The big brake

Reader Jeff Rook has an explanation for the CMA brake featured in my last column. “Your picture of the CMA brake brought back a lot of memories for me. The C stands for John Cieran who was known as the Crazy Czech. The M stands for Reay Mackay. He did a lot of testing and when the brake was a single-sided 4 leading shoe he found the spindly early Japanese forks on the test bike would give up the struggle! Reay’s father was the “Laird “of Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness in Scotland and Reay’s son Jimmy “Bones” Mackay is golfer Phil Mickelson’s caddy and quite wealthy as a result! Reay is quite a character in his own right. He claims to be the last person to race a Velocette and also a Vincent in the proper TT when it was still a round of the world championships. He ran package tours to Daytona for the 200 mile race every February from London until selling out to I think Tee Mill Tours. I rode pillion on his 3 cylinder 750cc Kawasaki 2 stroke fitted in a Fritz Egli frame to the Imola 200 miles race in 1972 won by Paul Smart on the Ducati . Reay was about 6 foot 5 and I was 6 foot 4 and with Reay’s press-on type riding we worked out on one leg of the trip we only got 16 MPG. We must have stopped at every petrol station between London and Imola and I remember being disappointed that the fuel companies never even sent us a Xmas card. Reay managed in one year to finish in the TT, the Welsh Two Day Enduro and the Scottish Six Days Trial, quite a good effort. Reay now lives in Ohio, USA and drives a Porsche 911 in retirement.” See you next issue, Pete