I have been going to the southwest show now for quite a few years, and was very much surprised that the show was much smaller this year compared to other years, It did however mean I could have a better look around.
I usually start in the trike hall, so to remain predictable, nothing will change this year. The Manky Monkey Motors trikes taking pride of place in the hall, and people seem to be very passionate about these reliant trikes, as I could barely chat to them without more and more firing questions at them (let alone get anywhere near their cake stash). The only other trike that really caught my attention was a nice blue Honda with white weller wheels and a classic chopper seat,
The Bike hall, had a nice surprise as the latest No-Nonsense bike was there, with even more pointier bits on than dirty bad girl’ which was parked next to it. It would take me forever to explain what I liked about it so I will point out bits that caught my eye, the rear light housing was gripped by a claw, and the rear wheel spindle was made up of mace heads with a mace attached to the opposite side wheel and frame oh and spikes, loads of spikes.
There were a variety of custom bikes there, including one I had seen for the first time at the bum in the mud rally only weeks before, It was orange and had a four section tubular fuel tank.
the British motorcycle owners club and the taw and Torridge classic bike club where there, now I guess I am acclimatised to the layout, of the show because I did tend to overlook a lot of bike stands, for the very reason that I had seen the same stands in the same place each year, maybe they should be moved around a bit, a bit like when you hit the supermarkets and you get to the beans and they have moved them, you then end up spending £30 at the shop and still come away without any beans.
on of my favourite parts of the south west show is the car park, I always find something that grabs my attention, last year it was a VW engine bike, and this year it was an 1100 Pan European streetfighter, now it wasn’t a pretty bike, but it was an attention grabber.
I was a bit shocked at how much smaller the south west show seemed compared with previous years, but then negative features do tend to stand out more than positive ones, so maybe it was just an off year.

Yoda