JOHN MOFFAT
The word ‘enthusiast’ is often used to describe someone who has had a lifelong interest in something, be that a specific marque, club or a sport. Scotsman John Moffat is unquestionably a ‘motorcycling enthusiast’ and was effectively born into the sport. His late father, T. Arnott Moffat, was a Scottish trials rider who became the longest serving honorary secretary (32 years) in the 100 year history of the Scottish ACU and had managed riders at the International Six Days, plus a lot more. He was a man that simply ate, breathed and spoke motorcycling, so it was inevitable that his son would either follow suit or have nothing to do with the sport. The paths of John Hulme and John Moffat would cross around the year 2000 when their passion for motorcycling and especially trials would bring them together to form an enduring friendship, leading to Mr Moffat becoming a regular contributor to both Trial and Classic Trial Magazines.
Words: John Hulme with John Moffat • Pictures: Yoomee, John Moffat family, Colin Bullock, Ian Lennox, Dennis Lodge, Archie Love, Helen Thomson, Jimmy Young and Ray Biddle
John Moffat: “Brought up in the Scottish Borders, my grandfather, Willie Moffat and his brothers all had motorcycles and my dad had been inspired by the racing successes of Norton works rider, Jimmie Guthrie from Hawick, in the 1930’s. To be honest, my mum wasn’t overly keen at the thought of me riding motorcycles, in fact I think she asked dad to reconsider letting me have one as she thought I was keen on road riding. She was actually way off the mark, I only really wanted a competition machine, I had no notion to ride a motorcycle fitted with lights and horns and all that clutter. However, I did eventually get to enjoy road machines in later life and rode daily to attend university in Edinburgh from my home on a Honda 250 G5, followed years later by a BMW R80ST and more recently a Honda Fireblade.”
Factory 350cc Matchless
John had a liking for one motorcycle in particular; this was his father’s ex-Ted Usher factory 350 Matchless which was registered OLH 722 which leant against the inside of the garage wall at the back of their house in Bathgate, West Lothian.
John: “I used to love going down to the garage with dad to get the car out and he would let me shut the garage doors myself, taking time to just look at the machine. I wasn’t allowed to touch or sit on it, he wanted me to be interested in the sport myself without being pushed into it, that was just his way.”
Young Moffat was surrounded by motorcycling, the family home also doubled as an office for Moffat senior’s self-employed accountancy and tax service plus the Scottish ACU administration. He was also the accountant/cashier at a large solicitors practice in the town.
“I got to know who all the main people in Scottish motorcycling were back then because they all came to our house on a regular basis; this included not only the club officials, but many of the riders from all disciplines to obtain their annual competition licences which were issued by my father. It was a wonderful time as I could listen-in to them telling dad about their racing on the Isle of Man, at the Manx Grand Prix and scrambles, grass-track and trials of course. I rarely spoke, I just listened to the chat and it was fascinating. My real hero at that time was seven times Scottish Scrambles champion George Hodge who raced a Rickman Metisse fitted with an ex-Sylvain Geboers G85 Matchless motor. George was also a client of my dad’s accountancy and tax advice business so we were often at his farm at Abington, Lanarkshire. When they were talking business I had to make myself scarce and was allowed to go and look at his Metisse and his Ariel HT5 trials machine in his bike shed.”
The Assen TT
In 1963 at the age of five John went on holiday to Europe for three weeks with his parents which took in the TT races at Assen in the Netherlands.
“I can still remember the roar of the machines as they left the start line. I hadn’t heard noise like it. All the top riders were there and I recall walking through the paddock, as Dad had obtained passes for us through the
ACU which was based in Pall Mall, London back then. I counted myself very fortunate as foreign travel was pretty rare at that time and the kids at my school didn’t believe me when I told them where I had been on my holidays. Most kids in Bathgate had only been to places in Scotland, it was unusual for people to go overseas in the sixties.”
John was attending all forms of motorcycle sport from an early age, the first being a scrambles event in 1959 run at his maternal grandmother’s farm, Ruddenlees, Lamancha where she was the stockwoman/shepherdess.
“The Edinburgh Southern, of which my Dad was a member, ran it. I can’t remember much about it except the smell of Castrol R and the noise of the unsilenced two-strokes. I loved the sound of the big four-strokes, I still do. I remember going to bed that night and I could still hear the sound of the machines in my head.”
John’s first official duties were observing at an event, under parental guidance, at the age of eight at the 1966 Coronation Trial at Torphichen near his Bathgate home.
“I remember the trial quite vividly, we were at a small quarry section they called the bombhole on Broompark Farm, which was owned by Willie Wylie, another of my dad’s clients. I remember Kenny Fleming was arguing about his score but I just pointed towards Dad and said, take it up with him!”
Arnott Moffat had sold his precious Matchless in 1963 having given up riding competitively and to John’s surprise, its new owner, Alan Gordon, was competing on it at the event. Arnott always regretted selling the machine so he eventually bought it back in 1973 in a poor state of repair from ‘Skiggs’ MacPherson of Ballachulish. The Matchless was eventually restored by Comerfords Jock Wilson.
Information
“Every book, magazine and paper written about motorcycling I could get my hands on was read from cover to cover. I was always good at memorising stuff, particularly things that interest me, I just absorb it all. If it doesn’t interest me, I don’t commit it to memory, that’s how my mind works.”
John Moffat’s real desire to have a motorcycle of his own was ‘ramped up’ in 1969 when a Puch-engined 125T Dalesman appeared at Bathgate for collection by Scottish ACU Chairman, Jimmy Birrell. The machine had been delivered prior to the Scottish Six Days on loan to Birrell who was the official SACU steward. Arnott Moffat had arranged the carriage of the machine through contacts he had in British Road Services.
John: “I asked dad if I could sit on the Dalesman which was left at the back door. He agreed and that was it, my feet almost touched the ground and from that moment on I began to pester the old boy mercilessly for a machine like it. Unknown to me and my mum, Arnott had already approached the manufacturer, Pete Edmondson, to see if the Dalesman would be for sale after the Scottish but Edmondson had already done a deal on the motorcycle, I was bitterly disappointed.”
However, that wasn’t the end of the story. Later the same year the Scottish ACU had been granted club team status at the September ISDT with Edinburgh motorcycle dealer Ernie Page and fellow Scot, Ian Miller, supplied with hybrid 125 Dalesman Puchs for the event. After the ISDT Arnott bought the Ernie Page machine from Jimmy Birrell who had financed the purchase of the two machines from the Otley based concern.
John: “The rest, as they say is history. The dye was cast and that was it, motorcycles and motorcycle sport was my life from then on. I spent all my school holidays for a number of years at my friend John Hodge’s parent’s farm near Carnwath, Lanarkshire. John’s father was cousin to scrambler George Hodge and bought John the ex-Ian Miller Dalesman and we were on them at every opportunity, looking after the sheep and just generally learning the craft as it were.”
As a teenager, Moffat was introduced to many of the trials key people, both on the organisation side and riders. One of the first was Jim McColm, the Scottish Six Days secretary.
“That was in 1970, the first year Jim did the job, which he held until 1995. He was an approachable chap and he always spoke to me at the Scottish. Jim used to phone up our house to speak to my dad. I used to answer the phone a lot and we would chat about the Scottish until the old man came to take the call.”
First Bultaco
“When I was sixteen we went down to Matchams Park at Ringwood at Easter in 1974 to watch Vic Allan compete in the British Motocross championships on the Bultaco Pursang, what a week that was. We stayed with the Allan family, I was at elder brother Jim’s house at Isleworth and my parents stayed with Vic and his wife Anne at Tolworth. During our visit we called into Motorite Comp Shop in Surbiton and Comerfords in Thames Ditton and met up with Jock Wilson who smuggled us into the comp-shop when the tuning wizard, Reg May, wasn’t there. Tony Davis’ Sherpa was having an overhaul and New Zealander, Ivan Miller’s Pursang was there for repairs. It was just awesome.”
The 125 Dalesman was effectively an enduro machine and was not suited to trials work so in 1974 Ayrshire Bultaco dealer, Jimmy Morton, had a three year old 250 Sherpa for sale.
“It was an ex-George Hunter Sherpa that had done the Scottish and I slipped it into the conversation that I would like a Bultaco as my friend John Hodge had already progressed from his Dalesman to a Greeves Pathfinder and then on to a 325 Bultaco Sherpa. Surprisingly, my father agreed providing I could sell the Dalesman privately. So we advertised the Dalesman for sale in the Scottish Clubman magazine and the Bultaco was bought.”
John rode the Bultaco week in week out and upgraded the machine whenever he had the money to do so. After observing with the bike in 1976 including back-marking on the Thursday, he decided to ride the Scottish in 1977.
“I was in my second year at university, I had virtually no money, every penny I had ever earnt went on my motorcycles, so I tentatively raised the machine issue with dad to which he replied that I should prepare the Bultaco for the Six Days and not use a new untried machine. So I stripped the whole machine apart in the March, gave the motor to Vic Allan’s mechanic, Derek Green, who was ex-Comerfords and I did all the chassis preparation myself. I fitted twin coils and condensers under the tank and a whole lot of other improvements with reliability in mind.”
The meticulous preparation paid off, Moffat’s six year old Bultaco never missed a beat all week, even after he had it up to the tank in a swollen stream near Blackwater when in a blind panic, having got lost with George Gornall on the final day. John’s biggest regret was only doing the Scottish once, but being at university for three years with very little money and then working as a trainee accountant on a low wage it just wasn’t financially possible.
In the summer after riding the Scottish and winning the News Trial, John secured a student vacation job as a car-valeter and general dog’s body at the local car dealership and saved up enough money to buy a new 350 Bultaco.
“I didn’t go out with my mates that summer, putting all I earned away to buy the brand new 325 from Jack Gow in Dundee. That was the best trials motorcycle I ever had. I won quite a few awards on that Sherpa; it was a really soft motor but could also pull like a steam train. There is nothing better than a well set up Bultaco, but a poor one is the pits.”
The ‘Scottish’
The Scottish Six Days was the family’s annual pilgrimage to Fort William being the biggest event in the calendar and John spectated for many years. He got to know many of the riders and officials and was eventually invited by clerk of course Willie Dalling to take up an offer to undertake the event secretary position from Ali Findlay for the 2001 event.