Barber Motorsports Vintage Fest 2015

[danh600]

Short ride report from this weekend.

If you don't know what Vintage Fest is go here. https://www.barbermotorsports.com/vintage-home.php

Barber is a first class operation. Museum with 1000s of motorcycles of every kind. A great spectator friendly motorcycle track. This last weekend was their Vintage Fest. Big swap meet, races, venders, camping. A huge deal.

So I head out from South Florida about mid day. I had to work a little that morning. Rode till about dark and ended up in Lake City. All interstate so no pictures and nothing exciting, but it was a nice riding day.

Second day was riding the rest of the way. I rode another couple hours on the interstate and then hit some better roads going through Alabama. Tifton to Birmingham Al is not a bad ride. About 1pm I ended up at Barber. Campground looked like this when I first got there.

Quickly set up my little simple campsite. Just a tent, shade tarp and my FJR!

Within no time the campground filled up. It's tight quarters but lots of like minded people so it's fun.

The great thing about Barber is you just wonder around and do what every you like. You can ride the free tram all around. I never even made it to the museum this trip. I have been before. I went to the swap meet, watched racing and just wondered around most of the weekend.

You can just wonder right up the hill from the campground to see the race track.

Or take the shuttle to another corner.

This is the kind of bike you might see right next to you in the campground.

That's the great thing about Barber. It's not a gathering of one brand of bike. There are hundreds of bikes of every kind. Lots and lots of old rare bikes running around. Some on display but lots of them being ridden.

Here is the new Motus Sports Touring bike. $32K. Nice bike but I did not trade the FJR.

Then I slabbed it home...............

I didn't get many good pictures. My point and shoot died right before I left. I use the phone to get these pictures. I really should have stopped and got a camera. This write up probaby doesn't do the weekend justice. It was a blast.

 

[LKLD]

Looked like it'd be fun! I take it you did a solo ride there/back, at least the rain was gone.

Congrats on a fun and safe trip Dan!

 

[El Toro]

For anyone who might need a "second" on the idea that Barber is a worthwhile destination, I would make one.

I live about 4 hours away, and I go to the Barber at least once every year just to walk through the collection at the museum.

I am often disappointed that some favorite of mine has been put away, but then delighted that something that was also a favorite has now been moved into the display. The collection is so large that, even though it is a huge museum, there is not room to display everything. It is worth going every year just to see new things. Also, over the years the curation has improved. Barber has always had very good mechanical curation, but the written descriptions have become more accurate and more reliably true over the years.

As for the Vintage Festival, when it first started, it was difficult to find a hotel nearby, but over the years, this has improved too, and there are more local accomodations available for those who would prefer not to camp.

If your significant other isn't so interested in motorcycles, get her to come along for the shopping. There are a lot of good shopping opportunities nearby nowadays, and if your significant other is the outdoors type, there is a very large Bass Pro Shops right next to the park.

Who will enjoy the museum? Well, there are a large number of specimens from Italy, Brittain, Germany, the US, and Japan. There are sections devoted to early history. There are many unique items ... like how many times are you going to see a Britten, or one of the last Floyd Climer Interceptors, or Merkels, or Hendersons, or Crockers, or Vincents, or Morbidelli's?

The Barbers have a longstanding appreciation for John Surtees (I think he remains the only person to ever win Grand Prix championships on both 2 and 4 wheels). There is a display there devoted to him, including some of his machines. One year they brought him in for the Vintage Festival, and he was out on the track with machines from his hey day.

It's a great family (the Barbers), and it is a great park if you're interested in motorsports. It seems like every time I go down there when it's not Vintage Festival time, there is a Porsch Driving School taking advantage of the track.

So ... if you've never gone, and you care at all about motorcycle history, or vintage racing, or even regular modern racing, or learning to race, there may be opportunities for you to have some fun there. Granted, for someone who is interested mostly in sport touring bikes and in long distance riding, the whole thing is probably a bust ... but even for such folks, it could still be fun to see how the other half lives/lived.