- Week Alabama, it's not like they said!

[klaviator]

I wasn't that impressed with the show. I didn't care for the music they were playing and at first all the guy did was burn up his rear tire. Eventually he did some other stuff.

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No doubt it takes some skill to do this stuff but it's not something I have ever had much interest in. Personally I'd rather watch a trials exhibition.

After thinking it over for a while I decided that I might not ever get another easy opportunity to do a Track "day" on my little scooter. I went and signed up for a 20 minute slot later in the morning. We had some time to kill so we went for a little ride around Barber.

Barber is a very well maintained and scenic facility.

Some people watching cars go around the track.

There was an area where those who wanted to practice their stunt riding skills could practice.

 

[EGR]

The entire project was a strip mine recovery proposal. George Barber’s project was selected from a group of proposals. It was for some time politically “a thing”.

I’ve not seen a follow up study but have been witness. Conservatively George Barber is responsible for a thousand jobs in the area. It was back of nowhere. No lodging, restaurants, fuel, retail, etc for several I-20 exits. Nothing. Everything around there is due to the Barber facility. Funny, the original plan did not include the big track. Only a small track off back of Museum for the restoration shop.

 

[oldschool]

I've been to the Vintage Festival at Barber twice, 2016 and 2018. Was fortunate to be able to bring my 450 in '18, having your own bike to ride around the beautiful grounds was awesome. The museum is first class as is pretty much everything about the place. We were camped at the end of the road in Lot D where the then-Mercedes test track is (not sure if the sponsorship has changed since), one of the previous pictures Klaviator posted showed his bikes on the left of the building overlooking it. The guy I went with was a vendor so we were there almost the entire week, got in a couple of days before the public so riding the grounds the first couple days was open and carefree.

Morning of our second day, starting to fill up with vendors on the test track area

Some of the crazy yard art

Museum parking lot

The view from my pop-up, posting from my laptop using my phone as a hotspot (no wifi available)

 

[klaviator]

I've been to the Vintage Festival a few times. What an amazing event! I'll report on those events at some point later. First I have a lot more from the Small Bore event.

 

[SandRdr]

That is one heck of a success story!

 

[cabanza]

I love those Aprilia SR50! 20+ years ago, the Aprilia dealer in Austin (Mototek) had an SR125 (yes 125 cc) two stroke. That thing was a rocket!

 

[klaviator]

Before long it was time for me to go back to my truck and put on my "track gear"

I gave Rich my Sony so he could take some pics of me on the track. About 10 minutes before track time the Lady doing the sign ups saw my scooter and said "I don't think you can ride that on the track"

But she checked with some guy who said it wouldn't be a problem so I was good to go

Getting the pre ride safety briefing.

There would only be three of us on the track for this session. One was one of the instructors and then a young gal on a Grom. She was decked out in full leather and looked like she belonged on the track much more than I did.

Heading out behind the instructor who would lead us around for the first lap.

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After the first lap I passed the instructor and led for part of a lap. Then I let the gal on the Grom by because it seemed like she was a bit faster than me.


Turning on to the front straight.

 

[klaviator]

I have to say it felt a bit weird to be riding flat out on a "racetrack" on a scooter. OK, this wasn't anything like the main track at Barbers. It was really tight and designed for tiny bikes like Groms.

The track surface was also a bit rough and my scooter doesn't exactly have the best suspension. I was still having fun. The biggest limiting factor on how fast I could go was the lack of cornering clearance of my scooter and the fact that there isn't much warning when you run out of clearance since there are no footpeg feelers.

I eventually figured out that I didn't have to slow down that much for the curve at the end of the front straight.

I left some little bits of plastic on the track as the belly pan under the front of the scooter would scrape if I leaned too far.

20 Minutes on the track actually seemed to last for a long time.

 

[klaviator]

I have chased Groms through the dragon and kept up with them but I couldn't do it on this track.

While my scooter has a bit more power than a stock Grom and better brakes, speed on a track like this mainly comes down to cornering speed.

I guess I could have hung off the side for more cornering speed.

I was having fun but towards the end of the 20 minute session I was ready to get off the track.

Taking the checkered flag.

 

[Chickenstrip]

Wait a minute ... maybe you do rap battles on the side?
"The view from my pop-up, posting from my laptop using my phone as a hotspot (no wifi available)".

Thanks for the story. I hope to get down to Barber at some point. The backstory about it transforming the region post-mining makes it that much more attractive.

 

[klaviator]

Wait a minute ... maybe you do rap battles on the side?
"The view from my pop-up, posting from my laptop using my phone as a hotspot (no wifi available)".

Thanks for the story. I hope to get down to Barber at some point. The backstory about it transforming the region post-mining makes it that much more attractive.

The best time to visit Barber is early October when the Vintage festival is going on. If you just want to see the museum then come any time but there is so much more to Barber than the museum.

 

[klaviator]

After my track session was over I headed back to my truck and ditched some of my riding gear. Unlike those earlier snow pics, it was pretty hot here in June. I think it was close to 90 and the bright sun was beating down.

We headed over to the swap meet section.

Unlike the Vintage festival, there wasn't much of a swap meet section and there wasn't much going on. We rode back up to the hillside overlooking the event.

We saw they had opened up the mini drag strip so we headed back down.

There were lots of people wandering around, some on foot and some on bikes. Helmets were required but not much safety gear besides helmets to be seen.

The drag strip was free and open to all small bore bikes so we got in line.

Unlike the other track, no gear requirements beyond a helmet.

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Rich and I were next. I thought he would be faster off the line with a manual 5 speed vs my CVT and beat me on his TnT135 but I beat him twice. Then I beat a kid on a small dirtbike. Then I had the chance to run against an ADV150. This would be interesting.


Both 150cc scooters. Honda ADV 150 vs Kymco Like 150i. Which do you think was faster?

 

[oldschool]

Good stuff, had to be lots of fun. I'm guessing the winner of above was the one with less pilot "baggage", LOL. So they didn't include the banked turn at the back of the test track in your track time? Bummer. I got to go around it at a modest speed on my 450 but it was unauthorized, it was on Sunday afternoon when everyone was packing up and few were paying attention

 

[klaviator]

Good stuff, had to be lots of fun. I'm guessing the winner of above was the one with less pilot "baggage", LOL. So they didn't include the banked turn at the back of the test track in your track time? Bummer. I got to go around it at a modest speed on my 450 but it was unauthorized, it was on Sunday afternoon when everyone was packing up and few were paying attention

That banked curve was part of the track. Having no experience well banked curves like that I was a bit unsure how fast I could take it and never did get to where I was comfortable taking it flat out which I'm pretty sure the scooter would have handled OK.

As for the drag race, it was really close but I won by a couple of feet. A change in rider weight could probably have changed the outcome. Rider skill doesn't play much of a part because on a CVT scooter you just pin the throttle and go.

Rich got a pic with his phone:

I was on a roll. Four wins in a row. Maybe a drag racing career was in my future

Next up I raced a gal on a hopped up Grom. That was the end of my drag racing career aspirations

 

[klaviator]

With my drag racing career ended it was time to head off to see other things. We ended up back at the Stunt area where I practiced my photography.

I'm not sure what this guy was doing here, he wasn't doing any stunts.

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[klaviator]

We headed over to the dirt racing area. They wouldn't let anyone through to the area until after 2 when the racing was scheduled to begin. I killed some time by taking a glamour shots of shot of my scooter with the track on the background.

There was an interesting mix of cars on the track. Some where street cars, Porsche, Miata, Mustang, etc and some were dedicated race cars.

We had some more time to kill so we went back to the main event area and walked around.

This guy was riding around with his kid at maybe 2 MPH.

More drag styled bikes:

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A heavily farkled Grom.

 

[oldschool]

Lots of good pics there, thanks for sharing them. The Small Bore thing looks like it was bigger than some thought it might have been. It's interesting to get the perspective of looking up the hill at where we camped in 2016 and 2018. I love that place, wish it wasn't so far from me or I'd go more often.

 

[klaviator]

Lots of good pics there, thanks for sharing them. The Small Bore thing looks like it was bigger than some thought it might have been. It's interesting to get the perspective of looking up the hill at where we camped in 2016 and 2018. I love that place, wish it wasn't so far from me or I'd go more often.

The event was actually smaller than I expected. I was used to the huge crowds of the Vintage Festival which used the entire park. Most of the small bore event was set up in the area that has the Swap Meet overflow during Vintage. I still have more coming up.

 

[EGR]

The first vintage was tiny. Second was double. Third vintage festival had obviously reached escape velocity. This small bore will be similar IMO.

 

[klaviator]

The first vintage was tiny. Second was double. Third vintage festival had obviously reached escape velocity. This small bore will be similar IMO.

It will be interesting to see if you are right. Mini motos, especially those from Honda are really hot right now. That's what this event is aimed at. There were small scooters and all kinds of small motorcycles but by far the most popular bike there was the Grom.