Letters

I read the article about Andrew Powell’s MZ collection (OBM February) with great interest as I’m a fan of Eastern European two-strokes. My first motorcycle was a DKW RT200VS that I bought from Pride & Clarke’s in 1960, and I passed my test on it that summer. I sold it six years later when I…

Continue reading »

After reading Andy Hanlon’s letter about Glasgow motorcycle dealers (OBM February), I am attaching a 1960s’ flyer issued by Ross Motors, who had a small motorcycle shop on Great Western Road and sold service parts downstairs. Of more interest, a few hundred yards away in North Woodside Road, they had garage premises and also owned…

Continue reading »

The cover picture of last month’s OBM showed a motorcyclist riding to the summit of Great Dun Fell in Cumbria, where the ‘giant golf ball’ is situated. The photograph shows the Eden Valley below, with the British Gypsum Factory at Kirkby Thore clearly visible. May I remind would-be riders that this road is privately owned…

Continue reading »

It was interesting to read the article in August’s OBM regarding Des Heckle’s Yamaha sprinter and the reference to Des selling his rolling chassis “to someone who wanted to use it as a basis for a drag race bike”. Well I was that person, and remember one evening after work driving up from Buckinghamshire to…

Continue reading »

I was delighted to see the photo and article from Arran Marshall about his Ariel ‘racer’. During the 1980s the bike was owned by a good friend of mine, Claude Mackenzie, who lived at Tornagrain, near Inverness and sadly died about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant self-taught engineer with a penchant for challenging…

Continue reading »

In response to Jim Avery’s letter regarding the photo on the front cover of OBM (September), I can confirm that it was not taken on the forecourt of the Chatham Motor Company in Chatham. Jim refers to the archway partly obscured by the pump as being the rear entrance to Frank Bannister’s motorcycle shop. Jim…

Continue reading »

With reference to Joey Dunlop’s memorial in Ballymoney (OBM July) my son and I were up at the Bungalow on the Isle of Man TT course in 2012 when we went off to answer a call of nature in the bushes and stumbled across a Norman Nippy moped! The attached photo shows my son Steve…

Continue reading »