Eventually the Harley roared into life, and after hours of silence the deafening cacophony sounded gorgeous (I'm not sure if the neighbours would agree with me there, maybe I should get some silencers fitted - nah!). We managed to keep the engine running for about 5 minutes before it died again. We couldn't be bothered to go through that again so we wheeled it back into the garage and decided to risk it tomorrow morning. Yeah, I know it would have been much easier just to take the VFR, much faster, more comfortable and probably more fun too, but hey! this is a custom bike show right? So who wants to turn up on a Honda
Got up early the next morning to push start the Harley with Jude. Hey presto, it worked. We rode it to Neil's, it sounded a bit rough and was down on power but it got there ok. We were early so we parked the bike up and waited for everyone else to arrive. Lots of noisy bikes arrived during the next hour and then it was time to start the Harley and go. Or just to go as it happened as the Harley refused to start. Everyone else was sat ready on their bikes, so in the end I gave up, wheeled the Harley down the side of Neil's house (where it stood for the rest of the summer - sorry Neil) and climbed into the back of Neil's ambulance.
On the way there, I watched the trail of bikes behind and wished I'd just taken the VFR.
Festival was pretty good, lots of fun on the dodgems, Popeye's 13 year old son (also called Neil) seemed to enjoy the strippers, and he thrashed adult biker Nigel on the indoor motocross bikes, lapping him several times whilst Nigel crashed into every obstacle possible.
Nigel borrowed Popeye's 1100cc Magnum and promptly dropped in on the tarmac (just to come off every bike he rode that weekend). Popeye then did a 180 and dropped in on the wet grass whilst attempting a normal pullaway. Danny just looked really happy all weekend as his bright yellow trike-crossed-with- a-chieftan-tank thingy made it there and back.
The Harley, with Jude (Grommit) posing as usual
Before the off, at Neil's house, my Harley at far end, blue ambulance I travelled in in background
Danny - a.k.a. chickenlips (owner of yellow trike) in foreground
