Letters

Winter is upon us here in southern California as we are seeing our first rain today since before summer. There’s still plenty of opportunity to ride though! Thank you again for the Old Bike Marts, and I read with interest about the LED headlamp bulbs. Have any readers tried them with success? I tried a…

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I noted your call for photos of readers’ first bikes. Here is my 1949 D1 Bantam after I had decided to remove everything that I considered too heavy. I even fitted a thin wooden seat without any padding, ace bars, bulb horn and Snell close ratio gears. At the time I felt it looked great,…

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I refer to OBM 414 and the letter from David Sparrow – the photograph of the two lads on their new Royal Enfields. The lads are the Smith brothers, twins if memory serves me correctly, of Dovercourt, Harwich, Essex. If my memory rings true, David Sparrow used to ride a Triumph Tiger Cub and his…

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On the front page of your December 2019 issue you carry a picture of Fred Whittle on the big ‘pussy cat’ Panther sidecar in the ’48 Colmore Cup Trial. Fred was a regular campaigner of the works-entered Panther sidecar both prior and following World War Two in one-day trials, SSDT and the ISDT. He won…

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My first bike, in about 1957, an Ariel 350 (left). At 17, any bike that was affordable was ardently wished for. I was told that it had been Hartley-tuned; and living on the doorstep of, and a constant hanger-around at Brands Hatch, that name meant something to me, although I wasn’t sure in what context.…

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My first bike article in OBM has tempted me to send in the following, you may find the pictures suitable for publication. As a first-year apprentice in 1953, I was offered this New Imperial for the sum of 15 shillings. The engine was in two potato sacks and the rolling chassis was humped into the…

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Your request for pictures of us readers on our first bike made me think of those careless days before National Service, marriage, family and so on, when there were just girlfriends, our mates, their bikes and the occasional glass of something in the pub on a Friday night. This is a very happy me and my 1956 Tiger…

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In the February 2018 edition of OBM, we published a letter from Paul Read of Bartley Green, Birmingham. In it, he was looking to get in contact with his friend, Geoff Davis, who he hadn’t seen since the late ’70s/early ’80s. Happily, Geoff got in touch with us here at OBM and we were able…

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Opening this month’s edition of OBM (November), two pages in, I was in for a sad treble shock. First was the sad closure of The London Motorcycle Museum, which I had enjoyed visiting on numerous occasions over the years. Being of strong Triumph sympathies, it was a joy to behold the eclectic collection of machines…

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I really enjoyed the feature on Honda’s assault on the Isle of Man TT back in the ’60s. However, something is puzzling me. The picture at the foot of page 26 of the October edition shows the start of the 50cc race in 1966. The two Hondas, numbers 1 and 2 ridden by Ralph Bryans…

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