Goodbye to Bill Lawless
Something which particularly inspired me to write was Pete Kelly’s mention of the late Bill Lawless. I love the old-time motorcycle press stories, with all of the trade’s characters laid bare!
I knew Bill quite well c.1973/4, when he lived in the village of Heckington, near Sleaford, and edited a local newspaper based in Boston. I then lived near Sleaford, in the village of Wilsford, which was also the base of that well-known Vincent guru, Tony Maughan.
After seeing Bill around – noticeable on account of his large build – on a Norton Commando, I think I met him at Tony’s bungalow. The Commando was then nearly new and was a late 1972 750 Mark 4 Interstate in blue, with the ‘Combat’ engine; this also being the very first Commando variant to use a disc front brake. Bill enthused about the Commando but the news had already leaked out over the 10:1 compression ratio, short gearing, and ‘hot’ 2s cam of the Combat proving too much for the bottom end. So thus it was that when Bill’s example blew its head gasket at 2000-odd miles, he took fright.
I got my dad to take Bill, me and the disabled Commando back to the supplying dealer, A&A Cox of London Road, Grantham, in Dad’s Transit. Bill wasn’t complaining – he was far too nice and pragmatic a character for that. Instead, he espied a new Honda CB750 in the A&A Cox showroom bearing its price tag of £830 on the road and bought it there and then. It went well with my Suzuki GT550J of the same year.
I missed Bill, but he was enthusiastic when he landed a job on another newspaper in Middlesbrough and sold up. I knew he had successfully started Trials and Motocross News, now I know in conjunction with Pete, but knew no more until reading Pete’s article in OBM. I am sad to learn that Bill’s passed on, but he reached a good age and, to me, he’ll always be that characterful big guy with a flamboyant and exuberant riding style on the snarling Commando.
Dr. Nigel Stennett-Cox, North Walsham, Norfolk PS. Good to see my friends George and Steve Harmer, of the Motorcycle Museum in this town, in print. Steve is a very versatile, methodical and competent mechanic. He fixed a complicated electronics issue on my Direct Bikes Chinese scooter recently when neither I nor anyone else knew where to start! The importers and distributors were useless and the unmarked two-year-old bike came close to a one-way trip to the scrapyard.