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I remember in my bikie days, they all had tattoos and hassled me to get one .... when I suggested the tattoo was like writing your name in big letters across your forehead because tatts were easier to identify than actually grabbing you and fingerprinting you, they backed off.
I've seen one or two of them in later life (probably all that were left alive) and the tattoos looked really bad .... as usual, the colour had gone, they were out of shape (no longer full muscle build) and hard to identify blue outlines .... although one of them had his re-inked into something else that covered the mess so still looked like a tattoo rather than a home grown ball point pen and sewing needle job .....

T1 Terry

Hey!!
Another bikie!

I rode a Speedwell with 6-speed derailleur gears.


No tatts, though…

Greynomad wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:20 am Hey!!
Another bikie!

I rode a Speedwell with 6-speed derailleur gears.


No tatts, though…

Mine was only a 4 speed .... 750 Norton Commando, first model with the steel tank ..... not your normal "bikie" bike .... but anyone who watched the early Australian bikie movie "Stone" the cop who joined the bikie gang rode a 750 Norton ... would have won the challenge against the Kawasaki 900 if he hadn't dropped it

T1 Terry

Me Tooo!!
Mine was a 125cc Beaser Bantam.....
Cloud of smoke & a bee in a bottle going nowhere!!
(got me to work tho)

BruceS wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:12 pm Me Tooo!!
Mine was a 125cc Beaser Bantam.....
Cloud of smoke & a bee in a bottle going nowhere!!
(got me to work tho)

Don't ya wish we had them now, the Norton would be worth a small fortune as would the BSA bantam .....

T1 Terry

I was talking to a bloke in the bike museum in Bicheno Tas last year. He told me of a guy that has a fully restored BSA Bantam D3. The owner wanted $140K for it. But the guy reckoned it was only worth $100K. I reckon I sold my old D1 for $75 to a kid from school. Dunno what the Norton would be worth.... I wish I had kept some of the toys that I had growing up. Some would be worth a motza now.

I rode for a while a Levis 500 Bloody mongrel of a thing with massive kickback if you decompressed it too late.
I ended up changing the crankshaft and it was almost OK after that.
My Dad was a bikie from wayyyy back and he and his brother Bruce terrorised Richmond when they were younguns.
Bruce Landers went on to become a "name" in the bike world
I'd love to have that bike these days.

Ron

supersparky wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:29 pm I was talking to a bloke in the bike museum in Bicheno Tas last year. He told me of a guy that has a fully restored BSA Bantam D3. The owner wanted $140K for it. But the guy reckoned it was only worth $100K. I reckon I sold my old D1 for $75 to a kid from school. Dunno what the Norton would be worth.... I wish I had kept some of the toys that I had growing up. Some would be worth a motza now.

Only reference I can find for a price is a German dealer and an Italian dealer and only $20,000AUD, there is one in Vic for $27,500 but only a '70 model at best because it has drum front brakes not disc so it would have the fibreglass fuel tank .... and it has an electric start ... seriously, they had to detune the 850 so the electric start would not go up in smoke by retarding the timing, dropping the compression and stuffing up the cam profiles so it actually produced less power than the 750 ...... so it must be a mungrelised thing at best

T1 Terry

Noggins wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 11:26 am I rode for a while a Levis 500 Bloody mongrel of a thing with massive kickback if you decompressed it too late.
I ended up changing the crankshaft and it was almost OK after that.
My Dad was a bikie from wayyyy back and he and his brother Bruce terrorised Richmond when they were younguns.
Bruce Landers went on to become a "name" in the bike world
I'd love to have that bike these days.

Ron

I won a lot of beers betting the old blokes they couldn't kick start my Norton .... unless you got it exactly in the right piston position and actually feel the slight kick back when it sparked on that cyl, it would send them over the handlebars .... it required a stiff legged jump on the kickstarter to get it to spin fast enough to actually fire and continue spinning in the correct direction .... always took the the first kick to charge the capacitors or it wouldn't fire at all, that always caught them out because they be in a rush to do the second kick because everyone was giving them crap by then ... they'd be jiggling the pimers pumps (no choke on a '71) and trying part open throttle and really fuel up that kick back something fierce they would all be hobbling for days and really get behind winding up the next sucker a week or so later 32* solid set advance, no mechanical advance .... it would walk across the concrete when idling on the side stand or centre stand..... You knew you were too p*ssed to ride when you couldn't start it
The bet was beers for the night .... and you could specify the night if you wanted Never rode the bike to the pub that night ....... I knew there was no way I'd be able to start it and it helped to gee up the next sucker

T1 Terry

My dad had (in succession, not simultaneously ) a Royal(?) Enfield, a BSA (not sure of model) and finally a Rudge Ulster.
Had a letter from the Rudge factory in UK congratulating him on beating their factory Ulsters' times for the Flying 1/8th Mile.
Did it on Stockton Beach at Newcastle. Unfortunately the silverfish loved the taste of the paper…
Did I mention he was a mechanic? Tuned speedway bikes in his down time.