As I mentioned in the previous blog I did on my early motorcycling, I'm back from the USA where I Velocetted with friends but this year there was no banjo taken, something I quickly regretted.
However as I was about to fly out of Sydney came the news of the death of Bin Laden and I felt sure airport security would have become more difficult than before and carrying a banjo adds to the complication....
This didn't prove to be the case.
Again this blog is one featuring some early pics of my motorcycling, in no particular date order and something I'd like just like to share with you...
Left click on the images to enlarge....
My first powered two wheeler , bought in November 1962, was a 150 LD Lambretta motor scooter, but no photo exists of it...below is a scanned image of the type...
I started motorcycling with a 1958 Velocette MSS and Murphy sidecar, quickly discarded after I discovered I'm not really a sidecar rider....
I joined a local motorcycle club...the Eastern Suburbs MCC and entered events at the local Oran Park road racing circuit on the southern outskirts of Sydney.
Emboldened, I entered the big Easter road race meeting at the Bathurst Mt. Panorama circuit in western NSW with that year being the NSW TT meeting.
I had no other means of transport so it meant I rode the bike up there and back, a 300 mile trip, removing the non essential items and glassware to race.
As well my sister, Judith, came up with me pillion, although the cold weather at the time and our primitive motorcycle clothing meant she transferred to a friends car who was following while I shivered on...
I had entered two events...the unlimited B & C grade and the unlimited production machine race.
I was graded a C grade rider due to my lack of race experience.
I'd "fiddled" a little with the engine by fitting a set of M17/8 cams from a Venom Velocette, discovering you had to alter the crown shape of the piston, despite it being flat in the MSS with 6.75:1 compression ratio, to avoid valve to piston contact. And I'd fitted a 19 tooth gearbox sprocket, up one from standard. My meagre engineering knowledge at the time and lack of funds decided all this.
I was well placed in the production machine race..4th when enthusiasm saw me crash out...luckily with little damage to myself and the bike.
The unlimited B & C grade had a field of 190 riders...you read it right..and saw me finish 9th, just one place out of the prize money and a timed speed of 99mph over the flying 1/8th mile timed section on the 1.25 mile straight.
I came away from the meeting feeling pretty good with myself...
The photos below, show me in the pits and chasing a Triuph rider in the U/L B & C event.
The Blue "bib" was the usual Eastern Suburbs MCC riding colours...
Shortly after Bathurst I heard of a 1961 Velocette Venom with 400 miles on it for sale at a town some 300 miles north of Sydney.
We travelled up to view it and eventually I purchased it via hire purchase..the so called financial "drip feed" via a motorcycle firm in Sydney who secured it for me.
My best friend, Jim Day and I rode out to far western NSW on holiday in January 1965...boy was it hot..115 degrees in one town....the roads were earth in many places an the inevitable falls occurred.
Jim suffered a nasty puncture.
Damage to the headlight nacelle of my Venom confirms I'd take a fall on the sandy road.....
In March 1966 Jim and I rode with a friend, BSA mounted John Corven, to Ballarat in Victoria, some 500 miles, to the Southern Cross Rally where we saw our first Velocette Thruxtons....I determined to buy one and stumped up the deposit by selling my Venom and took delivery in Feb. 1967...
The photo shows the lineup of the Velocettes present with my Venom to the far left.
The two Velocette Venom Thruxtons that we saw...
More on my early motorcycling in a following blog.....
