Practice at Brands...

In 1967 I spent several months getting the  exhaust pipe the right length and  pistons the right shape and had a bit of  fun for myself because I just enjoyed it there... These were mostly Wednesdays and -- when free from meetings -  on a Saturday as well...
 
Sometimes it was "Racing" because there´d be the twit on a big road bike blasting the straights and screwing-up the corners and Icarus-1 would keep annoying the rider by sneaking past on the Club Circuit corners --  á la a Dommie rider who complained to the I.C. Circuit that I had purposely run into him on the connection from Bottom straight  into Clearways.

I.C. circuit, with dirty home-rolled fag hanging on his boittom lip  came as I was freeing the piston from the barrel and he refused to let the Dommie rider try anything further in the way of compensation  -- see, he told him, `twere an accident `cos `izz pisston seized...´

I feel quite sure we had no proper insurance -- anyone know anything about that?

Is there anyone  else on here who went practising at Brands in the late  Sixties ?

Those were the Good Old Days when it was  10 Bob a session or a  a quid for All Day ...

Sometimes Star riders would be there and the bright sparks would try to emulate them and I remember Phil Read and two others (names forgotten)  taking over a whole session and putting on a good show of `Racing´ or us "Others"...

I think it was 1967´s Boxing Day when I was alone there for the first session and realised why -- my fingers were icicles....!

In some respects -- other than the latter --  it was better than competing at a pukkha meeting ...

Cheers!

Hi John B.

I've only just seen this thread, and I did go to one Wednesday session at Brands Hatch in 1966. I was racing a DMW Hornet 250 at the time, and had a friend by the name of Jim Robinson who made a single drum, TLS front brake. He got the DMW factory to agree to fit his brake in the "works" six speed Hornet, and I had the job of testing it at Brands.

The brake worked well, but a small slip-up, in how it was fitted to the forks, caused it to lock on after a few laps, and I came to a juddering halt. The circuit was not busy, and it was a rather uneventful day. I do remember that you had to be very careful on the exit from the hairpin, 'cos there was a small (about 6" dia.) but deep hole in the tarmac! There was nothing to warn you about it, you just had to watch where you were going and avoid it.

John C.

Nice one about front brake difficulties JayCee I had one at Lydden which goes with an explanation / picture on here some time back. Nipple had pulled off the front brake cable and I fitted a cable that was far too long and didn´t have time to fixed it properly inside the fairing and during the race the cable found its way out and onto the front tyre. The first pic shows the cable a little way out and later when it is a long way out and ready to wrap around the wheel such that it snatched on the brake. Pity the photographer missed the next bit where I was sliding on my fat ....

We should have on here an "Indiana Jones on a Bantam" competition for the best story of the GOD (Good Old Days) times...

Harrison Ford -- the original Indiana Jones -- put his vintage plane neatly down during a forced landing (failed engine) recently on a golf course ...

.... wish I could have done that. Three things I´ve really enjoyed in my life -- although I could only afford the middle one of the following: Racing motor bikes, Downhill ski-ing and flying. I had lessons in gliding and power flying and had to give it up because of motor-bike racing ... Golf I did because of its challenge -- cannot say I enjoyed it because the balls I used were never going in the right directions or far enough --
-- some might say it
-- JayBee, is all balls again!!

Stay cool,

Cheers!

JayBee........