Went to tge Norfolk Motorcycle Museum yesterday

[crofty1984]

It's brilliant!
Basically an old dusty rail shed packed out with loads of old bikes in various states of love/disrepair/patina. A proper old-school workshop and a very friendly and knowledgeable owner. Mostly Pre-1960s stuff and some oddities. A good load of 1920s bikes too. So thanks to my girlfriend for getting me the tickets.

[srob]

Live in Norfolk, got sheds full of vintage bikes, never heard of it

[MotorsportTom]

Are you sure he didn't just pop round your house Srob?

[srob]

Now there's an idea

[HD Adam]

Do you mean the one in North Walsham?

It's good (and about 10 miles from where I live)

[steve954]

Live about 5 miles from it and have never been! Really should go.

[crofty1984]

HD Adam said:

Do you mean the one in North Walsham?

It's good (and about 10 miles from where I live)

Yup, just by the train station. Am I rght in thinking they sometimes have a bike meet in North Walsham?

[Fastpedeller]

steve954 said:

Live about 5 miles from it and have never been! Really should go.

I'm omly 3 miles from it and I've never been either....... Anyone else closer?

[HD Adam]

crofty1984 said:

HD Adam said:

Do you mean the one in North Walsham?

It's good (and about 10 miles from where I live)

Yup, just by the train station. Am I rght in thinking they sometimes have a bike meet in North Walsham?

Yes.

At the Brunch Bar, on a Friday evening in the summer.

It's next to Robinsons VW dealer up on the industrial estate at the next set of lights from the bike museum.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brunch-Bar-Nort...

[Hooli]

MotorsportTom said:

Are you sure he didn't just pop round your house Srob?

That was my first thought too

[thatdude]

This sounds like an excellent saturday trip when warmer weather comes around

[nervous]

I've also been- I also live close by, fact fans- but as a counter to the above, I'd say unless you were a fan of being enormously frustrated by the fact that there's about a billion amazing bikes all bundled into one hugely disorganised space, in a way that makes it all but impossible to see or appreciate more than about 12 of them while the others languish under boxes of dirty rag, old copies of Big Ones Monthly and broken clocks whilst constantly being pilloried by the obviously fanatical owner about every one of the bikes you have the audacity to not know the magneto size of, then it's probably not for you.

Owner: Of course, you know what this is, yes?
Nerv (terrified): A motorbike?
Owner (to other end of Museum): Dave! This chap doesn't even know what this is!!
Dave (or equiv): What?! >laughs heartily<
Nerv (recalling he's paying for this public lambasting): Well, it would help if I could see what it is. Is it a motorbike?

Repeat to fade.

It's an Amazing collection, but an enormously frustrating display. I know it's not up to me- it's his collection- but if you're going to call it a museum, then you probably need to make concessions to the fact that attendees would probably like to see the things they've come to see without looking under old mattresses and yes we have no bananas. I'd happily spend a week tidying it up for him- it's all it needs. It's crammed with brilliance, but I saw more of the bikes by looking them up on the Internet afterwards, without any of the sense Id let my Grandad down for not being able to recite compression ratios on cue.

[nervous]

crofty1984 said:

It's brilliant!
Basically an old dusty rail shed packed out with loads of old bikes in various states of love/disrepair/patina. A proper old-school workshop and a very friendly and knowledgeable owner. Mostly Pre-1960s stuff and some oddities. A good load of 1920s bikes too. So thanks to my girlfriend for getting me the tickets.

Just re-read this and realise that this post is actually just about mentioning you've got a girlfriend and not at all about motorbike museums, isn't it? Damn. Hang on, I'll write a review of her too, including the times she's also humiliated me in a barren, dusty environment filled with pre-war rats.

[crofty1984]

nervous said:

crofty1984 said:

It's brilliant!
Basically an old dusty rail shed packed out with loads of old bikes in various states of love/disrepair/patina. A proper old-school workshop and a very friendly and knowledgeable owner. Mostly Pre-1960s stuff and some oddities. A good load of 1920s bikes too. So thanks to my girlfriend for getting me the tickets.

Just re-read this and realise that this post is actually just about mentioning you've got a girlfriend and not at all about motorbike museums, isn't it? Damn. Hang on, I'll write a review of her too, including the times she's also humiliated me in a barren, dusty environment filled with pre-war rats.

You've got me. I've never even been to the museum, if there is one. But now you mention it I DO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND! A REAL ACTUAL ONE THIS TIME, NO, REALLY!

I kind of like the set up. I can see your point about it being a bit of a stretch to call it a "museum" but I think that's part of it's charm. Then again, I lament the passing of old scrappys where you could clamber up the stacked cars (jumpers for goalposts, lived in a lake, etc, etc).

[nervous]

crofty1984 said:

I kind of like the set up. I can see your point about it being a bit of a stretch to call it a "museum" but I think that's part of it's charm. Then again, I lament the passing of old scrappys where you could clamber up the stacked cars (jumpers for goalposts, lived in a lake, etc, etc).

I too lament this. But I am quite the lamenter, as you know. Sometimes even wistfully.

The problem with your analogy here is that ultimately when scrapyard sifting you would probably be able to find what you want, and if you couldn't it's because it wasn't there. If these folks ran a scrap yard they'd charge you to get in, then once inside would only grant you a look at the bit you wanted. From underneath 7 duvets and a broken urinal. In a hole. With an owl.

Plus, you're really, really short. There. I've said it.

[crofty1984]

nervous said:

crofty1984 said:

I kind of like the set up. I can see your point about it being a bit of a stretch to call it a "museum" but I think that's part of it's charm. Then again, I lament the passing of old scrappys where you could clamber up the stacked cars (jumpers for goalposts, lived in a lake, etc, etc).

I too lament this. But I am quite the lamenter, as you know. Sometimes even wistfully.

The problem with your analogy here is that ultimately when scrapyard sifting you would probably be able to find what you want, and if you couldn't it's because it wasn't there. If these folks ran a scrap yard they'd charge you to get in, then once inside would only grant you a look at the bit you wanted. From underneath 7 duvets and a broken urinal. In a hole. With an owl.

Plus, you're really, really short. There. I've said it.

First you call my house a barren, dusty environment filled with pre-war rats. Now you're calling me short! Take that back or I'll bite you on the tits. And not in a good way.
Anyway, Fast Show - Rambling Hiker sketch. Plagiarist!
In other news - Hope you're doing well, not seen you in a bit due to other people's inability to sell me a house for 6 months.

[nervous]

crofty1984 said:

irst you call my house a barren, dusty environment filled with pre-war rats. Now you're calling me short! Take that back or I'll bite you on the tits. And not in a good way.
Anyway, Fast Show - Rambling Hiker sketch. Plagiarist!
In other news - Hope you're doing well, not seen you in a bit due to other people's inability to sell me a house for 6 months.

To be clear, I wasn't describing your house. I've never been there. I was describing your girlfriend.

[crofty1984]

Me-ow! That one was original at least.

[Captain Muppet]

I think we owe it to the two miserable old men who were the only people who turned up to that engineering talk we all gave (albeit probably because they were looking for the toilet, they certainly smelled like they were looking for the toilet) to try to get on.

Although nervy is really tall, and crofty owns a fleet of boats and a Lotus in the sort of extreme neglect that mine could only dream of, whereas I'm just an averagey bloke with a sort of a beard who is inoffensively sarcastic a bit. So without the two of you for colour (not racist) I don't seem quite as dull.

Also nervy is hugely spoilt by having what is basically a bike museum at home, and crofty probably wasn't paying attention to the possible slight rubbishness of the museum because of having a girlfriend will to not only go to a bike museum but pay for tickets too.

[crofty1984]

Captain Muppet said:

I think we owe it to the two miserable old men who were the only people who turned up to that engineering talk we all gave (albeit probably because they were looking for the toilet, they certainly smelled like they were looking for the toilet) to try to get on.

Although nervy is really tall, and crofty owns a fleet of boats and a Lotus in the sort of extreme neglect that mine could only dream of, whereas I'm just an averagey bloke with a sort of a beard who is inoffensively sarcastic a bit. So without the two of you for colour (not racist) I don't seem quite as dull.

Also nervy is hugely spoilt by having what is basically a bike museum at home, and crofty probably wasn't paying attention to the possible slight rubbishness of the museum because of having a girlfriend will to not only go to a bike museum but pay for tickets too.

I think that's just their standard smell.

Well said Mr Muppet Want to buy a boat?
Though I went with a mate rather than Mrs Crofty. She bought me the tickets, but it was one of those "I will go with you if you ask me to but you're going to owe me for dragging me round looking at bloody motorbikes."