Kempton Park bike jumble sells out

It's official. Yesterday's Kempton Park bike jumble (Saturday 22nd March 2014) was so overbooked, organiser Eric Patterson had to lay on a lot of extra pitches to keep the traders from starting a riot. Public attendance was high. The weather, mercifully, mostly held. And the total number of pitches was said to be somewhere above 300 making it one of the busiest Kemptons ever.

Sump was there again armed with camera and attitude, and so were a few other press people, both from the wider continent and much closer to home—not least Mortons Media Group which isn't exactly a stranger to Eric's regular and essential classic bike calendar fixture held at its usual spot on the South West corner of London.

But was it our imagination that on this occasion, Mortons was fielding a few extra staff? If so, we can only speculate why. We can also only speculate on why one of those visitors was Nick Mowbray, head of Mortons show division.

               ▲ Luke Skywalker                                    ▲ Eric Patterson

Mortons, in case you don't know, already has a half-Nelson (if not a stranglehold) on the UK's classic bike show circuit, and it's well understood that they'd like to get total submission from all challengers.

Kempton Park is one of the leading and best independently organised classic bike jumbles in the UK, and there are plenty of folk who'd very much like it to stay that way. But like all empires, Mortons is a hungry band of conquerors, and around this corner of the galaxy, they've got the deepest pockets. Their brand of business style is not universally loved, but we'd be unwise to underestimate this particular force.

Then again, empires come and go.

Let's hope that, for the time being at least, Eric "Skywalker" Patterson doesn't do anything precipitous (and just remember, Eric, that whatever they're offering, they'll probably pony-up double that).

▲ 1954 BSA B33 asking around £3,850. Very clean, but not all it seemed (it advertised an inappropriate reference to an Empire Star). All the same, we liked it.

▲ We didn't get the details of this cool blue Triumph. But the guys in the hat tell you what the weather was like. But the rain pretty much stayed away throughout.

▲ We didn't get the details of this Greeves either. But generally, Greeves bikes appear to be down in price a little. We've seen quite a few at sub-£2,000, and in fair condition. Front light looks odd, mind.

▲ This Silk 700 water-cooled two-stroke is so rare that it makes Triumph Hurricanes and BSA DBD34s look as common as muck. Currently, a good Silk will set you back around ten grand. And some. These bikes sound like Scotts, and well they might; the DNA is shared, but the styling is more contemporary.

▲ 500cc Triumph TRW. It was asking £4,000. That's a little high maybe, but not exceptionally so. The military bike that never really went to war. Rare. And cool.

▲ RH500 Red Hunter Ariel. Probably circa 1935. The price wasn't on this, but we'd expect to see it sell for around £5,000 in the current market. Maybe a little more.

▲ First-of-type road-going Bultaco. It was asking £3,500. Lots of interest. Stylish little Spanish flyer.

▲ £20,000 498cc Norton Domiracer. 1961 Works Replica. Rebuilt. I.O.M TT bike.

▲ Don't let our pics mislead you. We filtered out the crowds on most of these shots, but Kempton was heaving with humanoids. Our eyes were strictly on the bikes, but our eyes weren't the only eyes watching...

▲ 1964 Royal Enfield Turbo Twin fitted with a 250cc Villiers 4T engine. Looking for £3,000. This bike won't exactly set the world alight, but 3K is a fair starting price. Enfields have always had their peculiar views on design, and this one doesn't disappoint. We think it's got a certain olde-worldly charm.

▲ Triumph T120 and a Tiger Cub. We've got no smart remarks about these two, except that most of us love a nice-and-not-necessarily-matching pair (see? That's the kind of smut you have to put up with these days on these second rate websites).

— Dexxion