Barber Vintage Festival 2011

[Twitch]

Now with some solid delivery guidance, it looks like some thought is going into some Fall Meets/Rides. I’m thinking the Super Teneres should be here well in time for the Barber Vintage Fest in early October and with enough time to get a proper run in. Perhaps an opportunity for a Fall Meet of some sort?

The annual Vintage Festival is October 7-9 at the Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama (near Birmingham, Map). Barber has one of the best vintage fests in the country imo, at one of the nicest racing facilities in the Southeast. Plus, Barber is the home of one of the three largest Vintage Motorcycle Museums in the World (Slideshow from my last trip)…worth the trip alone. The Vintage Festival itself is three full days of vintage on/off road racing (AHRMA Sanctioned), an enormous swap meet, events, cool auctions and lots of Vintage Bikes! Tack on some morning loops? The Festival Schedule hasn’t been posted yet, but last year it was packed with stuff to do and see. Just thinking out loud here for the moment…I make the annual pilgrimage anyway.

 

[colorider]

I have heard great things about the Barber museum and would love to see it someday! Sounds like a fine place for a SuperT meet-n-greet!!!!

 

[limey]

Thanks Twitch looks awesome, Love to make a trip down there ,It’s a 2 day ride 977 miles

 

[bvail]

I'm planning to stop by on my upcoming trip to TN and southeast area.

 

[Wulfgar]

Beautiful, beautiful place and my hometown track. The museum is worth the visit alone and the overall facilities are some of the best in the country. The Vintage Festival has become one of the bigger vintage events and my crew plans to rent a hilltop RV spot this year so we will be out in force.

 

[fredz43]

I agree that it is a world class facility. I have done a Reg Pridmore CLASS track school there on my Super Hawk as well as raced in AHRMA in off road cross country and last year rode my 74 Bultaco Pursang 360 in the vintage MX. While it wasn't a very good MX track, we still had a lot of fun. If all works out, I plan to race MX there again this year.

 

[Wulfgar]

Yeah, not sure on the MX track. I wasn't around to watch MX back in the day so can't say what it should look like. The one at Barber looks too much like a flat grass field for me. Probably good for Novice vintage MX'er like me but not so much so for others. I will be there either way

 

[fredz43]

A few years ago when they had the MX track on the east portion of the property it was a nice grass track. Last year they moved it west of the road course and there wasn't much grass or elevation. I helped the layout crew and they did the best they could with what they had to work with. All in all, we were just glad to have a place to ride our old bikes.

We stayed trackside in my buddy's deluxe motorhome complete with garage. Our house guest for the weekend was Mitch Boehm, formerly of American Honda followed by a stint with Motorcyclist magazine. He now has his own publication, Moto Retro Ilustrated and he was there promoting it. He sure had a lot of neat stories.

 

[Twitch]

Cool. Glad to see some interest here. It’s a little under 600 miles up there from Tampa, right on the edge of my single day ride tolerance. Always worth it, though.

As mentioned ^^ they’ve got camping right there on site. There are some nice hotels very close, but I’ll warn you that there aren’t many amenities out by the park. Last year I stayed on the east side of Birmingham at a Hilton Gardens and it was only about a 15-20 minute ride over. Perhaps, if enough members get interested, we can work on a group rate someplace.

 

[Twitch]

Beautiful, beautiful place and my hometown track. The museum is worth the visit alone and the overall facilities are some of the best in the country. The Vintage Festival has become one of the bigger vintage events and my crew plans to rent a hilltop RV spot this year so we will be out in force.

Cool. Maybe you can help with some loops. I got one of those Motorcycling MadMaps for ‘bama; they’re pretty good, but probably not as good as what the locals know.

Speaking of hilltop, maybe you know what this is or was. I noticed it way off on a hill in back of the parking lot over by where they had the swap meet last year. In an otherwise completely pristine facility this overgrown monument of sorts was out of place…and kinda strange.

I agree that it is a world class facility. I have done a Reg Pridmore CLASS track school there on my Super Hawk as well as raced in AHRMA in off road cross country and last year rode my 74 Bultaco Pursang 360 in the vintage MX. While it wasn't a very good MX track, we still had a lot of fun. If all works out, I plan to race MX there again this year.

Cool photos, Fred. I remember you mentioned that you race at the Vintage Fest. We’ll be rooting you on for sure.

 

[Twitch]

I just checked their homepage, and the Barber Event Schedule still isn’t up, but we can now order tickets and make on-site camping reservations. The daily tickets are $20 and the three-day ticket is $40. Got mine! I think that’s the same price as it was last year. The museum is extra.

http://www.barbervintagefestival.org/

 

[Wulfgar]

Got the call myself and tickets are on sale as of today. I will have two RV spots on the premium hilltop site for the family and plan on staying the whole weekend. Should be grilling, drinks and what-not on the hill if we have an impromptu Tenere GTG.

 

[Twitch]

Those hilltop spots must definitely be “premium” property. They were completely sold out when I looked back at around 3PM yesterday! Not that I wanted one though. I’ll be about 10 miles out at the Hilton in Liberty Park. 8)

I hope some others are interested in going. From Florida, we’ll have a meeting spot Thursday morning at one of the rest stops on I-75 and shoot up in a day.

 

[Twitch]

There was a brief article in MotorcycleUSA yesterdayon the Barber Museum with a bunch of photos (CLICK) . One of the photos (No. 18) was of a Britten that they have on display…very cool motorcycle; I took the photo below when I visited the museum in May 2010. This motorcycle and its creator, John Britten, have a real interesting story behind them. If you have 45 minutes to spare sometime, and like this sort of thing, check out this awesome documentary, Britten: Backyard Visionary (CLICK). Note that the documentary comes in six separate clips. Enjoy!

 

[Wulfgar]

Beautiful bikes and he was a visionary. Loved seeing those bikes on the banks at Daytona back in the day!

 

[Wulfgar]

Probably a few Ducati owners/fans on the site and looks like they will be a big part of the upcoming Barber Vintage Festival:
http://www.ducati.net/component/content/article/49-ducati-front-page/157-2010-12-13-16-05-19

Not sure I want to take part in their festivities but definitely love seeing their bikes.

 

[roy]

Barber museum is fantastic!! I was there opeing weekend back in '03. Raced there the first weekend it was opened in '03. I probably have 5k miles racing and trackdays on that track since then. I have been to the museum many times and always see something new. They rotate a lot of the bikes in and out so it never gets dull. Love the place and feel fortunate to have it so close to where I live.

 

[Twitch]

For those planning to go, it's now twenty-eight days out...

The official day-by-day schedule still isn’t posted, but I was able to find and copy these highlights out of the Barber website. Mostly same as last year except the Club Zone, which I think is the same as what they do up at Mid-Ohio...each mc club has it's own tent or area to show their members' bikes...pretty neat.

Vintage Racing (sanctioned by AHRMA)
• Road racing
• Motocross
• Cross Country
• Trials

Fan Attractions
• Ducstock
• World Famous Barber Swap Meet with 400+ Vendors
• "Wall of Death" Stunt Show
• Aeroshell Aerobatic Air Show
• Century Race, featuring motorcycles made before 1911
• Merchandise Vendors
• Southern Vintage Fire Apparatus Association Display
• Wide Variety of Concessions and More!

Club Gatherings
• Antique Motorcycle Club of America
• Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club
• Motorcycle Classics Bike Show
• NEW FOR 2011 - "Club Zone"

Additional
• Motorcycles by Moonlight, a fundraiser dinner benefiting the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
• Motorcycle Auction

 

[Twitch]

The full three day schedule is now available >>> Click

 

[Twitch]

This looks pretty cool for Saturday night in Birmingham next week. I didn’t know Motus is in Birmingham. Maybe they’ll have a couple of their prototypes on hand to look at. I'm definitely going. 8)

From the Motorcycle Classics Blog: “This year's Barber Vintage Festival is promising to be the best one yet with an incredible schedule of events throughout the weekend. After an awesome day at the track on Saturday, you'll want to ride somewhere "motorcycle friendly" to eat, drink, hang, and tell lies with other riders, right? Motus is hosting City Bike Nite, a block party for out-of-town visitors and local riders to celebrate some of what Birmingham has to offer in the way of local food, drinks, and music. Just a short ride from Barber, the Lakeview Historic District is a perfect spot to meet and spend some time with old friends and new. A flyer is attached (feel free to share with other riders) and we have arranged free motorcycle parking as well as valet parking for cars.”