The New Year started at Newark…

The CBG Winter Classic might be dedicated to classic motorcycles but it also hosts ‘Scooter World’ for spectators to admire. Roy Workman enjoyed both aspects of this growing event…

This very popular show is held at the Newark Showground just off the A1 in Lincolnshire. I rode in to display my machine on the club stand at 8.15 on Saturday morning, and the visitors’ car park was already rapidly filling up. This show is getting better every year.

The show opens to visitors at 9am on both days, with a full programme of events. The first event on the timetable each day was guest of honour Frankie Chilli, World Superbike legend; he raced for twenty years and rode in more than 400 top-level races. He was being interviewed by Steve Plater on the main stage. Frankie and Steve were kept busy during the day, being involved with the Blast From The Past feature where bikes and scooters are fired up – this can get quite noisy!

Something new this year was ‘Workshop Wisdom’, where two experts were on hand to answer any questions about problems that you may have with your machine.

As a visitor coming through the entrance, the large hall to your right has a great display of classic bikes and club stands. The bikes on display were of a high quality, and the owners were a pleasure to talk to. There were various trade stands as well, and all were worth a look.

In a new position this year, just outside the hall, was the Motogymkhana; it was interesting to watch the riders whizzing through the cones. One of the machines that was being used was the new Royal Enfield 650cc twin, and it performed very well. You could sign up for a go at this provided that you had full riding gear and your licence with you. There were eight sessions, each for three people, per day and each session lasted 30 minutes.

Close by was the marquee with loads of trade stands and autojumble stalls, with plenty of riding gear for sale plus a few secondhand bikes. I spotted some friends; one was happy that he had been able to buy a new tyre for his bike at £15 less than the price quoted on eBay. Another friend was looking for a new crash helmet and there was a wide selection to choose from. At an event like this it is amazing how many people you know and bump into!

The reasonable weather led to the largest display of traders out on the grass area that I have seen for a couple of years. There are four more halls to visit, all packed full of bikes and trade stands, where you can buy anything from riding kit and tools to old bike manuals. It is well worth a look at these stands as there could well be something that you could use now or in the future.

The last hall you came to was for scooters; I was told that there were about 150 of them on display. modradio.co.uk was playing music all day long; this was the only hall to have this. Some of the vehicles on show had some wonderful paint jobs.

Walking around the show you could see rosettes on class-winning machines; one I noticed was a 1938 Triumph Speed Twin, which won first place in the pre-war class. This bike is fairly local to me and I have seen it on the road – it sounded good and it is finished to a high standard.

It was interesting to see that the show is certainly up-to-date with the new decade. This year there were two traders, co-incidentally both from Navenby in Lincolnshire and one was displaying electric bicycles. The other one was displaying Supersoco electric motorcycles which, I was told, are good for about 60 miles in an urban setting.

On Sunday afternoon the presentation of awards took place; these were sponsored by Carole Nash.

You will not go hungry here as there is a large selection of food outlets, but talking to one trader I was told that none of these remained open once the show closed to the public, which meant that the traders and exhibitors had to bring food with them or leave the site if they want an evening meal on the Saturday…

All in all a great weekend. I was delighted with the weather – windy but mainly dry – which was much better than the ice on which I rode home after last year’s show. Well worth a visit. I will be back next year.

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Words and photos by Roy Workman

The next big event on the ClassicBikeShows calendar is the Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show: advance tickets available here