Beachcomber's Tales from the day

[beachcomber]

Swivel, if only you put as much effort into telling others about your motorcycling and related experiences. You do have some don't you ?

You're not a ghost writer for those girlie fiction books by any chance? 

The thread here is Tales of the Day - if you don't wish to take part or have no intelligent input, why bother to read them  

[Garage Rat]

You would think that engine/ chassis story uncommon but more than once, I've read about it happening predominately with old race cars. I can just imagine the look on the guys face when he read that the vin on the engine matched the one on the frame!

[beachcomber]

You would think that engine/ chassis story uncommon but more than once, I've read about it happening predominately with old race cars. I can just imagine the look on the guys face when he read that the vin on the engine matched the one on the frame!

I just re-read the magazine article and it's even more bizarre than just coincidence - like most tales ! Apparantly the guy bought the engine because "It looked nice" - he didn't even know what a Moto Parilla was at the time.

I must say that the bikes were exquisitely made, even down to mundane things like controls. Inside the engine was equally Swiss watch like - a real pleasure to work on.

[beachcomber]

Sad end on Ted Bloomfield. Did a Google search yesterday to see if I could find out more info on his Parilla sales connections, only to find that he'd died some years ago - another chapter from my youth closed. RIP Ted mate

[Rumbaldi]

I read this thread over the last two days. I wanted to thank everyone who shared their stories of the good old days. They remind me of the stories my godfather Jeff used to tell me of the past. He was a first order story teller who lead an accomplished life. Living through the depression and WWII taught him to work hard for what he wanted and to play hard when he could. I sorely miss him. Thanks for sharing your memories and helping me to relive some of my own.

[Frog]

The Germans have a word for events that go beyond coincidence, although I can't pronounce it, never mind spell it, a mate of mine bought a GT250 last year to restore, it's the same one he bought new in 1977. If he had bought the bike in our home town it would have been just coincidence, but he bought it off ebay and it was located in Wales, it's had 16 owners since he sold it in 79. Really enjoying the tales by the way.

[beachcomber]

Rumbaldi / Frog - thanx for the encouragement [ don't need much prompting ! ].

I'm sure regular contributors [ like Hoof ] will tell you it is enjoyable relating these tales - as, in relating them - you relive them !

It WAS [ the 60's ] a Golden era for biking and bikers, and there's so much BS and urban myth spouted by "those that were there" [ yea right ], that when there is a good source of info., it's worthy of noting.

[Frog]

It's always better to get the stories from the horses mouth, as professional historians often miss out the small and personal tales. The one annoying thing with historical documentation of cultural events, is that often they are written by someone who wasn't there and their outlook is one of an outsider, which is always flawed. I was a punk rocker 76-77 and when I watch programmes about the era they usually get it wrong, everyone in zips and chains etc, which came later when everyone jumped on the bandwagon. If they can't get it right about something as recent as thirty years ago, how are they going to make accurate observations about something even older, keep the tales coming.

[beachcomber]

Spot on Frog - easy to tell the real tales from the wannabes. 

One of my all time pet hates is the myth about "record racing". Actually never "Record Racing" but "Juke Box Racing", doesn't really matter as it was bollox anyway.

The average early Sixties pop record was less than 2 minutes.

OK - dash from the juke box through the door, swing a leg over the bike - ASSUME it starts first kick filter out onto the main road and then ride a mile or so - including a roundabout and back before the record ends .................never in a million years.

YES there WERE races from the Caff out to a predetermined point and back to the Caff - first one back the winner - but under 2 minutes .......nah.

[Frog]

I remember Pete Townsend recalling a tale about his younger years as a mod, there were about twenty of them walking along the seafront when they spotted five or six rockers, they started shouting abuse at them, the rockers charged at them, and not wanting to tangle with such nutters the mod's did a runner, what I found interesting was that he said some of the rockers were in their early-mid twenties and the ones he encountered from London's east end were serious hard cases, whist most of the mods were teenagers.

[beachcomber]

I was never in the Rocker, Mod or anything else mob and as such it was quite amusing to watch the antics of others around me. No doubt people have read the stories about Dangerous Roy - a mod through an through AND one of my best pals.

In the main, this cult warfare was whipped up by the media - searching for lary headlines [ just like "Juke Box Racing" !  ].

One BIG mistake a lot of the herd [ Rockers ] made was to assume that all mods were a limp wristed bunch. Far from it - there were just as big and mean Mods as Rockers!

Include the womenfolk in that category !

Parilla Tale coming up in the next 2-3 weeks - and not a Mod or Rocker in sight 

[beachcomber]

Here it is then, a gentle Tale about my involvement with Moto Parillas.

Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day – June 2012
“2 Moto Parilla’s and the Renault R8 Gordini”

By way of explanation, the Renault R8 was a compact saloon, produced from 1962 and like previous Renault models, spawned a competition version – the Gordini. See previous pix.

The cars were way ahead of the UK competition featuring 4 wheel disc brakes, independent suspension all round and a HEATER ! Yes, at this time in the UK [ early 60’s] a heater was still considered an optional extra.

The cars had an excellent large passenger compartment with truly luxurious seats. Being rear engined, the front “boot” [ trunk ] space was quite limited, and of course you couldn’t just prop the lid open for large loads as you could with  traditional front engined car.

Anyway – that was the car. Now the bikes.

I’d come to own a Parilla courtesy of my pal Ted Bloomfield. He’d put me in touch with a guy that owned one and wanted to build a Triton – I had a spare Dommie rolling chassis, so a deal was done.

The bikes were typical of small Italian machines of the era – beautifully made and exquisitely crafted. They were also quite quick compared to British offerings of the same / similar capacity. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my model, but the engine looked so ……. right – that I just had to strip it down and take a look inside! Inside was no different to the outside appearance – fine tolerances and parts that just fell together. It was on one of my trips to Ted’s [ to get gaskets ] that he told me of a guy that he knew about 25 miles south of the River Thames and only 40 miles from my house who “was into Parillas”.

Unfortunately there was no phone number for the guy, so it was down to swift drive down to see if he had any spares for sale. I called my Father to see if he fancied a trip out, as he’d been housebound for a few months following a knee joint replacement. And so we set off in my Gordini, with a pocket full of cash hoping to get a bargain or two.

As we pulled up at the house I spotted a complete Parilla in his front garden.

Fortunately for me he was in and it soon transpired that he had 2 complete bikes – both up and running. He’d also had an ultimatum from his Wife – new kitchen required, which meant he’d have to sell something to raise the cash. He’d actually got the first bike out of storage to start it up and make sure it was in a salesworthy condition ready for advertising in the “Exchange & Mart” – our weekly advertising “bible”.

We got the second bike out and both started and ran, albeit with a bump start due to flat batteries. I made certain his Wife was present for the negotiations  and made a stupidly low offer for the lot – which she saw as a new cooker, fridge, whatever and made him accept the offer on the spot – provided I took them then and there! 

Now came the fun bit.

Anyway – an hour later the wheels and forks were out and the engines dropped on his garage floor. I took the tanks off and some of the ancillaries to stop them getting damaged. That was the easy part – the parts were crammed into every nook and cranny and no matter how we tried, the front boot lid just couldn’t be closed shut. Aerolastics [ elastic luggage straps ] – don’t you just love them . With four of them secured underneath the front wheel arches and over the boot lid, we eventually got everything packed in – AND I could just about see over the lid [ front hinged, rear opening ]. After a few miles everything settled down to the point where I could go round corners without something or the other hurtling across the car. Boy was I happy, especially when wifey came out just as we were leaving with a big box of spares, gaskets and handbooks / manuals and insisted that we took them so she could clear some cupboard space.

In those days there were various tunnel crossings of the lower Thames – the newest being the Dartford crossing. When it was first opened it shortened our journey to Brands Hatch by some 1 ½ hours each way – saving a trip up the Thames virtually into the East End of London. Eventually a second parallel tunnel was opened to cope with the additional traffic – each one being two lanes one way. At the same time toll booths were installed which were manually operated. The Parillas were only 25 miles south of the tunnels and a further 15 miles or so from home.

Another piece of relevant info. for non – UK residents. A vehicle has to be taxed for road use – a Road Fund licence, and although insurance was de-rigeur, we would often avoid paying the Road Tax as long as possible. Usually you could get away with it on a casual Police check by saying “The tax is in the Post” – which then meant you had to buy tax for that complete month – a risk you’d take. Mainly because this was a council matter and NOT a police issue, the bobbies couldn’t be bothered with the paperwork. As I had been in the process of applying for the tax when the Parilla offer came up, I had all the relevant documents in the glovebox ready to send off. Anyway, on this occasion I’d chosen to use the “Tax” money to buy Parilla spares ! As I pulled up at the booth, the guy was giving us the evils due to the aforementioned propping open of the boot lid – but as I could see over it, and it was secure, there was bugger all he could do about it. However, just as I was driving off he ran out of the booth and stopped me – as he’d spotted my tax was out of date [ disc on windscreen ]. I was busy telling him I’d sent the documents off only 2 days before – when Father piped up “No you’re mistaken I saw them in the glovebox” !!  Then it was too late and the jobsworth insisted on seeing the documents. Caught red handed. Thanx Father ! So my Parilla spares had now cost me the Road Tax and fine. Even that wasn’t enough to take the shine off my bargain purchase. Memory fade’s set in now as far as the price, but I do remember it was about a week’s wages. Or to put it another way - about a quarter of what they were worth.

It wasn’t until quite recently that I became aware that Ted Bloomfield had at one time been an importer for the Moto Parilla range – that was before his secondhand bike breaker business.

[beachcomber]

Update on the Carroll Shelby tribute story. Going well, I'd forgotten just how many "Tales" there are to tell [ that I was involved in ] - so, I've decided to break it into 2 specific tales. One revolving around the "Innes Ireland Memorial Rally" - a 4 day event held in the UK and attended by all the good and great of motoring legend. It culminated in a huge cavalcade of Classic and Race cars from Birmingham to Silverstone Race circuit.

The second will be the story of Carroll's World Championship Anniversary at Le Mans, which also commemorated his race win with Roy Salvadori [ now also recently passed away ] in the Aston.

Whilst these 2 tales are being finalised [ can't rush these ], there'll be another concerning Mrs.B the first, my Connie, a train and a long push. Probably 2-3 weeks away.

[MikeyG]

Loving ghis thread BC. Took me 3 or 4 tries to tell my dad your story of resting the manx engine in a safe place b'cos i couldn't stop laughing.
I would be keen for a book if you do it.

[beachcomber]

Loving ghis thread BC. Took me 3 or 4 tries to tell my dad your story of resting the manx engine in a safe place b'cos i couldn't stop laughing.
I would be keen for a book if you do it.

Thanx for the kind words MikeyG.

Book is progressing nicely. The storyboard has more or less been finalised. I CAN'T rush John Hancox [ the artist ], as he's in great demand for commission work [ie pays him money ! ] and to be truthful, this is a labour of love for him.

There's still a few more Tales in the locker to come before the Shelby tribute Tales.