Bike Night Festival 2006

Bikers make a difference

Another May Day bank holiday weekend, another weather forecaster talking crap about fine weather! This one was different though. No, they weren’t right about the weather, it was the first BMAD festival on Paignton Green.   On a roll from the success of Paignton Bike Nights, BMAD decided that Paignton was ready for a serious bout of motorcycle mayhem & devoted countless hours to ensuring that it got it. For all of you Paignton Bike Night virgins, the BMAD crew organise an opportunity for all to appreciate some of the awesome bikes & trikes that are being enjoyed around the area. The money raised on the Bike nights, & now the festival, goes to support the charities ‘sick & disabled children & their families & carers of Torbay’, ‘Devon Air Ambulance’ & ‘St Johns Ambulance’. And those worthy guys from BMAD do it purely for the hell of it! (hat means they’re all volunteers.) The result was a cracking weekend spent appreciating the fruits of  other people’s handiwork & pocket money. The sea front played host to approximately 4000 bikes & trikes, lured in by the hope of picking up £1000 for the best bike or just for the sheer pride of displaying their baby for all to see. ( I know, it’s naff when new parents do it, but a bike makes a much finer noise & is easier to clean up after….. OK, scrap the bit about cleaning!)   The handsome reward was justifiably given to the owner of a highly engineered Harley, I say justifiably, that’s what I was told…. What would I know, I wasn’t judging it!

Being of the non-engineering persuasion however, I was still able to appreciate the courage of Jamie Squibb (has the boy no sense??), the awesome machinery & fine attire available for sale, topped by the amazing line-up of live music. I have to say that I missed the Cowboys & Indians, an oversight on my part & one that I will surely rectify if the opportunity arises.

I know that Kelvin (BMAD’s chairman) had plans for next year before the weekend had even come, let alone gone, & judging by the grin & expression of relief he was wearing on Sunday, I’m guessing that he isn’t ready to back down yet. I sincerely hope that it will be back again next year, sunshine would be good but it worked this year without it, so no worries!

Thanks BMAD

PS Yes it was a bike festival, so of course there were girlies wandering around with not to much to keep them warm, pole dancers & a foxy model you could have photographed on your bike so you can lie outrageously to your mates about your pulling power, but I wasn’t interested in them. You want to know about them, get a bloke to do the write-up next year!

 Tami Pitts

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