John Shirt Jnr – Gas Gas
The Shirt family based at Buxton in Derbyshire were the Gas Gas pioneers who put the Gas into Gas Gas in the UK nearly thirty years ago. Based on a hard working ethic from the early days of the air cooled machines through to winning all the major competitions with the water coolers, the family has witnessed it all. The business in Spain was a major player in the off-road world of Trials and Enduro. It has seen a spectacular fall from grace with the termination of machine production announced earlier in 2015. It’s been a very tough year at the headquarters in Buxton but John Shirt Jnr believes he can put the Gas back into the brand along with its new owners, Torrott, and the support of his staff.
Your family became involved with the Gas Gas brand in 1988
Yes, I remember the first Gas Gas machines arriving. I was riding Honda at the time in my first year out of schoolboys. I thought I was ready to take on the world and what a steep lesson, I had being miles off. In all honesty, the ex-Eddy Lejeune RTL four-stroke was used to a world class rider and that certainly wasn’t me.
The natural progression for me was to ride the new air cooled two-stroke Gas Gas. It was very easy to ride but very poor quality compared to a Yamaha. My dad worked his magic with ‘Piber’ — Joseph Pibernat one of the directors — at the factory and ironed out some early problems including twisting crankshafts, broken swinging arms etc. and just general poor build quality.
Were you competing then?
Yes, I rode the Gas Gas for the first time in the Manx 2 Day Trial in 1988 but I can’t remember my result. I did win it four times so I soon fell in love with both the island, the Palace Lido and my ‘Gasser’. I rode every weekend through a very important stage of my career on a completely new machine which was not as competitive as the ‘Screenart Betas’ of Crawford, Colley, Braybrook and Saunders. This was hard for me and I was often frustrated and
“I believe in racing and winning. For me winning is everything and sales should follow. If you are not prepared to go racing and win then you won’t
get the sales.”