We get everywhere...

[pargyle]

My Triton had the Triumph engine and Norton gearbox coupled together with Duralumin plates produced courtesy of the local aircraft factory apprentice training section using patterns from a motorcycle magazine of the time.
I had a friend Eddie (Granville Head, now sadly racing on the great track in the sky) from Sprotborough who raced an outfit with a Bonneville engine. He fitted racing cams (do E3134's and 120 degrees of overlap sound right? I do recall watching him set up the valve timing once.but it was back in the 1960s so memory could be inaccurate). It was around that time we went to Croft Autodrome where he raced against an outfit called "impetus" which was built around a Hillman imp engine. That was a groundbreaker in using a hydraulic brake system with a master cylinder mounted on the handlebars directly operated by the brake lever. Within months this idea had spread widely. Owen Greenwood was also blasting round the track with a mini (I think it was called Maximum but again it's long ago now) in which the back wheels had been brought close together to qualify as a three wheeler to enter sidecar races.
Edit I just found this bit of video. The hydraulic brake can be seen through the fairing.

Small world ... the village green at Sprotborough was where I spent most of my time as a late teenager generally making a nuisance of myself with friends ... I used to go to Croft but usually to see the cars ... it was in the days of Lotus Cortina Mk 1's, Mini coopers and Ginettas ... . I knew someone who must have known Granville Head as he was always banging on about some nutter who was building a bike with a Hillman Imp engine ... having seen the video ... indeed, Nutter is probably the best description !

We also used to go to Sandtoft near Doncaster where there was regular short crircuit racing ... it tended to be one on one as there was not a lot of space on the circuit. Seen some epic 3 lap battles there between power of the Lotus cortinas and the handling of the mini coopers.

 

[pargyle]

M

Mole grips - another good Welsh invention

Are they really ? I didn't know that ... I've never been able to manage without at least one pair in my toolbox and two most of the time.

 

[thorn]

I sold my Moto Guzzi V7II four years ago, but still have my helmet, jacket and gloves just in case. The kevlar's been cut out of the jeans and they're now my beekeeping trousers.
The bike I sold to get the Guzzi was a 54 Velocette MSS and its predecessor was a 64 Norton Electra. Old British just became too much trouble to keep running, and I wanted electric start.
These days I keep running into beekeeping Freemasons.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Small world ... the village green at Sprotborough was where I spent most of my time as a late teenager generally making a nuisance of myself with friends ... I used to go to Croft but usually to see the cars ... it was in the days of Lotus Cortina Mk 1's, Mini coopers and Ginettas ... . I knew someone who must have known Granville Head as he was always banging on about some nutter who was building a bike with a Hillman Imp engine ... having seen the video ... indeed, Nutter is probably the best description !

We also used to go to Sandtoft near Doncaster where there was regular short crircuit racing ... it tended to be one on one as there was not a lot of space on the circuit. Seen some epic 3 lap battles there between power of the Lotus cortinas and the handling of the mini coopers.

Eddie never built an outfit around an imp engine as far as I am aware although I wouldn't put it past him. He was a dyed in the wool Bonneville engine man. I met him when he started working for Jack Petty motorcycles in Goole as Jack's Honda man. Jack was half brother to Frank Barton, another motorbike man in Hull. Later Eddie asked me if I knew of somewhere he could open his own shop and fortunately I knew of an empty shop with lots of rear space and living accommodation above the shop in Howden. Eddies motorcycles was born soon after. He moved from Sprotborough to Howden with his family and things went from there. Eddie had a son Mike who raced a solo bike but Eddie stuck to outfits. Mike is still in the area somewhere. When Eddie was still in Sprotborough his sidecar passenger was a lad called Barry who lived on a static caravan site a few miles down the A1 with a pretty redhead but I don't know what happened to them.
Your mention of 3 lap races reminds me of a local "fast lad" from the 40s/50s. He entered a race at Brough along with Geoff Duke. Geoff lapped him twice in a three lap race. Following this his reputation waned somewhat.