As seen in issue 243 of 100% Biker

Now I like this idea, with a bike event calendar which is bursting at the seams every weekend, it seems a great idea to have a bike show on a long summer evening. Now in its 6th Year the “Thank God it’s Not Friday “show on behalf of Armed Forces Bikers has been growing steadily and is held on a Tuesday in June from 7 till dark. A splendid idea as most other bike nights are on a Wednesday evening.

Blagging my way out of work early meant a relaxed 90 mile ride using smaller roads to avoid the evening peak. I even found intentionally a cool road sign too “Dumb Womans Lane” as I like to try and make use of journeys and not just for windmill hunting.

At the pub I was one of the earliest and having paid my £3 to park up my bike was tagged as No11. Rocky followed in on his Virago which is err interesting and I prayed that the interesting complaints the bike had , mainly incontinence were not catching. As long as your bike is parked on the field  your bike is entered into one of the myriad categories, not that my bike would ever have a chance being bog standard. The trophies were well worth winning too created from old brake discs made to look like axes in logs.

This early start also meant avoiding queues for the BBQ and bar as well result. As a charity event there was also a raffle, stall with tea and cake and some light music, all very relaxed. The threatened rain held off as well which is always nice.

As the evening started to build it was nice then to start bumping into so many people I knew including Pyro who I haven’t seen in years. He was also judging the show, I knew bribery wouldn’t work as he already had a selection of drinks lined up on the bar from “friends” who thought similar. It really is a very, very relaxed evening with all sorts of bikes from classics to modern, scooters to V8 trikes and a right mix just how I like it.

Always nice to see a good presence from the local chopper club, though it called almost be called the Sussex Trike club with the selection of multi wheeled vehicles they arrived on. Another good sign is the amount of younger riders who came along, proudly displaying their L plates.  This really is positive and caused some interesting discussions about how we feel the current café racer/old skool chop scene could be enticing more younger riders to start and it may be just the right sort of event, a thought maybe for some other organisers to try something like this.

As dusk fell trophies were awarded best custom went to a neat black Moto Guzzi Bobber, Best Trike to the Vmax, Best Harley and best in show to a neat purple one, Best Jap to a Honda Magna.

A great evening