Top 10 Best Motorcycles From the 2024 Barber Vintage Fest

This year Barber Motorsports Park hosted its 19th annual Vintage Festival, a gathering of all things classic motorcycle and the people who love them. With hours of vintage motorcycle racing, live music, Wall of Death stunt shows, movie screenings, and even a special fan breakfast with none other than “King” Kenny Roberts himself, 2024 was certainly a year to remember. Also check out the Top 5 Reasons to Attend the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival and the Top Five Bikes Inside the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum for added insight on this annual event.

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There’s always plenty to do at the three-day gathering, but perhaps the best pastime of all is simply walking around and talking to the owners of the hundreds of rare bikes on display. We left no stone unturned this year from parking lots to custom bike shows, so here are a few of our favorite rides of the weekend for the folks who couldn’t make the pilgrimage.

Don’t be fooled by the fresh barn-find appearance. Wes “The Ambassador” Connally will be the first to tell you he doesn’t have time to wash his infamous 1940 Indian Scout because he’s too busy riding it. Everything on the bike works as it should right down to the horn, which is good because “Patina” still sees 100-plus mile days regularly, according to Wes.

You expect to see some rare bikes at Barber Vintage Fest, but a BMW R37 is downright singular. This was BMW’s first-ever factory competition machine, purpose-built for going fast, no headlight necessary. We drooled over every inch of this bike and concluded the restoration is downright flawless right up to the period-correct touring tank and aftermarket Deuta tachometer. This particular bike is currently for sale at Blue Moon Cycle (the last time one of these surfaced it went for around $220,000 at Mecum), so step right up if you’re money’s green enough.

This 1950 Servi-Car was bought new by a service station in St. Louis and spent the next 20 years of its life as a shop bike picking up and delivering customers’ cars (hence the tow bar on the front end). While the cargo box and fenders have been replaced, this old flathead remains fairly unmolested from its service years and starts, runs, and rides as it should. The Servi-Car’s current steward is Dan Murphy of Classic Motorcycle Company in St. Louis, who assured us it’s still getting out to stretch its legs several times a month.

The 1927 Scout you see here was built by none other than Mr. Jay Lightnin’, a veteran of the Wall of Death who rode the bike on the vertical wall from 1975 until just a few short years ago. Mr. Lightnin’ built the American Motor Drome’s wall himself back in 1998, which was the first such motordrome built in the US in over 50 years at the time. The red, white, and blue Scout was recently retired when Mr. Lightnin’s health forced him off the wall, but the crew at American Motor Drome tells us they’re sure it’ll make its way back into the show before long.

Iconic Los Angeles motorcycle collector Urban Hirsch passed away earlier this year, leaving behind one of the finest collections of early American motorcycles in the world. The 1915 Joerns Cyclone you see here is part of that collection, the entirety of which will be featured at this year’s Mecum Las Vegas auction. This particular Cyclone is significant as it’s one of the few models built for street use rather than boardtrack racing, and was restored by legendary motorcycle historian Stephen Wright, author of The American Motorcycle, 1869-1914 and American Racer.

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If you know vintage bikes, chances are you’re familiar with the name Big D Cycle. The Dallas, Texas–based shop is one of the premier restoration outfits in the country with a storied history in British motorcycle racing. The 1951 Vincent you see here is a fine example of Big D’s expertise: a rare red-on-black matching numbers bike with a few well-disguised modifications including an electric start, a 12-volt electrical system, upgraded suspension, and custom front brakes. The shop’s current owner, Keith Martin, says his goal is to keep the bikes as original-looking as possible while making them enjoyable to ride.

The Kettle, the Water Buffalo, the Water Bottle… Suzuki’s GT750 goes by a couple of names, but in the case of Bob Doll’s 1974 Suzuki GT750 racer, we’re just gonna call it stunning. As you might guess, the list of modifications is long, but includes aluminum wheels, triple Lectron carburetors, a custom radiator, a limited-production swingarm, and a Dunstall fairing, not to mention the jaw-dropping polished engine and hand-welded 3-into-3 exhaust system. Bob had his painter finish the bike in the eye-popping California Magenta color you see here, an homage to the original California Burgundy GTs of 1972.

Laura Langham has been riding motorcycles since she was 13. Of course that was back when Triumph was still making the Bonneville T120 you see here, a bike which has always held a special place in her memory. Laura bought this particular bike in the early 2000s, and has kept it true to form as it would have been in her high school years. The front fork and fenders have been replaced and the bike has been repainted in the classic Gold and Alaskan White of the era, but other than that it’s just a damn fine-looking time capsule that Laura says she still rides and wrenches on regularly.

Your average 100-year-old-plus Norton spends its time indoors in museums or private collections, but Richard Asprey’s 1923 Model 16H isn’t your average Norton. In fact, this particular bike was restored by Big D Cycles (see above) for the sole purpose of competing in the Cannonball Run, a two-week coast-to-coast endurance race across the United States spanning well over 3,000 miles. The bike’s pilot, Chris Parry, tells us the Norton is all original save for a few choice safety upgrades (modern wheels, battery-powered lighting, and an auxiliary fuel tank), and is a legitimately enjoyable thing to ride on the long 10-hour-plus days of the race.

Fully faired bikes are coming into their own on the vintage scene, and Gordon Salisbury’s pristine 1990 Honda RC30 is by far the cleanest we saw all weekend. This particular bike is number 111 of 130 total bikes imported into the US for homologation, which Gordon traded a fully race-spec RC51 for back in 2002. The RC30 was far from collector quality when he got it as the previous owner had been using it as a regular driver, but over the years he’s been able to track down all the original HRC parts to return the bike to museum quality.

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Some things you just never expect to see in person during your lifetime. This BMW-powered Krauser Domani sidecar rig is definitely one of them. The Krauser Domani was the brainchild of Michael Krauser, a factory BMW sidecar racer who won four national championships in Germany before moving on to design custom-built performance bikes of his own. These hub-steered, BMW K-powered oddities are a rare enough sight on their own, but this one also happens to be turbocharged, so the odds are even worse we’ll ever see another of its like. If you know the owner, feel free to drop a comment, we have so many questions…

Sean White bought his Triumph Thruxton new in 2016 with plans to race in the MotoJam Hooligan series. That includes everything from studded hill climbs up ski slopes to drag races in the dirt, and Sean has built this Thruxton to handle it all. Modifications include a Free Spirits triple clamp for more steering angle, oodles of fabrication by Speakeasy Motors, Zard exhaust, Sun wheels, Saddlemen bodywork, and a Ford Nitrous Blue paint job with custom pinstriping to finish it all off.