GAC's motor cycle page

I have been a motorcyclist all my life - ever since, as a baby, falling happily asleep in my Dad's Watsonian sidecar, hitched to either his Ariel VB or BSA Golden Flash. My first trips on the pillion were perched on a rolled-up plastic raincoat strapped to the carrier of a D1 Bantam Dad borrowed during summer holidays. In my youth I was a Triumph fanatic. That was what Dad had by then and they were winning races. I started driving myself on a BSA Bantam D7, moved onto a Royal Enfield Bullet and then to an ex-police Triumph Speed Twin 5TA.

As the British industry collapsed I added an MZ ES250 to the stable and then moved into my Italian phase with the second Morini 3 1/2 in Scotland and then the first 500 Maestro (Morini - not Austin!).

However somewhere along the way the Vintage bug struck. As a founder member of the Scottish Vintage Racing Club, I needed to find something to race and, as a student, this had to be cheap. I bought (actually, was almost given) an ex-army Matchless. I slowly developed this and still have it. I was one of the first to ride at the Knockhill circuitwhen it opened and campaigned the G3 at Beveridge Park, Ingliston, Rest-and-be-Thankful and Kirkistown in Ireland until the family came along. Then I found racing demanded too much time for me to do it properly and spend time with the brood.

I still have the bike and paraded it occasionally over the years. These pictures were taken at the Bob McIntyre Memorial meeting in 1997. Although I kept the bike ready to run, my state of health (Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome or ME), prevented me doing much with it. Bump starting, alone, left me exhausted. However, now I am much better and over the last decade it has again run in anger. See Sa'git Racing

 The Matchless started an interest in AMC singles and I now have the racer, an AJS 16M which I have completely renovated and another G3 which I originally built in trials trim but am now turning into another racer.

Wheels go round and cycles recur so just as my father and I were forever buying a bike and then swapping to something faster, we also kept returning to Triumphs. Dad's 1^st bike was a Triumph, I learned to ride on one, it is one of the models we both owned at one time and I bought a brand new Triumph. OK, it's not built in Coventry or Meriden but not far away and it sure sounds like a Triumph. Now the kids are semi-independent, my wife and I are enjoying clocking up the miles on our new toy.