Oddball engines and prototypes

[WilDun]

Who were the rest come own does anyone remember I don't.
I remember one riding an Aprilia 125

PS I also know the stuff Joey did for charity.
I also know he liked a beer. Plus a fag and his family
He was also far beyond good on a bike
I have a TT programme here somewhere I think came from them.

Well those guys were loose at a time when I had more or less given up being interested in bikes and being quite a bit younger than me, I wasn't really familiar with their names.
Guess you probably met Joey when he was out here with all the guys from Ireland, (not just Ulstermen! )
I spoke to him briefly but it wasn't all that easy to strike up a conversation with him, (thought maybe it was me), but no, that was just Joey, a quiet guy! - almost a 'god' over there.

I have lived almost fifty years in new Zealand but I grew up about 15 kilometres away from Armoy where Joey & Robert grew up and just four or five kilometres from where Robert was killed in the NW 200.
I'm really a Kiwi now, but I still hung on to the accent (just as a keepsake). - the bike days were great there when we were 'kids', a lot of fun!

[J.A.W.]

Ol'Joey was pretty good on the long road circuits, but as I recall not the quickest on the shorter stuff..
He didn't do much winning, downunder - did he?

[WilDun]

Ol'Joey was pretty good on the long road circuits, but as I recall not the quickest on the shorter stuff..
He didn't do much winning, downunder - did he?

He didn't come downunder much, so that might be the reason, and I guess when he did come it was for a break,(eg. a beer and a fag with Husa) - he was a road race specialist, Stoner didn't win a lot at the TT either! - can't compare Apples with Oranges - eh! - how about Cam Donald?

Both excellent at what they did though, I had a lot of respect for Stoner's ability, but maybe he got out at the right time, no such luck for Joey.

[J.A.W.]

He didn't come downunder much, so that might be the reason, and I guess when he did come it was for a break,(eg. a beer and a fag with Husa) - he was a road race specialist, Stoner didn't win a lot at the TT either! - can't compare Apples with Oranges - eh! - how about Cam Donald?

Both excellent at what they did though, I had a lot of respect for Stoner's ability, but maybe he got out at the right time, no such luck for Joey.

Doubt that KC ever tried racing at the I.o.M. TT.. Croz won there though.. Did Joey ever win a G.P.?

[Grumph]

Well those guys were loose at a time when I had more or less given up being interested in bikes and being quite a bit younger than me, I wasn't really familiar with their names.
Guess you probably met Joey when he was out here with all the guys from Ireland, (not just Ulstermen! )
I spoke to him briefly but it wasn't all that easy to strike up a conversation with him, (thought maybe it was me), but no, that was just Joey, a quiet guy! - almost a 'god' over there.

I have lived almost fifty years in new Zealand but I grew up about 15 kilometres away from Armoy where Joey & Robert grew up and just four or five kilometres from where Robert was killed in the NW 200.
I'm really a Kiwi now, but I still hung on to the accent (just as a keepsake). - the bike days were great there when we were 'kids', a lot of fun!

Can't remember who the others were in the "Irish" team. They ran at the Brighton street meeting here. Local mark taylor who had ridden my F3 Kawa had broken his TZ so we hauled the 500 Kawa out of the shed, converted it to petrol and he ran against the Irish. 4ths and 5ths against Joey RS250 and Hepburn GSXR1100...and a flock of Irish ridden TZ's. One of the support mechanics was a guy Kirby who had run Hondas in the IOM in F2 and F3. Had a long yarn with him.
There's a guy 50m down the road from me who went to school with Joey's next older brother...If you've heard Joey talk you know just what he sounds like...

[WilDun]

Doubt that KC ever tried racing at the I.o.M. TT.. Croz won there though.. Did Joey ever win a G.P.?

I remember Croz stunned us all at the Wanganui cemetry circuit when he beat some of the new Yam TR3's, riding a T350 Suzuki ! - Seems he was well loved by the Italians when he rode for Ago.
No, I don't remember Joey ever winning on the track, and I doubt if he ever claimed to be a winner of anything at any time. road racing was his passion and the only people he ever pissed off was probably Honda, - at the beginning, they hadn't realised that he couldn't be manipulated (like everybody else) but they gradually had to give in! - a unique guy.

He regularly won the Ulster gp.

[WilDun]

There's a guy 50m down the road from me who went to school with Joey's next older brother...If you've heard Joey talk you know just what he sounds like...

Yes, can't ask you his name here of course, but that's the same accent as I have, however some people tell me it's 50% Kiwi now!

[husaberg]

Doubt that KC ever tried racing at the I.o.M. TT.. Croz won there though.. Did Joey ever win a G.P.?

From memory Joey won the world TT series pre superbike but more modified I think foggy won it as well before on going to superbikes. (edit might have been endurance for foggy)
The NZer that everyone forgets won one as well I think (TTF2) Des Barry on a TZ350

[Frits Overmars]

Frits was most famous here for his Vincent frames.

Was I ? While most people here finally get my first name right, spelling it with an S at the end, you are robbing Swiss Fritz Egli of his German-style final Z.

As I recall, The late Dr. Gordon Blair's QUB 500 racer had a spine frame too (as ridden by Ray McCulloch).
Then there was the Linto? (2xAermacchi 250 engines combined).

The QUB 250-twin was hung from a spine tube (the only spine-based Seeley frame I know of) while the QUB 500 was fitted in a more usual Seeley frame.
The rotary drum-valve QUB 250 was one of the most unsuccessful bikes ever, well over 10 hp down on the contemporary rotary disc-valve MZ 250.
The simple air-cooled piston-ported QUB 500 single on the other hand was quite successful, beating the Nortons at power, weight and handling.
The Linto had a multi-tubular frame, no spine.

[husaberg]

Was I ? While most people here finally get my first name right, spelling it with an S at the end, you are robbing Swiss Fritz Egli of his German-style final Z.

Right you are I am that used to doing it now I don't even notice.
Do the swiss have any road racing now or is it still banned along with running washing machines after 8 clock.
I remember they only had hill climbs.

First space frame I can remember was a 1920's or 30's Francis Barnett.
Their slogan was built like a bridge because it was bolted together like a bailey bridge trellis

[Frits Overmars]

Who were the rest come own does anyone remember I don't.

Does Jeremy McWilliams ring a bell?

Right you are I am that used to doing it now I don't even notice.

Keep up the good work. I won't tell Fritz Egli.

Do the swiss have any road racing now or is it still banned along with running washing machines after 8 clock. I remember they only had hill climbs.

I never knew about the hill climbs, but road racing is still 'verboten!' over there (I'm spending most of my time in Germany now and it seems that if you wish to fit in, you have to put at least three exclamation marks after every German word you write).

[husaberg]

Does Jeremy McWilliams ring a bell?

Can't remember his Curly head
Was he one of them though?
What does he do now he used to ride for the QUB sponsor bike before going back to 250 and then on to Aprilia.
Bloody underrated rider glad when he finally had a bike that could win a race on and won one or was it just a pole at aussie that year?

[WilDun]

The QUB 250-twin was hung from a spine tube (the only spine-based Seeley frame I know of) while the QUB 500 was fitted in a more usual Seeley frame.
The rotary drum-valve QUB 250 was one of the most unsuccessful bikes ever, well over 10 hp down on the contemporary rotary disc-valve MZ 250.
The simple air-cooled piston-ported QUB 500 single on the other hand was quite successful, beating the Nortons at power, weight and handling.
The Linto had a multi-tubular frame, no spine.

That clears up a few misconceptions I had! I hadn't realised that the 250cc QUB was not really up to scratch, but I guess he had quite a lot of failures like everybody else.

I particularly like the Linto, a very good looking machine - and that space frame! However i don't remember it winning any significant victories. Was it the Linto that suffered bad vibration problems? .... or was it the Harley Davidson two stroke version (ie when they bought out Aermacchi)

And I've found at least some of the Ernst Degner story, - talk about intrigue! much more involved than it would have seemed, unbelievable what those people had to put up with and the lengths the authorities went to in order to prevent them escaping, what were they trying to acheive anyway? - what were they thinking?

BTW. I remember there was another guy in Switzerland who made six speed gearboxes for Manx Nortons in the sixties/early seventies - Schafleitner I believe it was (might've been another Fritz too!).

[husaberg]

That clears up a few misconceptions I had! I hadn't realised that the 250cc QUB was not really up to scratch, but I guess he had quite a lot of failures like everybody else.

I particularly like the Linto, a very good looking machine - and that space frame! However i don't remember it winning any significant victories.

And I've found at least some of the Ernst Degner story, - talk about intrigue! much more involved than it would have seemed, unbelievable what those people had to put up with and the lengths the authorities went to in order to prevent them escaping, what were they trying to acheive anyway? - what were they thinking?

The linto was very competitive and cheap when it appeared it was alas extremely fragile mainly I thing due to it ability to rev bloody high it did have some very good results. but plenty of failures along with it.
It appeared to late as by that stage the two stokes were getting a foothold and there was no need for a Manx /G50 replacement esp a fagile one.

[Frits Overmars]

I remember there was another guy in Switzerland who made six speed gearboxes for Manx Nortons in the sixties/early seventies - Schafleitner I believe it was (might've been another Fritz too!).

That was Michael Schaftleitner. He made gearboxes for just about everybody; was pretty good at crankshafts too.