As we all know if something is going to break or give us grief it will be at Christmas, just when time is at a premium. Between the stringing of Christmas lights, tree decorating and playing Santa my PC decided to annoy me by doing lots of strange things. Whether it was the weather or perhaps it too wanted to be festive, it seemed to rejoice in deleting what I was writing, usually when I got up to fill my glass with some Christmas happiness. Some of you are probably thinking “Oh yes, silly old fool, probably had tooooo much Christmas happiness” (Knobby definitely thought so) but I can report it was a faulty keyboard.
It is still the Christmas period and hopefully by now you will all have recovered from all of the over eating and excessive drinking, and have moved on to the planning of New Years celebrations. For us that means outdoor barbeques with sandflies, more over eating and even less drinking. New Years resolutions will be made, and broken, within a short time, and hopefully somewhere in there will be some motorcycle riding.
Once again our year has proven successful with 248000 page views, up from 223000 from last year. We started off quite slow but the increase in visits shows that there is something for everybody on the site, and that vintage motorcycling is as strong as ever. We thank you for your support.
We like to share our experiences and celebrations at Barnstormers HQ so recently we gathered a few friends together to celebrate something, not sure what but it was a celebration anyway. As the afternoon progressed the usual tomfoolery appeared and this is what it looked like. Of course alcohol was the favourite refreshment of the day. Some people from the PC Brigade might be Tut Tutting over such naughtiness but as in all situations the alcohol made us invincible (Disclaimer – no Knobbys or McSnottys were hurt in the acting out of these scenes). Of course the Motor Cyclist Dispatch Riders must be thanked for giving us all that encouragement.
Our Christmas message this year is once again from the skilled crayon of Richard Maby. Riches drawings have all centred around the northern Christmas with snow, cold, slush and rain. This year our drawing is of a Southern Hemisphere theme and depicts more of a summer with sand, beaches and sunshine. Santa is riding his vintage Royal Enfield jet ski and of course Kev the Kiwi is on hand making friends with a seagull. Knobster, well he is in a restful pose on the beach. Have a good laugh, we did.
For those of you who have a little time to fill in in the evening and would like to see what other vintage riders are up to Google 2018 Motorcycle Cannon Ball Run. There are some excellent You Tube videos of that years run held between Portland, Maine and Washington in America. The motorcycles are entered into 2 classes, Pre 1920, and 90 Year Division (basically motorcycles manufactured before 1930) and are predominantly American, with a small interest in English machines. The next run is planned for 2020 with entries closing on January 31st 2019. Something to think about for all you keen riders? Have a look here for a list of entrants of a previous event.
As 2018 is quickly coming to a close please take care if you are riding (or driving) and from us at Barnstormers HQ we wish you all the best for an exciting and challenging New Year. We hope that you will visit us again in 2019.