Life after racing a Bantam...

I was a bit disappointed that no one asked who the future world champion that rode my bike at Lydden Hill all those years ago was; you either have good memories or have decided not to rise to my bait. Has any other world champion ever RACED a Bantam?

If not already mentioned, the late Bill Lomas. He was persuaded by Eric Walsh to climb aboard the Walsh Bantam -- whilst Bill and Dickie Dale were in Australia -- I think??

All interesting Stuff? People..

Ted which world champion rode your bantam???

I was hoping to keep this going for a bit longer. He is still racing, has wone a Manx GP, Started racing Yamaha LC's was a Eastern centre rider. his helmet has world cup Willy o the front as he was born on the day England won the football world cup

Hi Ted

born 1966 would make him 5 years younger than me making him 46 now, only know 2 Foggy /hodgson? - Dave somons would be too old, I only know these two at this age.??

regards Derek

I do not think ether of them are riding today this rider is still a clasic raceer. In response to John Bass's sugestion I can asy he is English.

got me there ? must be an endurance or formula champion. not a GP champ.!

Derek

Thats right not GP but not endurance, the motorcycle was a solo single cylinder.

Is it Glen English?

I know Jimmy Wells was persuaded sometime to race a Bantam, was well loved in the East End and by us lot in Essex but it couldn´t be Jimmy -- could it?

I saw Jimmy riding a Yam-- was it? -- at an Oulton Park International meeting. That was the day when Dave Potter had his fatal crash and the day Bill Lawrence got done (by a copper in the circuit car park) for having no tax on the van he was driving -- the van, of course, owned by The Wobbleyman. Bill still got done.

Memorable evening . We stopped at Newport Pagnell for petrol and Bill was there. He told us he´d told the copper he -- Bill himself -- was insane! We poodled in-land from the service station and found a pub where we were consoling Bill when up came a bloke and shook my hand, "Cor! It´s John Bass" he told his mate,"Seen him riding Slasher Edney´s Hagon at Watford ...."

It was NOT a Hagon -- that only happened at Abridge when Slasher lent his Hagon-JAP -- but it made me feel ten feet high.

Bill wrote from Australia to say he thought he´d got away with it but the law caught up with him just days before he left Blighty and the magistrate stung Bill twice as hard because Bill had been so flippant about getting nicked.

GOD! --> GOOD OLD DAYS!!

Hi
The only rider i can come up with is Darren Dixon Foggy fits as he was born july 66 but wrong part of the country same with Hodgson Dave Simmonds was killed some years ago rescueing someone from a caravan fire at a one off meeting at Rungis in Paris.
regards Bill

Terry is right, Glen English fits the bill perfectly.

Well done Terry, Yes it was Glen English

hello All

looking back as this thread is it triggers many memorys, started in 1969, i still remember walking Snetterton the first time followed by first practise.
The black lewis leathers were made to measure, but im not sure how that worked as 3 of us shared them !!!! myself, Keith Andrew and Neil Andrew.Racing a bantam was good fun with advice from the regulars about the bike it eventually became quick although the plunger frame caused some interesting cornering, i always found standing up and sitting down hard settled the back end as you went into the corner, especially the bomb hole at snetterton.Winning a senior race was magic falling of 3 times at cadwell was painfull.I eventually moved to 250s (i need to finish this as it will go on forever with race memorys) . So eventually became part of the race day team and worked up to the dizzy heights of Clerck of the course.By 1996 with the pressures of working in the prison service and the feeling that racing clubs were moving to almost professionall raceday teams i decided to call it a day.
I still have a road bike and have traveled most of europe on it, i occasionally look into this forum and follow MotoGp.

David Kingsnorth

Life after Bantam Racing was quite boring except for down-hill skiing in Northern Quebec & flying with an ex-Hungarian air force --jet -- pilot Rad Sjkrivanik, in his 1947 Stinson hi wing monoplane which crashed after I had repaired its oil-cooler. It was a pipe to the oil-cooler that failed. Sort of points out that if you repair one thing the other parts in the system MUST be checked also. I thought Rad had got himself a bona-fide inspector, as was the proper way, but he obviously hadn´t... Rad & his 3 passengers survived -- it was only a 3-seater!!

Ssnnore & Yyyaaaaawwwwnnnn!!

Cheers!!

where did the pilot sit with four people in a three seater

That was the point I was making, Ray, Rad made a 3-seater Stinson into a 4-seater to carry more passengers -- illegally! Marvellous bloke -- just a bit slippery. Within 3 hours of his having crashed it came over on my car radio. Not many 1947 Stinsons flying & crashing in that part of Canada in 1980 so I was in great fear of the repair to the oil-cooler that I had done being responsible.

Cheers!

may be his name was George.

Wonderful time in my life, had a fantastic job, spent a lot of time down-hill ski-ing and at the Lasalle Aero Club*** just outside Montreal and then we lost the HUMMVEE contract and the German parent company shut us down and I was Unemployed.

So, after Bantam racing was a big UP -->> followed by an enormous let-down...

*** This aero club activity was like seeing BRC lads all over again -- loads of blokes making their own light & Ultra-light aeroplanes. One bloke made an autogiro that was a real freak. It had a wicker-chair seat (obviously reinforced with alloy tubes) with a Rotax 600cc engine and pusher-prop behind -- with tower and free-wheeling rotor all standing on four pram wheels. In Britain -- at that time -- autogiroes were banned and this wacky thing should have been banned anyway. However, it did fly. I was there, one day, when everyone was grounded except this freak of aviation. It was a hell of a long while running along on its pram-wheels with the pilot spinning the rotor by hand until it got up to speed ... then, quite suddenly it was about 10feet above the ground. It stayed at that height going round and round the airfield until someone decided to call him in. Asked why he didn´t fly any higher the pilot told us it just wouldn´t climb ... About 10feet was its ceiling....

Sorry this is so long but it was ONE exciting moment in Life after Bantam... I was a member of an aero-club here fo a while....

Cheers!

This subject is dying so I´ll try to pep-it-up ...

As I said before -- on here -- I got into Bantam Racing by Accident! Was intending to build a hovercraft, which are great fun, and actually bought a 250 Villiers engine when I got dragged in to make a Bantam racer and find a jockey -- from there I became the jockey ...

Perhaps some of our old -- returned -- BRC members can tell how they got started? Dave Hunter, perhaps?

This subject calls for nostalgia at its worst. Excitement to compare with frightening oneself on board an uncontrollable motorcycle at speed (well sort of relatively quick then -- on Icarus-2 Bantam, that´d be...)

So I shall contribute:-

On a short term assignment in Burundi*** I was loaned one those solo, roll-over canoes and was about 400meters from the shore when I looked back at the beach (hotel at the north end of lake Tanganyika) and saw all the people waving and cheering ...

...then I thought, "They ain´t wavin´an´cheerin´ -- they are shouting and pointin´..."

So I looked to my right. At about twenty paces away were two pairs of large eyes and large nostrils snorting above the surface. A pair of HIPPOS!!

Big cumbersome 3 tonners on land the hippo is apparently very fast when running along the bottom in the water. They submerge themselves and rush along at anything they think should not be in their area. I´d seen a yacht -- only just recently -- smashed to bits by a couple of them ....

If there had been an Olympics scout on that beach I´d have surely been chosen for the canoeing event -- my paddling was faster than Icarus-1 Bantam getting off the line I reckon !!

***Africa -- well north of (above) the GP circuit!!

Cheers!