THE WILKINSONS
Both the Yorkshire brothers, Bill and Mick Wilkinson from Kettlewell in Yorkshire have been a significant part of British off-road motorcycle history. It all started with Richard ‘Dick’ Wilkinson of Appletreewick in Craven district, North Yorkshire, who ran the ‘New Inn’ pub and garage and was a factory rider for Panther Motorcycles of Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, manufactured by Messrs Phelon & Moore. Dick and his wife Lilly had two sons, the eldest William, known as Bill, born June 1941 and Richard Michael, born in May 1948, and a daughter, Shirley, born 1949. Dick, Bill and Mick were to compete in trials and the International Six Days Trial – ISDT – in their respective competitive riding careers.
Dick Wilkinson was a very capable trials and grass track rider and took part in all the national events of the day. He was a national trials winner and had eight Scott spoons to his credit. He rode in many Scottish Six Days Trials, with his last being in 1953 on a 500T Norton, plus several ISDTs taking in the 1937 and 1938 events in Wales. Mick Wilkinson is himself a holder of eight Scott spoons: “The 1939 ISDT was centred at Salzburg, when the entire British team and private riders had to leg it over the Swiss border when the outbreak of World War Two was imminent. Dad had no choice but to get free of the potential risk of spending the war as a prisoner as they couldn’t guarantee their safety. He rode post-war in Italy in 1947, Wales again in 1950 and his last was in Italy once again in 1951”.
Dick Wilkinson campaigned the Panther until the factory closed and then he purchased himself a 500T Norton, and then a 200cc James which he continued to ride until he stopped riding in 1954.
Christened ‘Richard Michael’ Dick & Lilly’s second son was to be universally known to all as ‘Mick’ and to the family as ‘Mike’. “I’ve never been that bothered what folk call me, Mick, Mike, Wilks — it’s all the same to me” he quipped. “I can’t remember when I actually started riding motorcycles but it was as soon as
I could ‘nick’ Bill’s for a run out. We both took up riding influenced by our Dad”.
Elder brother Bill, a holder of thirteen Scott spoons and event winner in 1964, holds the distinction of being the last British rider to win the Scottish Six Days Trial on a British built motorcycle, the Greeves in 1969. Ten years earlier he had taken the best first-timer award, the P.S. Chamberlain trophy, riding with L-plates on a private Greeves and stayed faithful to the marque for twelve seasons. Bill Wilkinson: “The Chamberlain trophy is a solid silver working model of a Rudge with rubber tyres, silver cables and chain. We had it on the mantelpiece in our house all year until I returned it, all polished up proper the following year, but I think they stopped presenting it after that as it was so valuable. Our Mike was forever taking my machine out for a ride whenever my back was turned. I inherited my Dad’s 200cc James, which was his last competition motorcycle, and I rode it around locally from 1954 until I took up riding properly in trials in 1957. I then switched to a 500cc BSA Gold Star which I rode in the Scott Trial that year; bloody heavy thing it was too.”
Greeves Factory Riders
Bill: “I purchased my own Greeves in 1959 for the ‘Scottish’ and when I got to Fort William on the first day Ralph Venables came over to me and said: “Come with me, I want you to meet someone in the Stag Hotel”. We went in and there was Bert Greeves sat in the bar. He said: “Do you want to ride for Greeves? We can see how things go but in the meantime we will pay you bonuses and expenses for starters if you ride nationals”. I replied “fine by me Mr Greeves but can I have a scrambler as well?” Mr Greeves said: “we’ll see what we can do”.
After the Scottish the factory sent up a used trials model by train to Skipton and two weeks later they had built me a brand new one. Then two weeks after that up came a scrambles model. Every year I had two new machines and they gave you the option to buy them at a reduced price, so you could sell them on and make a few bob.”
Bill continued: “I never had a written contract in all the time I rode the Greeves; it was all done with a shake of Mr Greeves’ hand. I once said to Derry Preston-Cobb that I wanted a Greeves contract like Don Smith’s but ‘Cobby’ let me have a peek at Don’s contract the wrong way up and I realised that I didn’t want it after all as mine was actually better! That was in 1962.
“Later Don was again boasting to me about how much he was making and that set me thinking, and I went down to the factory and spoke to Cobby. I said ‘Cobby, I want a contract like Don Smith’s’ he again said ‘no you don’t, Bill’ and sure enough I was actually winning more and earning more than Smith was so I said ‘your right Cobby, I don’t want a contract we’ll leave things as they are!’”
Bill had a lot of respect for the Greeves workforce, Mr Greeves (who he never refers to as Bert) and especially Bill Brooker, the competitions manager. He would travel down to the Greeves factory at Thundersley and the company either gave him accommodation or, if he waited four hours or so, they would rebuild the machine on the spot for him to drive straight back to Kettlewell that same evening.
Mick’s first works ride was when teamed up with Dennis ‘Jonah’ Jones on one of Frank Hipkin’s Sprite motorcycles in 1965. This was followed by an approach from Norman Moore of Francis Barnett and James when Mick Andrew’s James, registration no: 305AKV, became available when Andrews moved to ride Bultaco for the Rickman brothers.
Mick: “I rode the James in the 1966 Scottish but the AMC group was by then in a bad way financially and Bill was riding for Greeves, so I went over to join him. I never had a contract just an agreement with Bill Brooker and Derry Preston Cobb. I had the factory Anglian model at that time and rode those until the 169cc Puch engined ‘Pathfinder’ came on along. I had a good one of these models which had some improvements carried out by Reg May at Comerfords. This included lowered footrests by one and a half inches and a more conventional exhaust system. Arthur Browning got me a weighted flywheel which helped the lower end power and it ticked over really well. My model was ten times better than the rest of them. I won the Travers Trial in 1971 and rode it in the Welsh Three Day as the dealer sponsored Cheney Triumph wasn’t ready. I passed Ken Heanes on his 500 Triumph twin who started a minute before me; he wasn’t too pleased at that.”
Bill: “The Pathfinder was absolute crap; my brother could ride it but I hated the bloody thing. They were awful. In fact, I got so fed up with the Pathfinder that I started to use Mike’s Anglian that he had laid up, and started to get results again. I rode the Pathfinder in the 1970 Scottish and having won on the Anglian in 1969, I was well down the leader-board just one year later.
“I did ride a Pathfinder model in Austria for the Puch factory in Graz who supplied the engines and it was a terrific little machine, but I think they changed the engine from the one I tested because when it came over to England it just wasn’t the same machine at all.”
Wilkinson’s and the ISDT
Mick Wilkinson had a fair number of rides in the ISDT, commencing with the 1968 event at San Pellegrino, Italy on a Suzuki, followed by a Greeves ride in the 1969 Garmisch-Partenkirchen event where he picked up a gold medal. He was on the dealer-backed 504cc Cheney Triumph for El Escorial near Madrid in 1970 as part of the British trophy team.
Mick: “We were all bloody stupid back then as we could have been much better prepared; for instance, we were losing marks on the noise meter test. Had I known this I could have backed it off to take the sharpness out of the exhaust note but we all rode like silly buggers going as fast as we could, instead of riding with a bit more stealth as we could have done.”
The 1971 ISDT held in the Isle of Man was to see Mick fall foul of the team management as his Cheney Triumph seized up.
Mick: “The oil pipes had melted against the exhausts as the motor was running really hot, and it spewed oil all over itself and me. There was bloody oil everywhere. At first they didn’t believe me and said that it wasn’t possible; I was exonerated later that year when John Pease’s machine did exactly the same. I had pulled over after about 40 miles and had to replace the plastic insulation which had melted through on the wires to the points with insulation tape. The back-up rider, Ken Heanes, had seen this and we got it going once it had cooled down a bit. It got me to the third check of the day when it seized completely through lack of oil supply— the pipes having melted completely through. I did enjoy riding the big Cheney, they were great fun to ride but the preparation could have been better looking back on it all!”
In 1972 and 1973 Mick was aboard the Otley-built Dalesman, under the control of former Greeves competition manager Bill Brooker.
Mick: “That Dalesman registration no: LWW578K was one very quick motorcycle — I could hardly stay on it sometimes! It had a 125cc Sachs engine and it absolutely flew. I did the ISDT in Czechoslovakia, the Brecon and Welsh Three Days on it. I rode it in the USA in 1973, which was my last ISDT.”
Bill Wilkinson rode the ISDT twice, in 1965 on the Isle of Man and the following year in Sweden. He was supplied with the specially built 250cc ISDT Challenger from the factory, carrying the registration no: MEV10C on both occasions. This machine along with the rest of the ISDT Greeves was prepared in the competition shop by Scottish trials rider and Greeves mechanic Allie ‘Beag’ Cameron, originally from Fort William, and Bill struck up a good rapport with ‘Wee Allie’.
Bill: “I was going well on the Isle of Man until the Thursday, when the clip came loose in the carburettor and it got sucked right through the engine, and that was the end of that. Sweden was better and I picked up a gold medal that year but riding in the International was a right risky business, and to be honest with that and scrambling I took my eye off the ball for trials so I decided to concentrate on trials after that. I enjoyed it but it really mucked up my trials riding.”