73 years of motorcycling and still going strong!
Few of us can boast a magnificent 73 years of motorcycling, but Colyn Thomas certainly can – and, despite recent adversity, he’s still on two wheels!
Like many of my generation, in the early days after the war I grew up with motorcycles and with the BSA Bantam in particular.
Although my father was a farmer, he was also a keen motorcyclist with various old motorcycles lying around the farm in outhouses and barns; machines like Levis, Calthorpe, James, Francis Barnett, and Royal Enfield Flying Fleas. Some were complete and others in parts. There was even a Model T Ford in one of the sheds, along with a full tool kit for it.
So my interest in motorcycles dates back to the late 1940s when, at seven years of age, my brother and I used to ride Dad’s old 125cc Model MD James with a 9D Villiers motor around the farm. In fact, it was less riding than attempting to get the engine running, and it says something for the motor that it would run at all on 22mm sparking plugs from the farm’s standard Fordson tractor or any old plug of the correct size!
And so my engineering experiences began. Girder forks, a rigid rear end, three speed hand change gearbox and twin exhaust may not have been the latest in technology, but it was fun.
Every Easter our parents would take me to Blue
Hills Mine near St Agnes, in Cornwall, to watch the popular London to Land’s End Trial, in which both the police and army entered teams. Six weeks later in the sporting calendar it was another visit to watch the End to End Trial from Bude at one end of Cornwall to Land’s End at the other.
This was a very demanding event and I recall very few lightweight machines being entered in this or the London to Land’s End.
By the mid-1950s I was an engineering apprentice earning £1 10s 4d per week and, with the help of my grandmother, I saved up £25 for my first bike, a 1950 D1 Bantam, which carried me as far as Scotland. Petrol with two-stroke oil in those days was 2s 9d per gallon (unlike most of us, I didn’t part with this machine until recently, although it had been stood in my garage since last used in 1969, when I fully restored it).
A start in trials
By this time, a large number of lightweight machines were competing in trials each weekend and I soon swelled the numbers by purchasing a 197cc Trials Norman from Clarke’s Motorcycles of Bude.
The bike was the very machine on which Mr
Clarke had competed in the London to Land’s End. After completely rebuilding the bike, I rode it in local events until disaster struck in the form of a broken headstock.
Taking note, I made sure that the next bike, a secondhand 197cc James Commando from Tom Wooldridge Motor Cycles of Launceston, came with a three-month warranty. I was delighted to see Tom Wooldridge watching me in the following week’s Launceston and District Trial, though when Tom came over, it was not to praise my riding skills but to let me know in a loud and somewhat gruff voice that the warranty did not cover competition use!
It was around that time that I became friendly with Brian Slee, a well-known trials and scrambles star in the area and a regular award winner. Brian’s father, Ben, took me under his wing, knowing I was struggling to ride in competition on my apprentice earnings of £1 10s 4d (£1.50 in new money).
I even started repairing motorcycles and building trials Bantams to raise extra money to sponsor my hobby.
My first project was a major engine rebuild on a 1956 D3 Bantam. But this work took up much of my time and it became a vicious circle – not enough money or not enough time.
Ben encouraged my riding and helped by passing on used chains and tyres which, while not up to Brian’s level of competition, were serviceable and quite adequate for use in club trials.
Unfortunately, I could not ride as often as required; money was still scarce and with college taking up three evenings and one full day per week, it was not possible to devote the time required to practice my riding skills.
However, I bought a new Greeves Scottish and did manage a few local trials and, like many other clubmen of the day, would ride the bike to a meeting, remove the lights and change the gearing by swopping a smaller engine sprocket. After competing, the bike would be restored to road trim and ridden home, much of the time on a dark and wet or icy road.
When girls came into the equation I inexplicably lost interest in trials, but
I do recall that marriage, purchasing the first house and bringing up a family left little money spare for competition motorcycling.
Despite this, my wife Marilyn and I maintained an interest by becoming regular observers and helpers at many local and national trials which we attended.
Time in Singapore
By the late 1960s I was working in Singapore and, with oil in my blood, became a member of the Singapore Motor Sports Club and the Forces Driving Club. Besides competing on a tiny 100cc Bridgestone, I spent many happy hours tuning racing cars and bikes for the Singapore and Malaysian Grand Prix.
Returning to Britain in the 1970s, I turned my hand to arranging and organising trials for the East Cornwall Motor Cycle Club, and was deeply involved with the late Frank Robins in staging motor cycle arena trials which generated considerable interest for the club at the Liskeard Agricultural Shows.
The bug for competing is not, however, easily shaken off, and in the 1980s I bought a 175cc Yamaha TY Trials bike which, while used in very few trials, was mainly a fun bike and eventually exchanged for a 200 Fantic (156cc).
Wonderful though these modern bikes are, I had a particular interest in pre-65
Villiers powered machines and the BSA Bantam. After purchasing a 1964 Greeves TFS, I undertook a full restoration of the bike and then followed it up with a Sprite, a brace of Cottons, two competition Bantams which my father had in his farm sheds, and a DOT that I purchased from Blackpool, which were featured in earlier editions of the DOT Owners Club and Greeves Owners Club Journals.
I was particularly proud that my restoration efforts were rewarded by winning the Best in Competition Class at the 1997 St Agnes Vintage Vehicle Rally.
Still a Fantic fanatic!
Although now retired and almost 80 years of age, I keep my motorcycling interest alive. During the summer months prior to the coronavirus, I could be seen with many of my machines at the vintage rallies around Devon and Cornwall, and I regularly ride with my son in the Plymouth Mega Rides on various machines, including one of my two Bantams
(now sold) and my Yamaha Serow, along with 8000 other motorcyclists in this huge run organised by the Plymouth and District Motor Cycle Club.
Being the retired Technical Officer for the BSA Bantam Club, I meet and speak to people from all over the world, down so far as South Africa and as far away as Australia, receiving frequent enquiries from club and non-club members for advice about their machines.
I write articles for the Bantam Banter, the club magazine, The British Two Stroke Club, and I have also written articles for many other motorcycle club magazines – for example, the Dot Owners Club, The Greeves Owners Club and the Royal Enfield Club as well as engineering journals.
Being knocked off my motorcycle by a hit-and--run driver and left in the road seriously injured last year, I have now downsized and sold a number of my motorcycles and spares, but I am currently rebuilding my Fantic 200.