Surrey Swap Meet
Words and pics: Andy

It's hardly a secret that the doors of Surrey Harley-Davidson are flung wide open once a year to embrace the massed ranks of their customers, and just about everyone else's customers too. It isn't an especially unique event, either, with every dealer holding open days some time through the year to help build their businesses, but there must be a few dealers up and down the country right now who are looking forward to seeing whether the experience on 8th April 2002 would be repeated across the board.

Why? What happened?

The place went crazy, that's what. More Daytona than Dorking, with the sheer number of Harleys packing the streets, parking on every available piece of ground, and quite a few that were probably not. Undoubtedly helped by the glorious weather, but equally by the fact that it had been promoted especially well this year.

We arrived in the late morning and were worried to see so many Harleys heading in the opposite direction, causing me to wonder whether we'd wasted a journey, but I needn't have. One of the most encouraging sights was a young 'un on an old flathead riding hard, and I was only annoyed that I'd missed the opportunity to take a closer look at the bike: I needn't have because he was only nipping out briefly before returning to the Riverside stand - watch this space for a feature on Tosh's bobber in the near future. There were still a few with us, increasingly interspersed with the sports bikes heading for Box Hill, which boded well but was scant preparation for the view down Dorking High Street - which we cruised up and down in search of a space three times before cutting our losses and hunting down a car park within walking distance.

Bloody 'ell.

Coming from the centre of town, we strolled past the shop itself with absolutely no intention of fighting the crowds who packed it before trying to work out where the car park for the Swimming Baths might be, for it was here where I might find the bits I needed for the Glide, and catch up with a few folk who I knew to be going. It wasn't too far, and was easily spotted by the number of people coming and going from a gap in the bikes parked on the grass verge, but just as the spectacle of High Street was unexpected, even having seen the numbers of folk generally milling about, it was still a surprise to see just how many stalls had turned up, and how many people were still about. The stalls were set up on a gentle slope leading down to a marquee set up to house the custom show, and having shuffled through the busy market, I was pleased to see a sizable show of different styles and exceptional quality. Not a massive show, but certainly one that I'd see being an important one in the future if the event itself continues to grow.

Talking to a couple of traders it seemed that the trade stands were set up very early in the morning, and was adjudged to have reached capacity at the sort of time when sane people would have been abed. So early, in fact, that the Battistinis turned up in good time to set up and were turned away for lack of space: undeterred, they parked up a little way down the road and had to make do with handing out their new brochure to anyone who showed the remotest interest.

Something else that was unexpected was the numbers of Buells that made an appearance. Whether they'd already committed to hitting Box Hill anyway and had gone the extra couple of miles, I'm not sure, but there were a couple in the show too, attracting some attention. A bigger surprise was the number of Japanese bikes of all shapes, sizes and descriptions, which certainly gives the impression that mainstream riders are now starting to take Harleys seriously, but the icing on the cake was the only V-Rod that I spotted, parked up at Box Hill among the Sportsbikes.

Only regret is turning up too late, by which time a lot of the choice bits I was looking for were gone, if they'd ever been there in the first place but it's a mistake I won't make again.

I thought it was only car booters who suffered from insomnia.

Surrey Harley Davidson
285 - 295 High Street
Dorking
Surrey
RH4 1RL

Tel: 01306 883825