Tatoos!

[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.

Wow, a paper times trial bike .... way ahead of it's time ..... I watched an episode of Myth Busters where they used paper rather than straw to build an ice cannon (not something for shooting the powered stuff up the nose) and the strength improvement was outstanding, so paper in the fibreglass resin to reduce the weight..... as I said, way ahead of its time .....

This will give you an idea of what a Rudge race bike looks like justbikes.com.au/motorcycles-for-sale/1 ... JBW5200032

T1 Terry

[pet-els]

Back in the fifties, I had a friend [Stan Ward] who was building a 125cc motorcycle [called a KING DICK] we raced M'bikes at the same club [Fairfield MC Club] There was a man [Walsh] building a 125 Bantam BSA and he got it to a speed 125mph so my friend stopped building his. The head on the Bantam was bigger than a dinner plate.


Good night DOT.

PeterH

[T1 Terry]

When you see junior dragsters that are powered by motors based on a 10hp Brigs and Stratton doing 1/8 mile times that would get them in the field for open competition with other full size dragster if it was scaled up to the full 1/4 mile time back in the late 90's one young fellow did a 1/4 mile in a time that would have won him the super street class as well as too fast to still compete in that bracket without a parachute not quite a street car then anyway .....
The officials ANDRA would recognise the time because they didn't want to encourage fast 1/4 jnr drag racing ..... but from memory it was 9.98 sec over the 1/4 mile at the old Sydney Motor Park drag strip that was slightly up hill ..... it was truly amazing to witness first hand ...... the sound and the length of the blue top fuel flame out of the open mega-phone was something that has stayed in my head ever since

T1 Terry

[pet-els]

Walsh's Bantams raced at Bathurst.

PeterH

[supersparky]

I reckon that Bantam is the race bike on display at Bicheno, that I mentioned a few posts ago. I will have to check my pics from that trip. I also have a pic of a 80cc Yamaha step thru motor in a drag bike frame. It held the world record for its class. Will put it up when I find the photo.