Road Trip, Part One.

I dunno how romantic a trip to Birmingham, Alabama would be, but a trip to Birmingham, England isn't too high on the list of the world's most romantic driving excursions. The M42 has got a new "traffic control" system consisting of traffic lights, primarily. On a motorway. Got stuck there for a good hour this weekend, playing "stop the guy in the lane to the right of you cutting in cos he's an impatient bastard who drove straight to the front of the queue you've been in for an hour". Some prick named Keith, judging by his personalised plate on his silver Peugeot hatch almost had me in the barrier in his attempts to save five minutes of queuing time. Thanks Keith.

Good thing the company was good, my iPod was loaded with some decent driving music and we had a good reason to be there. My missus, an avid dog lover, wanted to go to Crufts, apparently the World's biggest dog show. I wasn't relishing the thought, but decided to buy her the tickets for Valentines and keep her company. I had a little niggle in the back of my mind that I might be able to find something cool to do, aside from Schnauzer-spotting.

I'd booked a Holiday Inn overnight, and decided to make the most of their internet to see what there was to do around there on the second day. I'd already had a slight clue, having seen signs for the National Motorcycle Museum on the way back, but I honestly didn't know if I'd be able to find it again. Thank God for satnav and hotel wifi.

The museum is a cool place, only recently rebuilt following a major fire which I gather destroyed the building and a large portion of the collection. A grim reminder remains in the lobby - two vintage bikes in a glass case, burnt almost beyond all recognition. Real sad. The rest of the place soon cheered me up though, and gave me some AWESOME modelling-related ideas. And I'm not even a bike guy!

Heres a few bits I couldn't help but share...

First up was this cool model, silver plated no less, of the 1930 350cc Rudge Whitworth TT winner, as ridden by Wal Handley. Beautifully detailed, and a good 18 inches long, this was a seriously nice model. Check the engine detail out!

It wasn't the only model there either, there was a whole case of cool stuff in the gift shop:

1:1 inspiration was what I was REALLY after though, and the National Motorcycle Museum didn't disappoint...

From the new:

...to the old:

...to the frankly scary:

Lots of inspiration too. Check out the drilled frame on this old Ariel. I can see this translating nicely to an early 30s build of some sort:

Or this, seemingly zeppelin inspired side car:

Or these two streamliners...of which the one on the left makes me wanna crack out the Alclad and get painting a Bonneville car of some sort:

I was surprised at how easy it was to translate aspects from the hundreds, literally, of motorcycles into the car models I make. I took so much form the experience, and even my missus found some stuff to admire. Considering this wasn't even the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most, it was a hell of a way to spend a morning.

Part two tomorrow, but in the meantime feel free to check out what else I saw there. Who knows, maybe it'll spark some kinda idea off in your brain too...

JB