Manchester National Bike Show

A small turnout this year, which was a shame as the weather was better than some of last Summer's days, which saw Stue, Lainey, Kit & Clive getting together to take in the sights, sit on loadsa bikes, ogle scantily clad young lasses, and all the other stuff you do at shows.

The excellent weather in the Manchester area, dry with bright warm sunshine, encouraged Clive & Kit to attend on Beemy, their '86 K100RS (it has roomy panniers for all the stuff you seem to end up with at these events), whereas Stue & Lainey's village was wet and cold, with ice in the offing, so they came by car.  It seems that Garf has gone skiing, at short notice, Simon & Debbie were unable to attend due to a close relative's illness and Del & Mary were only possibles, given how far Newcastle is from Manchester.  You were all missed folks, but then the Social's now less than three weeks away.

The show was its usual mix with all the major manufacturers represented by their dealers, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, Triumph, BMW, Ducati and the like, along with a few more unusual makes such as Hyosung who were the only ones to have and be keen to hand out catalogues complete with price lists!  A moderate display of vintage and classic bikes was on show and all manner of stunt riding sessions available throughout the day.  There were, again, a vast range of suppliers of all manner of things bike-related or otherwise such as; Far Canal ('T-shirts with less culture than yoghurt'), The Rocket Centre, New Horizons Bike Hire and umpteen helmet, gloves, boots and biking wear outfits.  Kit had been half on the lookout for a new helmet - her old one being some eight years old now - and came away with a good deal on a Shark S 500 AIR which she was well pleased with - wore it on the way home and was well impressed by it's comfort and lightness.  Lainey snapped up some new leather gloves - medium weight for the between-seasons, and which came in their own wallet.

Clive & Kit were there and queued up to get in just before the event opened at 10:00, and once in (having paid the extortionate £12 per adult) had a quick wander around before going off to have a close look at the large collection of bikes at the Hunts exhibition, the Official Manchester dealer.  They seemed to have just about every model Honda make .... other than the Blackbird!  We got the feeling that Honda is hoping that a low-key approach may allow the big 'Bird following to die on the vine.  This belies the fact that the people at Hunts obviously favour the model like so many others do, as they choose it as their own transport and employ them as marshal bikes on their organised ride-outs.

At the arranged meeting time of 10:30 no other Ferrets appeared, and indeed by 11:00 Clive & Kit were the only ones there so ventured further afield, to sit on as many bikes as possible and to ferret through the various wares on offer.  However, at about 11:30 they nipped out for a quick fag and realised that Clive had missed a call in the hubbub of the hall.  This was from Stue & Lainey who had been there half an hour, having been late leaving home, so the four met up and continued their wander amongst the stalls.

Clive found a couple of nice Triumphs, in particular the Thruxton, that would certainly be offered space in his imaginary unlimited garage.

Whereas Lainey was inexplicably drawn to a scooter!  Whilst Kit worked out that her ideal bike size would be this natty little Honda CBR125 - she was very taken, so maybe that promise of doing her CBT may happen this year.  Keeping up on the rides might just be a touch problematic though!!!

So, all in all a very enjoyable day only marred by not having seen more Ferrets, and the weather meant that this was the first time that one of Clive's bikes had been out this year.  Roll on a superb biking 2008 .... we sincerely hope, and many more chances to get to see as many of the Ferrets as possible.

A Very Happy New Year and a Great Biking 2008 to You All

Photographs courtesy of Stuey

Page Updated

28/06/2008 23:54