South of England Classic Motorcycle Show
On a lovely spring day John Milton set off for the South of England Showground for one of the best-loved shows in the south east. Sharon Benton was on hand to take the photos.
March can be a tricky time for events. It was, I believe, the American poet and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson who described March weather as ‘savage and serene in one hour.’ To use a more modern analogy, like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never quite know what you’re going to get. Luckily enough, much of the South of England Motorcycle Show is under cover – almost two acres of it is indoors – and, even more luckily, this year we were blessed with a serene spring day. It may have been a little chilly (it was March after all) but that sunshine not only encouraged more visitors away from the electric and gas fires that we soon won’t be able to run but also cheered up the traders who’d taken outdoor autojumble pitches.
Over the years, the South of England show has grown to be a very popular event and one that always throws up a few surprises. That was even more the case this year with builders having been busy in their sheds and garages over lockdowns and enforced leisure time. Karl Foulkes Halbard, for example, had used the time wisely to finish the long-term restoration of his 1903 3¼hp Clement. Completed last year, it was the first time the Clement had been at the show and probably the first time most visitors, including me, had ever seen one of these rare machines in the flesh – it’s believed to be the only one in the UK. Another lockdown restoration was Keith Pottinger’s US spec Triumph Trophy, which was exported in 1958 to Johnson Motors in California and only returned to this country in 2020.
As usual, the show was well supported by many local (and not so local) clubs who had taken the trouble to each present a club stand. It’s only fair to give each club a mention – and I hope I’ve remembered everyone! – so represented were, in alphabetical order, the AJS and Matchless Owners Club (Sussex); the AJS and Matchless Owners Club (East London and Essex); the British Owners Club (Essex); BRT Racing; BSA Bantam Preservation Group; BSA Owners Club (East Sussex); FrancisBarnett Owners Club; Norton Owners Club (Surrey); Roaring Twenties MCC; Sunbeam MCC; Sussex British Motorcycle Owners Club; West Sussex Triumph Owners MCC and the Vincent HRD Owners Club. I wouldn’t have wanted to select just one of those for the Best Club Stand award, but someone had to and that accolade went to the British Owners Club (Essex) for its fine display, complete with appropriate set dressing, so well done chaps.
The clement weather smiled upon the FireUp Paddock; after all, no matter how much faith you have in your machine, there’s always a slight element of nervousness in starting it up in front of a crowd and trying to do that in the rain is never much fun. The bikes involved were a varied selection, from Neil Brailsford’s 1969 Seeley G50 that had been sympathetically modernised with a six-speed gearbox and Ceriani forks and brakes to the bike many of us had been waiting to hear.
Richard Johns is, by anyone’s yardstick, a very talented man. Before he retired, he was involved in developing and applying Computational Fluid Dynamics software to internal combustion engines. Now I have absolutely no idea what that is and I suspect that even if Mr Johns explained it to me I still would have no idea, but I do understand what he does to occupy his time these days and that’s building rather special motorcycles.
The latest is a recreation of the overhead valve 1000cc V-twin which was built in 1929 by AJS to attempt to break the world speed record. Despite an eventual speed of around 134mph after supercharging, the original one-off never broke the existing record.
Having built his ‘AJCette,’ a machine which combines AJS and Velocette parts and having made his own castings, Richard decided that his next project would be to make his own version of the world speed record attempt motorcycle using his initiative, skills and a lot of early Velocette parts he had stashed away.
It’s not an exact copy and it uses two Velocette Mk1 cylinder barrels, heads and cam boxes while, with the exception of Ducati pistons and a Harley-Davidson big end assembly, he then made everything himself. The result looks impressive and, yes, as its eagerly awaited performance in the Fire-Up Paddock demonstrated, it sounds impressive, too.
Once again, the South of England Classic Motorcycle Show provided something for everyone for just £7 on the door – it even laid on a decent drop of weather. It snowed the following week…