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Sunday morning in a field in Aberdeenshire a picture of ‘hungoverness’ crawls out of a tent and proffers a piece of paper at me, 1st Barking Bike Show ? it reads, Never heard of it, duh, that’ll be coz there’s no been one before ya dunt !, well it was early Sunday morning ferchrissakes :-) A few weeks later the phone call comes in askin’ me to be one of the judges. So with some meteorological trepidation we head off for Dundee |
 Charlie & Graham looking just a wee bit tired at the end of the night. |
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The idea for this show came from Charlie and Billy who soon hauled in anyone who was willing and able and/or sober to contribute. In less than 3 months the plan went from what seemed a good idea, to an all day event, which in the end raised £1,000 for the special care baby unit and childrens wards at our local hospital (Ninewells) which is no mean feat for a first show I may add. The club scrounged and wheedled prizes from anyone and everyone, local councillors and bike suppliers amongst others. A web page was set up and they started emailing and advertising before they could even finalise acts! I like optimists. They pushed forward in a positive mood - they didn't dare do otherwise!! . Just shut their eyes and went for it. |
 Don't Jump ! |
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They even spoke to the local constabulary just fudging a little on our expectations of numbers!! Which may have been just as well as 60+ bikes turned out on the day. The day arrived with lovely grey clouds and a cold wind. Undaunted and fraught with the nervous energy of ‘kinellizoanybodygonnaecome’ the club set the tent and the barbies too, courtesy of Stevie,G and an oil drum were up and running. They gave off a fair old heat at least - if you could breathe through the smoke for the first half hour!! Fire extinguisher at hand just in case. Maureen (Charlie's mum) and G were up and running with burgers of various description, kebabs, steak baguettes and other hot stuff flying out so fast that they ran out just 15 mins before finishing time. Tasty they were too, the burgers that is. In the meantime bikes arrived, booked in and some were even polished up on site |
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A lesson from the club, blokes take note here - when you want to make a comment to a woman about the bike she's with belonging to her bloke- SHUT UP- instead ask first who's bike it is and you might well still have your head left on your shoulders. Especially if it’s Joan and her Triumph Lots of ladies out there are giving the blokes a run for your money with their bikes. The one in question here won best in show! Initially there were going to be three judges, one didn’t turn out and the other was Rab from the S&S who, to his credit, in the name of fairness, left me to judge and provided background info on the bikes whilst not letting on if they were S&S bikes, which the majority of them were. |
 Charlie's Mum beats the errant burgers into submission |
 Classic - XS650 Hardtail - JSU 275T Custom - GSX750 - TTN 858N Paint - Gpz550 - A56 VOS Club Turnout - Saint's and Sinners Engineering - ST02 JME - Spondon GSXR Rat - GS850 - BEB334V Furthest Travelled - Treebeard, Southend-on-Sea In-Show - Joan's Triumph YYJ 971 |
 OEM accessory for all old Triumphs |
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As to be expected Saints and Sinners won most of the trophies except for one in particular which was furthest travelled. One poor bloke had ridden up from Manchester expecting to win. Hair 'o' the Dog members had a good laugh at that one courtesy of ‘Treebeard’ who hails from Southend on Sea - 506 miles!(Honorary Hair 'o' the Dog member) The music sound varied from a ceildh band, which really need folk to be MUCH more full of the drink to appreciate them fully, to thrash and rock cover bands with DJ's Col, Doug and Stef also doing sets. PA came courtesy of Mitch who slaved the day away. An excellent time was had by all, many laughs along the way and while members said never again early on Sunday morning by the end of the same day, filled with more than a few beers, the talk made its way around to "what will we do for next year!!" |
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The club hopes to see you all next year and thanks to all who were involved Words - Al & Graham, Pics Al & Big Thanks To Chris for hangin' on to get the trophy pics, cheers mate. |
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