Biking the way it used to be [Archive]

T.W.R

7th July 2006, 23:35

Choice - strange place to move the tool box on the Tiger 100,it was a nice fit between the rear frame rails.A B32/34 in scrambles trim (19in rear,21in front) The Tiger 100 a bit more stripped down....and the 7R would of been anexpensive bit of kit - he must of been serious about it.

The Beeza was a bit of a toy, his mate & almost brother inlaw raced scrambles & trials & got him into it, Evan won the NZ trials Champs a few times in the 50s on a 500 goldie

He had three or four Tiger 100s over the years, plus heaps of other bikes.
learnt to ride on a WLA Harley when he was 15 or so.
He raced two of the Tigers & the 7R in roadraces & on the track & did a few speed events as well, had a 3TA Triumph set up for off road/trials etc.

The 7R had been raced at the IOM & dad brought it off the bloke when it came to NZ, he sold it in 1967 for $200 and through a friend of his heard about it being for sale in Dunedin in the mid 80s for $10000.

He was real passionate about bikes he ended up with a YDS3 yamaha in the early 70s. Then in the early 80s started restoring brit bikes & collecting, had a GP Triumph, M50 Norton, couple of B31s, 3 Bantams : D1, D7 Delux, & a Bushman. (still got the D1 in the shed :yes: )

Smokin

8th July 2006, 09:28

Looks like he had a real passion for bikes mate, some mighty fine pics you have there. :yes:

8th July 2006, 09:58

Brilliant photos TWR. Your Dad looks like a cool bloke. He would have put the Fonz to shame. Like those heavy leather jackets, like WWII fighter jackets.
Thanks for sharing.

oldguy

8th July 2006, 10:15

Nice pic,s, good to see them old photo's, love the o'l bikes,

Macktheknife

8th July 2006, 10:19

Wow, what a selection, thanks for sharing TWR. T100 mmmm
He sounds like he would have been a great guy to know too, much fun had by you in earlier years we assume?

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 10:20

Cheers people:yes: He loved bikes & loved life, knew some clever & interesting people.
Got me into bikes just prior to my 10th B/day

Troll

8th July 2006, 10:20

Dug up some pics of the old man & few of the bikes he'd had.

Some real classics that would be a luxury to have sitting in the garage now :yes:

if the old bikes are so great why don't you put your money on the line and sell your kwaka and buy lots of old british bikes and enjoy biking as it used to be, oil leaks joe lucas electrics etc etc etc

Riff Raff

8th July 2006, 10:23

Awesome pics. Love the post race at New Brighton pic with everyone standing around your dad and his bike. They all look so proud.

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 10:24

He sounds like he would have been a great guy to know too, much fun had by you in earlier years we assume?

Had plenty of great times as a kid & teenager learning things & roaring around the countryside on bikes he'd rebuilt. I lost him when I was 20 but that's how life goes suppose He definately fuelled the motorcycling bug into my veins :yes:

Smokin

8th July 2006, 10:27

Damn, looks like that AJS was made for a mission. :blip:

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 10:29

if the old bikes are so great why don't you put your money on the line and sell your kwaka and buy lots of old british bikes and enjoy biking as it used to be, oil leaks joe lucas electrics etc etc etc

mmmm nah :shutup: The ZXR is my play thing :yes: & been through the realms of living with 80s era italian bikes so don't want to head into the darkness of constant maintenance again.

Still got a D1 Bantam in the shed though If I was going to get a classic brit bike again it would be a T150 Trident nothing else

Motu

8th July 2006, 10:37

if the old bikes are so great why don't you put your money on the line and sell your kwaka and buy lots of old british bikes and enjoy biking as it used to be, oil leaks joe lucas electrics etc etc etc

When I rode those sort of bikes my money was on the line! They were cheap,and gave a lot of fun for the buck.We learnt how to ride,we learnt how to work on and fix our bikes.....and we also hunted for performance parts to experiment with,I reckon that was the best part.Like scoring some Amal GP carbs and fitting them to your road bike....or the Wal Phillips Fuel Injector.I'm glad I didn't borrow money from my mother and put a deposit on a brand new Japanese bike - my life has been so much richer for it.

Troll

8th July 2006, 10:37

again.

Still got a D1 Bantam in the shed though If I was going to get a classic brit bike again it would be a T150 Trident nothing else

T150 trident nice, T160 a lot better though

quadrent prototype in national motorcycle museum real nice though

an ecentric in pomgolia built his own quadrent out of a T160 have seen it in the flesh and it was real nice

Goblin

8th July 2006, 11:08

Awesome pics. Love the post race at New Brighton pic with everyone standing around your dad and his bike. They all look so proud.
I love the old pics too!! You beat me to it.....love how proud everyone looks. Must have been a great way to grow up.

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 11:42

T150 trident nice, T160 a lot better though

quadrent prototype in national motorcycle museum real nice though

an ecentric in pomgolia built his own quadrent out of a T160 have seen it in the flesh and it was real nice

Yeah I've got a soft spot for triples, had three in years gone bye 750 & 850 Yamahas & a 1200 Laverda. But a trumpy is pretty special. A there's nothing like a big Triple on song :rockon:

Have got pictures of the Quadrant & an article on a bloke in OZ that made one from two T120 bonnies.

Ha Riff Raff & Goblin lols yeah pretty sure he did pretty well that day, lols it was way before my time, but still got to enjoy some awesome experiences though.

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 12:21

Damn, looks like that AJS was made for a mission. :blip:

haha yeah, the sound would have been glorious with the megaphone. but those were the days of roadracing on shingle roads, Cust Grandprix & Halswell 100 etc

Unit

8th July 2006, 12:29

I used to get around town on a 1927 AJS 350 single years ago. Was a way cool bike I didnt truly appreciate till years later, when it was long gone. It was perfectly restored by an old guy who had worked in the Matchless factory in England. If a part was missing, he would make the case for it and did it all from memory.

diggydog

8th July 2006, 12:50

He was real passionate about bikes he ended up with a YDS3 yamaha in the early 70s. Then in the early 80s started restoring brit bikes & collecting, had a GP Triumph, M50 Norton, couple of B31s, 3 Bantams : D1, D7 Delux, & a Bushman. (still got the D1 in the shed )
THIS BRINGS BACK MEMORIES WITH MY DAD, HE SO MANY OLD BIKES MUCH THE SAME AS YOUR DAD, SO MANY TRIUMPH'S OR BSA AND NORTON, TO MENTION AS WELL BMW, HONDA ,SUZUKI.
I HAV'NT ANY PIC BUT I WELL SEE IF HE CAN GIVE US A COUPLE AND I'LL PUT THEM UP ON SITE.
CHEERS T.W.R:scooter: :scooter: :bye:

Kickaha

8th July 2006, 14:04

I'll add some pics from around the same era, My Father also raced at Brighton and Tahuna beaches on his 650 Gold Flash

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 14:10

I'll add some pics from around the same era, My Father also raced at Brighton and Tahuna beaches on his 650 Gold Flash

Some good pics there Kickaha :yes: our olds probably knew eachother more than likely, almost a big extended family back in those days

few more pics
1) another Tiger 100
2) dad's mate racing a Bantam
3) line-up at Cust
4) fixing a B31

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 14:14

and a couple more

1) a weekend away shooting
2) My Aunt & her mate on their bikes
3) Roadside cop station
4) Dad on his workbike during the late 60s

Kickaha

8th July 2006, 14:31

Unfortunately my fathers car was broken into some time back in the 70's, just about all his photos and memorabilia of those times was stolen, I'll try and dig out some more

Hopefully he'll be back on the road agin soon on a fully restored 1959 BSA A10 Gold Flash

Goblin

8th July 2006, 16:01

Those are all awesome pic guys...I can almost feel the pride! The smiles on everyones faces tells the story of "Good Times" :yes:

Kickaha

8th July 2006, 17:50

A few more I found, no idea when where or who though except for the first one which is Dad on his BSA

Riff Raff

8th July 2006, 18:02

the first one which is Dad on his BSA
Love the mittens! lol

Motu

8th July 2006, 18:16

98tls

8th July 2006, 18:25

My old man restored an old 650ss norton years back that started its life here as a cop bike way back..some outfit in ch-ch used to lease them out to the ministry of transport or whatever it was called back then,a bloke turned up at his place a few years ago from auckland wanting to buy it...the old boy was reluctant to sell but when the guy said it was to go to some museum in auckland he thought what the hell at least it would stay tidy and provide people with a link to the past.

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 19:09

Yeah when my oldman was in the ChCh city council MOT they had a mix of BSA twins (think 650 lightning) Matchless twins, couple of Nortons & triumph Saints (which apparently were real pigs of things & none of the cops liked them).
The BSAs, Nortons, & Matchless were used more in out of town application & the Triumphs were used more around town.

here's an old paper cutting from the ChCh press when the City council got allocated bikes

8th July 2006, 23:25

This was taken circa 1963. It's my Uncle's bike who's standing over it watching my older brother bashing it and me with the ball.
Uncle was a bike cop but I doubt that was his 'work' bike. Somewhere I have a much better close up of the bike with my bro and me sitting on it. Try and find it tomorrow. This is the first time I've used the scanner for a photo, comes out OK.

Edit: found another picture. it's an Ariel ..something

T.W.R

8th July 2006, 23:50

Edit: found another picture. it's an Ariel ..something

Looks like it may be either a 350 or 500 Red Hunter :yes: pretty damn good bikes

Drum

9th July 2006, 00:57

Those pictures are awesome and capture a time long since gone.

We cant relive the past, but I'd like to think we can keep the spirit of those guys (and gals if ther were any) alive, and this website is one of the modern ways of doing so. Lets get more of these heritage photos posted I say!!

sugilite

9th July 2006, 12:03

Thanks for posting those TWR
The 4 th one along with the group behind is a truly priceless gift.:yes:

Paul in NZ

10th July 2006, 08:29

Looks like it may be either a 350 or 500 Red Hunter :yes: pretty damn good bikes

Looks like an early 50's model but too hard to tell if it's a 350 or 500. Red Hunters were quite rare so it could just be a plain old 'cooking' model but still very nice bikes.

Paul in NZ

10th July 2006, 08:40

Great photos guys,they are real treasures....I have nothing like that.My father used to develope his own photos,but they are just of silly boats.

It's interesting to see so many BSA twins in there,I didn't think they were so popular - it has been a great media hoodwink to make the public think the Triumph Twin was the bike of the '50's and 60's.My foreman when I was an apprentice used to say they never rode Triumphs,they were considered cheap and nasty....and were the Cop bike too.They prefered something better and faster.

Yes but the twins you see are all pre units. I don't think there is much doubt that the pre unit BSA's were probably the best bikes made in the 50's and that there were lots of them about. Generally they had a much better frme than the triumphs (and as good as Nortons Featherbed IMHO) and were pretty robust. In my own experience, by the 70's in ChCh they were getting harder to find though. Once they got old they all seemed to disappear but the early semi unit A10 / A7's were still plentiful but not popular. Of my mates that owned them, both blew motors by fracturing the thin cylinder base at the rear of the block (probably never checked the base nuts for tightness) and eventually gave up on them as bits got harder and harder to find. My own A7SS was a bloody good bike but not for me (kept falling off it).

Triumphs were easier to get parts for however but pre unit 650 stuff was always a lot harder to find than 5T stuff and IMHO the 5T was a nicer bike.

The critical difference was that the unit construction Triumph's were a better bike than the unit BSA's at first. Eventually BSA sorted it all out but they since they were all made by the same group I often wondered if the BSA was aimed at the more 'utillitarian' rider while the Triumph was aimed squarely at the yanks with wilder colours and flasher styling?

The lack of a decent timing side bearing never helped either as I suppose it made rebuilding harder?

Oh well - either way, happy days!

Paul N

Motu

10th July 2006, 09:46

The plain timing side bush was the curse of the BSA,and they kept it right to the very end with the A65.Crazy,when they made the Triumph 650 unit construction all they did was put the same components into unit cases,but the A65 was a complete redesign with all the faults of the A10 rectified...and still the bush timing side bearing.The barrels ripping off at the flange went right through all models too - I remember a 1972 Lightning with the top end ripped off and the barrel flange still on the cases.When getting parts for an A10 you always looked for a ''thick flange'' barrel - early ones were only 3/8,later ones 1/2in,but I think there were other sizes too.

So the A10 (and A7) were limited in performance modifications by the bush and barrel flange - you just couldn't run them with high compression.But also the cast in single carb manifold was very limiting.Twin carb heads were very,very rare,only on the Rocket Gold Star I think,even the later alloy heads were still a cast in single manifold.If you couldn't get a Bonnie head for your Triumph,you could make your own twin carb manifolds for the Trophy head.Nortons were even easier - the head ports were carb flange size,all you did was bolt on extentions.

The early semi unit A10 with plunger frame seemed to be more common than early sprung hub Triumphs,but by the mid fifties Triumph seemed to gain ground,the duplex BSA framed A10 was not as common.I had a swing arm BSA for many years,they handled great,almost as good as a featherbed,but over a wider range of conditions (not many featherbed scramblers) The A10 always ran sweet,had a nice idle and more bottom end grunt than a Triumph.

T.W.R

10th July 2006, 14:14

Think a lot of it boiled down to what you could afford back then. Dad said he always wanted a Norton but they were just that bit more expensive to get, thats why when the M50 came up he nabbed it, he clocked up plenty of miles on it.
here's a few more pics

Motu

10th July 2006, 14:57

Wow,real scrambles,just layed out on a farm.We used to go to them with our father,and when we were teenagers my brother and I would go to scrambles.Even in the early '70's they had them on Mangere Mountain,and a little further away at Ihumato,in the '80's I used to ride trials at the same farm in Ihumato.

Check out the bike in my avatar,those guys could only dream of owning a 1964 Rickman Metisse - one dream I was able to fulfill.

Actualy it's possible that bike going through the puddle is a Rickman,that is a Rickman front guard - but Rickman's also had a fibreglass tail piece,where that bike just has a plain guard.And the high left pipe was Rickman too,most triumph scramblers just ran them both down one side.

T.W.R

10th July 2006, 16:55

Thought you'd enjoy those pics Motu, I'd noticed the Metisse a while ago, plus that hybrid thing in the wideline Featherbed frame also. Pretty sure that photo is a Rickman, there's actually a couple in those pics

I've been keeping the size down on the photos but here's a larger shot of the Rickman plus a couple of a Victor & possibly another rickman & the victor.

Think those pictures were taken at Ogg's Farm out behind Halswell on the outskirts of ChCh either there or over at Teddington or Stuart's Gully.

The Triumph Trophy Sport TR6 had the twin highpipes, the T100c had 2-1 highpipe, Bonneville TT spec had twin stumpys.

Motu

10th July 2006, 17:39

Actuly we are looking at two very similar bikes there - No 2,and No 3.They have different coloured front guards and different front brakes,No2 has an alloy tank,possibly a Cheney?.Pudding basins would put it too early for a Cheney....but pudding basins were used up to the early '70's,so it is possible.

Would you believe I also had a Cheney as well as the Rickman? Like letting the Crown Jewels slip through your hands.....

T.W.R

10th July 2006, 17:51

Things we do huh :wait: be nice to have kept all the machines we'd ever had, but time & place dictates what we do.

At that time weren't Rickmans sold just as a rolling chassis kit that the owner fitted the engine of their choice ? you brought the chassis & purchased the appropriate engine mounting kit?

Motu

10th July 2006, 18:01

Yes,and you still can! If I had the money,that's the dream bike I would get.You could fit practicaly anything in the pre unit Rickman - but both my Cheney and Rickman were made for the unit 500 Triumph,I think they only had a front engine plate...rear and lower engine mounts were already welded in place,they were made specificaly for those motors,although I suspect the same frame was used for B40,B44,B50,and Rickman's own 500 BSA conversion.I loved it with the T100C (Daytona) motor - it was pretty close to a what a modern single performs like....instant punch off the bottom,but really able to rev as well.They made max HP at 7500rpm,but they would rev to 10,500rpm no worries - so you just kept them nailed and changed gear when you had the time....

T.W.R

10th July 2006, 18:23

Not sure if I'd want to take something like that off road these days, but it would be bloody nice to have for special occasions though.

Something like this pic would be a treat to have :yes: a road version snapped this at a one off attempted bi-annual Roadrace meeting at New Brighton ChCh back in the early 90s (shame it never got enough backing).

Kickaha

10th July 2006, 19:13

at a one off attempted bi-annual Roadrace meeting at New Brighton ChCh back in the early 90s (shame it never got enough backing).

I thought they ran it twice?

It had the backing

It also had

Joey Dunlop:niceone:

whinging residents who didn't like the noise and filty dirty bikies once a year

fuckwits crossing the track mid race

Michael? Tall sticking his bike through a fence and just about a house :lol:

T.W.R

10th July 2006, 19:25

I thought they ran it twice?

It had the backing

It also had

Joey Dunlop:niceone:

whinging residents who didn't like the noise and filty dirty bikies once a year

fuckwits crossing the track mid race

Michael? Tall sticking his bike through a fence and just about a house :lol:

Couldn't remember exactly, but it would have been bloody good if it had kept going :yes:

Remember those peanut brains crossing the track :angry: and twits swarming to the edge of the track to see the Britten do it's thing.

remember something about the city council declining permission because of residents.

same thing with the circuit racing that was held around Sydenham as well in the 80s bloody shame it never continued

Motu

10th July 2006, 19:59

Not sure if I'd want to take something like that off road these days, but it would be bloody nice to have for special occasions though.

I'd use it the same as I used my one back then,and use my bikes for these days - gravel and twisty seal.I used to take it off road,and drag it up and down hills and bogs,hard work.But what I really liked to do was hit a loamy paddock and do some monster slides,it was just a natural for full lock slides.Also long low jumps...land on the rear wheel and power stand until I came to a fence.It was an obselete motocross bike when I had it,there was no way you could compete in anything but beach racing with it.That's why I made it into a road bike.