Beachcomber's Tales from the day

Wow, that's the best story yet!

Thanx MrE,

as previously - I'm having a ball with these recollections.

Just made me very grateful I was there in the day to witness the birth of the Cafe Racers, and had some part in that history.

I made it a priority in my life to try - even to fail [ see my signature ], but at least you tried.

If anything, that would be my advice to those "coming through" 8) 8) 8)

My Dad told me "If you don't try you can't fail. Equally you can't succeed". He also told me "Make all the mistakes you want. Just try to make them only once."

Rocan said:

haha! oh mann, that is funny as hell!

more please!

you should write a book!

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Well ................................... As I responded back then - i am already writing a book about my Uncle Harold who died in Normandy after being dropped in on D-day morning. It's taking much longer than I anticipated as the veterans are all, well getting towards the end and I'm trying to gather as many personal interviews and info. as I can while there's still time.

What's that got to do with Rocan's -"you should write a book"..........??

I had a long conversation with the artist John Hancox today about the Cafe Racer and DTT Calendars [ 2012 ] that we are collaborating over. We also discussed the wider market of Cafe Racer Tee shirts and other merchandise.

However what people don't realise is that as well as being a top automotive illustrator for some major companies - he is a talented artist and also - a great cartoonist with a real flair bike orientated drawings.

Again, what's that got to do with a book ? Well John's son Warren visits the DTT site quite frequently - like John being a Cafe Racer freak.

So the subject of "Beachcomber's Tales from the Day" came up - and almost in stereo we said - what about a book liberally illustrated with cartoons to show the events in each tale !

Some of you will have seen examples of John's work for the upcoming DTT special Calendar - but you won't have seen his superb bike cartoons.

John is like me - a child of the era and is just as enthusiastic as I am - it didn't take much persuading to get him to commit with me to produce the Calendars!

So a book is being planned as we speak - I'll still keep the Tales coming, there's plenty more - but I intend to rewrite those already posted whilst liaising with John over suitable events for cartooning. We were both pissing ourselves just thinking of the possibilities !

BTW - John has produced another 3 illustrations for the Calendar a Bonnie, Constellation and BMW Airhead. These prints will be available individually on heavy art card for those with specific model interest.

Don't worry - this is not an umitigated plug - we have already agreed a well deserved donation to the DTT coffers.

NEXT year's [ 2013 ] calendar will feature Japanese based bikes

Just like this one - anyone recognise it?

ooops best attach the pic eh????

beachcomber said:

Well ................................... As I responded back then - i am already writing a book about my Uncle Harold who died in Normandy after being dropped in on D-day morning. It's taking much longer than I anticipated as the veterans are all, well getting towards the end and I'm trying to gather as many personal interviews and info. as I can while there's still time.

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Interesting BC. The house I'm in now belonged to Drew Anderson. He was a big fan of gliding and was one of the glider pilots for the D-day invasion. He survived and lived a full life until his passing in 1996. But you are right. The veterans are disappearing at an alarming rate.

P.S. Stunning illustration. I used to play with an airbrush many years ago but I never got that good.

Hoof - you might be interested to check out www.operationpaddle.com. , it's a very crude [ as in not very good ] site I made some years ago to pre-empt the book and get more info. through the I/N. It worked up to the point where I lost the e-mail address and I can't find out how to get into my site to change it ! :-[ However, the site info. is correct. Sad to say that my other Uncle [ Raymond ] pictured in his Para uniform at the graveside is now also in very poor health, and Maj.Jack Watson MC, who was very supportive and has provided the foreward to my book passed away recently .............................

Anyway enough of that. 8)

Yes, John Hancox is a very talented artist, having spent his working life drawing technical diagrams for car manufacturers. I hadn't realised, but I've got his signature on many old car manual illustrations in my library.

He was also called on by Classic Bike [ ?] magazine some 15 /20 years ago to supply colour illustrations for a 6 page article they did on - would you believe - Cafe Racers ! I still have a copy.

The XS650 picture is of course our own beloved Tim's - done with his permission of course. It was in an effort to persuade John that a Japanese bike flavoured calendar would be well recieved.

Hoof, I had a random thought after I made the last posting - I'll pm you about getting your permission to use parts of your work and pix in the book. A sort of "Associated Tales".........What do you think ?

I'll ask the same question of others of our era.

It's EARLY days yet, although the storyboard for the layout is already roughed out !

You know of my previous problem re: photos - so this idea of picking an illustration to go with certain events is both fortuitous and makes sense, as none of the events were photographed anyway !

I can't wait to see what he does with my pal's outfit plunging down the Cemetary approach road with Dangerous Roy hurtling off into the hedge - see what I mean ! ;D

Beach, i can't wait for you to get all the info you need for your book! I love anything and everything dealing with WWII history, i guess it comes from my grandfather manning AA guns in normandy after d-day.

I had grand parents on both sides. Well, My Opa was too young by not much but his two brothers were in, one the German Navy on a mine sweeper and the other died in Russia somewhere. My fathers side has lots as well being from Newfoundland one of the highest regarded regrements of Canada.


My opa has told me very little about what it was like, back then/ there. One of the stories he told me was post war when food was scarse and money was even harder to get. He told me he would ride his motorcycle around (Zundapp) chasing rabbits down and kiking them with his boot! to bring home for dinner. Another is when we were watching the Top Gear when Richard brings Sabine to the Nuremburg ring to do a lap in the van, he told me he rode his 150cc Horex and all about the carosell, the bridge, some of the hills and cars flying by.

Lastly, he said that there is no way you could ever get away today with what he did back then (not much more details then that). Guns were a big no no and he rode around with this little .22 pistol taken apart in different places of his clothing again for small game to bring home. He and his freinds would as I recall correctley with a little rifle, shoot cigarettes from each others mouths backwards over theyre shoulders using mirrors!

I wish I could have seen him back in his day!

The German garrison that was responsible for defending the ground [ Dozule - Hill 13 ] was made up mainly from Russian recruits / and those forced to fight for the Germans.

10 years ago I was on my annual pilgrimage to the village and bumped into a guy on the hilltop, about the same age as myself. It was obvious what each of us was doing there and we got into conversation. Although German, he spoke in excellent English. It appears that his Father was involved in the battle and also lost his life there .............................

Up until about 1970 [? brain fade ] there were around 20 or so German graves in the same cemetery as the Paras - and his Father was amongst them. The bodies were later repatriated [ to Germany ? ]

What's called - a Small World.

One of my freinds grand fathers of both sides of the family were armour crew members one German, one Canadian. They both fought at "The battle of the Bulge".

Back from a "recharge the system" break in Saxony and plenty of time to recall more memories.

I brought back the John Hancox illutrations from the Classic Bike magazine article - I now have a meeting jacked up with him to discuss the "book" next month. I can't recall who put the idea in my mind - but thanx !

A couple of recollections bubbled up while chilling out, one brought to mind when a small herd [?] of Bambis strolled across the road in the forest which surrounds our village.

Inevitably it involves "Dangerous Roy" !! Yep, that'll be the next one for September.

Sweet! I've been waiting for another one. Lookin forward to it soon!

Graeme77 - been bothering me since you posted about the Blinking Owl ............

At 67 my memory is not perfect [ wasn't ever ! ] and your present day location of the Blinking Owl was causing me to scratch my head.

Glad to say I now have the answer ! I mentioned that by pure coincidence, and after some 35 years the guy from the Absent WIfe, Bungalow, digger etc made contact with me some months ago.

Well, while I was in Saxony I got a call from him to say he was in Prague - 90 minutes away. Long story short - we arranged a meet and had an evening of reminiscing. Now then, here's where he put my memory straight - the Blinking Owl on the Sarfend Arterial has as you rightly say NOT been moved to rural Essex! The Caff I was referring to was Knicknamed the "Crapping Owl" after the headcold incident - after that it was always the "Owl" - hence my terminal inexactitude. It was in fact "The Woodlands" - made famous [?] for the fact that one of the Great Train Robbers parked his Ocean going yacht on the green outside ! Nah, well hidden mate.

That however IS gone - along with Passingford Bridge, and presumably the 2 Goldies !

The Cardrome was where I had the ONE official lesson [ so I could use the school's car ] before I took [ and passed ] my test. In a Triumph Herald.

Shooting wasn't always boring 10 x 10's - here's the posse with a very youthful looking Beachcomber on the left and the guy on the right standing with the shotgun is none other than Keith Harvie - the founder and CEO of PAW [ Performance Automotive Wholesale ] which went on to become one of the largest speed shops in the US.

The WW2 German forage cap NEVER went down well when I was shooting in competitions!

I defy any of you shooters to call what the .45 Auto was? Alloy bodied and made in South America. The other was a .357 snubby Magnum

Came across this the other day, and brought back some memories.

This WW2 Bomber generator set was in fact the basis for the Triumph "Grand Prix" competition engines !

There were literally thousands of these sets around at War's end, and no doubt Triumph had more in the pipeline.

Having developed the "splayed port" heads as being the canine's cajones - it was a masterstroke of PR B** S*** to then promote the straight port Grand Prix engine as the new kid on the block!

My pal Joe bought a van load of these units at an ex. Govt. Surplus sale, and as posted before - I ended up with 2 of them.

The straight port layout was in fact in an attempt to get the package as compact as possible - note the unusual carb position.

We even found a good source to offload the generator parts for a profit !

BC, I have determined you must be the British version of Forest Gump, you truley have had a hand in so many things that at some point you significantly changed world history in some way!

tWistedWheelz said:

BC, I have determined you must be the British version of Forest Gump, you truley have had a hand in so many things that at some point you significantly changed world history in some way!

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haaaaa - like I said - I' have been blessed with a full and interesting life and grabbed opportunities by the goolies whenever possible !

talking of which, I spoke again with the artist John Hancox today - he wants to come up for a meeting to discuss " the book" and his hand in the illustrations. He's even threatening to throw in some tales of his own !

He's so busy this year with "our" DTT Calendar - Vincent / Norton and Matchless completed by the end of this week - that it will be next year before we can even think about it.

I might even [ for the book ] throw in some of my car related tales - I have first hand stories with some very well known race icons - like when we went on the Innes Ireland Memorial rally and Shelby talked me into "getting lost" en route so we could spend some time in an Olde English pub !!!!!!!!!

Here's the latest tale ..............

Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day

Dangerous Roy’s “Stag Night” – September 2011.

Well here we are again – back with Dangerous Roy, he’s well into cars by now – but still Dangerous !

We’re now moving out of the first Café Racer period – late 1968 and our pal Roy is now 100% into cars and has progressed from mundane saloons to sports cars – albeit the humble British Triumph Spitfire. He’s now also seriously involved with a bird [ later to become his Wife ] and spends less and less time with us bikers.

In truth, we were all joining the “wife, mortgage, 2 ½ kids and a dog” nuclear family – some more reluctantly than others.

Anyway, another fantastic Summer’s riding and all the usual crew meet up at least once a week for the “Lay bye Burn-ups”.

By now even the Beachcomber has a Wife, but still also has the ex. Bob Mac Constellation ! That’s been refined over the years and even though other bikes had come and gone – the Connie remained the favourite. A sidecar outfit briefly featured as daily transport until the Stag incident with the pregnant Mrs. B 1st.

After trying out various ex-race outfits, a kneeler and a low sitter – it became obvious that 4 wheels would have to be the deal. And that didn’t count my Austin Race Transporter van ! Quick diversion – my Granny and Aunt decided they wanted to go out for a day trip to Southend. No probs – I’d have done anything for my Gran.

So ……… 3 seat sofa out of the first floor Maisonette and down 6 flights of stairs into the back of the Austin – chocked in place with a couple of batteries.

Gran was OK, but Auntie was less than impressed – oh well……….. All was well until I got cut up by some nutter in a Ford Anglia. I forgot all about my passengers and gave chase so I could give him a serious talking to – that was Ok until we came to a series of roundabouts, when I suddenly remembered my passengers on their sofa. I looked in the mirror to see the sofa spinning round in the back having broken loose from it’s moorings !

Digression over - so Mrs.B had by this time provided me with a beautiful Daughter, and she was the reason I decided to get a “decent” car.

That’s a story for another tale on a 4 wheel forum. However, We were all up the Lay Bye on this particular balmy Saturday evening and who should pull in but Roy – with his newly acquired Spitfire. It was around midnight and Roy was out on the prowl having left the missus at home.

It was some time since so many of the old crew had all been together, so we decided to make a night of it and took off for the Owl. Now, the Owl as previously referred to was in fact “The Woodlands”, renamed the “Crapping Owl” after the head cold incident – that was later shortened to just the “Owl”. Just thought I’d explain that.

So we all set off, having come to an agreement that we wouldn’t embarrass Roy by blowing his doors off.
However, what we hadn’t taken into consideration was the Spitfire had far superior lighting – as opposed the Prince of Darkness items [ courtesy of Joe Lucas ] that we had on the bikes !

Off Roy roared into the distance and after one or two chased after him, we gave up when one of our mates was forced to pull over with one of his carbs literally hanging off his T100. By the time we’d all sorted out our pockets for odd spanners, nuts and washers Roy was long gone.

Now the road to the Owl led through a heavily wooded area just before Passingford Bridge [ Fishing for Gold Stars ] and had warning notices showing Deer leaping into the lane – something I’d previously encountered on my sidecar outfit.


I guess it was about 30 minutes before we all got going again and decided to take it steady just in case our jury rigged repair didn’t hold up on mateys T100.

Just as well we did, as coming round one particular blind bend with high banking either side we came across Roy’s Spitfire, nose into the bank.

Roy swore that a Stag had leapt off the banking, pausing momentarily to put it’s feet on the seat of his car before leaping off to the other side of the road.

Well you can imagine the reaction to that “story” ………. Until someone looked into the car [ soft top down ] and saw 2 neat rips in his passenger seat and a distinct smell of animal urine ! Roy was somewhat shaken up by the incident but for a change – physically uninjured. We then all proceeded to the Caff where his car was checked out and found there was no more damage than a broken headlamp and slightly scuffed front panel.

A few years later Roy bought the then new Triumph Stag !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent most of last night and this evening after work reading this entire thread and im hooked.wow

Need your help guys.

As previously, I am going to collaborate with the artist John Hancox to produce an illustrated "Beachcomber's Tales from the Day" book. It'll be late next year, but we have already discussed the format and John is well up for it - he's already got plans for illustrations for some of the tales.

Now then, this is where you lot come in ............... I am pleased to say that I haven't had one negative comment about the tales, so I guess in general the opinion goes from couldn't care less - to "when's the next one".

I'm too close to these tales - having lived them, so I would like your help in a little poll to rate the tales in order of popularity [ or not ] so that we can develop a "running list" for the book.

So two things - first I don't know how to set up a poll :-[ , and second your input is essential. 8)

In my opinion of the order for arrangement of the tales:

#1. Pages 1-26.
#2. Pages that haven't been written yet

They are all golden. It all reminds me of a favorite author I have name patrick mcmannus. He writes outdoor humor from his childhood up thru his present life living in idaho. The stories are not in chronological order, just sort of like him recalling them randomly over the course of about 6 books. Great stuff, and not all of it is his own stories, but he also includes stories his friends experienced and relayed to him as well.

Whatever format it is, it will be spot on.