There’s a young pretender hanging on the coat tails of the Ace Cafe and that’s Jacks Hill Cafe on the A5 near Towcester.

This cafe has been there for years, under various ownership, but in the last couple of years it has started to establish itself as a bikers venue, good stuff.

Last July was the first Ton Up Day, a rockers reunion type event with classic bikes a-plenty, plus live music and the sun shone and the punters came and kept coming. The event was an overwhelming success and the two enormous car parks were full to bursting, so much so that motorcycles were parked all over the verges on the A5 for a good distance in either direction.

The next event we went to at the Cafe was the Riders Digest big magazine launch earlier this year, less well attended but enjoyable nontheless, you can read my report here.

So, to the next Ton Up Day, held last weekend. The weather was decidedly iffy, sunny one minute and cloud bursts the next. However, this did not dampen the enthusiasm of people attending and whilst the car parks were not as full as last year there was still a lot there.

I’ve done a short video below (1 minute) which hopefully gives a small taste of the event:

This years event did seem better organised – there were lots of classic bikes on the front car park, plus the Gold Star Owners Club stand, lots of trade stands and live music inside the cafe.

The cafe themselves had organised an outdoor food stall and there was a long queue for a good part of the day to partake in tea, coffee, burgers, plus sausage and bacon rolls. However, I have to say that £3 for a sausage batch and £3.50 for a cheeseburger is in my opinion a tad excessive. Obviously the cafe have gone to the expense of putting on the event, but even so.

There were lots of great bikes in attendance, from a George Cross liveried Lambretta to a Hesketh, a rare beastie indeed, plus lots of BSAs and Triumphs and a fair smattering of Royal Enfields.

You can glimpse some of the bikes below in the photo collection.

I know that the local Vintage Motorcycle Club (VMCC) use the cafe as a starting off and finishing spot for their regular runs details of which you can normally find in Old Bike Mart.

Hopefully we will see lots more motorcycle events at the cafe and it will go from strength to strength as a venue.

I would love to know your thoughts below.

There is an excellent video of The Rapiers playing on the day on You Tube Click Here