Our link to hero Dad

Repair Shop expert restores nose cone from tragic Chris’ drag bike

PART of a motorbike that has stood as a reminder to the sons of a dad who died while working on the machine has been restored to its former glory.

Chris Bartram’s battered drag racing fibreglass cone, that deflected wind from the rider, was fixed by an expert from BBC’S The Repair Shop.

It now stands as a tribute to the former competitor, who died from an aneurysm in 2000, aged 56.

Son Dan was just 13 and his brother Andy 11 when their father died.

But the pair were left delighted when The Repair Shop’s art conservator Lucia Scalisi restored it.

Dan, 34, said: “When we got it back we were ecstatic at how it had been brought to life. The way it’s positioned on the stand as though it’s flying through the air, it encapsulates Dad.

“It’s no longer battered. It’s up on a shelf in my house next to a picture of Dad. He was our hero. We didn’t have too much time with him in the end.

“He was always the one taking us to sport and away for weekends.” Chris raced the powerful drag bikes in the 60s and 70s with brother Tony.

The pair were known as the Rebel brothers, and the word was painted on the side of the nose cone that sat on the bike handlebars.

Dan, a secondary school teacher in North London who grew up in Watford, added: “The level of skill they

PRIDE Dan with the nose cone from his father’s bike

had was amazing. They built their own bikes, took different engines apart and put them together in new ways to maximise speed.

“They’d go to Santa Pod racecourse [in Podington, Bedfordshire] and also compete in Europe.”

The nose cone was originally for Tony’s bike but he gave it to his brother. Chris stopped racing the

bikes when he had children but still tinkered with them, which fascinated his young sons. Dan said of the nose cone: “After he died me and Andy saw it as something to keep hold of. It’s a real connection to him.”

The repair was a first for Lucia.

Tony is now in his 70s and is working on restoring Chris’ old bike.

■ New episodes of The Repair Shop are airing Monday to Friday, 4.30pm, BBC1. Catch up on BBC iplayer.

IN ACTION Chris and Tony race as the Rebel brothers

MY BOYS Chris with his sons in 1990