Bikes, People and Places
The 70's & 80's

I had met a really nice bloke named Barry Tomlin who had a couple of BMW's. As I was new to Wendover he invited me out with his friends for a Friday night drink. One of them Dick Horne also had a Suzuki, a 380cc two stroke triple. Anyway the next thing I new I was a pillion passenger on Barry's bike and then of course had to get one of my own and this 1959 Triumph was it. It looks like a Bonnie but is in fact a Bonneville frame etc with a Thunderbird engine with all the Bonnie bits, twin carbs, 3134 cams etc. It went pretty well but it would try shake itself to pieces and never rusted with that film of oil on it from various oil leaks. It got me to the Isle of Man in 1978 and just about got me home with a few bits missing.

That 1978 TT was a good trip. I didn't make up my mind to go until the very last minute and my mates from the Chiltern Classic MC were just about to leave Steve Allen's house when I arrived. Steve had a new Bonneville, I was on my old one and the other two had Velocette Thruxtons, Jim fowler was on one ans I can't remember the name of the other rider. It was great getting behind those Thruxtons just to listen to the sound of their fishtail exhausts.

I then bought a Honda 500 4 with 605cc Jock Kerr conversion from Mick Seaman in Aylesbury, What a nice bike that was. Unfortunately I have no pictures. I much preferred it to the Triumph.

On our way home from visiting my brother I dropped in to the Wednesday practice at Brands Hatch. There was one rider who was flying round and reminded me of Derek Minter because of the line he was taking around Clearways. Any I got talking to him in the paddock and he was really chuffed of what I thought of his line on clearways and that he was really neat. It turned out I was talking to Barry Sheene before he made it big. He was interested that I marshalled a Brands in the Sixties and remembered his dad Frank on his 50cc Chisholm Itom. He sat Russell on his bike so I could take some pictures. The next time we saw Barry was at Mallory Park and he recognised Russell immediately and signed the photograph we had taken. Another time at Brands Hatch  we were on the paddock walk around looking for Barry's caravan, by now Russell was Barry's biggest fan. We found him and Russell found his way to the front only only to be squashed against the caravan, luckily Barry looked out and again recognised Russell and dragged him into the Caravan and invited me in as well. We were in good company as James Hunt was in there as well as others I didn't recognise. Unfortunately Russell suffered brain damage from a fall and was unconscious for several weeks and we were desperate. I managed to contact Barry and arranged to go to Donning ton  as he said he would record a tape to play in the hope it would stimulate Russ to wake up. Barry recorded that tape in between races which I found a really selfless thing to do. We will always be grateful to him. Russ eventually did wake up and partly recovered, no one will ever know if that tape had any effect but we would like to think so. Barry was one of those nice people who always seemed to have time for others and will be sadly missed.

Ron Kemp standing by his Egli Vincent. He made the petrol tank himself out of glass fibre,  I watched him do quite a bit of it. He was chairman of the Chiltern Classic MCC . Here we are out on a cold winter's run. He now runs his own company called Vintec and is reputed to be the largest suppliers of Vincent spares and is responsible for a lot of improvements to the bikes.

Randy Mamola Silverstone GP. How about that for getting the knee down. Sorry about the quality. Taken with a Praktica

Nice wheelie Randy.

As always the 125 racers were nutters. How about that for rearsets?

250cc race - Randy Mamola leading Anton Mang