This post concerns two very different days of a weekend when I rode out to the Samford Show.
On Saturday 16th July 2011, I woke up to teeming rain, but I had brought my wet gear up into the house from the motorcycle shed on the Friday night, so I didn’t have to get drowned on the way to the shed.
I wore my full-face helmet for the first time in years, just to keep the rain off my face.
It rained all the way way there and I was thankful for the sidecar as I slithered about in the deep sloppy mud at the entrance to the showgrounds.
I set up the bike on display in the pouring rain and fled to the nearest tent.
There was a break in the rain and a 250cc 1954 Adler arrived and was parked next to my CJ.
On the Sunday, 17th July 2011, the original plan had been to attend the Annual Laverda Club Concours event which was to have been held at the Cleveland Showgrounds. The moon was hanging in a clear pre-dawn sky at 05:30 so I decided that our ride was on! We left home about 06:45. However, after more than an hour’s riding to get out to Cleveland, we learned that the event had been postponed due to inclement weather.
We all complained: “Haven’t they heard of wet gear?” But it turned out that the concours had been called off by the shire council in the interests of protecting the grass on their showgrounds.
We watched hundreds of bikes arrive and depart and then said to each other: “Let’s go to the Samford Show instead.
The weather was gloriously sunny. I filled the tank as we passed through Brisbane, and we arrived out at the show at about 11:15.
Lex Jepson on his Norton twin came out and joined us and took this photo of our bikes:
Lex’s Norton twin is in the foreground while a visitor inspects my bike.
For a long time we thought that this would be the second day running with only two motorbikes on display.
Then we heard a sound that was music to our ears! Another motorbike had turned up!
We were invited to ride in the Grand Parade on the main oval and lined up in front of the crowd for the presentations.
To my surprise, I was awarded the trophy for “Best Vintage Motorcycle”.
Later we were rounded up by the press for photographs for the various papers.