Old school at school
Cast your mind back to March 2020 – seems a long time ago, eh? That issue of CB featured the younger generation of old bike enthusiasts, and you may remember I paid a visit to Cokethorpe School where teachers Simon Carter and Colin Johnson had set up a ‘Build a Bike’ project featuring a BSA Bantam donated by Simon’s uncle for students to restore.
Well, of course that month everything, everywhere stopped and I’ve often wondered what happened to the project; students aren’t there forever and some of the team must have left by now. Well, out of the blue I received an email from Simon inviting me to the grand unveiling of the complete D1 (sneak preview above).
Predictably, the project ground to a halt for 2020 and most of 2021, but Simon managed to keep the group going and maintained enthusiasm despite the difficulties. It all kicked off again last September – but by that time Henry, who’d been the original inspiration and driving force behind the project, had left to take up an apprenticeship as a submarine engineer.
Unfortunately, it was a bit too short notice for me to attend the unveiling on June 14, but Simon promised to let me know how it went. His uncle was coming to see how his old bike turned out as well as members of the Bantam Club – Simon says they’ve been a great help over last year and there are even murmurs that they may be able to sponsor another project in the near future. So fingers crossed on that.
Here’s hoping that any students who, like Henry, find themselves heading into engineering in our tech-obsessed world will find some benefit to having learned some manual skills from the Bantam project. Modern engineering may be a different world to a BSA Bantam, but I think learning the patience to deal with old technology and learning how to screw things together so they work is excellent grounding for any career.