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quote:
Originally posted by anacortesdamp
Bob:
I'd love to have one of the Norton Commando protoypes, which I spent many hour testing, to join your rides. Unfortunately, I'm getting too old (almost 70) for bikes any more and re-arranging my synapses to ride on the other side of the street after 43 years in th US would be too much. Also, a 3500-mile airplane ride is more than I'm willing to tackle, just for a bike ride.
BTW, my favorite test run, once the Commando was fairly reliable, was M6 from Wolverhampton to Levens Bridge, then into the Lakes, over Hardnose and Wrynott passes into Ambleside, then up throug Keswick to pick up the cross country A road (A686?)from Penrith to Scoth Corner, down the A1 to about Nottingham and then back across the Midlands to the Wolverhampton factory. It was a n 8-hour shift!Needless to say, that was before the 70 limt came in!
Good luck
Frank Damp
ex-Leylander
former Norton-Villiers test engineer.
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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You were obviously faster on a motor bike than you were in Balshaw's sports!!
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Damn right Derek. I hate "sports" with a psssion (unless they have some mechanised vehicle involved) and decided to make a statement at Balsahw's how dumb I though the whole thing was. My best trick was on those awful after school cross coutry runs. I knew the teachers (particularly Stan Black) would have to stay behind until the last "runner" got back. One day, I managed to spin it out to 6:20 pm. I'd actually been home during the run for a drink and to listen to the Goon Show! We lived near the Cross at the time. I turned right at the exit from Vicars Fields and walked home.
About the only school sport I had any aptitude for was cricket. I'm right-handed, so whether bowling or batting I was facing the opponent primarily using my left eye. That one is 20/500. I couldn't see the ball until it went by my head and I had no idea where the batsman I was bowling to was - he was just one of a number of white blobs off in the distance. Of course Mr. Brown and his followers never even checked for physical deficiencies that were potentially dangerous.
We weren't allowed to wear our glasses because of the danger of breaknig the glass lenses. I figure the danger for me of not being able to see beyond about a foot in front of my face was a damn sight more dangerous!
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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I seem to remember that you were quite adept at hanging from the ropes in the gym, desperately trying to keep your feet of the ground, as Brown circled menacingly with a stick!!
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I just can't believe how they got away with what they did, the bent b...ds!
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A lad in our class, Clive Britton I think, actually had medicine balls thrown at him by Brown as he hung from the wallbars.
