WHO IS STILL RIDING THEIR ORIGINAL BIKE ?

[tat ty]

Bevs recent posting of photographs of herself, Howard and others riding during the 1970s had me search the albums.

During a ride with friends this week , I proposed that there would be many of us who still had and occasionally rode their original bike.

The first photograph is of myself astride a shiny new TY175, straight off the ute in the background. 1976 I suspect. It wasn't my first; regretably the TY250A was traded that day.

The second photograph was taken this week. Same bike, same rider, same location.

Both bike and rider can now perhaps be best described as cosmeticly wanting, though with strong hearts.

The bike still reliably starts first kick. In all honesty, the same cannot really be said of the rider.

Who else out there can show us these comparative photos ?

Alastair

[David Lahey]

That was pretty easy
The B&W photo is me on my recently acquired second-hand TY175B in 1976 at Ron Boyles "upper" Lacey's Creek property near Dayboro, the afternoon before a Northern Districts Motorcycle Trials Club trial. I was 17 years old and dead keen on mastering wheelies. Photo by John Heidemann.
The colour photo is me riding at the 2005 Queensland Titles at "The Overflow" near Boonah on the very same TY175B.

[tat ty]

Why was it that I knew David Lahey would post the first response, didn'n anticipatte it in under an hour though'

Alastair

[David Lahey]

Why was it that I knew David Lahey would post the first response, didn'n anticipatte it in under an hour though'

Alastair

I'm on holidays and sick of jackhammering the tiles up from the hallway floor.

[David Lahey]

Heres another one. This is George McKenzie (my brother-in-law) at 17 years old on his first ever trials bike soon after he bought it from his school friend Phillip Smith in 1977. The bloke sitting down is Peter Paice who was running a trials riding school for the NDMTC at the "Church" property at Lacey's Creek, Dayboro.
Sorry no recent photo but George and the Sherpa T are still alive and well.

[Peter Paice]

Hi all twin shock trials fans!

I’m not riding my original bike (old BSA Bantam ever so slightly modified), but still occasionally enjoy a ride on my old trials outfit that I built in 1977. It is possibly the only bike of its type in the country having been made especially for me to Mick Andrews’ specifications and is a full TY360. Kevin Cass in Wollongong built the motor for me when I was still riding for McCulloch Yamaha.

There is a photo of David Lahey’s brother in law in Dayboro in 1977 with me sitting in the background (on this site), where I conducted a trials school and rode this beast as a solo in the trial on the Sunday! It makes a very healthy twin shock sidecar as shown in photo, of my grandson and I having fun.

There has been a lot of conjecture about the early works Yamaha cantilever trials bike. I rode on Mick Andrews’ team in the 1975 Scottish Six Days Trial, so I have intimate knowledge of Mick’s Yamahas at that time. I stayed at Mick’s home and could share some further information re his bikes if anyone interested. I also have some SSDT video taken by my friend then.

It is great to see so many guys riding ‘real’ trials bikes. Cheers, Peter Paice

[David Lahey]

For once I'm (almost) speechless. Welcome to the forum Peter.
An avalanche of questions flooded my brain when I saw your posting but for once I am going to shut up and enjoy whatever you feel like telling us.
In case there is someone who was not around back then and does not know of Peter, the guy on the blue and white TY250 in the main photo is Peter in the process of winning the 1976 Aussie Trials Titles at Mt Kembla.

[tat ty]

Hear hear David.

Soak it in!

Peter is on line as i write and I am interested to see that he registered with this site only today.

Peter, I would be facinated to hear your story of the Mick Andrews bikes. I'm sure that I would not be alone.

There are heaps of us from that era who still ride today. In my own case, I have returned only in the last few years, continue to be as hopeless as I was 30 years ago, but get a bloody good buzz out of riding and equally out of the people involved in the sport. Everybody encourages me; especially the younger riders and that is just fantastic.

In Davids case I get the impression that he didn't have the break that so many of us did.

Gary Boniface made an interesting comment on this forum recently. He remarked how often he would see veterans (referring to Frank Hull amongst others - Frank won't mind the reference I am sure) running rings around younger C grade riders on new machines, whilst riding their older bikes. I reckon I have seen it a lot.

Look forward to soaking in your comments Peter.

Regards

Alastair Farquhar

[Peter Paice]

Thanks David for the compliments! Just found old Bantam photo – see below.

The article from the 1976 Mt Kembla Australian Title brings back a lot of great memories. It was the toughest trial I ever rode in Australia. 122 points over 60 sections is a high score to win a trial. Conditions were so muddy and tough as it rained heavily all weekend, that many riders could not get their bikes to some of the sections in the whole day. I saw many of the same riders still stuck in the gullies as I came past on each lap. Mt Kembla used motorcross course to ride between sections. They couldn’t even get pushed out as it was too slippery to walk. They resorted to taking off their front mudguard to no avail. At times I had to use 4th gear to get to the start of some sections, then back to 1st gear to enter it. All in all a totally exhausting day for everyone.

In contrast, I won the 1975 Australian Title in Western Australia losing only 4 points. It was a last minute decision to compete, so I flew to Perth Friday night. Saturday morning, we took a brand new TY175 out of Perth Yamaha dealer Melville Motors showroom, put on Renthal bars, Pirelli rear tyre, found bush with steep hill to adjust float level and loaded up for Sunday’s trial. TY only had 10 mins running before start of trial, so I put my head down and hoped for the best. Having ridden a TY175 in Scottish with only 10 miles on it before start, I was confident about the bike. Top riders complained the trial was too easy, but lost a lot of points anyway. Great Melville dealer was excited – never seen a trial before, but now had title winning bike back in his showroom. Flew home Sunday night.

Happy to share old memories anytime. Peter

PS. Thanks Tat ty for your comments, I will talk about Mick and his bikes later.

[Trango]

I would also like to say welcome to the forums Peter. I never had the honour of seeing you ride but I competed against your son in junior at the 86 Aussie titles. Sorry to say I cannot recall his name.

Regards
Ian Millar