Banbury Run 2012 by Nicholas Biebuyck

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By our friend and guest contributor Nicholas Biebuyck

The same event, the same location, but 12 months apart : it's amazing how much can change in that time.

Banbury 2011 was a fairly straightforward event, with the AJS being delivered for me with the rest of The Classic Motorcyle team machines, and the Bonhams sale at Oxford and our stand display machines at the Run (featuring the Brough Moby Dick, a Coventry Eagle OHV Flying 8 and the AJS Porcupine!), meaning I was already in the area. I turned up, got on the machine, which performed perfectly, and went round the route for a most enjoyable day in ideal weather.

But for 2012 it was a very different affair: having landed from 3 days in Biarritz and Waves & Wheels on the Saturday afternoon and my father meeting me at the airport with the AJS in the back of the van, we headed straight to the midlands, awful weather and our very substandard hotel for the night.

The weather was no better in the morning and in our over enthusiasm we arrived ridiculously early at the start point (one of the many valuable lessons  we learnt for 2013 was to arrive at 11, park in the main car park and ride in!). Add to this the that AJ did not want to start for my pre event test, and on the arrival of the very generous owner who loans me my steed, he commented that the magneto had been playing up and had not been overhauled since he acquired the machine, the best part of 40 years ago.

Low and behold the K8 would not play ball on the start line, so a push on to the rollers and a good few apprehensive minutes of playing later it roared in to life. The look of determination on my face in the above photo comes from being a good 5 minutes late and determined to make up the ground that separated me from the others I knew on the Run.

Sadly it was not to be, as as soon as I left the Gaydon Heritage Centre site where the Run begins (one of the few locations in central England to see off 600 motorcycles) I realised I had virtually no fuel. I pulled a u turn at the first roundabout to get to the the nearest filling point, and after failing to convince the attend to let me keep the enging running while I filled up (I wonder why?) I killed then engine with the valve lifter.

Unsurprisingly it did not want to start when I went to kick it into life, and to add to the enjoyment it had really started to rain. As happens in middle England, a gentleman pulled into the petrol station to fill up a little 20's sports car (I think it was a Bugatti Brecia, one of my favourites of the period, but was too distracted) who then tried to bump start the AJ with me. No success though so I went back to kicking it over but ready for call for a recovery. My technique slowly came back to me, improving with each swing and the machine really wanted to go. At last it burst in to life and I was off.

Amazingly, other than a few wrong turns and some really awful weather with intervals of perfect British sunshine, the next circa 70 miles was fairly uneventful. I got up Sunrisings in top gear and even managed to stop for a half pint and chat with some friends half way round.

The one thing I really noticed about this years Run, and I hope some of the pictures below show, was the calibre of hardware. Maybe it was the same in 2011 and I was too excited to notice, but I had encounters with the 8 valve Montgomery Anzani which we sold a few years ago, a beautiful stovepipe Nimbus, a number of nicely patinated Zenith 680s, what seemed like never ending selections of Broughs (including a couple of spectacular SS80s) and Norton CS1 and a wonderful Husqvarna v twin from Sweden. Add to that a McEvoy outfit and Excelsior with some serious character as well as the unusual suspects of AJ Big Ports, Norton Model 18s, Scotts and Velos and you had what is easily the best line up of pre 1930 machines in one place in the world. Roll on Banbury 2013, and maybe a change of steed...

A huge thank you goes to my father, for help with the logistics of the weekend: it would not have happened without him, Bryan for loaning me his beautiful K8, James for hooking me up again, Frank for sharing his home town with me an to all at the VMCC for arranging an incredible event.


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