Yet another fantastic day out for SUKBOG! Plenty of warm sunshine, dry roads, sparkly bikes, jiggly wimmin', new faces, ice cream, stunt riding, bargains, cornish pasties, and cider. But let's start closer to the beginning...

Pat was kind enough to offer an early brekkie at his place, and TC, Sash, Tabby, Trev and Muppet got another chance to have their day kick-started by the legendary bacon sarnies.

Next up was the ride to Winchester services, where we met up with Paul Sharpe, Pat Loftus, and Tris. Saw a very creative crash on the way; some jellyhead in a car managed to get themselves well and truly wedged crossways into an articulated lorry in lane one! The fire brigade were just cutting them free as we filtered past miles of stationary traffic - one down, millions to go.

We arrived on site after a sedate bimble through the New Forest and were one of the first rows in the bike park. I have to say it was all very well organised, plenty of stewards standing round to make sure we parked close enough together and made use of the kick-stand plates they were handing out. The helmet park was the traditional yellow bus, and we were very glad to be able to dump most of our gear in favour of shorts and sandals.

There then followed a lot of wandering about inbetween the stalls and ogling various bits, interrupted by TC's cry of "They've got Lazer Revolutions for 170 quid!". Needless to say we made good use of the opportunity to join the dark side at cut-price; they sold four Lazers to SUKBOG alone.

During the day there were various groups of lunatics tearing round the little circuit which circumvented the main arena, when we turned up the Suzuki Owners Club had just arrived and were doing a lap or three. Some nice little GSXRs there too, sporting Suzuki's new SACS. (Suzuki Advanced Comical System) SOC were camped right opposite the Suzuki stand, which gave a great opportunity to have a gawp at the new GSX1400. Quite a large bike that! Apparently it's got a slightly more bulging power curve than the Bandit 12, but the footpegs touch down far earlier. Should be good competition for Yamaha's XJR1300, but I don't think it'll be chopped into quite as many stunt bikes as the Bandit 12.

Wandering round the stalls we met an awfully nice chap by the name of Ben, who owns a rather tasty Bandit with twin exhausts and an array of other trick bits. (If you're reading this mate, drop me a line!)

Other two-wheeled highlights of the day included a monkey on a six, a 1600cc V8 Kawasaki, a pristine Norton Commando, various racing sidecar outfits, drag trikes (one of the best Hayabusa efforts I've seen to to date) and a whole bunch of rare machines being displayed in one of the tents by SOC, including something with a Wankel engine. Poor dear!

As usual, there were also a couple of trades represented which have not a lot to do with motorcycling, but who benefit from the association and of course the money. Great example were the Billy-Bob teeth, and the police. :o)

We stumbled across the Hornet Owners Club, and I have to admit there was some good organisation going on guys! Very tidy stall, plenty of info, and some good humour too! By contrast, the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) had a battered caravan onto which was affixed a cardboard logo using duck tape. Sort it out! Mind you, I've got no room to comment, when are we going to be seen at one of these shows?

There was no shortage of entertainment in the arena throughout the day, Gary Rothwell was performing as per usual (although he seems to have aged a bit and now rides a mini-moto) and someone had placed a call to the Mad B@$t@®D Super Motard owners club. These guys were both awesome and entertaining with their let's-see-how-fast-we-can-chuck-it-through-a-corner technique. Gotta get me one of them! (Why don't you have a look at them in action, there are a couple of movies, sized 1.0meg and 1.6meg. You'll need to have Quicktime installed and configured to play MOV mime types)

Pete turned up not long after the start, as did Ian (and Chris!), and John (and Alison!). Have to say Big Respect to Ian for riding down after playing golf at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning, and of course to Pat L for riding down all the way from Milton Keynes!

We have to make the most of the few events unaffected by foot & mouth, and you guys did just that. Big Thanks to the culprits in full, namely Pat,Tabby, TC, Tris, Chris, Ian, Alison, John, Paul, Pete, Patman, Trev, Sash, and no party would be complete without Mr. Valves. This sort of thing needs to be repeated again soon, so if you know of any ickle rallies going on drop me a line!