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Ashley, Sambo's real name was Eric Sammons, like many of the Aces he lived in Lady Bay, first on Rutland Road and later on Holme Road. I also lived in Lady Bay and often we would give each other lifts to Jack's cafe, when one of us was off the road for some reason.

Mudgie, for most of the time Sambo had a Matchless G9, and could only keep up with the faster bikes by taking big chances. He was one of the fastest in town, but on the open road his G9 had it's limitations.

When he got caught by PC Shirley and booked for racing on the highway, (University Boulevard) I was the one he was racing with. Naturally he did not shop me, and I felt duty bound to give him lifts while he sat out his resulting ban.

BTW we started from Dunkirk end, waited for a gap in the traffic, and went. Shirley had been hiding in a side road waiting. My AJS 31 was faster than Sambo's G9, and as it turned out, faster than Shirley's TR6P. At the Beeston end, I scraped it round the island, and saw Shirley a few lenghs behind Sambo. I remember I opened it up though the gears, valve bounce in second. Just before the middle gates I overtook a lorry, stood on the brakes and just managed to hold on doing the esses into the lay-by.

I parked the Ajay and just then Sambo came past flat out, followed by Shirley flat out (radio aeriel horzontal), all to the cheers of the assembled Aces and Dragons.

Sambo was a dispatch rider in the TA for a time,he broke his arm on excercise. He took a humpback bridge a bit too fast, he smashed his knee once. He misjudged the gap between a parked car and an oncoming car on Holme Road.

Being pillion on Sambo's G9 was an experience, but he too was a lousy passenger. I took great delight in scaring the bejesus out of him, as also he did to me.

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Before my time, but this is what the Nottstalgia site was about, some fascinating reading here, whatever happened to Mudgie49 Ashley Oldace Trever S Limey Babs Mgreed1200 ?  

I was following Sambo round the island at the south end of Trent Bridge once. His footrest dug in too hard and off he came. He slid feet first on his back until he hit the kerb with his feet, (he was

Hi Oldace. Bonnie Bill,I remember him well a good little rider with the most highly polished bike you ever saw.I also remember that terrible accident just past Whatstanwell Bridge Aug 64 It certainly

They were great times Compo. BTW after Sambo did his knee in, he got a Vespa. He used to ride it around with his leg sticking out straight, when cornering he scraped the plaster.

After a few weeks he soaked the plaster above the knee so he could bend his leg a bit and got back on his G9. Trouble was he was still scraping his his plaster when cornering, only this time it was the metal hoop that they used to put on the bottom of leg plasters that was hitting the road.

Eventually he scraped so much metal off that it was no longer a hoop, but two spikes. This made it very difficult for him to walk, and naturally it was a source of great amusemant to the rest of us when he had to balance on the spikes. He was the best fighter in our mob, but at that time he couldn't do owt when we were taking the urine.

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How the hell did we all survive. I still ride (Kawasaki GTR100 and Kawasaki KZ-650) but I don't have the intestinal fortitude to scrape the pegs anymore! Happy, carefree days were on my Vespa, and then my Triumph Speed Twin!

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How did we survive indeed!

I once attempted the ton on University Boulevard in 1974 on a Yamaha RD350, the days when they were wiping the floor with bigger bikes at the racetrack. Only managed 90ish - too much traffic by then. I was always falling off my Lambretta. One day I was tazzing down a hill and fell off. I had steel toecap boots on (great for dragging sparks along the roads). The running board wedged on the lip of the toecap and I was dragged to the bottom of the hill before coming to a halt....with nothing but grazes and a busted handlebar panel! On another occasion I went head first into a Cornish drystone wall, partly demolishing the wall, dislocating my knee (on the fuel tank as I went over the bars) and fracturing my ankle. When I came-to my first reaction was to shout to my pillion passenger (dozy beggar was 18 stone and he banked too far into the bend causing the bike to fall onto my ankle and making me have to jerk it back upright before I hit the wall) and ask him to turn the ignition off because the engine was screaming. He had just fallen sideways onto the grass verge and was unharmed. I suppose I should have been dead but hey! We were made of stronger stuff than that :o)

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THERE WAS ONLY ONE BLACK GUY IN OUR CROWD AT THE WHITEHART HE WAS ALSO KNOWN AS SAM AND SOME WOULD CALL HIM SAMBO BUT NOT TO HIS FACE I KNOW I FOR LONG TIME THOUGHT HIS NAME WAS SAM BUT HIS NAME WAS LLOOYD SAMIUALS. AND HE LIVED NEAR THE SAVOY ON DERBY RD HE WAS A NICE FUN GUY AND ANYBODY WHO KNEW HIM WOULD TELL YOU OF THE COMMENTS HE WOULD BE CALLING TO THE BLACK GUYS AND GIRLS AS THEY CAME FROM THE AD LIB CLUB. OFTEN THIS WOULD COURSE A FIGHT BETWEEN THEM AND THE ROCKERS, BUT SAM WAS NEVER THE ONE TO BE CARTED OF BY THE COPPERS UNTILL TUG WILLSON COTTENED ON TO HIM.

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Tug Wilson - wasn't he the 9 foot tall sergeant?

I once knew a really nice black guy called Egbert Arthur Samuel. He hated being called Egbert. He used to call me Pau- line ( as in railway line).

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Just a few years ago I was the proud owner of a 1200 bandit which I loved hence the 1200 on my web name. Although I took it over the ton a few times it was capable of far more than I had the bottle for. Stick to the mini soft top nowadays but still visit Matlock Bath on sunday mornings just to look at the fantastic bikes on display, think it's just the bikers that keep the place going.

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I once had a Yamaha 1000cc machine on loan for a while (Can't remember the model). I took my then girlfriend later to be wife (now divorced) for a spin on the M1. She kept shouting for more speed so I notched it up to well over the ton and she clung on exitedly. when I came to the slip road I was going too fast for the island at the bottom. I braked hard and the back end lost it for a while before I regained control and swept around the island at some stupid angle. When we stopped I felt white as a sheet but she was thrilled to bits. I've never been on a bike before it was absolutely fantastic; let's do it again" she said. She had thought the back end wobble was deliberate!

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I was following Sambo round the island at the south end of Trent Bridge once. His footrest dug in too hard and off he came. He slid feet first on his back until he hit the kerb with his feet, (he was trying to stop himself) this had the effect of spinning him head first towards the stone wall. He missed heading the wall by inches, but he did break a foot. We all laughed, except Sambo of course.

BTW we knew nothing of adrenaline addiction in the 60's. The feeling after taking a corner faster than intended, and getting away with it, was tremendous.

Nowadays I stick to the speed limits, I know that my reaction times are not what they used to be, and an adrenaline rush would feel like a precurser to a heart attack.

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...He slid feet first on his back until he hit the kerb with his feet, (he was trying to stop himself) this had the effect of spinning him head first towards the stone wall...

Had to laugh at this - the first MotoGP in Indy coincided with the remains of a hurricane and it rained on and off through the entire event. During Friday practice, many riders were loosing it, especially in turn 2 - but the best was Rossi - he lost the front end under braking, rolled onto his back and slid feet-first along the track. When he got to the grass he simply put his feet down, stood up and walked away all without skipping a beat! The crowd was dying laughing and gave him a standing ovation - at which he turned around and waved! Hilarious!

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tony starky came to visit us on tuesday and asked us to say hello to all on here who knew him especialy dgbrit who i know he is now in contact withhe dosenot have a computer so carnt come on the site himself but i showed him a few treads including this oneand he was very impressed especially in old aces memory.

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I once had a Yamaha 1000cc machine on loan for a while (Can't remember the model). \snip\

Ashley: this is how it looks on my screen (Above quote). I know what happened though. I posted and immediately notice a 0 missing so edited. Looks like it hasn't shown the edit except on my end.

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  • 6 years later...

Hi Oldace. Bonnie Bill,I remember him well a good little rider with the most highly polished bike you ever saw.I also remember that terrible accident just past Whatstanwell Bridge Aug 64 It certainly slowed me down for a while.I was on my Ariel,  Starky  was on the back with his arm in plaster I never rode with a open face helmet after that.

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Sorry I'm getting confused with another another bad incident a few years later which put me off open face helmets,although they first became available in 1963 (Bell America) they were not too popular and very expensive. I bought one in 1971 from a motorbike shop just the other side of Long Eaton,hated it at first but soon got used to it.

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Dick,the Starky you speak of,would he be Tony Stark by any chance,did a bit of work in a small garage near the top of Raleigh street,I think he helped do some frabrication work for Les Clarke who had a racing outfit ridden by Ray Waplington and passengered by Stan Goodman

 

Rog

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Rog, yes that's the same Tony we were good mates at the time.The garage at the top of Raleigh St was in an old stables area called Raleigh Mews. Gordon Banks had a workshop there for years doing mainly cylinder heads,re-bores etc. Tony set up  shop opposite him not long after he left Horace Rogers (I think). On my many trips back to Nottm I looked him up, not sure if he's still there the area was re-developed  years ago.

I had a facebook friend request from a Tony Stark but not sure if it's the same one as this Tony lived in London.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Ashley

I'm sure the Bonny Bill we all refer to was Billy Gilbert especially when we talk about blasting past the middle gates at Highfields, with no speed limit he was the best.

I remember the other Bonny Bill with big black sideburns,I was glad to inherit his girfriend when they split, Sue Rayson, we were together for ages and I was very upset when she dumped me for some reason.Tony Calladine took Sues best friend out for a while , another Sue with long red hair.

Mike Elson married Sue Rayson's brother's ex girlfriend (maybe Linda) I think I introduced them.

Cheers Dick

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Hi OLDACE (GB)

I mentioned Starky riding pillion  we saw the result of that terrible accident near Whatstanwell, he was carrying a Goldie exhaust pipe  which was bought from a bike shop near Matlock ( maybe Cromford) ,it was near a old waterwheel,do you remember the name of the shop ?

BTW when we got to the accident one bike had been stood up the front end was wrecked and the speedo stuck on 100mph.

Sambo gave me a lift home from Cadwell Park "race of the year" around 1963-4 after my Vincent broke down ,it was quite an experiance he kept stopping to wait for other bikes to pass so he could burn them off.

While overtaking a very long articulated truck carrying a huge concrete pipe he pull in between the wheels to let a car pass coming towards us, as we pulled out and passed the truck driver he screwed his finger on his temple to say what a nutter and I agree.Never again.

Cheers Dick

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Have to agree with you RR I have read these a few times and can see the bikes racing along the boulevard police chasing them, always wanted one myself  but first finance stopped me then the wife did. The places they must have visited and the antics pursued.

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  • 9 months later...

 For those who are not aware we have our own group on Facebook called Rockers Reunion Nottingham Aces,plenty of photo's and interesting items.

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Just seen this thread and blimey, it brings back some memories. Especially Bonny Bill, i remember seeing him at the White Hart lenton performing his tricks on his bike. My then mate Rob used to live just around the corner from the White Hart and i wasn't old enough to have a motorbike, but we used to go and watch them all race up the road to Abbey bridge and back. Bonny Bill used to win most time's. His Bonneville had flat bars and a few tweaks to the engine and he always looked too small for the bike. Looking back, i suppose that's what got hooked into motorbikes, great day's back then.

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