The Wemoto Festival of Jurby in association with VMCC
Famous faces, breath-taking races and a sea of unique classic bikes
It's the same story every year! As summer begins, so does the tension among Wemoto staff. And what is it all about, you ask - who gets to go to the Isle of Man. They all want to, and they're not shy about offering themselves as suitable candidates either. But, as is also the case every year, some of us need to stay here and send out bike parts to you lovely lot. And so, the chosen (and very smug looking) few flew off to enjoy a weekend of motorcycling fun on our favourite island.
A tiring part of the job, they claimed, was watching some of the races that took place either side of Sunday's festival. What better way to enjoy the Mountain Course, for example, than from the famous Creg-Ny-Baa - a pub, of course.
Isle of Man Mountain Course
The team, dedicated that they were, did not want to appear lax about this part of the job. And, wanting to provide as detailed a report of the festivities as possible for those of you who've not yet been to the Isle of Man, they visited another pub along the Sulby Straight. Both were great, obviously – as were the races which ranged from amateur to professional, junior to senior, with classic races also held, providing something for everyone.
The Sulby Straight
Sunday soon came, and the team were up bright and early (or not so bright after the previous day's activities – only kidding – cold pints aside, the two pubs truly were the best places to watch both races, I've been told). They headed to the Jurby Airfield. For those of you who've never been, the Festival of Jurby is great! It's part of the Isle of Man Festival of Motorcycling, usually taking place mid-way through the week-long festival. Expect to see a whole range of classic bikes that you don't normally see, parade laps, and a load of famous faces – most of them signing autographs too!
Here's some pictures Rachel took of the Jurby Parade laps:
Desperate to get chatting to some of our fellow biking enthusiasts, our team waited patiently at the Wemoto stand. Luckily, they didn't have to wait long. They were soon swarmed with people, who'd come from far and wide – all wanting a Wemoto notepad and keyring (like the ones you get with your orders).
People of all ages were there, children and balloons included. Carlos got talking to some folks who, originally from New Zealand, were amidst a round-the-world trip. “You needn't have came all this way to meet us”, he joked “we do have a franchise in Australia, you know, it may be a little easier for you to get to!”.
A MASSIVE thanks
The main thing that we wanted to promote this weekend was our t-shirts, which we're selling to raise money for the Helicopter Ambulance fund – a life saving service that racers rely on. We'd like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who bought one, both at the festival and from our website. Almost 600 very generous people paid £10 at the festival to support the charity, some not even wanting a t-shirt in return. We are so grateful for this and very excited to reveal the grand total that you've all helped to raised. We'll be doing this in the coming months so keep an eye out!
Isle of Man Helicopter Fund T-shirt
For now though, you can still do your bit for the cause by purchasing a t-shirt
here.
But back to the event - rare and unique bikes were aplenty. Some interesting, and frankly darn-right expensive, auctions were taking place. Guess how much this Brough Superior was up for at the Bonhams tent? The auction price for this beauty was 210,000 to 245,000!
One member of our team, Romain, even had a minute of fame and was interviewed on the local Isle of Man radio. Apparently he does this every year. Why he even gets to go every year is beyond the rest of us, but we'll let it go – wouldn't want to further rile the staff. Ask him and he'll probably say it's because he's special. When asked what his moment of fame felt like, he replied: “It wasn't a big deal, I'm already quite famous!”. Enough said on that topic.
There were tons of other famous faces to see and our team did the best job they could, collecting as many signatures as they could. They managed to get this many:
This is another t-shirt to keep an eye out for – we've got big ideas for this one!
Other famous faces included Speed demon, George Shuttleworth:
Speed Demon, George Shuttleworth
To round the weekend off, the team took a much needed (apparently) day off to visit some other tourist hot spots. They weren't all pubs this time either. Peel Castle provided some stunning views of the Islands, while the House of Manannan gave them the chance to learn more about its history.
Peel Castle
For those of you who went, we hope you had a lovely time! Please feel free to share your experience of the Jurby, or other events surrounding the Jurby with us by emailing at
[email protected]. We'd like to know how you enjoyed it. Any pictures of yourselves in your new Helicopter Fund T-shirts would be greatly appreciated! For those of you who didn't get to go, don't worry, not many of us did. Ah well, there's always next year!
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