Factory F support
“I blew up the initial R H Smith bike, it dropped a valve at Brands and I couldn’t afford a cylinder head, pistons, cranks and things. So, Dick said to take the engine out, take it apart, go up to BSA in the van and ask for the race department – I walked out of there with virtually a new engine!
“I was on nodding terms with works ridertony Smith by then, but the guy running it was Brian Martin and when I went in, he was sitting there, reading. I thought: ‘Wow, he must be important – reading a newspaper at work!’ I always remember that. He was such a nice bloke, he really was and I got quite friendly with him subsequently.
“He said: ‘If you ever want anything Clive, just give us a ring and at the end of the year come up and we’ll give you everything you need to rebuild it for the next season.’
“And with the twin leading shoe brake they showed me what they did with the cams. I did the same and boy did that make a difference.you just built them up with braze, then put them side by side and filed them and finished them by hand, so they were both the same, and that was a real big improvement.
“When I’d go up there it went along the lines of Brian saying: ‘What do you need?tony, give him what he wants.’ A cupboard would open and out would come a load of con rods and the rest. I never had a complete engine but I used to go up there and they used to rebush the crankcases, line bore them, new crank, barrels and pistons, con rods, bolts, new oil pump, etc.
“To get out the gates they’d say: ”Just throw a blanket over it.” And while it wasn’t a fortune to them, it was a real bonus for me, as they just gave it to us for nothing. Obviously it helped massively with the reliability. I had a lot of time for Brian Martin, a nice guy, he helped and he didn’t have to. I don’t know why he did, but I always equated it to the fact that I was one of the few people to really make a BSA work.”