What’s the best way to spend a hot and steamy summer night?

Well if the night in question is the last Monday in June then by far and away the best way in my opinion is Cassington Bike Night.

This is primarily a gathering of classic British motorcycles organised by the BMRCO – the British Motorcycle Riding Club of Oxford – and takes place in the village of Cassington in Oxfordshire.

The whole village gets taken over for this annual event with the local school providing parking on the playing field and helmet/leathers storage, the local women providing tea, sandwiches, cake and this year strawberries and cream, plus the two local pubs doing a roaring trade and one of which normally has a band.

A late afternoon ride in the hot sun, interspersed by some refreshing and not entirely unwelcome thundery showers, saw us heading that way before things really got hectic and an opportunity to see all the bikes arriving.

This event has a fantastic intimate quality despite getting bigger by the year. British bikes classic and new are encouraged to park on the village green for the delectation of everyone in attendance. This year we spotted several machines wearing the patina of age including an SS80 Brough Superior, an M21 combination, and several Vincents all running and sounding as sweet as the day they first turned a wheel – no trailered examples here thankyou.

This is also an annual ride-out on the Ace Cafe events calendar and we spotted Mr Mark Wilsmore of that establishment milling around in the crowds.

Cassington bike night also attracts a fair amount of modern and custom machinery which you can spy in the photos here abouts. There were a fair few Harleys and Japanese customs including a Drifter sidecar outfit and a Honda DN-01 trike which was well cool. There was also some great paintwork in evidence especially, but not by any means limited to, a tasty hardtail chop.

As well as the constant stream of motorcycles arriving and leaving, a lot of people seem to enjoy cruising up and down on their motorcycles and there is no doubt this is enjoyed by the gathered masses, this without the need for silliness encountered at other events of this nature will hopefully safeguard its continuity for some years to come yet.

About the one thing that could be done to improve this event, in my opinion, is to restrict the movement of cars through the village as this does nothing to ease the general congestion. How feasible this is I don’t know.

We went to Cassington on Boris our Ural sidecar outfit this year, one because we just love going anywhere on that bike and two because the nature of the beast means that we can choose to wear shall we say less protective clothing plus we have ready made storage for the carrying of refreshments and the stowing of helmets etc.

There was an added and totally unexpected benefit to travelling by Boris this year in that we won an award! How good is that? We were awarded Best Alien Class – yeah I know – I believe it essentially means non-British. Anyway well cool and it made all the stress of having Boris stolen, burnt out and restoring him that much sweeter.

Cassington is a great event and a regular on our calendar, so if you fancy a hot summer night ride plus standing around talking to like minded people and watching the bikes go by as the sun goes down, make a note for next year and you can also visit the Cassington website by clicking here

In the meantime check out the photos and my video compilation of the sights and sounds. Let me know what you think especially if you went.