WAY WE WERE
Rolling back the years to your biking past
The photo above is of some of us (there were a lot more who went) on our way to the funeral of Hugh Moor, the only one we lost – he was a passenger in a car. The date was September 11, 1969. Behind the Morris Minor is Big Jim, behind him is Ian Bright and Jill Smith, then Gerry Phillips. I’m next to Jim on the Enfield. On the left is Little Jim (Triumph) and the one with the white sleeves is Rocker Longford. I still ride to this day – I have a 1955 T110 and a 1998 Fireblade. GEOFF ‘JETHRO’ BELL, ROYSTON, HERTFORDSHIRE This is a photo of our daily transport, a 1960 BSA A10 and Canterbury sidecar, outside my parent’s house in Euxton, Chorley, Lancs in January, 1968. The previous night I had struggled to ride home in driving snow that had blocked most roads between Wigan (where I worked) and Chorley, with a concave Cibie headlight that kept filling up with snow, to get back home following the birth of our daughter on January 28. Hi-tech clothing? No – woollen jumpers and an army surplus coat and gloves. GRAHAM HOUGH, CHORLEY, LANCASHIRE
This is a picture of my great uncle Fred Turner on his BSA Sloper with my Uncle Peter sitting on the tank. I believe he was living in Ilford and had a shop in East Ham at the time the photo was taken. Judging by how old Uncle Peter looks, this was taken about 1930. MARK MULRENIN, MANILLA, ONTARIO This is my aunt Ethel Ord (née Hudson) on one of her bikes during the 1920s, we think, when she was living in Wingate, County Durham. I wondered if you had any idea what the bike is? The rest of the family had been petrolheads from about 1910 – my father had a Triumph, New Imperial and others before changing to four wheels in 1937. My aunt also owned a Ner-a-car, but we haven’t any photos. DICK HUDSON, DONCASTER Very difficult to tell what bike it is; it’s a lightweight and the forks are Druid, as fitted to many bikes from the mid-1910s to mid-’20s but my guess would be an early to mid-’20s 211cc Levis Popular, which was a very popular bike of the time (the clue is in the name). Cheers, Rick
into motorcycling in 1971 when I was 19 – he had been riding motorcycles since he was a youngster. The picture on the left was taken in 1938/39, and shows my grandmother trying out his BSA, with a brave neighbour on the back. My father is in the background with pipe and bicycle (and no, that’s not me at the stairs in the background – I was born 13 years later). My uncle also helped me finding my first bike – a 1955 BSA Gold Star. For the last 21 years, I have owned a Vincent Comet, and over the years I have also had four Japanese bikes, three BMWS, three MZS and one Moto Guzzi. KLAUS KRISTENSEN, DENMARK I am writing this email on behalf of my grandparents, Lyn and Peter Merrick. My grandfather started motorcycling in 1955 with an OEC motorcycle. These photos were taken in late 1959 of my grandparents sitting on their new slimline Dominator – it was very important to them, as it was their first new bike. My grandfather did a bit of production racing on it with the BMRC. They then went touring with it on the continent to Vienna and several other European destinations. After 53 years of marriage, they still have Nortons. RUBY ELLIS