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From some of the scrapbook filled with cuttings from the several UK motorcycle magazines, "The MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling" that I have collected...done as a labour of love by motorcycle enthusiasts pre WW2.... I've selected to feature the layout of some of the racing circuits in Europe that riders and machines that often grace these pages competed at.....
They are not in any order.....
I've featured some of the pictures that accompany them in the scrapbook...the quality is poor, despite my scanner being able to get a reasonably viewable item.
More of a curiosity, but some history that needs to be shared with others....
Left click on the images to enlarge them....
The French Grand Prix at the Dieppe circuit...
One of my scrapbooks from the 1930's...owner and creator unknown......
The German Grand Prix from 1936....
The Italian Grand Prix at Monza, 1936...
The Spanish Grand Prix at Bilbao in 1936...
This is the second part of "The Manufacturer who rode his bikes" and follows directly on from the first, part 1....IN THE BLOG BELOW THIS...yes I stuffed up setting the order of the two blogs up and can't seem to change their order....
Again left click on the images to enlarge them and to read the text....
Bertie's daughter Anne Frampton moved to Sydney, Australia and I was able to meet up with him while he was here on a visit to Anne as I had previously had corresponded with him.
Anne is the current Australian Velocette Owners Club Patron, something the members are very proud of...having a member of "the Goodman family" in the Club.
Anne donated an annual award..."The B.J. Goodman Memorial Prize" and is seen presenting the 2010 award to Stuart Hooper for his record breaking efforts...
The award...
Anne with husband Norbert at a Velocette Show day at Fagan Park in 2007 on the northern outskirts of Sydney. She is on Peter Wolfenden's 1948 MSS Velocette.
Bertie had a road racing career following WW2 in the late 1940s...
On the starting line of the 1949 Ulster Grand Prix....
During the 1949 UGP....
During 1960 following talks with their French agents and L.Stevens and Geoff Dodkin, Bertie set the wheels in motion for an attempt on Velocette being the first motorcycle to achieve better than 100mph average for 24 hours. A relatively standard 498cc Venom Clubman engine was assembled in June 1960 and numerous laps were put in at the M.I.R.A test facility at Nuneaton in the UK.
The engine did over 1400 miles in testing and was not disassembled until the record was succesfully "in the bag"....that meant over 1400 miles testing and 2400 miles of record all at over the "100mph" mark.
BJG spent many of the test laps on the bike at MIRA.
Somewhere on the back straight at Montlery...
Bertie and one of the co-riders in the successful 1961 24hr attempt, Georges Monneret shake hands after the successful attempt.
Bertie sets off on a Velocette Vogue , again to Montlery for the abortive attempt with a 350 Viper Clubman on the 24hr record in 1963...
During the unsuccessful 24hr record attempt using a 350 Velocette Clubman at Circuit du Linas, Montlery, 18-19 March 1961, Bertie pushes off for a stint...
The bike is incorrectly labelled as the 500 attempt in text under the photo, but the fairing on the 500 had no writing on the sides of the fairing, only the 350 did, as is visible in the photo...
Bertie and a customer taking delivery of a new Velocette Clubman...
Following Bertie death in 1996, again MCS ran an item on him...
"Bertram John- 'Bertie'- Goodman 1919-1996"
Read through the following pages for a more in depth view of Bertie's life...
Bertie with wife Maureen, 4th from the left and likely the Denly's ( Ethyl Denly, nee Goodman, next to BJG, was Bertie's aunt..).
Finally, getting down to it...BJG testing the new Velocette designed telescopic front fork fitted to a KTT special...H'mmm...
Bertram John-"Bertie"-Goodman
1919-1996
"The Manufacturer who rode his bikes"....
Bertie Goodman,of the Goodman family, whose grandfather started Veloce Ltd in 1905 which produced Velocette motorcycles up until their closure in February 1971....known also as BJG, he was the last managing director of the company.....
This photo illustrates the story perfectly...BJG looks longingly on as he prepares to ride the KTT...
This is only a tantalising glimpse of a figure who formed part of the once great British motorcycle industry......
Several articles were written on BJG , both in "Motorcycle Sport" the UK monthly ( now trading as "Motorcycle Sport and Leisure"..)...we'll look at them both as I've scanned the pages and there will be no further comment from me, other than to label the various photographs I intend to illustrate the blog with.
Due to the size of the text, this will carry through two Blogs, so following this, read on to the following part 2....
Left click on the illustrations to enlarge them and so read the story....
The first of which came from C.E. "Titch" Allen's "Velocette Saga", originally published over 16 months from Jan.1969 to April 1970.
I realise "Titch" published this as a book titled "The Velocette Saga", but the photo quality in the magazine article is far superior....worth chasing down the copies....so often the original photos are not available in the second printing and the copies taken from the first article are inferior in quality etc...
The section we are interested in was titled "Talking with Bertie Goodman" and it featured in MCS, Feb. 1970 pages 68-76.
Read on.....
Continue on to the previous blog for part 2......
