The Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic 2024 - Newark Show Ground

11 January 2024 

Continuing our winter theme of alternative motorsport activities to photograph, here is the second in our series, a review of the Newark Classic Bike show. Held at the Newark Show Ground, which is close to the A46 and a few minutes drive from the A1 Newark junction, means it quite easy to get to if you live in the Midlands. There is lots of free parking on hard standing and grass at the Show Ground, which was fortunate as on the Saturday we visited a lot of classic bike enthusiasts had turned up to be relieved of the £15 entry fee. 

The Newark Show Ground has many small hangers which are great for this type of show, especially if the weather turns inclement. During our visit we were blessed with the first sunshine we have had for weeks in this part of the UK.

Prior to last Saturday there has been a lot of rain with flooding local to the Show Ground. Fortunately, the few diversions that were in place were minor and didn’t disrupt the flow of visitors.

When talking about classic bikes you immediately think of BSA, Triumph, Norton and a motley collection of forgotten names that produced motorcycles many years ago. But time has marched on, and mixed in with the black and chrome British iron are the shell suited colours of the Japanese 1990s pocket rockets. 

Many different clubs and classic race organisations had turned up to display their machines. Some were one-make clubs like the Honda CBX owners, with the bonkers six cylinder engine to multi make motorcycle clubs with a bit of everything. So there is something for everyone that turned up, vintage, classic to modern classics that most of the visitors will have owned at some point.

My personal favourite stand was the classic two strokes. Yamaha YPVS and Suzuki RGVs will always bring back great memories of tearing around with my mates wearing the best protective gear of the time, paddock jackets, stone washed jeans and training shoes.

It also brought back memories of rebuilding numerous engines. Buying a two stroke is like buying a hand grenade with the pin pulled out, at some point it will explode, well mine did!

Looking around the many stands what was interesting to me was the condition of the machines on show. Some were immaculate, some weren’t and had plenty of patina on show. And this sparked a discussion on what’s the point of buying something and not using it?

The pros and cons of owning something that is worth a lot of money and potentially devaluing it by putting miles on it ensued. At the end of the discussion we concluded the Classic bike owner is just a custodian of the machines and are looking after them before handing them on to the next generation.

I personally would enjoy the bike and let the next generation sort out my misuse! 

I did enjoy looking round the auto jumble where there were some random items for sale, but in main it was all manly man stuff - tools, bike parts and the like. But it was obvious there are two units in some Chinese manufacturing city that are pumping out rusted fake old looking motoring signs and watering hose connectors, there were a lot of those items on sale for some reason that escaped me.

I have been to this show a few times and every year the organisers book a few VIP guests. For this year it was Trevor Nation and Brian Crighton. If you recognise these names instantly the brand Norton will also jump into your mind. Brian Crighton is one of those inspirational British engineers that you just don’t seem to get anymore.

Developing the Norton rotary engine for a race bike, the Norton team achieved great success on the circuits and roads. Integral to that success was Trevor Nation who piloted one of the JPS Norton race bikes. 

Steve Plater conducted the interviews at the show and chatted along with Brian and Trevor as the Norton bikes roared into life in the startup hanger. Crighton’s latest bike, the CR700W, was also on show and what a bike it is! All hand built and available only as a track day bike for those enthusiasts with very deep pockets.

Connected to the start up hanger is another hangar which mainly contained classic and custom scooters. I had a good look round the exhibits, but these mostly Italian machines are not my cup of tea. Did someone mention tea? I was ready for a brew, and a cafe was conveniently located here.

But as there was a large queue I opted for an adjacent local bakery stall. This was selling man food - pork pies, sausage rolls and pasties, they obviously knew their audience well.

Outside in the open were many stalls, with motorcycle parts to complete bikes for sale. Not much to photograph here but interesting none-the-less.

Top tip, most of the stall holders were willing to haggle, with a few offering less than the display price as soon as you showed the slightest interest. However, I wasn’t interested in a hose pipe connector or rusty sign so passed.

So to sum up the Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic at the Newark Show Ground is a reasonably priced, easily accessible event with enough content to keep the modern or classic motorcycle enthusiast happy for quite a few hours. 

Photographic Post Script

I went along as a motorcyclist and as a photographer and this show ticked the box for me. Using my Nikon D500 camera with a DX 17-55mm f2.8 lens was able to capture some nice images for my portfolio. The stands are somewhat packed together in the first hall you get to on the right of the entrance and is a mix of random stands. I would have much preferred it to be a bit more spread out with just motorcycles. There appeared to be some unused space in the last hangar where the parts and accessories stalls could be located together - a minor point which I would like to see implemented next year when I will return.