2016 Barber Vintage Festival

[CL-100]

Returned home from Barber early this afternoon.  I've gone for the past eight years, mostly in search of all things Bridgestone.  Not a lot of BS bikes and no parts this year.  There was one '71 350 GTO that was "restored" according to the owner, but I found it a little rough around the edges.  I didn't think to ask why he painted it yellow.  It did have a perfect right side carb cover though.  Someone else had a 90 they were riding around the event, but it wasn't for sale.  The remainder of the BS bikes I saw (3) were 175's.  All were parts bikes and pretty rough.  I did score a repro sign for the workshop though.  If anyone should want the contact information for the sign maker, let me know.

[slawsonb]

Really not diggin' the yellow on the GTO. Why not use White??
...bert

[moonpup]

[BRT-GTR]

           Always nice to see a BS at these events. We are starting to see more here in the UK. Several dealers have now latched on to the make as a possible source of sales and are importing from the States.  It 's our Stafford Classic bike show this weekend, let's see what turns up.

   I'd rather see a yellow GTO / GTR than see it parted out.   Notice the morphing alien behind the BS sign, they walk amongst us !! 
         Brian

[slawsonb]

I guess its too late for radio silence...
...bert

[CL-100]

OK, I forgot about my trip over to the VJMC bike show at Barber.  There was a "very" nice 1970 GTR restoration.  The paint was phenomenal.  The bike was a runner and had oil in the oil tank.  The ends of the pipes had evidence of oil having run through them.  On the placard on the front they had the old story about Honda reminding Bridgestone that they needed to decide what their priorities were...building motorcycles or manufacturing tires. 

The restorer was from North Dakota and had other manufacturer restorations there as well. 

As far as the yellow GTO, my wife reminded me that the owner bought it that way two years ago.  The quality of the yellow paint finish was pretty good.  His part of the restoration was mechanical.

[slawsonb]

The gold bike looks like the GTR Steve S. sold a couple of months ago....I wonder??
...bert

[bsracer]

I was only in the swap meet briefly. I saw the yellow GTO, the red 175 and a white 175 on a trailer. The white one on the trailer was pretty rough. I was almost going to offer $200 for the red one because it was pretty complete and could've made a street bike to tool around on. I was helping out Hiroshi Murata with his Bridgestone (#533) and someone came by looking to find out more about racing a Bridgestone. They bought the red bike for $200! I guess that saved me a couple aof bucks as I would have had to ship it back to San Diego.

On a side note, Hiroshi finished both Thurs and Fri practice and four races Sat and Sun without issue. Well, he did crash on the last lap of Fri practice but we got it all back together for both races Sat and Sun (nice easy low side in the grass). The bike seemed to run pretty well.

paul

 

[moonpup]

Here's another pic of the yellow GTO at Mid-Ohio that was posted in the gallery a few years back by Richard..... (had GTR pipes on it then)