Just heard that Lloyd May of Kingsland Motorcycles has passed away. I certainly got the impression when he fixed the Yello Peril towards the end of last year that he was unwell. Very sad - he was one of those eccentric, no-bullshit characters and his bike shop was like going into a time warp to the 60s.
I don't know him but it is a shame to lose another old boy, i love those shops stacked full of crap....
My wife was a bit shocked to hear that - as a girl she found it one of the less scary bike shops to go to. It was one of the good old bike shops that just kept hanging around as the others dropped away,until finally it was the only one left. I used to look in the window,but never found it open in the last decade.
I was told last week that Lloyd had died. Apparently he didn't want a funeral.
I used to frequent KH in the early Honda owning days......and a few years ago looking for Peril and XR parts. I found the hand written receipts and cash only a novelty a few years back. AMCC had a write up: It is with much sadness that I must report the passing of Lloyd May. Lloyd was a past national champion, and owner of Kingsland Motorcycles. Lloyd was a top national level rider in the 60's and early 70's. He was a very good rider of the Manx Norton, AJS 7R, who switched to Yamaha machines at the same time as Trevor Discombe, with whom he had many a close battle. Lloyd was disadvantaged by the Japanese bikes because they were tiny, and Lloyd was tall and had difficulty fitting into the bike. He always looked as though he was perched on top of the bike. That did not slow him down though. He was also extremely fit and a party trick was to jump from behind a Kitchen chair, over the back of it and land on the seat. Like many of the top riders of the day (and now) he would load the car and trailer up and travel all over the country for a weekend’s racing. As those who will remember Lloyd, he was a true Gentleman. Wonder if he owned the premises.....the clear out would be interesting.
Yep he owned the lot. Just a few weeks ago I was urging John Boote to get in there and preserve the many Honda brochures - Lloyd had a rack of them from the 70s with dozens of each type. They go for 20 - 40 bucks each and John is an avid collector. He was trying to phone Lloyd but couldn't get him.... now I know why. He also had a warehouse underneath the building that was full of classic scooters a few years ago. All sorts of stuff according to a mate of my brothers who worked with Lloyd for quite a few years.
The guys that are sorting out the shop are some of his ex-mechanics so any parts will not lost and bound to get used
My hand written Lloyd invoice is now a piece of memorabilia that I'll be keeeping.
lots of Peril parts came from there as my mate was keen on the mechanic ( keen as in he did a good job) there called Warren who 'knew stuff" unlike us who knew " stuff all"
Warren is a great mechanic gave my GB a first birthday work over last year had all the bits etc really informative guy as well
Where is Warren these days...I haven't seen him since he straightened out my z1000 crank in 1986..... FYI....your seat man John has moved to 150 or 155 Stoddard road and there is no forwarding address ...I phoned him. Does he do a good job as I'm taking 'modern' seat in .
