The loss of a giant

OBM has just arrived and I see that Mike Worthington-Williams has passed away. I met him some 30odd years ago and corresponded with him occasionally when he was seeking information about motorcycles and related matters in the Birmingham area.

As the first chairman of the Greeves Riders' Association in 1983/4, a lot of my time was taken up in locating spares and manufacturers of spares for both Greeves bikes and Villiers engines for the newly-formed club and its members. The club had stands at all major shows and, with the arrival of the internet, we needed an IT-savvy person. This came in the form of the late Rob Thornton, who counted among his many close friends Malcolm Barber, of Bonham’s, and it was one day at Stafford, while talking to Malcolm, that I met Mike W-W. He was a real gentleman and of great assistance from day one. Mike was always very helpful and also grateful for any help that I could pass on to him, as I am one of that generation that started in the 1960s on British motorcycles, went on to Japanese/Italian machines in the boom of the 1970s and 1980s, and worked as a professional mechanic for a big multi-franchise dealer in Birmingham during those decades.

Often a snippet of information would allow Mike to fill in the details of an answer to his many OBM enquirers.

I always turned to his pages first upon receipt of OBM to see what was ‘emerging’, and I know that his aid in reregistering machines was invaluable to many.

You have voiced my feelings already, but I too am sad at the loss of this ‘giant’ in the classic motorcycling journalistic world. My condolences to the family. Peter Rotherham, Tamworth, Staffs