Training film from 1944

Thought I'd share with UKRM, this is pretty cool:

http://www.yfaonline.com/assetDetai...een_start=&between_end=&format=0&colour=0&ing

 

Very nice. Great old bike. I recall helping a friend
reassemble one down in Big Sur in the late '60s.

Lacking a valve spring compressor, he figured the
best way to do it was to compress the springs and
then lash them with rawhide. One of them let go as
we were working and the two of us spent some twenty
minutes or so searching around in the chaparral,
looking for the lost spring.

I also understand a UK service team did trials competitions
on their beezers, despite the lack of a rear suspension.

Thanks for sharing.

 

I see some things don't change, 4:22ish...

 

That is very cool .. I loved the two shots of boot soles, it all looked
a jolly jape rather than training ..

 

Magic.

That's just crying out for a comedy soundtrack...

 

film=100&keyword=&sortby=&title=&notes=&context=&date=&yearValue=&decade=0&between_start=&between_end=&format=0&colour=0&ing

My God-father and uncle (may he rest in peace and rise in glory) was a
dispatch-rider during his National Service in Palestine during the
Mandate. He was trained by a certain Sgt. Geoffery Ernest Duke.

 

LOL

My father in law, now 72, was stationed in germany in the 50's and had
never driven a car or ridden a motorbike. One day he was told to take
a fully loaded 10-tonner truck from base to Berlin, approximately 150
miles. His protests were swept aside with a half hour instruction
lesson, and a lecture, basically along the lines of just keep moving,
change gear when you can and remember to use the brake. If you hit
another car, don't worry, they'll be Germans!!

He finally passed his driving test in 2002, he now has a Ford Fiesta ..

 

<shudder> You'd have LOVED montana back in the 30's. Go to the
courthouse, pay for your liscense and bob's your uncle you now have a
liscense to drive. All without taking a course or showing that you
know the rules of the road much less how to drive. <boggle> it's a
wonder any of the survived eh?

 

Bollocks

Some time in the early 1970s, IIRC. Certainly not 1990.

 

In other circumstances though, anyone who answers 'yes' to that sort
of question has usually unwittingly volunteered for something, like
peelng spuds.

"A volunteer is someone who didn't understand the question."

 

Don't know when the driving test was introduced here. Problem was (and
is) that because of the huge backlog of drivers waiting for a test,
sometime in the late 80s every bugger who'd ever held a steering wheel
was given a free full licence regardless of ability.
The situation is slightly better now, with only 20% of drivers on the
road being unaccompanied learners (and no L plates). The cops turned a
blind eye to this for years and were supposed to be doing something
about it a couple of years ago, but it seems to have fizzled out.

 

I'm happy everyone enjoyed this. What caught my eye was painting over
the big red L at the end. I dearly remember my trip to the UK in 2002
and seeing all the bikes (looking at you Domino's Pizza and various
Sushi delivery places) with big L plates running around London.

Can we call that "tradition"?

 

Very much like the instruction offered by dealers
back in the day. After passing the above course
and riding solo for a couple hours, I figured I'd mastered
the bike well enough to give a friend a pillion ride and
did a low speed crash into somebody's rock garden.

 

In order to get my FS1E past the guardhouse at Arborfield Garrison I
had to be in possession of a full licence for it. My moped test was
conducted on a 1940s BSA500, with the gears on the wrong side, in
exactly the manner described above, except I had to manouver between
two rows of parked trucks before arriving back at the QM Stores. Those
who made it back in a decent time without falling off were granted a
full licence.

The QM Sgt Major was sat at his desk on the other side of the stores
when I got back and just filled out a form, asked if the bike was back
where I found it and handed the pass certificate to me without looking
up when I answered "Yes, Sir". He hadn't watched a second of the test
at all, but turned round and walked back to his desk as soon as he'd
shown me which bike I was riding. If I hadn't spent half of my youth
fucking around on a mate's old Bantam engined Tiger Cub I wouldn't have
had a clue how to ride the thing. I found out later that most
candidates fell off soon after setting off and failed.