The 17th edition of the Barber Vintage Festival (2022) took place on a gloriously warm and dry weekend in Leeds, Alabama from October 7-9. The event drew 71,600 attendees over the three days and offered racing, swap meets, and a benefit dinner as well as tech sessions on tuning, pinstriping and wheel building. All this in addition to showcasing the largest collection of motorcycles in the world. As always, it was a challenge to take it all in.
It was the final race weekend for the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association and AHRMA put on a great show. The paddock and track reverberated with the sounds of motorcycles of all ages and displacements competing for class championships.
Two enormous swap areas were full of treasures while several manufacturers including Zero, Yamaha, BMW and KTM offered demo rides. In addition to hosting vendors and commercial displays, the Expo area featured the twin spectacles of the Wall of Death and the Globe of Death.
The 2022 Grand Marshal was Brian Slark, American Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame member and Technical Consultant for the Barber Museum. Now in his early 80s, Brian has had a long and distinguished motorcycling career. In the 1960s, he moved from his native England to Los Angeles, where he raced motocross, worked for BSA and Norton-Villiers-Triumph and ran his own British motorcycle shop for over a decade. Since 1996, Brian’s been on the staff at the Barber Museum.
Barber Vintage Festival 2022 Speakers and Seminars
The annual Friday evening “Motorcycles by Moonlight” benefit dinner featured silent and live auctions and an interview with Brian. If you’re feeling flush, buying a ticket to this event is a great way to support the museum while seeing old friends and making new ones.
New for this year was a series of presentations and panel discussions in the Barber Advanced Design Center (BADC). The Center explores the future paths that motorcycle design might take while exploiting the potential of modern design and manufacturing techniques. It’s also a venue for introducing the next generation of young visionary designers and engineers to new possibilities.
The Center was launched last year and is led by Brian Case, best known as the designer of the Birmingham-built V4 Motus motorcycle. A video conference-enabled remote collaboration between the BADC and South African Pierre Terblanche (designer of such iconic motorcycles as the Ducati Supermono, 888 and 999) resulted in a modern remake of the original Ducati Supermono from the early 1990s.
This year, Brian and journalist Neale Bayly hosted a series of seminars on several topics including an update on the creation of the “new” 3D-printed Supermono as well as tales of the original Supermono from the 1990s. The discussion was led by an on-site Pierre and included journalist/racers Neil Spaulding and Sir Alan Cathcart, both of whom raced the original Supermono in the ’90s.
Three additional sessions in the BADC included: 1) Neil Spaulding speaking about current MotoGP technology and how some aspects can be traced back to Norton isolastics, 2) Ed Boyd (Sr. VP of Design at Dell) telling the story behind the “Fuse” concept bike designed by him and built with help from Revival Cycles in Austin, Texas, and 3) a group discussion of the future of motorcycle design. This last panel was led by Ultan Guilfoyle (Google him; you’ll be impressed) and included Brian, Pierre, Miguel Galuzzi (Design Chief at Piaggio and creator of the Ducati Monster and many others), Ed Boyd and Greg Brew (Head of Design at Polaris/Indian). For anyone interested in motorcycle design past, present and future, it was fascinating.
Barber Vintage Festival Activities
Most of the Barber Vintage Festival activities feature motorcycles of the past, whereas the BADC sessions shifted the focus to motorcycles of the future. If the Center’s activities on the 5th floor of the museum are any indication, we can expect some exciting developments in the years ahead.
The Barber Vintage Festival continues to be the premier event of its kind and should be on the bucket list of anyone interested in vintage, classic (and future?) motorcycles. The 2023 Festival is scheduled for October 6-8, 2023. More information about the event can be found at Barber Motorsports Museum. MC
