exact figure when I find out.
