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Since I've been on this forum a few years now, I'd better put up a few pics of mine, past and present. Currently in the stable; 1942 Harley-Davidson WLC; one of 88,000 produced by the company duri

O happy days; and some sad ones. Top picture is me (left!) and pal Johnny Bennett at a trials meeting at Bevercotes in September 1959. John's mother had the tuffee shop on Nuthall Road. Emigrated to S

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Vincent my favourite bike in my teenage years, no unfortunately not mine I just loved the machinery.

When I was 15 my dad bought me a BSA B31 to 'tidy up' before my 16th birthday, obviously this involved testing it. So me and a mate wheeled it from Lindfield Road to Broxtowe woods and after riding up and down the tracks a few times we became fed up and decided to see what was at the bottom end of the woods. There was an exit, so out we went. We had just reached Heanor when 2 cops came out of the police station and immediately flagged us down. Result was £6 fine for no licence, no tax, mate got £5 fine for aiding and abetting. Dad sold the bike next day and that was the end of my motorcycling days.

A few weeks later a crowd of us went to a Mallory Park meeting watching Hailwood, McIntyre, Hartle etc. Bikes of the day were mainly Manx Norton, AJS 7R, and Matchless G9.

The next day we were reliving the races but on pushbikes, racing down to Denton Green (a large traffic island protected by spiked iron railings) I caught the back wheel of the bike in front which threw me onto the railings making a few holes in my neck, chest and right arm. 5/6 hours and 60 stitches later I was out with the crowd getting as much sympathy as I could from the gels.

Selling my motorbike was I think one of the best decisions my dad made.IMG_1523_zpsp0qmf0ps.jpg

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Since I've been on this forum a few years now, I'd better put up a few pics of mine, past and present.

Currently in the stable;

HPIM2355.jpg

1942 Harley-Davidson WLC; one of 88,000 produced by the company during WW2. Most, due to the way the war went, ended up staying in Europe where they were sold off as war surplus. Massively popular in Holland and Belgium, and even to this day you can pretty much buy anything for them in the way of spares.

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1979 Harley-Davidson ElectraGlide. Bought this in August 2013; found it purely by chance in Valencia, California where a former member of my club who'd emigrated there had just put it on e-bay an hour before I started searching.

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1972 Harley-Davidson XLCH Sportster. Currently in the middle of a much-interrupted cosmetic rebuild to factory stock. Goes like stink; and I really must finish it before my right knee becomes too arthritic to kick the damn thing into life!

That'll do for now; I'll dig out some of me previous ones another night.

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  • 7 months later...

I had 2 motorbikes while I lived in Nottingham, bought a Dommie 99 in 1967 from a shop just as you got into Mansfield, on the right, with a higher level car park. £60.!

Pretty well destroyed it and TMS bought it for spares. Got a DBD 34 from a guy in Radford,(£120) used it to get to work on Colwick industrial estate. Still had the goldie when I joined the City Fire Brigade in 1968. Straight away 'volunteered' to be a fogrider and rode the Brigades' sidecar outfits. I have the last one bought, a Triumph T100 registered ETV99L. Anyone know about the others ? Centrals previous bike was a Norton big4, Dunkirk and Stockhill had Thunderbirds. Would love to find out what their registration numbers were..............

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Straight away 'volunteered' to be a fogrider and rode the Brigades' sidecar outfits.

What's a 'fogrider' ? I don't remember ever seeing the Fire Brigade using motorbikes & sidecars. Can you tell us (or at least me) more ?

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The City Fire Brigade might have been the only Brigade that did this, can't find out for sure, but seems so. You remember the dense fogs in the City ? The 3 city fire stations each had a motorbike and sidecar. In the dense fog, the "fogrider" would ride in front of the machines, leading the way as vision was deemed better as he wasn't behind a windscreen . Volunteers only !!. By the sixties, the machines had better wipers/heaters/demisters and , of course, there was far more traffic and fogriding was becoming kinda dodgy and less effective. It didn't officially cease, the outfits were also general transport, occasionally shifting kit or other firemen to another station.The message "fogrider required" could only go out if there was a spare man, not that often. I only did it once, a shop fire, one dark and foggy night down Arkwright Street, I believe that was the last ever time a fogrider was called for. (very few people would do it) , That was late 1972 on the Norton Big4. Hilarious !

After the County took us over in April 1974, they soon withdrew the bikes ( to Rolleston Drive) and they were sold off in January 1975.

The demise of the City Brigade was a great shame. Good days.

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Lovely !! My ex Fire T100 is pretty well the same,but with twin leader front brake and delivered in all black finish. When the Brigade sold it, old documents show A.M. Bott owning it ,then P.A.Bott who bought it again 12 years later. These guys known to anyone ?

The outfit parked opposite moons would be the Norton Big4. 1952 (ish) I think,(ties in with the service life of 20 years when replaced with "my" T100 in Feb 1973).

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Just ckecked the file on my ex Fire bike, the Botts lived in Derby, so off the radar in Nottingham, one of (if not the first) owner after it was sold into civvy life was a D. Weston, address then Papplewick pumping station.

Anyone know him ?

Would love a picture of the bike with its' sidecar on. That's probably a wish too far........

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Just trying to track down the ex Central fire station Norton. The VMCC records only show it was delivered to a dealers called Tozer. That name's completely new to me, anyone know about Tozers please ?

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Well, I've looked further into this, the bike, registered in Nottingham in 1948, wasn't delivered, new, to the dealers Tozer,( which I have since discovered had a London address), until 1951 !

How dodgy is that !

And it's £5,750.

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  • 3 months later...

O happy days; and some sad ones. Top picture is me (left!) and pal Johnny Bennett at a trials meeting at Bevercotes in September 1959. John's mother had the tuffee shop on Nuthall Road. Emigrated to Spalding and I never heard anymore of him.

 

Bottom picture is of some of the Bulwell motorbike lads, taken at Silverstone in April 1958. This was the first outing by Geoff Duke for BMW, and he won the Senior race. Left to right:

 

Back Row: Don 'Looney' Toone Tiger 110, (lived on Teviot Road, Bestwood), Me, Les Shaw, 500 Gold Star ... Draper, Road Rocket, Keith Price BMW/Steib sidecar, 'Tez' Woolley, Pete Walster 500 Gold Star.

Front Row: Pete ? , Johnny Hyman Ariel Square Four, Pete 'Finnegan' Webster Inter Norton, Arthur Hodgkinson BSA A7. Behind him is Ronnie Hill Tiger 100, and (think) Phil Snow (Triumph 350 twin).

 

Chequered ratting  caps were de rigueur

 

 

Bulwell%20lads_zps0bicvjci.jpg

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What a handsome lad you were, Chulla!  I can certainly see it was you - your facial features remain unchanged, I think...

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The ratting hats were popular among bikers in the early 60's too, Mine was blue and black stripes bought from Flittermans (opposite the Pretty Windows) for 10/6d in '62. Flittermans also sold white sea boot socks for 10/- a pair and ex RAF silk inner gloves, I can't remember how much they were.

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