Bryan ‘Badger’ Goss 1940-2021
The scrambling world lost one its former stars with the passing of former British 500cc champion Bryan ‘Badger’ Goss on January 7, 2021. During his 20-year riding career, Badger was one of the scrambling stars of his generation.
Brought up in Yetminster on the Somerset/Dorset border, young Goss spent many happy hours riding his pedal cycle across the local fields and when one of his friends got a motorcycle, Bryan was soon ‘badgering’ him to have a go. The lifelong nickname was born.
Age 16, Badger made his scrambles debut on a 197cc Greeves Hawkstone, was quickly upgraded to expert status and in 1959 signed to ride a works Cotton. He was soon lured away to ride for Greeves, then in 1963 he proposed to Jenny, who would be his wife for 40 years. The same year, he opened his motorcycle shop in Yeovil.
By the mid-1960s, he left Greeves, swapping to the Swedish Husqvarna and duly recorded one of his greatest victories, winning both legs of the 1966 Trophee Des Nations. On the home front, Goss – normally number 46 – was generally in the results. In 1969, he scooped the 250cc Grandstand TV Trophy and the following year the British 500cc title on the big Husky.
Bryan was not one to rest on his laurels and in 1971 he drove to the Maico factory in Germany and after testing, a Maico was stripped down and brought back to the UK in Badger’s Mini Cooper. In its inaugural meeting, the Goss/Maico combination made an impressive debut and soon others were eagerly trying to get their hands on a Maico. It led to Bryan becoming the UK’s importer and for three years on the trot, he sold over 1000 bikes.
He eventually retired from racing in 1977 to concentrate on the business (Goss Moto X) which today is run by his son Jeff.
For those of us lucky enough to have seen him in action during those halcyon days, he will never be forgotten.
RIP Badger and thanks for the memories.
Bill Snelling reflects on his lifetime’s passion for twowheeling in this entertaining, motorcycle-themed autobiography. As far as he can remember, the family transport was always a bike and sidecar, firstly a Series C Vincent attached to a doubleadult sidecar, later replaced by a Series D Black Shadow outfit, with regular Monday night visits to support the Dons at Wimbledon Speedway, signalling the start of his addiction to Castrol R!
“Me and school had drifted apart,” he recalls and at 15 he joined Arthur Lavington’s small Velocette repair shop in Tooting, south London, gaining a thorough grounding in all things Veloce, including the LE, which he hated.
Passing his test on Arthur’s Mk.I KSS (the examiner was unaware that it was a 350), Bill became hooked on road trials – riding mainly Velocettes, including the rare Viceroy scooter – and the MCC’s long-distance semisporting trials, with a fair degree of success.
On leaving Lavington’s, Bill’s career took a zigzag path in the motor trade, including working for renowned Velocette dealer and production racing entrant Geoff Dodkin and as the advertising sales manager for Motorcycle Sport. With the lure of better financial prospects, he started as a dispatch rider in London on a Moto Guzzi V50, in the early 1980s, and moved into freelance journalism.
He made his racetrack debut at the Triumph Owners’ High Speed Trials at Lydden on his Velocette Viper in 1971, with his only win the next year at Cadwell Park. Bill went on to ride in many production races – including the Avon Production series – on his home-built Thruxton. To his credit, he gained a Finisher’s Award in the 1978 Senior Manx Grand Prix Newcomers’ Race, riding his home-tuned Velocette Metisse – “not fast, but not last!” he proudly reported.
Moving permanently to the Isle of Man, Bill met and married music teacher Pat, started a publishing business for which he wrote several successful motorcycle books and now owns a highlyregarded motorcycle racing photographic archive.
Not surprisingly, after such an eventful life, Bill has compiled many anecdotes of bikes he has ridden and people he has met, resulting in a very good and entertaining read.