Putting the old stuff on hold again, we recently had a great meeting of the yayhoos at the Barber Vintage Festival. This has always been one of our favorite events because its got pretty much everything; an incredible museum, huge swap meet, trials, Cross Country, road racing, and is kinda central so a pretty wide swath of our group come to play. This year there were contingents from North Carolina, Indianapolis, Texas, Philly, Tennessee, and of course us Florida Folk. It made for a pretty chaotic campsite, mostly fueled by beer and grilled meats. However, it was the first outing for the new van, Shark 10 (no real story there, it was on the windshield when we got it and we kinda decided that was a cool name, so it stayed) and that made it feel a bit more like a real race camp.
But I can't even get to the racing yet! Oh no! This year I was permitted to put Sloss Furnaces on the agenda, so on the Friday before the race Jay, George, Max and I loaded up in my Dad's vehicle to be chauffeured in style to a nerd paradise. Sloss is a relic of Birmingham's industrial past, an almost completely intact iron works that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Effectively they just shut down the cupolas one day then opened it for visitors. Truly incredible. Here's my Pops and Jay, wondering if their tetanus shots are up to date.
Max, getting a proper overview
I prolly coulda spent most of the weekend wandering around this place. Its just cool, cool, cool.
But enough of that! This is a blog about old bikes, for crissakes! And we had a pretty good bunch of us out there. NC was represented by Brian, on the venerable Field Pig who sadly threw his chain just yards into the first lap, Chad on one 'a them BSA single thingies, and Alex, on another BSA single thingie. Here's Chad (3c) and Alex (652) on the line. Chad was in Classic Intermediate and Alex was with me in Premier Intermediate.
Max was up front in Classic Expert and after a loooong break since we last raced (way back at Diamond Dons in the spring) was really ready to be back out on a course. He may have been a little nervous, too, having not really run in anger for months.
You'll notice the other two Florida goons in the background.
George was on his Tr5t, and I was on the Mongrel 20, which was continuing to improve. I'd just had to repair the seat (read: weld the hell out of it), which was a replica item and not up to the job of supporting my capacious arse.
George's bike had given him a bit of a scare, developing a case of Mystery Lack of Any Power Whatsoever, but luckily it had just been a near complete fouling of the 400 supertrapp discs with mud a crud. A quick dip in gas and a disc scrubbing and it was ready to go.
Indy was represented by Sean "I gotta two stroke and don't even care about the other two strokes" Guthrie, on a rather shiny Penton. He was in Novice for his first race, so got to start with us Vintage Coots.
Here's Max, off the line and on to a flying race on a a really good course.
It was about 3 miles long, lots of tight woods, some ups a downs, though nothing nasty except for one short scrabbly bit with a bear of a rock outcrop on top. A lot of fun, but I may have kinda flubbed it a time or two...sad to say (with apologies to any riders stuck behind me). I wasn't alone, though, so I don't feel too bad.
Some decent racing shots, starting with Max, who was really movin'
He was in a duel with Tim Grow and the two of them were cookin'. They came by me and I just stopped and watched them race off through the trees. Good stuff. Far above my pay grade. Next is Alex, your general purpose Flying Bratwurst and my arch-rival in Premier Intermediate.
Here's Chad, The Attack Brisket, proving there's no weight limit on a little BSA.
He would go on to win Classic Int after the aforementioned Field Pig de-chaining put Brian out, and George tagged his foot, leading to his retirement with a lap in the bag. But not before we got some pics of 'im!
And finally, a couple of me. I had a decent race, but as usual its still a work in progress, so there's things to tweak, mainly clutch longevity and a bit of funky geometry in the bespoke oil tank that causes most of its contents to be pumped out the overflow tube.
I should have another couple shots soon, including some more of Max, who really had a good day. He may have finished 3rd in his class, but he finished 4th overall in the race, proving two things: that's one helluva class, and dude can ride a big ol' Triumph through the woods.
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