one for the oldies!

I have found one of the Hutch 100 photos that shows half a Bantam with pipe trailing but I think I had a better one. I wall keep looking then try and post it if not I may ask someone to post it for me.

This is the photo from Ted

He will fill you in on the details.

Rusty

Thank you Russ for the help. Well I bet others will fill in more than I remember. I (from memory)think it is the Hutchinson 100 1968, there were quite a few Bantams out alongside the top riders of the day. I have similar photos of the same race with Dave Simmonds on the works Kawasaki. I think the bike with the pipe trailing is Rod Gooch, the rider did about three laps before the black flag got him. If there is interest I will ask Rusty to give help and post some more old pics.

It was also good that some of you remember The Nelson bros. Are they still about and reading this? Is Rod Gooch Reading this?

Thanks to Ted and Russ,
Did he really last 3 laps with that pipe trailing, that's amazing? Keep digging Ted you can never have too many cracking shots like that ! I must see if I can find one or two more period snaps.

Trevor

Brilliant pictures john, love those winkle picker boots mate  dont suppose their allowed now. You cant beat seeing the old bikes and how they should still look  

.Come on Nigel "and how they should still look" this is racing not a museum. The Bantam racing club and what it has now become was never intended to be a historic racing class. Nostalgia has a place and we all like to reminisce, but it is not for today’s race track. Russ Lee’s old bike has been sold recently; it has not been raced for around thirty years and still has its old Fred fairing and monoshock rear suspension. So let’s all look at these great old photos put some of our own on the forum have a laugh, but not try to turn back time. Not ment to be controversial but I think it maybe.

Sorry Ted,   

Very observant of you Nigel. I bought them winkle-picker boots from Mike Salle*** of East End when he was having a bit of a hard time money wise. They were really thin and I was constantly getting blisters on the edges of my feet and constantly having to black-tape them before scrutineering because the so-called leather was worn away. I always made some catching remark when the Scruts started looking me over instead of the bike.

I must say Icarus-1 -- shown here -- did look a bit like an overgrown moped until I fitted a skirt and replaced those skinny forks....

*** I think that was his name....

Cheers!

No need to be sorry, lots has been said on what should and should not be I just want it to be a class for now not days gone buy. I would also like to see a few (a lot actually)old Bantams as they used to be out for the parades. They are good fun and value for money so dust then of rub with oily rag then bring them along.

Whether you were a winning star,  a winner now and again -- or never -- if you raced  you know you did something a bit unusual from the run-of-ordinary-things people do and if you really raced you know the feeling of doing it ... I mean some people are nutty enough to jump out of aeroplanes or off bridges (with a bunjey cord attached, of course) and I think that´s really asking for trouble which scares me pooh-less.

I was not a good example of a road racer, tuner or builder  but having really raced Bantam and 250 on the road  
I know I did do it. Whilst in my grass-tracking age  I was once introduced to a male friend of my wife´s woman-friend who told me he was a road-racer and said his name was Johnny Locket. Whether that was his real name or not I´ll never know but he certainly looked nothing like the real Johnny Locket. Anyway he didn´t last long with the wife´s buddy after I had mentioned the facts...

Nothing much to do with the subject matter here -- the truth is I am trying to attach and send a picture Bill (Martin) Lawrence  sent me recently ... That´s since our Eddie taught me how to defragment my PC....

... so here goes....

PS-- obviously my picture-sending didn´t work. Bill (Lawrence) sent it to me, by e-Mail, with no details. It looks to be a would be record breaker lying naked -- along tank and saddle -- but for his tennis shoes. A Triumph (I think) of some oldish era but the bloke´s hairstyle was off-putting....

I thought it reminded of Bob Berry who took a Bonneville record, in the fifties, with a Vincent lying flat along the bike but he was wearing a swim-suit. Maybe someone tampered with this pic....

I hope Eddie can post it on here, where as an OLDIE it belongs, and I thank him yet again,

Cheers!

Courtesy Of John Bass.

So that`s what you get up to in your spare time then John, gives a whole new meaning to... having a day at the beach!

Trevor

Bill didn´t include any info ... So I have no idea when this naked run was done -- point is it was copied from the run by Bob Berry (I think that was the name of ...) when the Lancastrian broke records at Bonneville with a Vincent HRD....

But -- [(from he who hates fairings)] -- this MUST BE the most cost-effective, most effective streamlining EVER!
And weight is minimal -- except for the tennis shoes -- cost really low, except for those stupid tennis shoes and the worst part reprenting drag is the hair of that nutcase and his ridiculously unnecessary tennis shoes & socks....

Fact is Bob Berry had a short-back-&-sides haircut -- à la Geoff Duke -- did wear a swim-suit and was barefoot which suggests he´d done a study of streamlining and weight reduction.


Must be bonneville salt flats -- anybody know any more??

Cherers!

Whoopsie -- just been corrected: Rollie Free in 1948 was the first to ride a record-breaking Black Shadow Vincent virtualy naked except for a swim-suit, flat sandals and a skull-cap as his only piece of streamlining.

I still reckon Dave Hunter or Mick Scutt -- just as two examples of Bantam racers -- were just as streamlined when in their respective racing-crouches as they would be with a fairing....

Yeah well...

Cheers!

Who, When, Where?

Ted

W,W,W?

Ted
(Easy one)

you ted, iom ramsey sprintin'

Sorry about the Corgi photo, But before we went to the Eastern centre meet Russ was showing me how to put things on the site and needed another pic. so that was the first to hand.

The hotel in london was........em.....maybe the hilton, l do remember jb in the wig, it was the brc annual prizegiving and was very posh ..... right up jbs street!

ha a sort pof tozwn cryer anouncing the giuests etc. We in the highly posh eastern centre took the sensorsed unmerciifuly At the poor man!

Remember him saying llets be upxtanding for grace........ I said .....didnt know gracewas here collapsed eastern centre stiff upper lip! Oh what fun and memories .... I think I got my first pot that night .... aa lttle pewter ta kard with my name on it. Mpost proud I was too. Oh haappy days

keith webb

Hi ted hope you are well and you sound good, but then not much fazed you mate! Ihope that I might get to a meeting this year and would be delighted to buy you several drinks!

Keith webb

On my Honour -- yer Honour -- ett twass-nae me! I never drink from the bottle even when intoxicated and even though I wore a wig I never wore such a hat in me life, already! I think it must have been the `75, BRC Annual Dinner & Dance and the character with the mike was our Wobblyman*** trying to do an Elvis immy....

If it was that 1975 D&D do, I came over from Canada for Xmas `75 and the D & D was early in the new year. I still had my leathers and on the actual Saturday I went to Hackney Speedway stadium for an afternoon of practice. Wobbly was supposed to come and I was alone for a good two hours before a couple of pro riders came. When l went to my Cortina it would not start: the starter-ring-gear had detached itself from the flywheel and being automatic there was no way of gettine a push start -- no body about anyway. It was already dark and quite late. I rang Wobbly. He came and picked me up on the way to the D&D so I arrived at this posh dinner place still in leathers with black hands and went straight to the Loo to change. A wild figure wandered in and asked where I´d been racing and I said only practice at Hackney Wick Speedway and he then mistook me for one of the Hackney team.... I didn´t correct him because I felt good for the moment.

On the way home Wobbly towed me and my Cortina back to Barking. We were bothl over the limit.... .

Maybe it was not 1975-6 D&D and not Colin Aldridge*** because the Elvis immy looks a bit too young....

Anybody add anything to that???

Cheers!

JB for John-Boy

Ah Keith -- yeah the good old Eastern Centre of BRC.

The year you saw me in a wig giving a speech as chairperson of BRC  was the `73-´74 annual dinner & prizegiving. I had the flu and took some  medication to get rid of it. Wobbly gave my wife & I a lift up to The Ritz (was it??). During the drive  his missus reckoned my previous year´s speech was grossly boring. I was really undone... Not upset -- undone, I´d put a lot of effort and brain-power into that speech -- after all,  it was only 7 pages of brilliance... and I´d been practising proper enunciation of it for weeks & weeks  before...

Then when we were chatting to Mick Grant in comes `Ace´John Brown who I´d invited as our PrizeGiver to then discover that the reason Mick Grant was there was because Colin had invited Mick to give out the trophies. By then I had had enough `medication´ to kill a herd of elephants. I had brought a wig with me, the idea being that during my speech I would mention that the only way I could emulate Dave Hunter -- or even his brother, Dick -- was to wear a wig and instead of leathers to black boot polish my body. They were both brilliant Bantamites and skinny lightweights...

I´d been warned NOT to wear the wig but had secreted it into the top of my trousers belt with my suit jacket buttoned  over it thus hiding it from `hawk´-eye view. It was a good dinner and everybody seemed well stuffed when The Master of Ceremonies gavelled the table and called. "Pray silence for your Chairman ... etc... etc..."

I stood up. In complete silence slowly and deliberately tore up the speech which took several seconds. In so doing my jacket came undone and as I went to say, "So much for my most boring speech ..." a hoot of laughter took over. Someone had stood up and was pointing directly at the wig. I looked down and there was the wig hanging in front of my fly-zip. Several othesr were pointing and hoots of laughter got louder and louder and took over completely.

Master of Ceremonies gavelled again and as silence came I apologised to him and put on the wig.

After that I cannot remember what I said but the text must have been amusing because it seemed most everyone was laughing.

I was not to know it would be my last BRC D&D and that I´d end up in Germany 6 months later. Sometimes I wish I had not gone for that better-paying, more-status job in Canada....

Cheers!

JayBee....

Blimey Ted your giving me flash backs to the distant past !
I believe Collin organised some entertainment that involved getting volunteers for a drinking race, drinking from a bottle with a teat on it. As normal some soon found a way round the rules by biting the teat. He also got us bowling coins down the dance floor at a whiskey bottle.
And yes I do remember J.B. turning up in his leathers.