Anyone remember the Rhombus Imp ... there is a really good read at the link for the Burgess Hill & District MC ... an great pictures ! The Glory Days by Laurie Evans. Here is a taster .... Back in the early 60′s, prior to the mods and rockers era and very much to the extreme horror of my parents, I took to the road on two wheels with a power source; a motorcycle – well actually it was a scooter. I suppose like many mothers whose teenage sons get their hands on their first scooter or motorcycle they think and certainly hope that it will be short lived, but not for me. I have now been riding for over 50 years. I had several bikes in my teens and early twenties and would ride to Brands Hatch to watch the racing as often as I could afford; I was only earning £1.10 shillings a week as an apprentice mechanic. I used to love to go and watch all those early sixties racers battling it out on track together. It truly was incredible to watch. Names that immediately come to mind include Derek Minter, Dave Croxford, Dave Degens, Bill Ivy , Phil Read and of course the late great Mike Hailwood and the list goes on. brands-july-1970It was whilst attending those meetings at Brands that my appetite for racing initially blossomed. At the age of 23 I bought my first race replica bike; today it would be referred to as a café racer. The engine was a Norton 600, bolted into a slim line featherbed frame. It had aluminium wheels, clip-ons, single seat with a racing hump; it looked the business. It was quick and it handled; Oh! did it handle? Well I thought so. After a couple of months the initial excitement of cruising around town and doing a bit of posing had worn off. It was then that I removed the engine and stripped it completely. I replaced the piston rings, honed the bores, refaced the valve seats and valves and polished the inlet and exhaust ports; well that’s what the boy racers did so that’s what I did. Once rebuilt the engine ran like a Swiss watch and sounded a dream. It was then that it occurred to me that I could take on the world with this bike. My mind was made up; I was going racing on this bike. There were no track days back then, but Brands did have what were called practice days. The idea was that racers could use the circuit to test their bikes and get them set up for future events. This was my opportunity. No need to book just turn up and pay for your session and off you go. No briefing, no marshals, no ambulances (there may have been a first aid box somewhere), no flags, no licence needed to be shown, no forms or disclaimers to sign, no tyre warmers or even the need to take it easy to get your tyres up to working temperature, just pay your money get on track and go for it. Not like that at track days today with all the “elf & safety” whatsit! Well here I am let loose on my first ever race track with a bike that’s going to beat the world, so let’s show them all. I did take it quite cautiously for a couple of laps, mainly to find out which way the tarmac went. Then thought, that’s enough of that, lets light this thing up. Around Paddock Hill bend and then up the hill towards Druids hairpin and hard on the brakes. Oh! my god I wasn’t slowing down quick enough and the hairpin was rushing towards me at what seemed like the speed of light ...... burgesshillmc/glory-days-laurie-evans/
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:50:48 +0000
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