Cool Bikes at the Barber Vintage Festival

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George Brown with his beautiful 1974 Benelli 650S Tornado. George's Benelli took home our award for Best Restored Italian.
George Brown with his beautiful 1974 Benelli 650S Tornado. George's Benelli took home our award for Best Restored Italian.
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Tony Miller and daughter, with Tony's 1982 Hesketh V1000, which took our award for Best Rider British.
Tony Miller and daughter, with Tony's 1982 Hesketh V1000, which took our award for Best Rider British.

It isn’t every day you see a Hesketh V1000 — let alone one that’s actually run at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats — but it’s exactly the kind of fantastic surprise we find every year at the Barber Vintage Festival in Leeds, Ala.

2014 will see the 10th Annual Barber Vintage Festival at Barber Vintage Motorsports Park, home to the incredible, ever-changing Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. The bikes that turned out for the annual Motorcycle Classics Vintage Bike Show at the 2013 Barber Vintage Festival underscore the tremendous variety of motorcycles on hand for this annual celebration of vintage motorcycles and motorcycling.

A slew of great Italian and British machines turned up, few of them more impressive than George Brown’s immaculate 1974 Benelli 650S Tornado and Tony Miller’s fantastic 1982 Hesketh V1000. Both bikes are rare in the U.S., particularly the Hesketh. Tony’s bike is particularly interesting, holding the honor of being the first Hesketh ever to have run on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Tony took the V1000 to Utah in 2012 to celebrate his 50th birthday.

A record 61,000-plus vintage bike fans showed up in 2013, making the Barber Vintage Festival the largest vintage motorcycle gathering in the U.S. The 2014 event runs October 10-12. MC

  • Published on Feb 13, 2014
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