February 2015
What: The Putoline Classic Dirt Bike Show February 21-22, 2015 Where: Telford International Centre, Telford, Shropshire TF3 4JH
In Balance
– by Tim Britton CDB editor Welcome to the Putoline Classic Dirt Bike Show – formerly known the world over as ‘Wrighty’s Show’ – but still the same superb event, packed full of the best of competition motorcycles from all eras. Wrighty’s still involved, Putoline is on board and there’s a couple of new ideas being mooted. First of these is the Classic Racer GP Paddock. Wrighty always encouraged a few road racers to come along, fetch a few of their bikes and fire one or two of them up. We’re expanding ever so slightly on this with a dedicated area outside hall one where several notable bikes will be being fired up at various times during the two days. These sessions always attract a decent interest and there has been some exotica persuaded into life from super singles to V8 GP legends and everything in between. The show has grown fantastically from the early days of Wrighty setting it away, it’s helped of course that Alan is a known name in the sporting world, a Midland Champion, National trial winner and works rider for Suzuki in the feet-up world. Now the show is part of Mortons portfolio we’re intending to grow, expand and make it the best show it can be. Luckily we can tap into the knowledge that is out there in our scene and celebrate any number of special events and anniversaries. For instance, 2015 sees the 40th anniversary of Martin Lampkin winning the very first world trials crown for Bultaco, Yorkshire and the UK. Meanwhile a future world champ was making the jump from the youth division to adult racing and his success was noted by him becoming the Pinhard Prize winner for 1975. Yes, Graham Noyce was on his way and would take the world crown in 1979 for Honda. Both Martin and Graham will be stage guests during the show. Also on stage will be the Linsdells – dad Steve and son Olie and maybe mum Carole if she can be persuaded – and noted Moto GP commentator Julian Ryder will be teasing a host of tales from them about making the fastest Royal Enfield racers ever, to being works Paton development riders. From the exciting world of long track racing will be the Dula Godden raced by Simon Wigg and Julian Wigg will be firing up his late brother’s machine and giving some insights into the background of the world championship win in 1985. Add to that, the show will have loads of clubs, prize presentations on stage, a massive autojumble, bikes for sale, more off-road celebrities than a stick can be shaken at and will be the place to meet, join or try something new in the sporting world. Speaking of something new, our new project bike will be launched at the show too.
February 21-22, 2015 Show Preview
Ticket hotline: 01507 529529 The Classic Dirt Bike Dinner
➔Programme of events Saturday
08.00 Ticket sales counters open for visitors to purchase tickets 09:00 Autojumble opens for visitors with Autojumble Tickets 10:00 Show Halls open to visitors 10.30 Stage Champion Sammy Miller on stage talking about his road racing history 11:00 Stage Martin Lampkin 11.30 Graham Noyce 12:00 Firing up racing motorcycles in the Classic Racer paddock area 12:30 Stage Julian Wigg talk about Dula Zierk Godden 13:00 Stage “Poachers” presentations 13:30 Stage “KIA National Twinshock Trials” 14:00 Stage Martin Lampkin 14.00 Firing up racing motorcycles in the Classic Racer paddock area 14.30 Stage Sammy Miller talking about his offroad history 15.00 Graham Noyce 15.30 Stage Linsdell Family 16.45 Halls close
Sunday
08.00 Ticket sales counters open for visitors to purchase tickets 09:00 Autojumble opens for visitors with Autojumble Tickets 10:00 Show Halls open to visitors 10.30 Stage Champion Sammy Miller on stage talking about his road racing history 11:00 Graham Noyce 11.30 Julian Ryder MotoGP review of 2014 and looking forward to 2015 12:00 Firing up racing motorcycles in the Classic Racer paddock area 12.30 Stage Linsdell Family 13:00 Graham Noyce 13:30 Stage Sammy Miller talking about his offroad history 14:00 Firing up racing motorcycles in the Classic Racer paddock area 14.30 Stage Series Organisers ad-hoc slot 15.00 Awards Presentations 15:45 Halls Close
A
feature for a number of years has been the Saturday Dinner. At this popular gathering not only will there be an excellent meal but the chance to hear from our special guest stars. This year our entertaining
guest speakers will be Mick Grant – a man who covers on and off-road sport with his road racing past and current pre65 obsession. Mick will be joined by Sammy Miller – again a multi dimensional rider who claims to have ridden everything except
speedway. Also up there is Bill Brown, Mr Wulf Sport, scrambler, businessman, importer and enthusiast. The dinner will be entertaining with these three guys on there. There are still a few tickets to be had but get in quick.
16 NEWS
February 2015
Putoline February 21-22, 2015 Mortons stand
Interview stage
The Blokes
Classic Racer Paddock
Martin Lampkin
Youngest of the three Lampkin brothers, Martin claimed the world trials crown in 1975 for Bultaco. He’d previously won the European championship, 1973 to be precise and was one of those in with a chance of winning the world crown in its first year. Classic Dirt Bike was recently granted a pass to get into Yorkshire and visited Martin in his home to get the low down on his championship year for a feature in the current issue. What transpired was a brilliant tale of travelling the trials world in a Transit van crammed with bikes and mates, the highs and lows of brilliant success and crushing disaster and an insight into the life of a professional motorcyclist. Martin will be at the show on Saturday only, other commitments have his time on the Sunday, so make sure to catch one of his two stage sessions.
Sammy Miller If ever someone could be classed as dedicated to the sport of motorcycling then Samuel Hamilton Miller has to be that person. From his first forays into grass track racing in Northern Ireland to the heady heights of team manager for Honda’s trials efforts in the 70s, Miller’s career has been of continuing success and he worked hard to achieve it. Though a top road racer – good enough to be a GP contender and a factory rider for Italian factories – scrambler and enduro rider, Sammy’s main successes came in the feet-up world of trials riding. Dissatisfied with the available products for this sport, Sammy built his own bike, then took a production machine and altered that before a chance conversation brought him to the Ariel factory and a standard looking HT5 trials bike. When the British industry gave up on trials, Sammy went to Bultaco in Spain, developed their Sherpa model, then did a similar job for Honda in the 70s. Catch his stage talks or get one of the few remaining dinner tickets and hear his view on the world.
Bill Brown Cumbrian lad Bill Brown has been a part of the MX scene for lord knows how many years. His involvement has been as a rider – he still races and is still fast – he’s imported Maicos to the UK and could really be classed as ‘Mr Maico’ if it wasn’t for his Wulf Sport clothing and accessory range which could label him ‘Mr Wulf Sport’ or his ability to shift motocross bikes which could label him ‘Mr MotoCross Dealer’. A super salesman, Bill once picked up 200 Montesa Cappras from the factory in Spain and sold the lot in three days! We’ve just thought of another label for Bill, Mr Enthusiast, a driving force behind Cumbrian motorcycle sport, Bill can be seen being involved with the popular Nostalgia event in August where off-road motorcycling is celebrated in style. Catch his speech at the Saturday Dinner but hang on to your sides…
The displays What would a show be without the chance to celebrate the odd anniversary or two, the odd special occasion or just to launch something new? Yes, correct, it would be a waste so here are a few anniversaries we can fit into our show for 2015.
ISDT–Manx style Okay, the International Six Days Trial – the ISDT – for many years the premier international shop window for the motorcycle industry. Launched on the back of the ACU Six Days Trial immediately before the First World War, the premise for the event was to encourage reliability in motorcycles in the first years of their
existence. A team event, each had to be mounted on motorcycles made in their home country to be in with a chance of the main award. Every year the winning team’s country was offered the chance to host the following year’s event. Not every country wanted, or could afford to take up the offer so then it was open to other nations to host it.
The Isle of Man stepped up to the challenge three times 1965, 1971 and 1975. Our small display of what are now called ‘enduro’ bikes, reflects these three years in one momentous decade when the action on the island was all off-road. It might be hard to believe given the small size of the Isle of Man, but the course markers and organisers,
including Geoff Duke, put on a varied event which tested the mettle of every team in the contest each year. The display reflects the changes the sport was going through and at the start of the decade the Trophy team was mounted on British machines, but for the last event that ruling had been removed and at last, the best riders in the
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February 2015
Classic Dirt Bike Show Telford International Centre, TF3 4JH
Julian Ryder On Sunday only, Moto GP commentator Julia Ryder will be giving his opinion and views on the
forthcoming MotoGP series. Ryder knows the people involved, the bikes and teams to watch and will likely have some insights as to the
performance of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow in the forthcoming season. Catch Julian’s stage presentation on Sunday only.
Graham Noyce Flamboyant Graham Noyce, the 1979 world Motocross champion has a fair chance of renewing his acquaintance with his title-winning factory 500cc Honda at the Putoline Classic Dirt Bike Show. ‘Rolls’ Noyce dominated British Motocross in the late 1970s and early 80s to win numerous British crowns. After teaming up with Brad Lackey in the Honda factory team for the 1978 season, Graham became team leader for the following year after Lackey went to Kawasaki and simply dominated. He won the series at the penultimate round without even needing to win on that day. Graham has not seen his winning Honda for over 20 years, since he rode the bike in the very early days of twin shock Motocross. All missing factory parts have now been located, and it’s just a battle against time to complete the rebuild before the show on Feb 21-22, when Graham will speak on stage both days. He is also to pick the best motocross machine of the show among the many on display at the two-day Shropshire spectacular.
Mick Grant Mick Grant crosses the great divide between road racer and trials rider as he hit the glory trail as a top line road racer in the 1970s, notching up an enviable record of wins in the Isle of Man TT. The GP scene, Daytona and that off-beat but always exciting series The Match Races. Granty not only raced at a high level and was consequently in demand as a rider but he also knew how to make the bike work too and Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki all benefited from his engineering skills. Along the way to race superstardom Mick carried on being a trials rider and has in recent years built a selection of tasty pre65 trials bikes. The products of Ariel, Triumph and BSA have all been inspected by his exacting eye and the results have been spectacular. Mick has built up a wealth of tales and they will be entertaining to hear when he stands up to speak at the dinner.
Julian Wigg One of our stage guests this year is Julian Wigg who is bringing along his late brother Simon’s Dula Godden long track bike. No mean rider himself, Julian is a dab hand at grass track where he says at the 1971 British Championship meet he and another unknown rider Peter Collins – whatever happened to him eh? – cleaned up on the day with the 500cc class and the 350cc class going to the pair. “It was a laugh as no one had heard of either of us.” But it is fair to say Julian is on stage to talk about his brother Simon and it will be an interesting chat as he raced speedway, grass track and long track.
Steve and Olie Linsdell For those of us who followed vintage racing in the early days there was one name which rapidly came to the fore, that of Steve Linsdell. Not for him the traditional route of using an AJS 7R or Matchless G50 or even a Manx Norton… no, Linsdell chose Royal Enfield to race. Okay, they were cheap, and plentiful but not known for speed… until Linsdell got a hold of them. Fast track forward a bit until his lad Olie started racing and carried on the tradition of developing bikes and racing them rapidly. Julia Ryder will be interviewing the Linsdells and no doubt will have a wealth of tales about them.
Telford, Shropshire TF3 4JH
Manx Nortons through the ages The overhead cam single cylinder Norton race bikes were so synonymous with the Isle of Man, the company named them ‘Manx’ Nortons to acknowledge the importance of the island to its race aspirations. Patiently developed by Norton, the production Manx reflected the changes
wrought by the race shop boss Joe Craig on the works machines. To celebrate the iconic model, the National Motorcycle Museum is bringing a representative selection of Manx models including its brand new one which is also its raffle bike. The display will be in the Classic Racer GP Paddock
The first of the Featherbed line, in the works race shop awaiting the TT in 1950.
18 NEWS
February 2015
Putoline CDB Show The Bikes Championship Bulto
Honda reunion
A genuine works bike is a rare thing, so often they were sold off, broken up or modified beyond belief. However, some survive and such a machine is the Bultaco used by Martin Lampkin to win the very first trials world championship. It is owned by the Comerford family – Comerfords was for many years the Bultaco importer for the UK and a base for many a works rider – and it is to them our thanks go for the loan of the historic machine. At the start of 1975 Bultaco were in an unusual situation, they were the reigning European champions thanks to Malcolm Rathmell but he’d left and gone to Montesa. Martin
It isn’t often trend setters set more than one trend, Sammy Miller has laid claim to quite a few trends in his life. First he took a heavy motorcycle and made it as light as possible, setting the trend for minimal four-stroke machines. Then when the industry died he went two-stroke and created another trend, with twostrokes in the ascendency he went four-stroke again and created another trend. An offer from Honda to leave Bultaco couldn’t be ignored and Miller was on the development trail again with an overhead cam single. The factory naturally enough wanted success, so produced
Lampkin had been European champion in 1973 but the factory effort had gone into Rathmell’s bike. The style difference between the two riders – great mates but rivals – required different spec machines. Rathmell preferred a softer machine, Lampkin
wanted more power to suit his forceful style. The factory gradually gave him more power and he put it to good use in 1975. When the championship was won, the works replica bike was available in the showrooms and sold like hot cake on a cold day.
Norton Kneeler
ISDT Suzuki
Without the resources to develop a completely new multi cylinder race motorcycle, Norton took other routes to keep their motorcycles competitive. The benefits of streamlining and reducing the frontal drag on a machine had certainly been well known for many years before Norton produced this streamlined machine. Nicknamed the Silver Fish, it also gained the alternative name ‘kneeler’ due to the rider effectively kneeling down to ride it. The thinking behind the whole concept is fairly sound, if you’ve only a given power output available then the only way to improve performance is
When the Japanese arrived on the scene, their aim was to be seen to be successful in all areas of motorcycle sport and none more than the ISDT. Problem was they didn’t have any enduro riders or bikes so they had a word with their importers at the time – AMC motorcycles at the old James factory in Greet – and the outcome were 125cc T20 Suzukis for a club team including Olga Kevelos, Ken Sedgley and Colin Dommett. Built from the road bike, there were few real concessions to ISDT use but the company had tried a little. With the three riders on board there was a wealth of ISDT
to make it easier for that power to propel whatever vehicle it is in. The motorcycle displays evidence that the factory were not devoid of ideas, or their advisors weren’t at least, and the machine is quite low, the rider sits well in it and the streamlining takes up the role of the fuel tank. In order to feed
the carburettor, a small header tank is in place and there is a pump system in place to feed it. Like the factory rider Ray Amm, Sammy suffered fuel starvation problems when running the machine at a demonstration in the North West 200. There will be no problems like that at Telford as Sammy will keep a close eye
Moto Villa GP V4 – Sammy Miller Museum
Dula Godden
It was unusual by the late 1960s to have a family owned race factory producing race bikes being ridden by a family member. Villa bucked the trend by introducing the Moto Villa two-stroke. The factory consisted of two brothers Francesco and Walter Villa, with both being talented racers – Francesco was Italian 125 champion four times and Walter rose to stardom riding HarleyDavidson two-strokes and was multiworld250ccchampion. Before that though he helped his brother develop this V4 two-stroke 250 based on two 125cc top ends on a common crankcase and the crankshafts were connected by gears. An eight speed gearbox
The frenetic sport of sideways racing – be it speedway or grass track has spawned some interesting motorcycles. Generally specific to the sport there are some sub-genres in there too as shown by this Dula Godden long track machine. This particular machine was raced by Simon Wigg and is brought along by his brother Julian. Sadly Simon is no longer with us, a brain tumour claiming his life in 2000 at the age of 40 and this is Julian’s tribute to his brother. It is also to be fired up at the weekend and will be the first time the bike has been started since Simon won his first world long track championships on it in 1985. Speaking to Julian about the
The displays continued
kept the engine on the boil, a dry clutch kept it going forward, a heavily gusseted frame kept the wheels in line, Ceriani suspension at either end made sure the bumps
didn’t cause any problems and Fontana brakes hauled the bike to a halt at the end of a race. See it at Telford, hear it at Telford though you might want an ear plug or two on hand.
King of the IT Crowd We all like a project bike and at Classic Dirt Bike we like them for lots of reasons. Firstly it fills pages for us and generally speaking, the worse condition the starting point is, the better for us as we get features out of the repair work. Secondly we get to use the bike in an event or three as we go, thirdly we end
up with a bike to display on our stand at shows and saves us making a nuisance of ourselves trying to blag stuff to put on a stand. In the past we’ve rebuilt the editor’s Bultaco, sorted out a Can-Am which then went on to be a competition winner’s prize, featured a Montesa and now we have an enduro bike
launched. Yamaha named their enduro models the ‘IT’ and there were loads of capacities out there. For club riders such as the editor, the smaller models were perfectly adequate but for serious stuff the bigger models took the limelight. The acknowledged ‘king’ of the ‘IT’ crowd was the 465 model. Not the biggest one they did, that accolade went to
four versions of the prototype for use by top riders. French enthusiasts Olivier Barjon and Jean Caillou are arch Honda enthusiasts and have a tasty selection of the four-stroke singles including two of the works prototypes – Sammy Miller himself has his and the
three bikes will be lined up at Telford, reunited for the first time in 40 years. Pop by the stand and marvel at how a fourstroke can be made so neat, but be warned, the French lads enthusiasm will make you wonder why you don’t have a Honda in your shed.
experience in keeping not always suitable machinery going as long as possible. After the event the machine fell out of the limelight and a considerable number of years later ended up in the workshop of Classic MotorCycle editor James Robinson. James didn’t
have the time to rebuild the bike and a chance conversation with Heidi Cockerton at Stafford show saw the little machine head to Suzuki heaven or, to put it another way, Heidi and her other half Andy’s workshop for a full restoration job.
bike, he admitted the machine was something rather special and was constructed for one meeting only. The special Dula frame built by Paul Duncan of Dula is extra light, the 500cc single overhead cam Godden engine was tuned by Hans Zierk
an Hannover based engineer and has a Bewley two speed gearbox and Bewley clutch. The wheels are reversible with sprockets like the flat track racers in the USA. The whole bike is light, fast and Simon proved it to be successful.
the IT490, but talk to almost anyone around enduros in the early 80s and mention the IT465 and they go all misty eyed. So, we picked up this example, an American import, from DK Motorcycles in Newcastle under Lyme and will be patiently stripped, inspected and repaired, used then prettied for display. We will be looking for some parts…