Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Albert's War....

A few weeks ago, Summer finally came..! And that coincided with a Military show, so I dragged out Albert, placed me size 11 on the kickstart, and he fired right up. That's the marvellous thing about an ever ready War bike, just sits there ready for action no matter what....

Didn't need much equipment, I was told, just a sleeping bag air bed and beer money. Perfick as I'd just come home straight from the Hell Hole, got to the War zone to see the lads had set up our weekend base....



An Ale was thrust into me claw as I shut the engine off, and once that was quaffed it was into the middle of the African Zulu tent, to sort out me sleeping quarters, most of the spear holes were on the sides where Baza & Bro Tony were kipping...

We were all set for a weekend of fun and laughter, so after sitting there quaffing Ale, I asked...Where's the BBQ..? Can't have one says Baza, we're in the 'Living' zone and they didn't have them in the War...? WHAT..! SO what we doing about food..?? We'll get to the pub and have something, so a mooch around was called for....










This Tank was in the movie Fury, they had the turret on at a funny angle and smoke pumping out of the thing all weekend, to make it look like it had been hit by them Germans...




We heard a noise of a helicopter coming in, and shot over to the air field to watch this Chinook landing....



All in all they had 6 different types of helicopter there...

Had them re-enactor types there too, living the life of men in battle...






And bugger me, I even see some of them Darn Yankies lurking in the woods...



Then the BIG toys came out into the arena....






Just then, I came across this....




A clever idea to turn that old Jerry can into an oven, and a way we COULD'VE had our own food, we even saw people digging holes in the ground and using the dead tree wood to cook on, THANKS A bunch Baza....Although that pub did have a nice menu, and the next day we had a fantastic chinese cooked from a van outside the pub, which we could eat in the pub using their plates and stuff. But it didn't stop us from moaning to Baza about how we could've cooked our own....


Mooching around their autojumble stalls I saw this, which got me chuckling....

Back to mooching....










And a bike fit for restoration, just needed a good polish and a dose of looking at....







Baza's grandson was kitted out in all the DR gear, and riding Baza's M20 REALLY looked the part....




A nice WW1 truck was driving around the fields...





And after seeing people having fires and doing their cooking on them, I went over to the woods, got some dead tree, then put the lads to work chopping them up. Using screw drivers, and anything else that can been found in a Plumber's van....




And a good fire kept us warm as the Sun went down, along with Ale, Rum and some lovely Scotch in our coffee for a night cap....




Next morning and after a breakfast, we were joined by a lad that had a lovely 40's BMW German outfit, and he 'captured' me and took me for a ride in the arena....




But before THAT yarn, we did some more mooching, and found where them Darn Yankies were at....






And back to the 40's....




Then it was arena time, so as a prisoner to the German, I settled down for a nice ride, and very comfy it was too, the other's were out in the dust trying to rescue me...

All the while the tanks and heavy machines were kicking up the dust...




The German fearing he'd be caught by our brave Tommies, opened up the throttle and we flew over the tank ruts, then he shouted out....Sod it me leg's fell off I can't change gear....WHAT...! Seems the lad only had one real leg, his Tin leg was now lying on the floor in front of a massive tank about to squash it, one of the marshalls ran out and managed to get his leg, which, through tears of laughter I grabbed off him as we went around to get it....

Luckily this distraction meant that Baza riding Albert, could rescue me, and get us both away to the bar....




A fantastic weekend with great lads and even better weather, this show was so popular after the fun and games of the plague, there was a three mile queue to get in on the Saturday AND Sunday....

I would tackle that restoration project but I don't think there is enough Kreem tank sealer in the world to fix that!

Thanks for taking us along Shaun, and I would gladly pay good Ale money for one of them shirts

oh shaun one of yer best yarns ever i see them yankees but what? no rebs?

Looks like a ton of fun, Shaun! Glad somebody's getting out n about.
EDIT: BTW, I'm digging the new avatar, bro.

Wow, some of those folks go to quite a bit of trouble to do things right! It probably costs $5 per second to burn fuel through those tanks, not to mention the CH-46.

Sounds like a right good weekend. I've got about a 1200 mile trip coming up this weekend, to take in a Guzzi rally and then a Mutton Roast at a church in Western Kentucky, but I can just wear my regular stuff, don't need a web belt and bandolier!

Thanks for all the pics!

Lannis

Thanks for the great ride report!
You always seem to include just the right number of pix!

Damn that looks like fun !!