Newark’s Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic was held last weekend in bitterly cold weather, but crowds still flocked to the Newark Showground.
This show is a huge affair with lots of traders and parts sellers outside the various halls, selling everything and anything related to two wheels. Those outdoor traders were the lucky ones, because the sun warmed them up a bit after a very frosty minus 6 early start. Meanwhile, those inside the halls were left to freeze because the heating had packed up!
Green Light Scooters
Luckily, us two-wheeled types are used to a bit of cold. The first person I bumped into was Adie Horrocks from Green Light Scooters. He had a few tasty engines and parts up for sale. He also had his sprint Vespa and ‘Rent a Sprinter’ on display and had already been to the ‘Fire it up’ zone. His liquid-cooled sprint bike’s expansion tank had frozen solid overnight in the hall and he had to get it thawed out before he could even attempt to start it. Race bikes run without coolant so the water freezes more easily.
Three up on a sprinter
Later on, his ‘Rent a Sprinter’ smallframe was also started up and at one stage was being ridden around a load of expensive bikes – three up, with former Grand Prix champion, Wayne Gardner at the controls. His friend and former British Champion, Roger Marshall was riding pillion, with compere and TT Senior class winner, Steve Plater clinging to the back of the two of them (before ejecting himself). It looked like Wayne was going to launch the sprinter through the side of the hall at one stage. Not many scooter owners can say their Vespa has been ridden by three champions at the same time!
You can see the sequence of photos above.
Fancy a go at sprinting?
If you want to have a go at sprinting, you can contact Adie Horrocks and arrange to rent his spare machine. Be careful, it’s addictive. A few of the previous riders have gone on to build and race their own sprinters.
Gran Turismo
Aside from listening to the crisp sounds of various two-stroke scooters, and a stunning Honda RS125, there was plenty of other stuff to see around the three Scooter World halls.
Dealers in attendance included Gran Turismo. Richard Taylor was showing off his tasty engines. He told me that he’s decided to go down a different path now with the twin-cylinder engines so we’ll have to wait and see what he does next. His Rotax GT 400 LC engines were also on display and behind his stall a couple of lovely turquoise Lambrettas could be seen, both featuring liquid cooled GT 400 engines. A fine show of British scooter engineering.
Chiselspeed
Probably the most important thing on Chiselspeed’s stand was their 2024 BSSO championship-winning rider, Nikita Donaghue. This super-talented lady will be missed in scooter racing this year, she’s ‘retired’ to concentrate on more important stuff, like having babies but hopefully, she’ll make the odd race appearance.
New manifolds
Martin cook, of CST also showed us his new Lambretta exhaust manifolds, they’re available for Quatrini 210, RB, TSI, Monza, Imola and Casa SS. The face plate is perfectly flat and thick enough not to distort, so shouldn’t leak.
VE (UK)
Whilst Norrie was away chatting elsewhere in the show, Rob Kerr showed us the latest VMC parts. It’s a brand that has really started to pick up since we featured them back in 2021. Quality is good, they perform well and the price is very reasonable. VE also stock AF Rayspeed products now and the latest 8-plate Python clutch was on display.
Other well-known traders included MSC, Stamford Scooter Centre, K2 Customs and JB Fabrication
Custom scooters
Of course, there were also plenty of scooters on display. They included many of the regular show scooters like Daz’s banana-themed PX cutdown, and Terry Would’s Italjet Dragsters.
Fantasy-themed, Batman Forever shared a podium with The Twenty-Seven Club and Adnaseum, whilst Mary Quant got her own little ultraviolet-lit tent to show off her wares. There were plenty of other scooters as well and you can see most of them in the gallery above and elsewhere on this page.
Gatch trio
Wayne Marshall’s trio of Gatch painted scooters, ‘A Miner’s Life’ Lambretta, ‘A Miner’s Life’ Vespa T5 Classic and ‘Steptoe & Sons’ – also a T5 Classic sat together. The two mining-themed scooters portray the life of the owner’s dad (and I presume mum), both had different struggles during the 1984 miner’s strike. It’s an important part of social history.
Veteran Vespa Club
If you like to see historic scooters, the lineup by the Veteran Vespa Club was worth spending a bit of time with, it included every Vespa model built by Douglas, including rare pre-production models. A very well put together display and worthy winner of the ‘Best Club Display’ prize.
Team S Equipé also put on a fantastic display, as did Generations SC from Horncastle.
Oddities
Other displays included the Maico and Zundapp Bella clubs and if you looked around the halls you may have spotted other oddities, including a lovely red MV Agusta Ovunque and an original Spanish postal Lambretta, a Raleigh Roma and a tidy Capri.
One very mixed-up oddity was a quad with mod and Quadrophenia-inspired murals, that one was in one of the bike halls. I have a feeling, the original owner may have been the promoter behind the ‘Back with the Mods’ festivals a few years ago. He certainly had a similar quad.
Commitment
All in all, a good day out with a lot of traders and exhibitors braving the elements to not only exhibit for the two days of the show but also to arrive on Friday to set up. This show takes up three days for everybody who wants to display there so well done to them for making the effort to be there.
You can see the full scooter show results in the images below.
Shock to the system
Despite being early in January with freezing temperatures and scooterists having to get over the shock of paying £16 to get in (£13 with an advanced ticket) this show is always well-supported. I can imagine the uproar if the LCGB tried to charge £16 on the door at Llandudno in October!
Words and photos: Iggy, additional images Mau Spencer
