Early arrival offered a chance to socialise and see what bikes had received attention over the winter. Arch-enthusiast Gavin Shaw has a four-day rally in Norway pencilled in. Final destination is Trondheim, but Gavin is making the trip on a competition Bantam. The only concession to modern times is that this is a rare plunger model and the engine is now a later, 175cc unit. For today’s road run, Gavin had a standard 175 Bantam.
Among the classic, and some vintage, machinery was a much admired 1949 Triumph 5T. Dave Collett, who lives nearby, had bought it from a friend about a month previously. The friend had owned it for four or five years, but needed to thin his collection. Dave had a copy of Warzone Speedway by Trevor Davies, as he contributed to the book. The theme is wartime, then National Service, when speedway tracks were created wherever the troops were and the bikes ingeniously adapted from Service issue dispatch riders’ bikes.
