VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes, at Mallory Park

The Weather was much better for this years VMCC 1000 Bikes Festival but pretty hot for sketching. I spent most of my time in the sprint bike tent in the paddock to avoid getting sunstroke, which I still got from sketching outside after 3pm! In other news the event was packed full of bikes as usual, more modern entries than normal, not sure why? There was still plenty to see and loads of interesting folks to chat to. If you haven't been before it's well worth it as you'll always see something new as there are many motorcycle clubs in attendance and couple that with an auto jumble, trials riding on Saturday and Sprint racing on Sunday oh and star riders racing each other on the track, this year Agostini and John McGuinness went head to head! What more could you ask for?

Manx Superior

(ink & watercolour)

Built using a Brough engine that was raced in the 60's and a Norton Manx Frame and gearbox this Manx Superior certainly caught the eyes of a lot of people.

You can see it's a genuine Manx frame from the large loop at the back, coupling this with a late J.A.P. twin it makes this a very well though out machine. The man behind the bike is Ewan Cameron who has a real fascination with JAP Motors.

Always love these back to back Mags.

"The Ironing Board" Velocette MOV Special

(ink sketch)

Apparently not much is known about this sprint bike. The current owners estimate that it was originally made in the late 60's early 70's due to it having a metal flake paint job. The heart of the bike is a Velocette MOV engine which has had a later alloy barrel from a 350 Velo MAC added by chopping it down to shorten the stroke.

1956 Supercharged Harley KHK Special

(ink sketch)
A Harley KHK is a rare bike in the first place but to supercharge it and take it to Bonneville is even Better. Patrick Delli has put a lot of work into this bike and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he beats his last record of 107mph on the flats this year. 107mph is not bad for this bike as 119mph is the record for it's class. The bike runs 2 Magnetos and a supercharger and uses Methanol. Last time out a Bonneville the bike wasn't even finished before it left, and it took a week of work in the states to get it ready. This time the bike is ready before shipping so, bon chance Patrick!

Racstus 125 Bantam Racer

(ink sketch)

Built by Chris Newport in the early 60's the Rastus was campaigned by Chris from '63 - 76. The bike was based around a combination of a D3 Bantam frame and an EMC Puch which Chris had previously raced. The engine is a 125 with a central plug Todd head with a Gardener Carb and SU Float. Chris recons it has done 100mph in the past, not bad for a 125.