Founders’Day
The hottest day of the year (July 18) saw many set their sights on the traditional day out at the picturesque Stanford Hall.
Now, this is the space where we’ve been talking about the lockdown project for the last year or so, but this month, well, we’ve been able to go out, and project progress has been slow – although Founders’ Day did link in with the project, which we’ll talk about later.
But to do Founders’ Day first. The traditional VMCC event, held at the fabulous Stanford Hall venue, is perhaps the last of (or one of the few remaining) old fashioned autojumbles, insomuch as there’s plenty of stallholders there who are simply clearing out their own sheds, rather than specialised traders. There are those too, of course, but there are also those who don’t really do other jumbles – a case in point being, for example, our old friend Derek Fox (we’ve featured his Coventry Eagle Flying 8, Nortons BRS and CJ and, in August 2011, Thor, his JAP-powered ex-Ernie Williams sprinter) who was there with a modest selection of wares, mainly Norton of course, plus a board depicting some of his later machines he wants to sell; Derek explaining that it’s the 1920s era which is currently floating his boat. It was great to see Derek again, like it was so many others.
Though the gates opened at 8am, it was nearer to 9am by the time I arrived, with the sun already scorching down. Early on I met up with John Oakes (keeper of the Vincent-HRDs featured last year) and his dad Paul; they’d been there since 8am and proudly asserted they were numbers one and two in the helmet park. In view of the weather, they’d left the Vincents at home, and were on ‘moderns’ – well, John his 1970s Morini, Paul a somewhat newer Honda. I somewhat sheepishly admitted I’d come by air-conditioned car…
Being out in the great outdoors was fabulous, though the heat was unrelenting – even stopping to talk to people, soon I was ushering them into a shaded area to chat. Of course, stallholders didn’t have that option, although, for example, Peter Rosenthal’s Pete’s Bikes stand did have a measure of shade early on, before the sun crept over the trees to unleash its full force onto the Rosenthal team, that being Peter, his mum Elaine and dad Richard, plus wife Rowena. Richard had even been and invested in a wide-brimmed hat; it was the sort of day to not be bareheaded. Welcome to the world of the follicly challenged!
While in the vicinity of the Rosenthal plot, and talking about this and that as one does at such events, vintage AJS enthusiast Richard Johns told me about his latest endeavours – have a look at www.vintageajs.uk at the latest project he’s on with. If I ask really, really nicely,
I’m hoping we may be able to do a feature in due course.
From there, it was a case of walking five yards and stopping again for a natter and a catch up with people I haven’t seen for a couple of years now – it was great to just chew the fat and find out what is what, and how people have coped.
Vincent specialist Andy Davenport made an interesting observation about how many motorcycles (particularly Vincents) seem to be coming up for sale at the moment; because of lockdown, people have been getting on with projects that have been loitering in the background for years, but Andy did also make the point about how with people unable to travel, they’d perhaps be doing jobs themselves that would normally/might be better off entrusted to specialists. It’s like he’d been reading about our lockdown Velo… though I know that wasn’t his intention. The point was more beware buying fresh ‘restorations’ with no miles on them.
Dealer Andy Tiernan (andybuysbikes.co.uk) reiterated that point as well, in general conversation. We were chatting away and a chap mentioned he’d restored a military 16H Norton in lockdown and might be looking to move it on. Andy was keen to find out whether it had been used at all (it had) before committing any interest.
Wandering from stall to stall, from stand to stand, it was possible to have all manner of conversations – V-twin BSAs, Vincents, Nortons, AJSs and Scotts were just some of the topics covered. And Velocettes – lots of Velocette chat. Whether it’s because I know more people in that world than any other, or just that there are a lot of fans of the Hall Green marque, there was a lot of chatter about them while I also reckon there were more people wearing Velocette T-shirts than any other make – or, again, is that just because I noticed them?
Kevin Thurston, from KTT Services, was in attendance with a few handsome looking motorcycles, while Kevin was buying a seat from another stand (another Velo fellow, John Shaw, actually) that Thurston the younger reckoned might suit Thurston the senior, Ray, for his special. Later, I also caught up with Mark Huggins,
“As well as the autojumble, owners’ club stands are a really important part of Founders’ Day, with the central arena a hive of activity too.”
pushing his nearly finished rather smart Model K away from the display area. Mark’s Thruxton had a lot of ‘Thurston input’ and was one I rode some years ago (December 2012 issue), it was a truly cracking bike, and this K is Mark’s latest project. Bought at Founders’ Day in 2018, it’s been a fairly extensive rebuild and Mark is looking forward to putting some miles on it. It’s always worth reiterating that these early cammy Velos (Mark’s is late 1925, though a 1926 model) came with a fully recirculating oil system, about five years before such would be considered the expected norm.
As well as the autojumble, club stands are a really important part of Founders’ Day, with all the various one-make and owners’ clubs around the periphery, with the centrally located ‘show arena’ a constant hive of activity, with everything from parades, to trials demonstrations and interviews/talks too. As an example, the local blood bikers were on hand to explain about the important role they play.
By mid-afternoon, all were clearly becoming weary and some traders had already started packing up their wares, and by 4pm, it was starting to resemble a ghost town. A very hot ghost town, but a ghost town nonetheless. Another Founders’ Day drew to a close, with a lot of sun-drained folk beating a homeward journey, often clutching that part they’d always been looking for, even if they hadn’t necessarily known they’d always been looking for it, until they found it…