Searching for classic bikes where you might not expect them, Dave Manning takes house-trained photographer Simon Everett into the halls of the NEC for Motorcycle Live.
While the initial perception of Motorcycle Live is that the UK’s biggest bike show holds nothing of interest for classic bike fans, the truth is rather different, on two counts – there’s the point that most folk with old bikes also own a near-new machine and, contrary to popular perception, there are actually some old bikes in the show too.
While the National Motorcycle Museum has a stand at the show (and has had for some time), quite a few modern manufacturers are showing examples of their heritage, no doubt in an effort to gain attention from as many of the visitors as possible.
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The museum itself had a concentrated display of prototype machinery taken from the museum halls, just up the road from the NEC, including the first rotary-engined Norton race machine, the Hesketh Vortan, the 350cc Triumph 3TU twin, the double overhead cam 350cc twin from the Sixties, and the Meriden factory’s ‘four cylinder triple’ from 1975, the BSA Fury, the incredible 496cc four cylinder Marsh MR4 and plenty more!
Otherwise, classic interest focused on new firms showing old products, and old companies showing new products.
Read more and view more images in the January 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
