Snow Mann season
For me, the season starts with Stafford show, closely followed by the Snow Mann Hill Climb. The venue is a twisting tarmac road up to a local beauty spot and although the event is competitive, it’s a test of skill – regularity – not speed. You ride up at whatever pace you feel confident you can match on successive runs, the aim being to get the same time, every time. There’s a box near the top in which you have to pause and restart, and the event begins with negotiating cones, feet-up, in a deeply rutted farmyard.
The East Sussex VMCC chose this format wisely; it sidesteps the difficulties inherent in speed events, but perhaps more importantly it encourages a wider range of entries as the requirement is not speed so much as predictability. Despite competing against various newer and more exotic machinery, from Bantams to Benellis, plodding singles to snarling twins, this year’s winner was Chris Pile on his 1928 side-valve Sunbeam.
I’m not competitive-minded. At school, I was crap at sport; so what? To me, any form of event is about having fun, not worrying about perfect gearing or whether my tyres are as good as the other guy’s. My prize is a good day out and the Snow Mann never disappoints. That said, taking my Martinsyde was the wrong choice. It has a big jump from first to second which it usually powers through – even when taking a hill – but combined with a sharp bend on the hill, it went right off the boil. Still, I had the same problem every time, so my times weren’t too bad.
Here’s to a great summer of riding and events!
‘MY PRIZE IS A GOOD DAY OUT AND IT NEVER DISAPPOINTS’