The 26th You’ve Been Nabbed rally will be held at The Royal Cheshire Showground, Flittogate Lane, Tabley, Knutsford, WA16 0HJ.

The entrance to the showground is on Pickmere Lane adjacent to the junction with Flittogate Lane. Less than 1.5 miles from Junction 19 of the M6 motorway (turn right at the Windmill Pub 100 yards from the M6 roundabout and follow Pickmere Lane (B5391) to the showground entrance on the left just after Flittogate Lane).

Tickets can be purchased by Credit/Debit card via: 0844 415 4849 or the on-line shop at www.thenabd.co.uk

Cheques for ticket orders should be made out to ‘NABD’ and sent with a stamped, addressed, envelope to:
NABD
Unit 20, The Bridgewater Centre
Robson Avenue, Urmston
Manchester
M41 7TE

Support the Leading Disabled Biker's Support Group in the World and Party with a Purpose!

For further information see www.nabd.org.uk and/or www.facebook.com/YouveBeenNabbed26/

There seems to be a little confusion out there about what we're up to, so here it is from the horse's mouth as they say.

Prescott Bike Festival is going like a dream, Run the Hills entries are almost sold out, Paddock Specials are full, new exhibitors are signing up, exciting stuff for everyone and we have some ambitious plans that take us out to 2020 and beyond. All good stuff. Hope you'll be able to join us on April 9th 2017.

Shelsley Bike Festival, unfortunately, didn't work out as well as we'd hoped. We just didn't get enough visitors to make the Festival's proceeds reflect all the hard work our volunteers put in to organise the day. Lots of reasons for this (and believe me we've talked about them a lot) but none we can do much about. The 2016 Festival made just under £3k 'profit' - a nice amount but I'm afraid just not enough for all the effort required. So we will not be running an event at Shelsley this year.

So - as an old boss of mine used to say, "do what you do well and do it better" and that's just what we're going to do. Build our successful Prescott Bike Fest into something even bigger and better and I look forward to sharing our exciting plans with you in due course.

In the meantime, I hope to see you at Prescott on April 9th and I thank you for your support.

Best wishes
Gordon
Festival Organiser

Bennetts has renewed its status as an official sponsor of the Isle of Man TT Races and agreed terms with the Isle of Man Government to remain the title sponsor of the Classic TT Races. The leading motorcycle insurance specialist will be the official exclusive insurance category partner for both events.

The brand originally became involved with the TT Races in 2007 and stepped up to take the title sponsorship of the Classic TT Races which will continue to be known as 'The Classic TT Races presented by Bennetts’, in 2014. The company will also retain title sponsorship of the Bennetts Lightweight TT and Bennetts Senior Classic TT Races.

The sponsorship is part of the company’s strategy to bring the motorcycling community and industry together and the brand’s commitment to enhance its classic bike insurance cover.

Bennetts is an established insurer in the motorcycle industry and provides quotes on motorcycles from the 1900’s onwards at Bennetts.co.uk or directly from the Bennetts specialist call centre.

The Classic TT races take place over the Bank Holiday weekend in August, 25th – 28th with four races held over the famous 37 ¾ mile TT Mountain Course as well as the VMCC Festival of Jurby on Sunday 27th August with parade laps featuring some of the world’s most iconic Classic machines and additional activity including period events, exhibitions of exotic racing motorcycles and legendary riders autograph sessions which all add up to an incredible celebration of motorcycling nostalgia.

As well as the title sponsorship, Bennetts also has naming rights to the blue riband  ‘Bennetts Senior Classic TT Race’ which opens up the race schedule on the morning of Saturday 26th August. The 2016 Bennetts Senior TT Race saw John McGuinness memorably end his Classic TT duck with victory on a team Winfield Paton from Dean Harrison with Maria Costello claiming the final podium place.

Many of the leading road racing names are due to appear at the Classic TT Races in 2017 including John McGuinness, Michael Dunlop, Bruce Anstey, Michael Rutter, Conor Cummins, William Dunlop, Cameron Donald, James Hillier, Peter Hickman and Gary Johnson.

They will be riding priceless machines from iconic historic marques such as Matchless, Norton, MV Agusta, BSA, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Vincent, AJS and Aermacchi as well as the established Japanese manufacturers, Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki. The event will also feature a number of memorable parades including notably an appearance by Michael Dunlop riding a Kay family replica of the MV Agusta that Bob McIntyre rode to complete the first 100mph lap of the Mountain Course sixty years ago.

Vince Chaney, Managing Director, Bennetts said:

“The increased profile of the Isle of Man TT Races and Classic TT Races gives Bennetts an important platform to promote our services to the Motorcycling community and is an integral part of our annual communications programme. Bennetts is a motorcycle insurance specialist with over 85 years of heritage and we are able to provide high quality comprehensive support and cover for many different machines. The TT represents a great way of speaking to our existing customers as well as reaching new motorcyclists."

"This year we will focus our efforts on using our exclusive partnership with the Isle of Man TT and Classic TT to deliver exciting money can’t buy experiences for our customers on the island. We will also provide a behind the scenes look at the events via our social media and BikeSocial platforms for those who can’t be there."

Rob Callister, MHK, Political Member, Isle of Man Government Department of Economic Development for Tourism and Motorsport commented:

"We are really pleased to have retained the support of Bennetts across both events which is a major endorsement of the continued strength and appeal of the TT Races and Classic TT. The company has been a long term partner for us on the Isle of Man and they are an important contributor to the growing success and rising popularity of both events."

Your weekly update about the Manchester Bike Show, brought to you from the team at Instantfocus Ltd...

Zoe Cano – Biker, Adventurer and Photographer

Zoe was a big hit last year both on the stage being interviewed by Les Clayton about her latest book “Bonneville, Go or Bust – on the roads less travelled” and signing her book on Phil Youles Triumph stand.  Since we last met Zoe has had built an affordable custom bike by Ben at Vale Speed in Worcestershire. Both Zoe and Ben will be at the show along with the bike in the photo although where in the halls exactly we are not quite sure but what we are sure about is that Zoe will be on stage again talking to Les Clayton throughout the weekend. Well worth a listen, makes you wonder what worthwhile you have done with your life!

Exhibitors List

The exhibitors list is now up on the website and shows 41 clubs who have already confirmed their stands along with 27 private entries and 93 trade exhibitors.

Clubs

This week we have welcomed the Preston and District Motorcycle Club to the ACU display although we know that several forms are in the post as I write so more news next week. We are now up to 510 bikes on display in the club section.

Private Enthusiasts

A couple of cracking bikes booked in this week, a Honda Dream 50 TT road racing bike belonging to Raymond Dennerley of Stockport and John Cook for Stoke on Trent will be bringing his extremely rare 1957 Sun Hornet.  We are about half way there with 27 private entries so again get your space booked with us.

Trade Exhibitors

An impressive 93 individual trade exhibitors have booked in with us so far including nine alone since last week.

Trade exhibitors who have confirmed this week include North West Customs (stands 566 & 567) who have been with us for four years, CCM Motorcycles (Stand 453b) from Bolton who will be bringing their race bikes as they did last year, Gorgeous Bikes are coming up from London on stand 328 and it will be good to see Colin again as he used to support us nearer home at Ally Pally. 

Also appearing will be Arcadia Guitars who come to our Classic Car & Bike Events at Capesthorne Hall and reliably inform us that many show attendees also play musical instruments although I am not one of them!  A couple of touring holiday companies have booked in this week, MCI tours who attended last year although Paul Myers is now fully in charge and you can meet him on stand 461, John Johnston of Hadrian V Twin Tours will be with us once again on stand 404 and will be giving a talk on the stage “Myths and Magic of Route 66” finally a couple of charity stands, firstly The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust on stand 572 and finally the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service will be offering their “Biker Down” courses on stand 587. 

Advance tickets

Advance tickets continue to sell incredibly well, and are holding steady at 95% up on the same time last year, so we are confident of a record attendance at this year’s event.

So there we are, I have just received an email from XS Manchester asking for the copy for the radio & big screen adverts in the Trafford Centre plus photos for their website. We had a meeting earlier today with a view to putting up a Twitter Wall (brave new world!) up in the catering area in Hall 3 so we will see how that progresses. We are looking forward to seeing what next week brings as the event moves closer still.

Andrew Greenwood
#MancBikeShow

MANCHESTER BIKE SHOW
SATURDAY 25TH & SUNDAY 26TH MARCH
9:30AM-5:00PM
EVENTCITY