2019 Barber Vintage festival

[klaviator]

I spent Friday and Saturday at the 2019 Vintage Festival at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. This is a fantastic event held every year at a world class facility. I think this was my third or fourth time going and it was the best.

One of the cool things about this even is that there are so many scooters there. Scooters may not be real popular in the USA but you wouldn't know it here. You can find all kinds of scooters new and old as well as all kinds of tiny motorcycles.

I'll start out with a pic of my scooter on the ride there.



While this is a festival for Vintage bikes, it is way more than that.   It's about all kinds of motorcycles, scooters, gear, all kinds of riding and it's about the people who ride those two wheeled "death machines!"  When I first attended this event it was way more than I expected.  This year was even better.

Friday is not as busy as Saturday and I got there fairly early but there were already a bunch of people and bikes there.

I saw my first Super Cub here.  It's on the lower left of this pic:



There are all kinds of interesting bikes there.  This Janus looks vintage but is actually a new bike manufactured on Goshen, Indiana.



They have all kinds of things to watch like the Wall of Death:



A rider warming up for a demo of motorcycle jumping.



The landing ramp was inflatable.



I got the chance to sit on a new Super Cub.



A Honda Grom doesn't look so small compared to this vintage dual sport bike.



I guess it's a scooter!



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This was a tiny scooter I never heard of.

[dan v.]

Looks like a good day in the sun!   Someday I'll get there......

Something similar once a year near me - the Gilmore Car Museum has a vintage bike show and swap meet.  Lots of interesting things to see.  If any gearhead plans on being near Kalamazoo Michigan - this is a must see place - https://www.gilmorecarmuseum.org/

[klaviator]

I went back again on Saturday.  This is the busiest day.  They estimate around 80,000 fans come to this.  A high percentage are on motorcycles or scooters. 

This was the view behind me coming into the park Saturday morning.



I was admiring this Vespa GTS and ended up talking to the rider for about 10 minutes.  It turned out he was also on the ADV forum.



Some more interesting bikes.



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The Motorcycle Alabama Forum always has a boot here and it's where I hung out between viewing the various events here.  That Vespa GTS belongs to one of out active members.  He bought it a few months ago and already has over 7,000 miles on it.



Another Janus motorcycle:

[leomagnus]

Awesome pics Klav...looks like a lot of fun

Dean

[klaviator]

Looking at all the cool bikes is fun but that's not what brings so many people to this event.  There is more.......a lot more.

One of the main attractions is the racing.  There is a world class race track here.  The sight and sound of vintage bikes ripping around the track is........well it's hard to describe.  Watching the bikes made me wish I was out there.  Listening to them just pumped me up.  The deep roar of the singles and twins, the angry bees sound of the two strokes and my favorite, the wail of an inline four at full throttle and high RPM.  I think some of you can relate.

This was the view from the spot I normally watched the races.



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There are many other vantage spots.



The media room.  You can get into it if you know the right people.



The best view of the track?  That would be from here:



The story behind this picture is coming up.

[klaviator]

Of course we all know that riding, and racing, can be dangerous.



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As dangerous as it can be, I love to ride and  I would love to race.  There is one type of riding I love to watch but would never consider doing.



Back in my dirtbike days I would get a few feet in the air but what these guys do is simply unbelievable.  I have seen this stuff on TV before but seeing it in person is a completely different experience.



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[john grinsel]

I rode down there last year----crept up to gate in long line---did U turn when they wanted $22 to get in.

Have visited the collection on weekday in the past. Impressive.

[klaviator]

I rode down there last year----crept up to gate in long line---did U turn when they wanted $22 to get in.

Have visited the collection on weekday in the past. Impressive.

Admission was $40 this year, $60 for the whole weekend.   When compared to what most things cost these days that's a bargain.

[klaviator]

There are three ways to get around the park, walk, ride or take the free shuttle.  There isn't much parking for cars inside the gate but plenty for bikes.  I also did a lot of walking.  There is so much to see if you are a motorcycle/scooter enthusiast.



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The best way to get around is a small scooter.



I took my big scooter because of the 100+ mile ride to Barber. 

[klaviator]

I also went over and checked out the vintage cross country dirt bike racing.



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At the start all the engines are off.  When the flag is waved they kick start their bikes and then take off. 



Some of these bike didn't want to start.  One guy pushed his bike down the hill and tried to bump start it.  It still wouldn't start and he was blocking the narrow trail.



I've seen umbrella girls at races before.  Well this gal had her own umbrella guy!



I went down the hill and watched from another spot.

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[CROSSBOLT]

Completely outstanding!

[klaviator]

The high point of this event for me was still coming up.  Let me just say this:  if you had told me that I would be riding around the Barber race track wearing shorts I would have said you were crazy!  well....

Some background:

I am member of a local motorcycle forum called Motorcycle Alabama.  Many of us on this forum are friends and go on rides or too events together.  A few months ago one of out long time members passed away.  One of the guys on the forum ended up with his ashes.  He had this idea of spreading those ashes on the race track at Barber!

On Saturday afternoon as I was getting ready head home there was a discussion on how to do this and document it.  We had two tickets for the Parade laps that would happen at the end of the days racing The plan we finally came up with was that one guy would scatter the ashes while I would ride behind him with a passenger who would videotape it.

It was around 95 degrees and I didn't feel like putting on my mesh pants.  I figured it would be a slow ride since we had to follow a motorcycle cop around the track and no passing was allowed.

Here I am getting ready to go.



Lined up and ready to go.



I snapped some pics during the ride.  We are out on the track!



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I thought we were going to be going slow but we soon went to ludicrous speed!

[klaviator]

We ended up doing 3 or four laps around the track.



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This was one of the times he was dropping ashes using his left hand.



It wasn't a race pace but we were going faster than I expected and fast enough to have some fun.  I saw 60+ on the speedo a couple of times.



I thought riding into the sunset was a good way to say goodbye to a friend.



It's rather long but here is the video that was made from this: