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What a great paper OBM is. I look forward to its arrival on my doormat each month. It offers some wonderful insights into what we fringe motorcyclists love doing best: riding, tinkering and occasionally restoring: which brings me neatly on to that subject… I’ve been restoring a wonderful Velocette MAC for a few months now.…

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Regarding the front page photograph of Jim Sandford’s tyre repair in the 1971 ISDT on the Isle of Man. First the people from left to right, on bike number 999, is Ken Heanes, my friend Peter Thomas, then me (Keith Gush), the next is unknown, the next an East German observer, on his knees is…

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I was very interested to read in the May issue of OBM,, Steve Cooper’s article on the remarkable emergency development of the Kawasaki H1 500cc triple. Readers may be interested to recall that at the 1969 TT, an H1 was entered by Read Bros. in the Production Race, ridden by Tony Dunnell, one of the…

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I was reading the letters in the latest OBM and something stirred when I read the letter titled ‘Nothing’s new’. Rummaging through my old motorcycle mags I came across the attached article. By modern standards it doesn’t look very impressive, but… Was this the first commercially produced electric bike?  Keep up the good work. Bill…

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Following the Gold Star vs Thruxton article (June 2019 edition), and my brother (Chris Briston) visiting us last week from the USA, and the June ‘Where are they now?’ letter, I was prompted to write this email. In the early 1960s my brother owned a 350cc Gold Star whose previous owners had been, in sequence,…

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I’ve read in OBM, and other mags, plaintive messages from older riders who are selling bikes because of difficulty with machine weight, especially when lifting on to centre stands. One method suggested by Tony Groves is to build a short ramp from 2” timber planking. Cut a low angle plus scallop at one end to…

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I have just opened my copy of the July mag and noticed that on page 28 you have named the rider on the sidecar as possibly being Bruce Main-Smith. I can say that the rider is my brother John Griffith, who I was very close to before he was killed on the M1. We had…

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I was struggling to read the June issue, having just got back from having some swarf excavated from my eye at the local hospital (by the most delightful young lady!) and I chanced upon the Stafford Show report. On page 42, centre right, was a machine finished in brown, a machine of such outstanding AWESOMENESS,…

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As Cadwell Park hosts the Sidecar Revival Meeting I thought it would be appropriate to include the last three Colin Clark images of sidecar outfits in the 1950s. The first is a Norton outfit (70) which, although there is no evidence on the original, I think may be Stan Hailwood. No clues at all about…

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I enjoyed the article on the Ariel VA/VB. Enclosed is a photo of a 1939 Ariel VA that I found in Princes Risborough, approximately 1990. It was one owner and came with tax discs from May 1939 through to December 1968, but with only about 10,000 miles on the speedo. Being complete and not messed…

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