Biker obit and Elefantentreffen ...

Swallow's love of long-distance riding had started in his youth when
he rode in the 1938 24 Hour National Rally on a 250cc Coventry-built
Rudge. In the 1960s, with his son Tom junior in the sidecar, he rode
to Germany for the mid-winter Elephant Rally. "In 1963 it was a really
bad winter and we followed a snowplough down the M1," Tom junior
remembers. "When we stopped for fuel in the Euston road, the ice was
falling off us."

 

Bad form and all, the link fell off:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/tom-swallow-founder-of-flywheel-magazine-781058.html

 

Yeah, 1963 was a great year for snow. I remember some of the drifts being
six feet deep between the hedges. We were snowed in for days.

 

Iirc, 1963 was the year of the endless pavement slide. Little did we
care about the casualties caused by our relentless creation of lethal
pathways on our way to school and back.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your shiter."

 

We lived three miles from the train station. My father would cover part of
the journey by walking along the top of the hedges, to get in to work.

 

Christ, yes. I've seen reproductions of Flywheel. It was amazing. It
was hand-coloured and illustrated, in superb detail. I think they only
produced a single copy of each issue, as it was written and painted by
hand, and this was passed around. (EDIT: yes, this is in the obit)

Under the Flywheel logo was the motto: "Keeps the work going on the
idle strokes" - a good motto for bored POWs.

There's a small pic here

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART24892.html

As you say, what a man.

 

I was born in '63, and my parents still go on about the bad winter.

A few years back my father in law produced some photos of the snow that
year being up to the ground floor window sills.


--
Dan L

Too much time to think, too little to do.


http://thebikeshed.spaces.live.com/
1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr

BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6/7)
X-FOT#000
DIAABTCOD #26
BOMB#18 (slow)
OMF#11

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38219192@N00/2261465046/in/set-72157594272469759/

 

SD wrote:

Ahhhhh.
Cute

--
Dan L

Too much time to think, too little to do.


http://thebikeshed.spaces.live.com/
1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr

BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6/7)
X-FOT#000
DIAABTCOD #26
BOMB#18 (slow)
OMF#11

 

I used to go in to his shop, in Oldbury, for the odd split link or plug
way back when[1], though I see by then he was leasing it out not running
it himself, so I suppose I never met him.

[1] The days of Roy Peplow Trials Tiger Cubs and "Joyner Somerton"
racing cams. When Ray Round was riding trials outfits rather than
selling Kawasakis.

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Christ, you were a big bugger even then, weren't you?

 

No, I was a tiddler. Six pound two I was.

I'd guess at being around 15-16 months in that picture.

The hood is squishing me face up a bit. Probably.

 

I don't remember any snow in 1963 at all! That was the first year
we lived in Byron Bay after leaving the farm. Bliss -- no cows to milk!

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Indeed, living with a bag for 60 odd years must've been an inconvenience
at best and an absolute bugger at the worst of times.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your shiter."

 

Actually, I'd say it was a perfect convenience.

 

Sounds more like the classic post-war marriage.

 

<tish!>

I set them up...
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your shiter."