Vintage Vincent at a motorcycle meet at our local

Helena mentioned that there would be a gathering of vintage motorcycles but I hadn't gathered that it would be at our local pub, the Crown and Sceptre, only two hundred yards from our house. Another surprise was that it was tonight as I found out half an hour after it had started.

So we trotted up the footpath to Daisybank and then down to the pub. There were already many large bikes parked in the lanes around the pub. When we got to the car park I was suitably amazed at the number of bikes and their owners suitably garbed in a lot of leather.

Apparently it was for vintage British bikes, of which there were quite few - many Triumphs, BSAs, a couple of Velocettes and an Ariel Red Hunter - but also Harley-Davidsons and a few big Japanese bikes, as well as some oddball bikes home built for off-road use. But my favourites have to be the Vincent in my main photo, a wonderful classic machine, and also the Norton Commando 850, which I've added as an 'Extra'.

I did own and ride a few British bikes in my twenties, but none in very fine fettle. It was good to hear these treasured ones again as they were ridden away.