Riding a road-derived Triumph twin in terrible conditions, he beat the ‘pukka’ racing machines – despite the front downtuube of his frame braking.
Lyons started racing in 1935, on an aged AJS Big Port, made his Manx GP debut in 1938, enjoyed an association with Rex McCandless and rode a V-twin Moto Guzzi in the 1948 Senior TT, which ended in a crash. In 1949 he rode the Nigel Spring in-everything-but-name works Velocettes, coming second in the Junior TT and third in the Senior. Ernie remained an enthusiastic motorcyclist well into his old age, still riding regularly until relatively recently. A two-part article, taken from the transcript of a conversation with Ernie and written by David Dixon, was in our July and August 2000 issues. You can view it on the link below.
? View the Ernie Lyons articles
? Purchase August 2000 copy of The Classic MotorCycle
