It gets smaller. Still, I saw the Vintage Speedway: I'd forgotten the wonderful smell of alcohol-fuelled bikes. First and second time I've seen anyone fall off doing it as well. Most interesting (and ear-splitting) was a Wankel speedway bike, rffectively built, the commentator said, out of half a Norton rotary engine, giving it a capacity of 294cc IIRC. Sounded like it was bouncing off its rev limiter, though, when he gave it beans down the straights, but apparently this was its first outing. The other entertainment was OK but I guess the likes of the Flying Gunners and the parachute displays are history - not that they'd have been jumping in that wind. One neat stand was a bike mounted on a ramp with its back axle fixed so that the bike could rotate in the vertical plane but not move forward - the rear wheel rested on a sort of dyno drum. The idea was that one could 'wheelie' the bike while stationary. There was a safety cable that prevented it from backflipping. Spent rather a lot of money: new leather jeans (nice quaty Spyke ones for 90 quid), cheap boots, and I unfortunately spotted a 'proper' tool stall, too. So now I have another machine vice for my collection (it's a bugger mounting stuff on a small lathe's saddle or vertical slide), plus a nice big tap wrench, a small ratchet tap wrench and various sundries. Hard ride up there: normally the V11's lack of fairing is in part compensated for by the low riding position, but not in today's stiff headwind. Neck's still a bit sore. Return ride was easy, but a bit chilly.
