Blow Your Own Letters
I have attached photographs of my Dad (Ted Stock) with the bike he acquired in 1937, one of 2 brought into Australia by Frank Pratt in Geelong. The photos were taken in March 1941 just before he went to the Middle East – El Alamein – with the
9th Division Cavalry and was a despatch rider – DonR – while there. Sadly, on his return to Geelong in 1943 he discovered his brother had sold the bike and he was not aware of its ownership after that. He always had a love of motorbikes and raced in many places in Victoria both before and after his war service. Unfortunately I do not have any records of his exploits in that field apart from family tales over time. At some point after he retired someone visited him to say they thought they had found his bike and that it was being restored but needed information as some engine parts were not original. He spoke to the person I am assuming was Lindsay Lange and told him all about his bike to assist in the restoration. He knew the bike had gone to BMW in Melbourne but unfortunately he never made the trip to see it. I guess the history of the bike that was discussed with Dad had more information come to light to confirm it was actually Frank Pratt’s and the second bike was written off by the person who bought
Dads sometime between 1941-43.
It looks to me like the bike is an R66. These were produced from 1938 and Frank Pratt would have received some in that year. The bike that ended up with Lindsay Lange (and the one that was crashed and subsequently used for parts) was the racing R5SS, which subsequently went back to BMW. Pratt won the Sidecar TT at Phillip Island on the Australia Day weekend in 1939. I could surmise that the real story is that Pratt got a few R66 models (I doubt there would have been many, especially given the