dave beers

hi lads do any current bantam racers remember dave beers he was a pal of mine in the 60s and 70s and used to race a watercooled bike he lived at beeston notts and mended lawnmowers for a living just wondered where hed got to cheers swe ,

Got me scratching me head on this one, probably before mine and our Ray's time, we lived in Clifton and I raced 77 onwards with Ray joining the fray a few years later. I built and raced a water cooled and worked at Trent engineering, the bike never came to that much, though still makes the odd appearance

all the best


Tony

Very interesting. I've no recollection of this name. Could be that he was racing in the 1975 to 83 period, when I was out of the game.

I was at Nottingham Uni (very near Beeston!) from 1970 to 73, and during that time started Bantam Racing. Here's what I can remember of the racing scene in those parts.

in that period Dave Hunter had moved up to near Gedling to work for Terry Beckett tuning 2 strokes. He won the championship in 1971 then carried on development, racing infrequently, sometimes on an ex Santiago Herrero 250 Ossa.

Over on the Broxtowe estate we had John and Tom Ford, they had still got thier un-faired Banty, but had moved on to other machines. John raced a Greeves Silverstone and won the BRC's British 250 c/ship.

At Newark was Colin Hammond, who I had great dices with early on. Including massive slipstreaming down the old Norwich Straight at Snett.

Not Bantam connected was Ray Pettit who was an ace aluminium welder (with Acetelene not arc!). His workshop was just up the (Ilkestone) Rd from where we shared a house in the 3rd yr.

Chris Molesworth briefly raced a Banty in the Novice class in the late seventies.


Well, that will have to do for now, do the names ring any bells?

Hi Peter

Couple of interesting names there. Went to Ray Pettit's with a work mate who knew him, in fact it was to get the mono shock swinging arm welded, the bike in my avatar. Showed him what I wanted welding and he started having go about me knowing nothing and I hadn't worked anything out blah blah blah really condescending, was only 18/19 at the time. Picked it up and he was fine, didn't charge a lot and the brazing was the best I've ever seen. I never went back because of his attitude others found him even worse, a real difficult bas***d to get on with. One night in a drunken stagger down Ilkeston road another mate who also didn't like him ripped his sign off the wall Last saw him setting up a gold star when I was out Karting in Lincolnshire, not seen him since, probably was the best welded in the world but impossible to get on with. Has for Terry Beckett, found him very cagey and unfriendly wouldn't discuss anything not even piston skirt clearances, tight bas***d. A couple more names for you from the same area, Bernard Banks little fella used to do rebores and honing, very friendly and helpful and always did a brilliant job, went back many years ago and found out he'd past on. Do you remember Gaggs on Alfreton Road? often used to wonder if they really want to sell you anything, though old man Gaggy was always entertaining I'll do an impersonation next time I see you Clarkes in Carlton had a brilliant wheel builder till he retired, decent old fella, always got it spot on. And TMS was just up the road, which was a Triumph dealership, bit smart arsed but had a decent stock of Bantam consumables.

There's probably more, like Kingston's on Canal street, I'll leave that for a rainy day


Tony

was it pettit that used to do that little spit thing everytime he cracked up the acetylene!!? yeh he was a bit of a knob but again he did me an expansion chamber that was nigh on perfect .. a joy to watch with the torch. there was also lurch who used to hang around there and chip in where it was most unwanted! lurch got me a set of forks for me puch moped at the time, which got nicked a week later and the expansion chamber went on the bike which i promptly and prematurely sold on before going to university. can't say i have any fond memories the pettit experience overall!

wonder what happened to my bantam! tz 125 fairing done in black then orange yellow stripe and white. 45 degree angled girling shocks. ss50 forks and cable disc! short stroke 54x54. anyone see it out around 83 onwards?

Ray

forgot to mention that i distinctly remembered colin hammond on is bare bones bantam. inside out petrol tank .. single standard drum brake on the front and a postage stamp for a seat .. but he was impressively quick. i think subconsciously my bike has been partly fashioned with that in mind.

ray

Just a bit about Ray Pettit hes still welding still spitting at the job to see if its hot enough to weld ,he can be awkward but its because he gets lots of tossers who bring jobs to him and expect to pay next to nothing for a first rate job. Hes just made a superb wheel arch for my mates big wheeler ,its a work of art but was the biggest part of a thousand quid !

I remember Terry Beckett well, I was visiting my brother at Nottingham university having just bought Colin Poles X7, he decided i was worth investing in as i had got two runner up championship positions in 79 and did a "latest mod" to my barrells for nothing, as long as i had his stickers on my bike. To tell the truth it didn't help much and i ended up doing the go faster stuff myself with much success, 1mm off the head and jack the barrel up the same to get the transfers level at BDC. Worth 500rpm and was good enough to beat all the Stan Stephens bikes in a straight line plus the BRC champ, not bad for a 12.5 stone rider at 6'4". Colin Hammond as Pete says was a very quick rider, i enjoyed one of the best dices of my racing life with him. A slipstreaming duel at Snetterton for 3rd in the championship race. We slogged it out big time, he was quicker up the straight but i kept going round the outside of him on the fast left hander at the end of the Revetts straight and holding it for the lap till he passed me again down said straight. He got fed up with this and purposely took a wide line into the left hander which i saw coming and passed him on the inside instead. He beat me unfortunately with a massive last lap effort which due to my speed disadvantage, i couldn't match but it was very close and a wonderful race, probably the best i ever rode in my opinion.
I was an Inter at the time and got 3 4th's in the Champ and opens plus an inter outright win, so that showed up as 4 wins on my end of season pot, lovely time.

At Barking I had gas welding equipment and welded many a racing bike´s frames and bits on Bantams. Often wondered how many frames stayed in one piece? Particularly well rembered (and told on here before) was the modifications to Robby Winston´s Bantam for the 125 IoM TT. Mick Scutt riding. Mick was squatting on the garage floor after telling Robby and I where he wanted the second battery box and footrests moved to... At gone one a.m. -- we suddenly realised he was asleep in the Squat position. How can anybody sleep like that? As if in the racing psition with elbows dug into knees on a concrete floor? Mick obviously...
...Icarus-One and Icarus-Two Bantams were given away when I left for Canada in June 1974 -- I often wonder what became of them? I gave them both to the BRC with Niffy taking charge of Icarus-Two and Wobbleyman (Colin Aldridge) having the other. Wobbles still owed me for one-&-a-half sets of close ratio gears when I left old England for ever...? That´s what being a club is all about -- sharing like. Wobbles later sponsored a lot of up-&-coming-riders which more than balanced it out.
Never ever known such a wonderful group as that we had in the BRC in those days.
Wonderful fun times for which I have six trophies -- "...only won in club races" as one professional rider once reminded me... but they are wonderful memories. I had some wins -- but they were only Intermediate level of course. Best remembered dice was at Llandow on Andy Boyle´s ABS 250 against John Senior on his Greeves Silverstone. Two Japanese watercooled monstrosities ahead, we battled for third place and 1st Brit bike home. I kept passing JS on the last, (Pits) bend until the last lap and the cunning perisher switched over sides so that I had to go the longer way round, virtually in the grass, and he took third by half a wheel.
Fantastic!
JayBee -- John-Boy!
May you never be overcome by the force of gravity -- i.e. the apple falling on your head!jb.