特攻服好きの元ROCKER |
As for myself, I do not have a bike at present. I bought my first motor-bike in 1961. It was a Triumph 3T 350cc twin. Then in 1963 I bought a Triumph Tiger 110 650cc twin which I rode for many years. During the course of time I fitted 10.5:1 pistons, high lift camshafts, twin Amal Monobloc carbs & high-level pipes with reverse-cone megas. I got rid of the front nacelle & fitted a separate head-light, & clip-ons & set-backs. I also changed the wheel rims, mudguards, fuel tank etc. It looked quite a "cafe racer" by the time I had finished, but more importantly it was fast, handled well & was very reliable. I also had an Ariel VH Red Hunter 500cc single with a cut-down Watsonian "wobbly-wheel" sidecar attached which I used to carry my camping gear when we went on Biker Rallies etc. In the early sixties I bought a Lewis Leathers Super Bronx jacket which, over the years, became decorated with metal studs & cloth & metal badges (mostly of the motor-bike rallies & racing cicuits I went to regularly) plus, of course, our club emblem on the back. The club (or "gang" as others referred to us as) was the "Nottingham Aces", & our emblem was a large white Ace of Clubs sign painted (or cut out in Fablon & stuck on) on the back of our leather jackets. We were the biggest gang in Nottingham (there was also The Saints, The Dragons, The 41s, The Kona Bar .....I can't remember them all), membership was limoted to 50 bikers & you had to have a bike of 500cc or over to be even considered for membership, which was based on recommendation & acceptance - we didn't want rubbish riders & piddling little bikes in the gang. For a while in the late sixties I worked just south of London & during that time I joined the 59 Club with the Rev Bill Shergold.
The bike I'm afraid is long gone. It was stolen one night (high powerered Triumph engines had always been much in demand for Tritons & TriBSAs) & I never saw it again & I decided that biking was getting too hairy (I had several nasty crashes involving hospitalisation & was disqualified from driving 3 times by the courts for speeding & dangerous driving) & wife & babies came first. The Aces dwindled for the same reasons, gang members got killed in crashes, some ended up in prison, others got responsible jobs, others, like me, got married & settled down. I still kept an interest in biking & still went to the Isle of Man for TT Week, but it was never the same without a bike.
As I just said, I still keep an interest in the biking world & occasionally look enviously in the windows of the Honda / Triumph dealership just up the road from where I live. And I still have my 45-year-old Super Bronx Jacket stored somewhere in the attic, so you never know - maybe some day.