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Listening to Radio Luxembourg late at night, with tinny radio hidden under pillow so that parents didn't hear it, and constantly having to retune as the station hopped about all over the place.
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"Radio Luxembourg"
Horace Batchelor!
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Spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M !
Terry
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Horace Batchelor!
Cyril Lord !!
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
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Listening to Radio Luxembourg late at night, with tinny radio hidden under pillow so that parents didn't hear it, and constantly having to retune as the station hopped about all over the place.
and I thought it was only me! The constant fading just added to the atmosphere!
Baz
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Listening to Radio Luxembourg late at night, with tinny radio hidden under pillow so that parents didn't hear it, and constantly having to retune as the station hopped about all over the place.
and I thought it was only me! The constant fading just added to the atmosphere!
Baz
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>> Listening to Radio Luxembourg late at night, with tinny radio hidden >> under pillow so that parents didn't hear it, and constantly having >> to retune as the station hopped about all over the place. >> and I thought it was only me! The constant fading just added to the atmosphere!
And did you remember that they never played all the record?
Something about getting "more hits per hour"
Happy days!
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Hi Bazza,
I'm sorry to say that I don't recall either Horace Batchelor or Cecil Lord, whoever they were/are.
Of course, the fading just made it even more exciting!
But my days were when - I forget their names, but one who later developed MS, and had to give up, and another one who's nmeI really can't remember either.
Guess this might have been after Horace and Cecil?
HF
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>"Real" bikers always said they were naff..
I remember that, although it was never clear how they knew! Good old-fashioned prejudice, no doubt, as by most accounts the Ariels went very well - I talked to the owner of a nicely preserved one only last summer. The same attitude was inevitably repeated when the first Hondas arrived. Then came the 750-four and the Kawasaki triples - hang on, haven't we been here before, Mark?
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JBG
Maybe it was because the Leaders were 2-strokes, and sounded a bit buzzy compared with the Nortons and Triumhs.
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Well I did say I'd stop but then if it's a new thread...
The Ariel "Bleeder" as it was known in the agency where I worked was the absolute epitome of the decline of the UK motorcycle industry. It was a disaster. Every single one came back under guarantee, invariably because of the Wipac electrical system.
The Ariel Arrow was a slimmed down version of the Bleeder, slightly more tolerated because it didn't have the bathtub fairing junk hanging off it.
My foreman used to say after working on a Bleeder he was almost glad to come across a BSA Dandy... Our mechanics hated all of them because the build quality was quite simply appalling.
Radio Caroline on 199 and Big L on 266 with that great playout signature music. Tony Windsor "Hell-o" and the Big L Fab Forty plus John Peel's Perfumed Garden, not to mention Swingin' Radio England.... Radio One after that was for wimps.
I had a mate who used to import used American cars from Belgium: I had in succession a 1951 Chevy Fleetline, a 1954 Studebaker Champion, a 1954 Mercury Monterey and ....wow a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere with the rocketship fins (read the novel "Christine" and you'll know the one, four button auto gearshift on the dash.
Anyway in the trunk when he brought them over on the ferry he used to store dismantled used Belgian police Harley Davidsons. Brought 'em in as parts so presumably les or no duty. He had quite a rep for rebuilding and customizing them. Highlight was when no less than Roy Orbison bought one of his customs and came over to take delivery. Meeting the Big O was really something: a real gentleman, quiet and unassuming. We sat enraptured as he regaled us with his tales of Johnny Cash, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis et al in the rockabilly days of Sun Records in Memphis where they all got started. None of these guys was anybody, they used to drop by to spend their own money for studio time and cut a few acetates for friends.
Magic.
Now then, the Simca Aronde circa 1957. Very pretty car. Borrowed my friend Pete's version for a date. Column change, bit French and thus tricky. Broke it at the Black Horse at Patcham on a cold November night. Date less than amused (we had to hitch). Pete distinctly irritated.
The 98 cc Capriolo OHC motorbike c. 1960. A superb little bike which was built like a watch and sold for I think about 100 pounds. We sold loads of these as second bikes but saw them all coming back after two thousand miles of thrashing Italian engineering produced the inevitable.
Who has ridden a Kawasaki transverse 6-cyl 1380cc? Stupefying straight line power with complete incompetence on corners. Or Honda's attempt at an automatic CB750 (try and find a mechanic to work on that one).
Just remind that next BMW salesman in his Armani suit how his co used to make Isetta bubble cars and sell them for 299 pounds in 1960! We used to blank off the reverse so motorcycle licence holders could drive them, and their aircooled motors were good for about 5000 miles before they dropped a valve. They were assembled in the old locomotive works at Brighton Station and I used to go and pick them up. An automotive abortion if ever there was.
...babes what are you doing are you EVER coming to bed?
OK Ok just five more minutes ...
outta here
G.
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>>Does anyone remember the Ariel Leader
Yes I remember them our village policemen had one, it was always breaking down. We used to ride past him on our bikes taking the micky.
VD5D.
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Mum driving Cortina full of kids, stopping at village shop for icecreams, the oblong blocks of vanilla in their own paper that you had to unwrap and stick in an oblong icecream cone.
Stewpot's request show and every week playing "my Brother" by Terry Scott.
The Yamaha FS1E. I was not allowed one, but instead had to make do with a Puch maxi (27 mph with my head down on the handlebars)
Tiny local Magistrates courts.
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Having two passengers in the back of a Hillman Imp and being able to lift the front up with your hands !
National Benzole - "Gold Warrior" on a blue background.
"Jet" petrol being a penny cheaper than the rest.
String-backed, tanned-leather driving gloves.
Starting handles on the front of the Morris Minor.
"Kurust" - grey stuff in a white pot my dad swore by. Do they still do it ?
Champion spark pugs - 4 for a quid.
Wherever you went on holiday, you had to go through Kidderminster !!
Owd Bill Motors in Skipton - 4 galls Esso Extra for 19/6d
Underseal !!
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Having two passengers in the back of a Hillman Imp and being able to lift the front up with your hands !
Not if you carried out the standard boy racer mod of replacing the spare wheel with a bag of cement to improve the handling !
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
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Zoom and strawberry mivvi (when really lucky!) ice lollies from the corner shop.
Tiswas and Saturday swap shop
Wanting an Austin Princess (I was about 6) but then deciding I'd rather have a rover sd1.
Petrol used to smell like proper petrol, filling up on a Saturday morning at Fryers garage. Attended by some chap with slicked back hair and glasses (can't remember his name but he was there for aeons).
The dog being allowed to sit in the front passenger seat with my Dad while me and my mum were relegated to the back of the car.
Having to stop several times on the way down to Devon in our old cavalier, even though the heater was on full, as my dad decided it was a good idea to remove the fan to gain a few extra hp.... he's still annoyed he can't do this to his diesel xantia.
My dad getting the back end out in the peugeot 504 on a snowy morning while taking me to school....
teabelly
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First car was a white Mini Cooper (circa 1965), with wheel spacers to increase the track, minilite wheels, screw on wheel arches, a peco exhaust which bottomed everytime you went over a bump in the road. Airosol window tint which used to rub off. Trying to get 6 up to go to a rock concert. Great days!
Went on the Friends Reunite website last week and got in touch with an old girlfried who used to be my "co-driver" in the above car, we have exhanged photos etc. Now my wife hardly speaks to me now, isn't life great!!
Cheers VD5D.
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I thought that village policemen had LE Velocettes?
Brian
Still learning (I hope)
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>I thought that village policemen had LE Velocettes?
No definitely an Aerial Leader.
VD5D.
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I've only been on a Leader, as a passenger, once.
IIRC the performance wasn't anything to write home about, after all it was only a 250cc, but it was smooth and comfortable compared to the normal run of four stroke singles which abounded at the time and the faired in style was a major innovation (and probably what put "real" bikers off it).
Brian
Still learning (I hope)
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Not altogether so. LE Velos ridden with standard police helmets were not unknown, indeed Worthing even boasted a lady PC on one. Quite what they did apart from burbling around looking authoritative I never knew, since our bikes could show them a clean pair of heels anytime. But then they all knew us and where we lived so it probably didn't matter anyway ("OK sonny, a megaphone silencer on an Enfield 500 might look alright on the Isle of Man, but I have to deal with residents' complaints about the noise. Now then, are you going to take it off or do I have to talk to my Sergeant....?")
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LE Velocettes they were.
Regards.
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Swallow Gadabouts,Martin before LE and then Francis Barnetts after?.
DVD
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Probably a bit of both Mark. Does anyone remember the Ariel Leader. I always fancied one but couldn't afford it. "Real" bikers always said they were naff and next to useless. Perhaps I was a mod at heart cos I ended up with a Lambretta 150.
Oh yes! Round my way, about 95% of all bikes were Leaders - then they all disappeared and I have never seen one in decades.
Did they all fall apart within months of each other?
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The Leader, oh yes....
My brother had one and an Arrow (no cladding) for the summer, and was happy until he could get a Honda, which admittedly was better - but then that was better than everything. A tuned Arrow did quite well in IOM one year.
Tomo
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and the Ariel Arrow. Advertising slogan: "I'm thrilled to the marrow with my Ariel Arrow". Actually a couple of very good little bikes. Very popular with the (then) not quite so Old Bill.
bax
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