Justyn Norek Snr
John Hulme: “I feel very privileged to have had so many ‘Old School’ international photographers open the doors of their archives since I have been publishing motorcycle magazines. Off the back of my contact with Justyn Norek Jnr, who has tested some rare old trials machines for the magazines, he mentioned his father’s archive and his life story, which we will highlight here. To the Norek family: for all your support, a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
Iwas born on 21st March 1947 in a suburban part of Cracow city in Poland. I am an Aries sign, and even if I don’t care about astrology, some of my characteristics fall very well within those of an Aries! As a kid, I was very attracted by mechanics as, in the same housing block where we lived, there was a doctor who had a pre-war Tatra car. I would often spend hours watching this drivermechanic doing repairs and maintenance on this fantastic vehicle. At the same time, I was riding my first bicycle; an adult-sized French made one. It was too big for me, so I had a lot of trouble when stopping; besides, it had a damaged steering head which was not possible to tighten up properly. One had to be very careful when doing sharp manoeuvres as your handlebars were turning more than wheel; it resulted in some interesting crashes!
At the age of 14, and with help from my grandmother, I bought a good quality racing bicycle called a ‘Sport’ model produced in Czechoslovakia. It was very robust. I raced it in the local woods and fields, making it a kind of what we would now call an MTB (even if this sport was yet to be invented in California). Subsequently, I bought an excellent Polish racing ‘Huragan’ bicycle. I’m sure you guessed, it means ‘Hurricane’.
Tatra mountains
From when I was ten years old, every year, in July, I would go with my father for summer holidays in Zakopane, in the heart of the Tatra Mountains. It was some 120km south of my town in Poland. Here for the first time, I witnessed riders taking part in the speed test for the Tatra Trial, which was a kind of combined speed and observed sections trial for motorcycles. I was ten and ‘hooked’ on my love for off-road motorcycle competitions. Since then, I couldn’t wait for each July so I could go to Zakopane and watch my beloved competition and dream about riding in such events. My father was in despair. He was a judge by profession, and he hated motorcycles and the noise they produced.
In 1963, I went alone to Zakopane equipped with a small East German camera, a Verra. I hoped to catch some shots of the riders and their machines to have such photos as a reference for my dreams. The results were not excellent due to the limits of this camera and my capacity as a photographer. Yet, three or four photos were very good; expressing speed and action more by chance than my ability!
At the same time, I visited the Public Library in Zakopane and discovered that there was a British ‘Motor Cycle’ magazine. It was full of photos of motorcycles, technical data etc. I went to the library manager to ask if I could purchase the magazine and he said yes, but only when we get the next issue and it will be expensive. Indeed it was, priced at ten times more than a similar national magazine. I saved up to buy it and made an order with the librarian for the next issues when they became available.
Magazines
It was the turning point. Every week I could see photos of motorcycles little-known in Poland and, for the first time, a
Greeves. I became inquisitive about Great Britain, and so I wrote a letter to the Motor Cycle editor, expressing my interest in finding a pen pal in the UK. He was very kind and printed my request in the magazine and, indeed, after some time one person wrote to me. He was from Wales, and his name was Denis Jones. He was a rocker and rode a BSA 650 Rocket. We exchanged many letters, and I became good friends with Denis, sending him photos of races etc. He sent me some British Motorcycle magazines, Motorcyclist Illustrated and Motorcycle Sport.
In 1965, I decided to make a trip to Kielce where the Polish 250 motocross Grand Prix was held. Better equipped by now, with a Russian Zenith reflex 24 x 36 camera, I was hoping to take some good photos. Despite strong controls at the entry to the paddock, I managed to slip in and found myself face to face with Dave Bickers and John Griffith. They were working on their beautiful Greeves Challengers fitted with Ceriani front telescopic forks, no more leading link ones. It was time to take some photos when I heard a voice from behind “Hey, son, how did you get here?” I replied that I just wanted to take some photos of my motorcycling heroes. He answered, “Yes, I know, but you are not a photographer, you don’t have a card”.
For the rest of the day, I watched from the side of the track fighting with other spectators for a place at the front. I had learned one thing: I had to be a photographer for next year! Back at home, I used every trick to get into the local paper as a contributor on a freelance basis.
I was a student on my first year of Polytechnic on a ‘Cars Engineering Course’ and bought my first trials machine, a WSK ‘Sarenka’ 125 trials model. I often rode on it in local trials.
In July, during the Tatra Trial, I met the Swedish rider Kuno Karlsson, and soon some friendly chats turned into a long friendship. He was riding a 175cc Husqvarna ‘Silverpillen’ model. Riding a trials motorcycle, he was the best on observation, losing fewer points, but he was far back in the results as, on the speed tests against the MZ and Jawa machines, he lost too much time. Kuno told me that he worked as a workshop mechanic and, if I wanted, to I could join him and start to save some money to purchase maybe later a Husqvarna or Greeves — I wanted to go there the next day! He then helped me to gain permission to travel, and with this information, I obtained a passport.
Time to travel
In summer 1966, I travelled to Gothenburg in Sweden where my friend was living. I started to work with him and was living at his home. Every weekend we were riding trials motorcycles and, as well as the Husqvarna and Greeves, I tried a Bultaco and Triumph Cub, etc.
In October, I returned to Poland to continue my engineering studies and was often designing my dream motorcycles and cars.
In 1967, I had seen in the ‘Motor Cycle’ magazine some photos of a very beautiful Cheney BSA Victor scrambler. I loved this machine. After reading the article about Eric Cheney, I started to draw the next generation of his motorcycles. While doing this, I sketched a kind of ‘CE’ logo and did some styling for the word ‘Cheney’ too. I packed all my work in an envelope and sent it to Eric, asking if he would like to have a look at my ideas. Much to my surprise, a letter arrived from him very promptly. He wrote that he could not build motorcycles like on my drawings, but he liked the ‘CE’ logo and Cheney lettering. So much, that he would like to use them on the next motorcycles he produced! He said he had a very small workshop and that he could not pay for rights to use it, but he would give me a discount on his frame when I decided to buy one; would I agree? Agree — I considered it a huge honour! After just a few weeks the final stickers arrived from Eric. I was so happy that day and my thoughts moved to design, as a designer in future, so great was my satisfaction in seeing my ideas become a reality.