ok thanks geoff, look forward to more pics, you seem to remember them days and the bikes well so i will take your word for it.
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Uncle Jim wrote:Blimey, a real blast from the past, the old NCK Funny Bike. I remember we did a feature on it for `Motorcycle Mechanics', which I don't think had morphed into `Performance Bikes' at the time. It had been sold to a bloke in Scotland who intended to use it on the road. You do wonder about some folks, don't you?Hello Jim welcome to the forum
So it was fitted with treaded tyres and made road legal, which was the basis of the article, but there was no question of me being allowed to ride it. What we did was hang a small `No Parking' sign on the back, wheel it down to the end of the NCK Speed access road and the photographer took shots of me apparently trying to kick the thing into life. Believe it or not, but a bloke in a Transit sat behind me, patiently waiting for the thing to fire up and get out of his way! Eventually we waved him past. I did ask months later if the man was actually using the bike as he'd intended, but couldn't get a proper answer from Graham or Allan.
That's Allan with two l's, please notice. He told me once that he'd worked at an engineering company, where the secretary never did mange to get Allan's name spelled correctly, until he really put her right. "My name is Allan," he told the lady. "Spelled with two l's, as in bollocks." He reckoned she never got it wrong after that.
Allan sadly died earlier this year, victim of a brain tumour, before I could get over to Coventry and get his memories down; it would have been a great story. He was on timekeeping duty when drag racing first came to the UK and remained a calm authority in racing organisation for many years, until he decided in his late 50s that it was his turn for some fun. He took over Graham's Suzuki Pro Stocker, had a tasty green paintjob done, then bought a set of leathers to match; Grandad Nash became famous throughout Europe, running in the low 9s - don't remember him ever hitting the 8s, but I'm open to correction on that - and always quick on the lights. After all those years watching others do it, he'd obviously learned something.
Allan was one of the good guys. When I started running quarter mile sprints at Fulbeck Airfield, he was the man who ran the clocks at every meeting and I never saw a bill for his services. When I had a brain storm and decided that we'd time the bikes at 110 yard intervals for the meeting before the big Records Bash at Elvington, it was Allan who worked out how to do it. The great Brian Chapman turned up at his funeral on a Vincent road bike - very appropriate.
Best
Uncle Jim Reynolds
Geofstilwell wrote:Of course its possible you have Allan Nash's Suzuki...which was "Grandad's Piece" or you may well have the bike that was built for the lad that took over from me riding for NCK who's name escapes me but sadly is no longer with us. We need a bit more info to give a definate ID.That would be Paul Willis... RIP