Category: Events and Shows

1. Bike legend Foggy has “wheelie” good time - Llangollen Motorbike Show

   Posted on 12:00am Monday 9th Aug 2010

   Motorbike superstar Carl Fogarty was a huge hit with fans who travelled from far and wide to see him in Llangollen over the weekend.

   The four times World Superbike Champion and multiple TT winner was the star attraction at the popular Motorbike Show.

   Thousands of bike fans descended on the Royal International Pavilion with some coming from Germany, France and Holland.

   One of Foggy’s duties was to crown the 2010 North Wales Biker Babe, a motorbike mad beautician.

    

   

   Lianne Roberts of Treuddyn, wins the Biker Babe competition and is congratulated by biker legends Carl Fogarty and Paul Owen

   Winning the title was a “dream come true” for Lianne Roberts, 18, who lives in Treuddyn.

   She said: “I am very much into bikes and I’ve got a Yamaha FS1E or a Fizzy which is a really old style bike. I love new bikes but I’ve got a soft spot for old bikes. My dad’s been into bikes since he was young and I started riding pillion when I was quite young and I really got into them. It is a real-life passion, I really do love bikes. Before I was going to be a beautician, I was going to be a mechanic. It was a real pleasure to meet Carl Fogarty. Being such a huge star, you’d think he’d be big headed – but he’s not. He’s lovely.”

   For much of the time, the bike racing legend was swarmed by adoring fans wanting a chat and to get his autograph – and he loved every second.

   Carl said: “It’s always nice to come to Wales and I’ve always had a good following here so it’s good to be back here again. There’s a really big crowd here and it’s a very, very good show. I know Llangollen pretty well and have done some trial riding around the area in the past. I have also got a place on Anglesey.”

   During the show he took part in a question and answer session with local rider Paul Owen who was awarded the inaugural Spirit of the TT Award at this year’s races.

   Paul was following his close friend, New Zealander Paul Dobbs, during the Supersport race at this year’s June TT when Dobbs crashed.

   Owen stopped, dismounted, giving up his own race ambitions to assist race marshals in controlling the incident warning other racers of debris in the road.

   
   Sadly, Dobbs suffered fatal injuries in the high speed crash at Ballagarey. 

   Paul said: “It was good to spend a bit of time with Carl. I’m now where he started off and he is an inspiration to me. He knows what it means to go to the Isle of Man, spend thousands of pounds and then sacrifice a race to try and save somebody. I’d like to think that somebody would stop for me if I had an accident like that.”

   There was a special award for the Best Bike in Show given in memory of well-known and popular Llangollen motorcyclist Victor Jones, who died recently, aged just 59. 

   Victor, of Pengwern, who used to ride a classic 1964 Matchless 650cc and was a huge fan of classic bikes, gave up his job in the building industry to care for his brother Frank when he started to suffer from impaired vision

   Appropriately, the award was one by somebody who knew Victor very well. Keith Owen, who hails from Llangollen but now lives in Wrexham, took the prize for his beautifully restored Triumph Bonneville American Export which was made in 1969.

   Keith said:  “It means an awful lot to me to win this award with me being a Llangollen boy. What made it even more special was that I won the Victor Jones Memorial Trophy because he was great Llangollen character. I knew him very well and he is sadly missed.”

   Another highlight of the show was the Custom Bike Show, sponsored by Bretton Motorcycles from Chester.

    

   

    

    David Williams of Bretton Motor Cycles

    

   Owner Russ Campbell, the owner of Bretton Motorcycles, said: “We’ve got a lot of really good quality bikes, they are stunning. There’s obviously been a lot of hard work to get them ready for the show. I am always quite shocked to see the standard of the bikes because they are actually ridden as well as being put on display in the shows. Some of them are impractical but the lads do get on them. There’s a great atmosphere at the show, it’s a family orientated and it’s a superb venue. I have done shows right across Europe and this is the best venue I’ve seen – and Llangollen is a popular biking area anyway. It’s the perfect place.”

   It was also the perfect opportunity for Nick Critchley, the Heather and Hillforts Project’s Moorland Field Officer, to speak to members of the biking fraternity.

   He was there with representatives of the countryside charity, Tread Lightly, to meet bikers and encourage them to sign up to the campaign to promote responsible off-roading on two wheels and four.

   He said: “People have been coming up and chatting and I think they are supportive of what we are doing. Our message is very positive and people are very keen to hear that motorbikes aren’t all bad. There are lots of places where they can go and we encourage them to use the legal rights of way network.”

   Organiser David Green, the managing director of Xuberance Events, was thrilled that the weekend had been such a huge success.

   He said: “We’ve had a fantastic turn-out. “We’ve got bikers who’ve travelled from all across the UK and beyond, including some from Germany, France and Holland. At the same time, we’ve had huge support from the local biking fraternity who’ve brought their bikes here as well. Carl Fogarty has been an absolute pleasure, he’s been walking around signing autographs, meeting people and sharing his stories. He’s an absolute legend and it shows the progression that the Motorbike Show has made over the past three years.”

2. MOTORBIKE SHOW, LLANGOLLEN – AUGUST 7 AND 8

   Posted on 12:00am Tuesday 3rd Aug 2010

   The two-day Motorbike Show is ready to roar into action in Llangollen this weekend.

   It’s a celebration of every style of motorbike. Among the highlights of this year’s show are:

   • The legendary Carl Fogarty, four times World Superbike Champion and multiple TT winner
   • Round the world record breaker Nick Sanders
   • The sphere of death
   • 2010 Biker Babe of North Wales competition
   • Gleaming machines in the Custom Bike Show
   • Fantastic motorbike displays
   • Expert advice clinics
   • Club Corner
   • Live action arena, including Airraid FMX performing breathtaking aerial feats in freestyle motocross and trials bike display and competition

   www.themotorcycleshow.co.uk

3. Lovely Lauren backs campaign to preserve magnificent moorland

   Posted on 12:00am Monday 2nd Aug 2010

   Lovely Lauren Knowles is lending a touch of glamour to a campaign to preserve some of Wales’s most scenic and spectacular landscape.

    

   

   Model Lauren Knowles, head judge of the Biker Babe competition,  with Nick Critchley, from the Heather and Hillforts project and local bike rider Paul Davies (right) who’s also backing the campaign.

    

   The gorgeous gal from Prestatyn is the face of this weekend’s Llangollen Motorbike Show and she has been busy helping distribute information about the Heather and Hillforts project.

   The 20-year-old has been on the Horseshoe Pass with the Heather and Hillforts Project’s Moorland Field Officer, Nick Critchley to meet bikers and encourage them to sign up to the campaign to promote responsible off-roading on two wheels and four.

   The former Miss Prestatyn, who was third in the Miss Wales competition, also took time out to see some of the preservation work that has been done on footpaths which cross the heather moorland – and some of the damage that has been done by illegal off-roading.

   Lauren will be at the show at the Royal International Pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, August 7 and 8, where one of her duties will be to help judge this year’s Biker Babe competition.

   She said: “This wonderful landscape is part of our heritage and is something which has to be preserved.

   “The Motorbike Show can play a part in that by helping people to enjoy off-roading legitimately and that’s why we’re happy to have the Heather and Hillforts campaign at the show.”

   Also part of the Heather and Hillforts stand at the show will be national organisation Tread Lightly which aims to promote responsible off-roading and whose Project Manager is Mark Margetts.

   He said: “We want to engage and find a way of getting on together. Treadlightly has been going in the USA for 25 years and is a highly respected, credible and positive organisation.

   “The popular conception of off-roaders might be of young kids on old bikes tearing round the place but it couldn’t be further from the truth – the majority act responsibly and this just happens to be their hobby.

   “We want to encourage responsible off-roading and encourage people to act legally, join a responsible user group or club, and use legal routes.”

   Nick Critchley added: “We want to send out a positive message that there are places where people can enjoy off-roading and we will have information about those routes and places that can be used.

   “We support Tread Lightly in what they aim to achieve and to direct our message at off-roaders and help them find out how to do what they do legally.

   “We will be at the show with merchandise and information about the Heather and Hillforts campaign and the importance of the landscape of our moorlands both from an ecological and an historical perspective.

   “The people who are riding their bikes and driving their 4x4s illegally are ruining this magnificent countryside for everyone else.”

   Rare species and their priceless habitats are being illegally endangered

   and damaged by off-road motorbikes and 4x4s and so are the Iron Age hillforts which are a very special feature of the uplands of Denbighshire.

   The campaign, catchphrase is ‘don’t leave home without it’ and led by Denbighshire Countryside Services, encourages farmers, ramblers and others who enjoy the county’s wide open spaces to carry a special telephone number with them – or even key it into their mobile phones – to report the vandals.

   Nick Critchley said: “We want the legitimate off-roaders to join us in this and report those they know are acting illegally because they are giving all off-roaders a bad name.

   “But ideally we want prosecution to be a last resort for those who refuse to get the message – we would much sooner persuade people and ifnrom them and that’s what we hope to do at the Motorbike Show.”

   Denbighshire County Council’s Heather and Hillforts Project covers the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Horseshoe Pass and Llantysilio Mountains, part of the Ruabon/Llantysilio Mountains and Minera Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the Berwyn and South Clwyd Mountains Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

   The campaign to protect them is backed by North Wales Police, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission Wales.

   They are appealing for the public’s help in catching and convicting the offenders who are liable to be fined up to £20,000 and can have their vehicles seized and crushed.

   That Police telephone number – 0845 6071002 or 0845 6071001 for Welsh language callers - means that anyone seeing illegal off-roaders tearing up the landscape can immediately report them.

   The Motobike Show will once again include wide range of bikes on display, exhibitors, attractions, features & entertainment. The Custom Bike Show introduced in 2009 will return, there will also be more bike parking spaces on site.

    

    

   For more information on the Heather and Hillforts campaign go to;

    

   www.heatherandhillforts.co.uk

    

   For further details of the Motorbike Show check out;

    

   www.themotorcycleshow.co.uk

4. Frank 79 and still in the saddle

   Posted on 12:00am Wednesday 28th Jul 2010

   Retired farmer Frank Pottenger can boast almost as many nuts, bolts and metal plates in his body as his classic motorcycle – one of only three ever built.

   While most 79-year-old pensioners might be content with a sedate retirement, Frank is still riding his Triumph Daytona 500cc motocross bike, built by legendary motorcycle rider and engineer the late Eric Cheney.

   “I’ve had a long career on motorcycles and must have broken every single bone in my body at some time or other and have metal plates and screws all over the place!” said Frank, of Froncysyllte.

   The Triumph Daytona, built for him by Cheney 28-years ago and one of only three of its type, is in absolute pristine condition and will be one of the stars on display at the Llangollen Motorcycle Show at the Royal International Pavilion on August 7th and 8th. Frank, whose son Gary and grandsons Ross and Ryan have now taken over the competitive duties, still gives riding demonstrations at shows, sometimes alongside former Triumph works rider John Giles – who is 83!

   Cheney, who died aged 76 in 2002, was a legend in the motorcycle racing world and all top British enduro riders used his machines and even film star Steve McQueen.

   “I started riding in 1953 and I’m still riding,” said Frank. “The youngsters cannot believe I can still chuck a 500cc about.”

   In his heyday Frank was Salop scramble champion and was a regular competitor, picking up quite a few other titles.

   “My brother-in-law bought a Cheney Triumph and I rang Eric and asked if he had enough bits left to build me one. He rang back and said ‘yes’. It had nine inches travel on front and back suspension,” said Frank who can remember starting his scrambling on a rigid BSA which had no suspension.

   His brother-in-law’s machine was sold on and has disappeared, as has the third model built by Cheney which went onto the Continent. Frank paid £1,200 for his bike 28 years ago and with all the bits chromed and nickel plated – “almost too nice to ride” – he estimates it is worth anything between £4,500 and £5,000 today, although he would never sell it.

   In fact he used to make enough winnings in a year to buy a new bike every year. “In theory I could but I spent it mainly on women!” said Frank.

   These days Frank lives on top of the hill in Froncysyllte in a beautiful home he built out of a pigsty and runs a business renting out classic Jaguar wedding cars. He has two of the Mark II (Inspector Morse) Jags, two Mark IX’s (9’s) and some XJS convertibles, which will also be on display at the Llangollen show.

   At this year’s show, the third staged by Xuberance Events, there will be a special award,   given in memory of well-known and popular Llangollen motorcyclist Victor Jones, who died recently, aged just 59.

   Victor, of Pengwern, who used to ride a classic 1964 Matchless 650cc and was a huge fan of classic bikes, gave up his job in the building industry to care for his brother Frank when he started to suffer from impaired vision.

   At Victor’s funeral, about 30 motorcycles provided a biker escort for the cortege to Pentre Bychan crematorium which was packed out with more than 300 mourners, many of them biker friends.

   Organiser David Green explained: “Victor’s bike was the first bike to arrive at the first ever Motorbike Show and I thought it would be a fitting tribute to honour his memory in this way.”

   One of the highlights of this year’s event will be the popular Biker Babe competition and biker fans can vote for their favourite on the event’s website,  www.themotorcycleshow.co.uk and it’s not yet too late for aspiring biker babes to enter.

   Among the displays at the show will be beautiful old bikes from the collection of Llangollen Motor Museum proprietor Gwilym Owen.

   There’ll also be motorbike displays, expert advice clinics, a club corner, a live action arena as well as a custom bike show.

   Entries for the North Wales Biker Babe competition, including the photograph and the 50 word biography, should be e-mailed to [email protected]

    

    

5. Bike legend pays homage to local hero

   Posted on 12:00am Monday 26th Jul 2010

   Motor cycling legend Carl Fogarty will be roaring into North Wales next month - and is looking forward to meeting a local hero.

   Four times World Superbike Champion, multiple TT winner and arguably Britain's best ever motor cycle racer, Carl Fogarty MBE, is the star attraction at the Motorbike Show in Llangollen.

   The increasingly popular bike fest, organised by Xuberance Events, is being held at the Royal International Pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, August 7 and 8.

   Carl is full of heartfelt praise Llangollen TT rider Paul Owen who was awarded the inaugural Spirit of the TT Award at this year's races. Paul was following his close friend, New Zealander Paul Dobbs, during the Supersport race at this year's June TT when Dodds crashed. Owen stopped, dismounted, giving up his own race ambitions to assist race marshals in controlling the incident warning other racers of debris in the road.

   
   Sadly, Dobbs suffered fatal injuries in the high speed crash at Ballagarey. Carl said: "The TT is a fantastic event and I am proud to have won three TT races as it's real between-the-hedges and walls road racing. What Paul Owen did in giving up his own race chances to stop and help was fantastic and really does sum up the spirit of the TT. "I enjoyed being back at the TT this year and took part in the parade lap of former winners before the final race, the Senior TT."
   
   And Foggy, as he is affectionately known by his army of fans, says he can't wait to catch up with visitors to the popular show in Llangollenas well as his Welsh fans. He said: "I always enjoyed great support from Welsh fans, particularly at Assen for the Dutch rounds of the World Superbike Championships. Assen was always a favourite track of mine and I was always amazed at the number of British fans, many from Wales, who made the journey over to cheer me on. I know Llangollen pretty well and have done some trial riding around the area in the past. I have also got a place on Anglesey. In fact I even had some success racing in Wales. In 1986, 1987 and 1988 I won the 250cc and 1,000cc events at Aberdare at a time when I was really learning my trade and before I moved up to superbikes and factory machinery. So I do have a great connection with Wales. Going to the show makes a change from actually riding and will give me a real chance to catch up with a few friends and fans who gave me so much support over the years. I know the show has only been going a few years but it's already got a big reputation. It's a great place to have a motor cycle show and there's a good mix of different things and attractions going on so it's not just about trade stands, although clearly, that's an important feature of any event."

   
   But which of his considerable racing achievements does Carl Fogarty think of as his most precious title.

   
   He said: "They all mean so much I can't really say. The TT wins, and holding the lap record for seven years, is something very special but so are my four World Superbike titles, my three World Formula 1 motor cycling world titles and my World Endurance title too. I have never regretted anything in my career. People often ask whether I think I should have gone and raced in Grand Prix but to be honest I'm not really bothered. I did the odd race but World Superbikes was getting bigger and bigger, I had a crowd of more than 120,000 at Brand's Hatch in 1999 to watch me race, that I didn't see any need to go the Grand Prix route. In fact Grand Prix were declining, crowds were down and it was only when Valentino Rossi came along that it started to pick up again."

    

   And who does the Blackburn flyer consider, other than himself, to be the best racer of all time?

   
   He said: "The American, Kenny Robert was always my favourite, I loved his style and controlled aggression. The best British riders for me were Joey Dunlop, who was simply awesome at the TT, and Ron Haslam. Those are the riders I grew up watching."

   Organiser David Green, the Managing Director of Xuberance Events, says this year's show will be bigger and better than ever.

   He added: "The local biking fraternity has given us fantastic support from the outset and this year's event will be bigger and better. We have doubled the number of exhibitors ¨C not only selling but also providing advice. This is a show for bikers from all disciplines, from the vintage and classic bikes right through to the road racing bikes."

   One of the highlights of the Motorbike Show will be the popular Biker Babe competition and biker fans can vote for their favourite on the event's website, and it's not yet too late for aspiring biker babes to enter.

   Among the displays at the show will be beautiful old bikes from the collection of Llangollen Motor Museum proprietor Gwilym Owen.

   There will also be motorbike displays, expert advice clinics, a club corner, a live action arena as well as a custom bike show.