Sunday - Rugby BikeFest 2025

[Millietant]

My home town (for the last 20 years) hosted its annual BikeFest day on Sunday gone, and what a great day it was. Our local section of the VJMC organised a display stand right in the middle of the town centre and had 27 bikes on display for the day.....including 7 FJ's from our "Splinter Group" (6 white 3CV FJ 1200's and 1 Blue/White FJ 1100. We had actually planned to have 10 FJ's but illness, a slow painter and stupidity, prevented 3 from making it.

What I find amazing is that all of these FJ's except the one missing because the bodywaork was still at the painter's, are all owned by friends who live withing 20 miles of my house (and only a couple more than 6 miles from my house.

We seem to have our own little enclave of FJ lovers 

The BikeFest opened with a mass ride-in, of a couple of thousand bikes, from a meeting point just outside the town - with engines roaring, riders waving and plenty of burnouts to entertain the crowds. The town was packed for most of the day, with 3 stages for bands, club stands, accessory stands and the usual food/clothing/tat stands.

The Police were in attendance and were great fun, happy to talk to anyone and totally ignoring any minor "infractions". Their display stand was the second busiest of the day - beaten only by our VJMC stand.

Anyway, here's a few photo's from the day, mostly taken before the event opened, as once the ride-in happened, there were people everywhere and it was difficult to get clear photo's of any bikes on display 

For those interested in the "stupidity" issue, one of our group, Graham, got fooled by the green dispenser handle on the "super" diesel pump at the filling station (unleaded petrol normally has green handles and diesel black ones) on Saturday evening. Once he started to ride away, the engine started to smoke terribly and make awful knocking noises - as a new FJ owner (only 3 weeks) he didn't have enough faith in the bike to think that it could not possibly be a bike failure, so he got it trailered home and started to strip it down, starting with the carbs. It was only on Sunday morning that his 92 year old mum said "you haven't put the wrong fuel in it, have you" at breakfast, that he realised what had actually happened. At least now, the FJ's unburstable reputation has been restored. Carbs cleaned, fuels system cleaned and it ran perfectly on Monday morning with fresh petrol in it    - in his defence, it is apparently something that has happened quite a lot recently and the filling stations are being blamed for their confusing and ambiguous pump configuations.

[T Legg]

That's a nice showing of bikes Dean. I'm always amazed at the participation levels of all your local events.
  Over here in the states green is the standard color for diesel . When we switched cars over to unleaded gas the car manufacturers put a plate with a hole smaller than the nozzle used to dispense leaded gas and a spring loaded door that stayed closed until pushed  aside with the smaller nozzle used for unleaded gas.
 

[Waiex191]

Outstanding Dean. That red Honda Hawk was my second choice for a new bike when I bought the FJ. I still sort of want one, but I wonder if it's a bad choice for my aging body.

[Bones]

Good variety of bikes there Dean. That little blue Suzuki x5, I have one of them in the shed as a non runner parts bike as well as the bigger x7 that runs but haven't ridden in a couple of years. The Yamaha XJR 1300 looks like a massive body builder sitting beside that Kwaka 900.

[Sparky84]

Looked a Great turnout and the weather played nice too.
Loved those 1200's lined up (best colour in the 1200 range)

Our fuel bowsers have no colour standard for fuel, well maybe the black is always diesel but all others vary depending on brand of station.
Gotta laugh when his 92yo mum picked the problem 
 

[Millietant]

Thanks guys - i'm very lucky that where I live I have lots of riding buddies and there's a great booming bike scene. However, the roads around the area are rubbish, no hills no valleys, very few twisties.

Having to ride 30 miles to get to the good roads is a small price to pay for all of the good stuff that I have access to with regard the bikes in this area.

Becoming active in the VJMC and working in a bike shop has also wide my contact list for rides, events and friends.

[Waiex191]

However, the roads around the area are rubbish, no hills no valleys, very few twisties.

Come ride in Illinois.  I'm sure your roads will seem better again.  I'll never make fun of Connecticut skiing again.

[Millietant]

I'm sure they would Bryan.

I've spent time in Illinois and Indiana and know how boring the roads there can be - and what I complain about here is a lot better than you have there. You have my deepest sympathy !

Mind you, Connecticut is awesome for bike riding (outside of winter), lots of lovely smooth curvy roads and plenty of hills and valley's, plus....lots of trees !!

[giantkiller]

Wisconsin has some good roads. There's the Kettle Moraine scenic drive by me. The little dragon(55 north through the reservation). They even have turnoffs so slower traffic can get out of your way.  I think it's so you'll go to their cassino.  A mile or so from the bottom end..The west side of the state. Wild Cat mountain. The U.P. is up nort dehr  hey. Nothing like the smokeys but not bad for the Midwest.

[Waiex191]

Mind you, Connecticut is awesome for bike riding (outside of winter), lots of lovely smooth curvy roads and plenty of hills and valley's, plus....lots of trees !!

Yep - the land of my birth and where I bought my GN and FJ both.