Beware the mop bucket
Regarding ‘GOMA Kicks Off’ in ‘Buzz Box’ OBA 91, this acronym GOMA, believe it or not, is a word invented by my older brother sixty years ago, and deserves to be preserved in history as being closely associated with motorcycling. The whole word was in fact HEGOMA. Pronunciation: (“He’s a gonna but with an m”). The word was used to describe the noise made when trying to kick start a circa 1940 to 1950s motorcycle, with either no petrol or spark present. This was a sound regularly heard in our back yard when we were growing up, as our dad used to purchase motorcycles in various states of disrepair, rebuild them, ride them for a while and sell them to finance his next motorcycle purchase. At the time my brother was about nine years of age, and despite having tried, was neither tall enough or heavy enough to turn one of these bikes through compression, so instead he would stand one foot on the plate soldered to the bottom rim of
Mum’s galvanized mop bucket, and with the other foot poised on the spring loaded mechanism to close the rollers, thrust down yelling “HEGOMA”. Not to be outdone, aged eight and smaller in stature I decided to have a go. Poised over the top of the mop bucket on my first attempt I thrust the lever down, running out of clearance, foot slipping off the lever and presenting my undercarriage neatly between the roller-closing mechanism and the top of the mop bucket. Needless to say it wasn’t “HEGOMA” I was screaming when Mum came to extricate me from the mop bucket. Sixty years later I still believe two of the most dangerous pain-inflicting inventions ever made, and deserving of cautious respect, are the kick start on a motorcycle and Mum’s galvanized mop bucket. Peter Strawbridge Barossa Valley Classic Motorcycle Club