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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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My latest trawl back through the unpublished bike pictures in the Archive will concentrate on street bikes and what came after them. First up are the street bikes proper. |
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This bike is not really a drag bike at all although it was clearly entered in the D Street class. It is, of course, the classic 1960's British 'Café Racer' with its clip on handlebars and swept back exhausts. When I was a teenager a bike like this was the real deal. Little did we know what would follow! |
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This is Terry Revill's street bike (or should that be bikes?) which he called Assassin. |
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Conquistador was a four cylinder (aren't they all?) Dresda Honda. |
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On the left is Chris Russell's 1000cc Piper Honda . . . |
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Pat Neal has kindly provided some information on this (apparent) 1000cc Suzuki street bike. It was Arthur O'Hare's machine which benefited from a 1287cc lump which resulted in mid to high ten second passes. Pat was responsible for the frame rake job and big top tube conversion. Other contributing factors were a 'magic' Manzano head and some really trick rear shocks which somehow managed to lock solid after tech inspection! |
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My thanks to Ade Mosely for telling me that the bike was ridden by Alan Jones and was called Speedy Tomato. |
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This very purposeful looking machine continues this trend. The rider is not known but the bike was called Bewitched and clearly had been built by Pip Highams at his Village Bike Shop. This picture was taken at Santa Pod on 22 April 1984. |
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Another bike pictured on 22 April was Street Demon, a Suzuki GSX 1100 street bike was ridden by Robert Durkin. |
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The final street bike picture is this V&M Racing team Suzuki Katana pictured at the Pod on 7 April 1985. |
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The street bikes were producing large amounts of power and it was inevitable that there was a desire to further exploit this if only the rules could be changed to permit more radical changes. Enter the Pro Street class which was the forerunner of today's Pro Stock motorcycles. |
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Chris Russell, who we saw on his street bike above, was one of the early entrants to the new class. |
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Mick Carter was another street bike rider who moved over the Pro Street and here are a couple of his machines which were powered by a 1077cc Kawasaki power plant and were sponsored, at least initially, by Hadleigh Custom. |
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The wheelie bars on Les Armes' Pro Street bike must have cramped his style somewhat but probably did wonders for his times. He was highly successful in this class, particularly after turbochargers were permitted, and I recall that after qualifying number one he would often whip off the wheelie bars and entertain the crowd with his very own exuberant riding style. |
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This is Pat Neal aboard his Pro Street motorcycle which featured a very trick lightweight frame. Pat built some very interesting drag racing machines, if you would like to learn more then click here. |
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Did I mention turbochargers earlier? |
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Stuart Fernside was another turbo fan and here are a couple of views of his very well presented machine. |
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Pip Higham was mentioned earlier and here are a selection of pictures of his Pro Street machines |
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The greatest exponent of the Pro Street/Pro Stock class of the period was, without doubt, Brian Johnson. |
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Brian moved up to Top Fuel Bike and he sold his bike on and it is pictured here in the hands of the new owner. |
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There are a quite a few pictures for which I have little or no details and they are all grouped together below. A lot of work went in to these machines and it is a shame not even to be able to credit the rider. |
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Left : this is Chris Stevens' Quicksilver powered by 1103cc of Kawasaki. 2 |
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3 4 |
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5 6 |
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Left : my thanks to Xavier Rincker from Holland for identifying this bike as Jean Freese's Kawasaki Pro Stock. |
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9 - French bike, picture taken at Santa Pod on 28 August 1983. Right : this is Paul Mayhew's Highway Hawk powered by a whopping 1385cc Kawaski. |
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11 - French bike, picture taken at the 3rd Transatlantic Bike Race held at Long Marston on 29 June 1984. |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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(First posted 17 August 2011) |
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