COMERFORDS
Many of you will surely remember Comerfords, the motorcycle shop on Portsmouth Road in Thames Ditton, but perhaps not remember just how influential it was in the early days of speedway. In 1929, Comerfords realised that speedway was about to be a huge success in Great Britain (in fact, it divined this long before JAP, the very manufacturer whose engines would dominate the sport for years, but who then felt speedway was a flash in the pan).
In combination with George Leslie Wallis – whose later achievements included the Ariel 3 – Comerfords produced the WallisComerford. It was very successful on the speedway track and then, in 1932, it was tweaked. The wheelbase was lengthened, the fork angle made more acute and flex built into the rear of the frame. This was the Comerford Special and it sold in hundreds. One of those who bought a Special was American Jack Milne who sold his service station, paid $300 for a Comerford-JAP and went racing. He did all right; in 1937 he became the first American to win a motorcycling world championship when he won the Speedway World Championship.
Production of the speedway bikes ceased with the onset of hostilities and, after the Second World War, Comerfords moved into the trials arena and was instrumental in preparing the Triumphs of the American team for the 1964 ISDT, the very team that included one Steve McQueen, who visited the Thames Ditton shop. Later, towards the end of the trials version of the Tiger Cub in 1967, Comerfords bought almost 50 Triumph Mountain Cubs and converted them to ‘works replica’ trials specification which were known as Comerford Cubs.