Banbury Run 2008

This year's Banbury Run was held at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire on Sunday 22nd June. The event is for motorcycles made before 31st December 1930. The day was dry but windy enough to topple a few of the machines in the paddock area, hopefully not causing too much damage to any of the motorcycles.
We spent quite some time going round the pit area taking photos of the weird and wonderful assortment as riders and machines were checked before the start at 10.00. including the following:

This is a Wall Auto Wheel, with an engine capacity of 118cc built in 1913.
Purchased from Murray's Museum on the Isle of Man this 1922 Autoglider De Luxe (269cc) in 2005 had been unused since 1930.

A 1903 Hunter Olympia Tandem that churns out a whopping 2 & 3/4hp. Get peddling on anything but level ground!

Ian is inspecting this 1929 Brough Superior OHV 680. This motorcycle had been dismantled in 1965 and exported to Australia and brought back to the UK in 2003 still in pieces.

A 1910 Indian single cylinder fitted with a 1913 frame. This motorcycle has only had two owners in its life.




Of course not all the motorcycles were in pristine condition, for example
this 1917 Excelsior American Army 1000cc was used in France at the end of World War One, ended up in a museum in London until the present owner rescued it and has used it regularly since the 1960's.
As 10.00 approached we made for the first corner to watch many of the early machines setting off on their routes before walking a little further to take some more photos.
Some of the riders got into the spirit of the occasion by dressing in period costume,
Ralph Boreham on his 1919 Triumph L.W. Junior 2 1/4hp, wearing a WW1 uniform, even if all hostilities had ceased in 1918.

John Scott was hoping for better luck on his 1927 Scott Squirrel this year. Last year was his first Banbury having spent 17 years rebuilding the bike. You guessed it, he managed 17 miles before breaking down outside a pub.

A 1921 Raleigh Flat Twin 700cc made in our home town.


A special mention goes to Des James riding his 1911 New Hudson Model 3B, going for his 8th oldest bike/rider award.

Having watched over half of the 600 entrants set off we decided to find the auto jumble where there was many stalls selling spares, bikes for a winter project, for example
enamelled signs
as well as t-shirts. books and magazines.

Since Roy managed to upgrade my computer (many thanks once again), I have managed to start uploading some of my video onto You Tube. Here are a couple of Banbury clips I have put on.
The first is a motorcycle Ian, Guzzisue or myself thought we would never see, never mind being run on the road. It is a 1915 Henderson E model.






To finish with a 1924 Triumph Model P 500cc based on the Shuttleworth Speed Demon from the George Formby film "No Limit"



If you enjoyed these short films I have posted two more. Just search "bikerted1100" on You Tube and this should bring up all my film clips.