I was looking for something tonight and came across this old photo which I took in 1967 at a round of the British National Scrambles Championships (no such thing as MX then, you young 'uns)
The photo is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the lack of safety gear is staggering.... no armour at all and a rugby type jersey isn't going to do much good in a collision with another bike or the ground. The second noteworthy thing is that the rider is Don Rickman on one of his early Rickman Matisse-framed Triumphs which spawned a whole raft of off-road and track bikes, also engouraging a heap of other world-class British frame-builders; some of whom are still in business today. Note the straight-through pipes - gorgeous noise.
Aye, the riders had to be bloody tough then!
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