1000 Bikes Festival 2007 - Glorious Exeter
Added on Friday, July 20th, 2007 by Carole Nash Editor
Custom Harley Davidson
The South West Motorcycle Show is usually blessed with sunny weather and, despite a miserable summer so far, 2007 proved no exception. I sat down listening to House of Kane playing some popular rock classics, with sunshine blazing down, and had to pinch myself to believe I was in the same soggy island that had seen torrential downpours, flooding and ridiculously cold weather in June and July.
This year I noticed more cruiser and custom type bikes than ever before in the car park, and alongside the numerous tourers parked up, it is becoming obvious that the sportbike is on the way out in the UK as the dominant force in the market.
Whether it is too many cameras, sneaky police traps, bikers getting older ‘n’ creaky, or too much damn traffic on the roads…whatever the reasons for the sportbikes’ demise, it seems that the bikers of the South West of England have decided to turn to cruisers instead. There were loads of ‘em on the roads leading to and from the show.
If you looked at the new 2007 Victory and Harley Davidson bikes inside the show hall you might be tempted yourself. From a sleek 1200 Sportster, to a blinged up Victory Vegas there’s a terrific variety of models on offer and these types of bikes don’t seem to suffer the same chronic depreciation that many other machines do.
Of course there’s more to a bike show than new bikes, and although GT Motorcycles, PGH, Riders of Bridgwater and other dealers had virtually all the 2007 manufacturers machine son display, it was a good idea to have a second-hand bike display area too. I’d go one further myself and have a bike auction on the Sunday, with viewing and entries accepted on the Saturday – why let e-bay get all the sales action?
Another new feature for 2007 was the Tigers bike display team. These kids were really something else to watch, with riders as young as 6 years of age doing various tricks; riding through a fiery gateway, plus older riders leaping cars – all closely supervised by adults of course.
It is brilliant in an age of health ‘n’ safety nannying to see kids doing something adventurous, risky even. Plus they aren’t glued to a computer game, watching crack whores being gunned down in a virtual world. Maybe if more kids did things like an organised stunt show there would be fewer riders roaming chav estates on stolen trail bikes? Just an idea.
In the main stunt arena there was the usual show featuring Marc Gillespie, Paul Swift (standing in for injured Dad Russ), Ashley Mark and Mick Cross doing his wacky tricks on the mighty Ural sidecar outfit. Paul Swift did a terrific routine featuring a spinning Evo smoking its tyres, a Focus C-Max on two wheels and the incredibly tricky precision parking – just inches to spare.
New boy Ashley Mark was also impressive, especially the trick where he lays his bike on the deck, then gets it spinning whilst perched on top. The final tyre-smoking burnout, with Paul spinning the Mitsubishi around the pair of riders as they set their bikes ‘head to head’ was worth the admission price alone.
As a self-confessed ‘grumpy old git’ I always enjoy looking at a few classic bikes and it brought a wry smile to face to see some restored Brit café racers, Yamaha Fizzy mopeds and RD250/350LC machines, did we really ride so hard on those skinny tyres and stop the bikes with those weedy brakes? I have to say we have it easy on today’s bikes by comparison, although I think some of the older designs still look absolutely stunning – a Dresda or Rickman café racer with a CB750 or Z900 motor still looks the business in my rose-tinted world.
Other stuff that caught my eye included Paul Sinclair’s Triumph powered hearse, plus a wedding themed trike by Rewaco. I also liked some of the AGV clothing in the fashion show – AGV have just been bought by Dainese, so watch out for some cool looking bike kit from them in 2008.
It was fun all the way in Exeter, with plenty of new bikes, classics, customs, crazy stunts and everything in between – the way a bike show should be – something for everyone, regardless of age or particular biking interest. See ya next year.
Pro’s:
Great variety of entertainment, excellent stunt arena
Con’s:
Nowt worth mentioning
