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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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It's time for another delve through my
previously unpublished motorcycle pictures and this time the focus is on some of
the greatest home-grown riders. |
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. . . The Hobbit (well what else could you call it?). This is the bike as it originally appeared with the full fairing. The engines were upgraded to two Weslake parallel twins giving a total capacity of 1700cc. A slider clutch and two-speed transmission were used. |
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The Hobbit was one of the first UK bikes
to adopt the American preperence for rolling burn outs. This is John getting a
push back to the line at Blackbushe Aerodrome. |
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No little monkey bikes towing the fuel bikes around the pits in the 1970s obviously. |
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The exposure on this shot is not the best but you can get a better view of things with that fairing out of the way. |
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John and The Hobbit are back at Blackbushe
but the full fairing has given way to this dinky little number. |
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These pictures speak for themselves, even the small fairing has had the heave-ho. Why am I so obsessed with fairings? |
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The shot on the right was taken after John had retired and Jonny Munn took over the riding chores. |
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This is John's daughter Emma pictured sometime in the 1970s. |
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One of John Hobbs' greatest rivals was the team
of Derek Chinn and Ian Messenger who campaigned the immaculate double
Norton-powered Pegasus. |
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This was how the larger machines were started back in the 1970s - with rollers acting as a sort of stationery bump start. You needed a bloke to apply a bit of downforce to the rear tyre as you can see. |
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Paint jobs may have come and gone but one thing was always the same with Pegasus - absolutely fantastic presentation. You could have eaten your dinner off it except that would have made it dirty and that really wouldn't have done at all. |
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This is Mick Butler and his Super Cyclops
twin-engined machine. The engines were described as 'Mick Butler Specials' on
the programmes but I think they were based on Nortons. |
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Super Cyclops has had a bit of a makeover and now looks very trim. |
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The last picture I have of one of Mick's machines is this 996cc V-twin Weslake-powered machine. Keith Lee tells me that is not Mick pushing the bike but cannot offer an ID. Can anyone help? |
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Keith Parnell had the distinction of being
the first man to run in the eights which he did on the bike on the left which
he called Rouge et Noir. |
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Keith's son Lorcan has been in touch and confirms that the bike pictured above was the first to record an 8 second pass (8.93 in June 1975, backed up with an 8.94 later in the year). The bike was then sold to a Welsh chap to make way for the machine on the right which featured a Weslake 4 valve per cylinder top end and a wider rear tyre. Keith crashed the bike in 1976, re-built it and then temporarily retired from racing in 1977 when he moved to Cornwall. This bike ran a best of 9.2 and Keith still has it in his garage. |
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John Clift deservedly has a huge reputation as a chassis builder - well this next section shows you some of the bikes he learnt his craft on. All his bikes were called The Co-Respondent which indicates to me that Mrs Clift may not have been entirely supportive of her husband's hobby although apparently this was very far from the truth. |
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Ace chassis builder - yes, tidy trailer - no! That is the end of the John Clift photos. |
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The
final set of pictures on this page are of Brian Chapman's simply incredible
Mighty Mouse. |
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These three pictures show how the engine was
contained in the smallest possible frame and how Brian got himself tucked in on
the bike. |
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So, what do you do when you have squeezed
every single horsepower (and then some) out of a 500cc single? |
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And
here are both of these incredible machines together, Mighty Mouse on the left and Super Mouse on the
right. It's amazing how he still managed to make the 1000 so small. |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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