Joep's pit bay Joep raced in Holland in the early 60's &
70's - his collection |
Graeme's pit bay lots of old bikes here |
Team
GBA Racing A racing group that loves older vintage
racing |
Click each image for a larger one ...... |
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Photos
from
Kevin Hall in Canada...... [ original owner of pictures and Information
was Jonathan Glover ] |
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< Left ..... Jonathan Glover is
the chap who collected all this stuff features here in the Exeter
Trial of March, 1959, with his Dayton sidecar rig. The piece was in
the March edition of Scooter and Three Wheeler |
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At Right ...... >
These clippings outline Jon's win of the Watsonian Cup at the 1959
IOM Scooter Rally on the Dayton. Also a clipping showing him winning
various club races and trials on all manner of machinery up to a
1,000cc 'special'.
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Jon also did a run in a Bond 3-wheeler with
Andre Baldet from Belgium and France to England in 24 hours. There's
press coverage in the pile about that. |
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right >
Nice shot of Bob McIntyre at Bradden Bridge in the
Island, aboard a Honda 247.
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1960 Honda RC161, with the wrong type of
rear tyre ...... |
50cc Honda Racer |
Derek Minter at Oulton Park |
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At left - some Honda wing decal transfers |
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Above ..... The Honda RC162 which Derek Minter
rode to victory in the 1962 IoM 250 cc class. The occasion is the
arrival of the bike at London Airport, after initially having been
"lost" in Bombay. The guy is an unknown employee of Honda UK. |
CR93? right side
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IOM poster from 1958
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< At left ..... A 500 Matchless
G50, and unknown rider - note the Honda decals on his lid .... Not
a highly placed rider given his racing number is 67 in both the 500
and 125's - Nice shots ...... |
Newspaper article July 4th 1962 on a 125 privateer - Tom Jackson
and his modified CB92
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Honda factory assembly line 1959 |
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Assembly line
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Cycle Assembly
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Engine carousel
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Lumps
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machining |
Paint line - Dream front fenders and tanks |
Row upon row ...... |
The works |
The plant in 1962 |
CS71
Dream Sports of 1958. Engine was basically C71, but had 20 bhp at
8400 rpm, 2 bhp more than the C71 |
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C92S 31st October 1960
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IOM Trophies with ACU certificates - unknown year
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American Model
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Left .....This is Bill Ivy, I believe, getting down to it on the
little Honda 50 at Goodwood in November 1962
According to the reports in the papers of the day, at one point
Bill was sleeping in a camp cot at the track in between his shifts,
and when they woke him he told 'em he wanted breakfast in bed and
went back to sleep. The other chaps picked him up, cot and all,
ran down the road to a restaurant and put him beside an outdoor
table there, still in bed.
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< ......Left Honda company mag cover from 1961
right .........>
I think this shot is probably outside the Houses of Parliament.
These are cb92 on the left and cb77 on the right in 1961
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Geoff Duke with a CR110 50 cc production racer in the background,
[recognisable by the shape of the tank, the paint pattern and the
small front brake]
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Filtrate price list 1957
trade list
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50cc in the pits for fueling during 7 day and 7
night endurance run, Goodwood, November 1962
This is a c102 - electric start 50cc step-through,
1961
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above ....Geoff Duke (far left) and
Jonathan Glover at the Honda booth, the Earls Court show, London in
1962. This is the first time Honda had displayed their complete model
range at Earls Court |
1958 manx TT poster - the only known one in existance, dated by
a covering letter to Jonathan from the Manx Tourist Board, which
is dated '58 with the same June dates on it in regard to this poster
and the event.
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1961 Isle of man TT poster
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< Left .... This shot
is from the early to mid 60s I think. The two girls were to become
the wives of my 2 cousins near Manchester. The Norton is the ' 59
Model 50 I rode while I was there in ' 70, but by the time I got hold
of it it wasn't in this sort of condition. I believe the other is
an Enfield. You can imagine the pain of the riding position on the
Norton with dropped bars but no rearsets. |
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< Left .... 1966 Aermacchi
250. Kevin's in 1979, now alas in someone elses' stable. Lovely little
thing. The photo is the only one I have of it |
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Old Brochure |
Old Brochure |
Mag cover sheet
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Old Brochure
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inside a Honda Mag. |
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The Honda Race team pennant |
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1961 Manx decals
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The Honda race team hats, worn by the race team crew and seen in
loads of the pics of the IOM etc. from the early 60s.
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CB77 and C77 brochure - [on the reverse of the Steve Lawrence
image shown below]
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below .... This is Steve Lawrence
on top of Mt. Snowdon on the Trail 55 (CE105H). Jonathan helped organize
this stunt and photographed it for the press. Steve was a scrambler
of the day, and a bit of a wild man. Well known among the bike fraternity
for once having met a car coming the wrong way up a one way street
while he was messing about on his scrambler. Steve apparently lofted
the front wheel and rode over the car. Better than becoming a hood
ornament!
When the little bike was shipped to the UK, it was accompanied by
a note from the Japanese factory saying " Try this on a mountain",
so John got hold of Steve and set out for the highest peak in the
UK and climbed the 1360 feet high peak in 36 minutes! |
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nice view !! |
Shots of Steve taking on Mt Lawrence |
At right ..... This was a letter announcing
the show lineup for Blackpool, May 14th 1962. In it they mention the
climb on Snowdon by the 55 trail, and also the 3,000 mile around Britain
reliability test, in which Charles Edwin, John Norman and Bill Luscomb
rode around the country on 3 Honda 50s (C 102), visiting dealers as
they went. They averaged over 300 miles a day, finishing at Blackpool
in time to make the show opening. I have one of the plates from one
of the bikes, painted with the '3,000 Mile Reliability Test' info.
The letter goes on to mention that Albert Bennett, accompanied by
Mrs. Beryl Swain (the only woman to ever compete in a TT race; 1962,
Itom 50cc; 22nd place) would ride a C 100 from London to Blackpool
for less than 10 shillings. Not bad for 2-up on a tiddler! |
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Some Honda startup history for the UK follows below
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Further History Back Ground info - copies
of correspondence to come ...... |
Note: Comments below are all conjecture,
and open for your own interpretation, but the letters to and fro in
the old files sure seem to indicate the conclusion offered ............ |
I've been digging through bales of correspondence
tonight, trying to sort out what was going on back then. It seems
the original UK importer and distributor was Maico UK, which was reorganized
into 'Hondis' in 1962. They got the bikes from European Honda Motor
Trading G.m.b.H. in Hamburg.
Seems there was a good bit of rivalry between them, with the European
outfit playing tricks with spares supplies and making their own back-room
deals with British retailers, plus leaking details of upcoming models
to one of the English motoring papers in advance of Hondis getting
the info.
Any customer complaints that were sent to Honda Europe went directly
to head office in Japan, even though the majority of them that I can
see in the files were the result of the German bunch messing up spares
supplies or leaking info to the press. Looks very much like they were
trying to discredit 'Hondis' so they could take the territory for
themselves. This is all conjecture on my part, of course, but the
letters to and fro in the old files sure seem to indicate friction.
The attempts by Hondis to secure contracts with Gary Hocking, Minter
etc, are interesting reading as well. It seems Hocking had been let
go by Castrol, and about to sign with Shell when approached by Hondis.
Honda however were contracted to use only Castrol Oil in their race
bikes, so it meant Hocking couldn't ride for them if he signed with
Shell. |
The rivalry I'm talking about was not between the Japanese and
Europeans. It was between Honda Europe, based in Hamburg, and Hondis
(the UK distributors). The guys in the German office seemed to be
deliberately trying to screw things up for the English distributors
by withholding spares that were badly needed, denying access to
race bikes that they had on hand until it was very nearly too late
for the race, and generally trying to raise trouble for the British
outfit with the Japanese head office.
Seemed odd to me, as the head lad at Hondis was a George von Lowenstein
or some such Germanic handle. The bikes all seemed to have to go
through Honda Europe, then get shipped on from there to Britain.
While Hondis were supposed to have exclusive distribution rights
in the UK, there are letters of complaint on file from the managing
directors of Kings of Oxford. They were of course the largest motorcycle
dealers in Britain at the time; Mike Hailwoods' fathers' outfit.
Old Stanley Hailwood had just stepped down as managing director
then. Apparently Kings' were a chain operation with huge sales,
and they had no information about the new Honda 50 models at all
until one of their much smaller competitors in Cheshire started
selling the things.
The Cheshire outfit had been supplied directly from Hamburg, while
Hondis, the UK distributors were unable to supply the same machines
to their main network of retail outlets. Needless to say the folks
at Kings were less than pleased, and making unpleasant noises about
abandonning the line.
At the same time, someone at the European Honda outfit in Hamburg
leaked details of the next model years' racing bikes to one of the
weekly bike papers. That infuriated all the other papers, of course,
which jeopardized Hondis' relationship with the motoring press,
and also detered a number of customers who had placed orders for
the current model years' bikes. Several opted to cancel those standing
orders and wait until the new models were released, leaving Hondis
holding the bag for the current years' models on hand and embarassing
all concerned.
While all this was going on, large back-orders of spare parts for
Hondis in the UK were ignored and left unfilled for weeks by European
Honda in Hamburg. When the retail customers wrote letters of complaint
directly to European Honda because they thought the delay was the
fault of Hondis in England, the Euro. mob were only too happy to
forward the letters of complaint directly to head office in Japan,
creating a bad situation for the folks at Hondis.
Reading through the correspondence back and forth between Hondis,
European Honda and Japan it looks very much like the folks in Hamburg
were deliberately trying to discredit Hondis in order to gain the
British market for themselves. Seems a normal business technique
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Interestingly enough, we've just come across
a Christmas card sent to Jon in 1957 by Mr. Neuchi, the chap who later
ran European Honda Motor Trading. This pre-dates the initial contact
between Honda in Japan and Maico G.B. in 1959, so Jonathan must have
been in correspondence with the firm long before the establishment
of the UK dealer network. |
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< Left .... Here's the ad Honda put in Motor Cycling
on Sept. 17, 1959, looking for a local distributor.
Right .........>
Here's the initial contact between Maico Great Britain
(G.von Loewenstein the Director of Maico, G.B. Ltd.) dated 12th
October 1959 in response to the ad approx. 3 weeks earlier.
After getting the distribution rights Maico became
'Hondis' .........
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And here is the extraordinary handwritten response to Maico G.B.
from Hondas' representative, K. Ishikawa, dated 25th November 1959.
As a result of this series of events, Maico G.B. became concessionaires
for Honda in Britain and introduced the line through their existing
network of Maico dealers.
I'm starting to see the origin of some of the apparent friction
that came later. Other documents indicate that once Maico G.B. got
the ball rolling and the manqué had achieved some level of
acceptance in the U.K. Honda Japan then announced that they were
setting up their own European division based in Hamburg, under the
direction of this same Mister K. Ishikawa. That would be about '61
I believe.
Of course G. von L. and the boys at Maico would be less than pleased
at having to deal with the new European division after they'd done
the initial introductory work and set Honda up through their own
already existing dealer network. The chaps at Honda Europe, Ishikawa
etc, would likewise be tempted to think they no longer needed Maico,
and should have access to the British market themselves. This had
to lead to friction between the two groups. To add spice to the
mix, by about 1962 alarm bells were ringing in the headquarters
of the British bike manufacturers and they were doing their level
best to prevent the importation of Japanese products into the UK
by lobbying their M.P.s and trying to scuttle the Anglo-Japanese
trade agreement.
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< left ..... The Accepted Maico
to 'Hondis' name switch October 25th 1961 by Honda European - as mentioned
before based in Germany |
At left .....>
The formal contract letter to Maico October 16th
1959
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G.von Loewensteins' letter dated 17th November 1961
to Honda - Querying if further race development was being done on
the CB92 full race kits - as the bikes were too slow when fully
reefed out ....
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above .... The acknowledged end of
Hondis as an agent dated October 31st 1962 by G. Von Loewenstein.
Honda UK appeared to start up at about this time ....... |
Here we can see something has happened rather quickly, and Hondis
notifies their dealers they (Hondis) will no longer handle distribution
as of the day following the letter.
In future, Honda UK, operating out of Kingston on Thames ( a London
suburb ) will handle all sales etc. On the second page we see that
due to road tax regulations or some such red tape, some paperwork
will bear the name 'Hondis' into early 1963, which accounts for
some references to the company that I have seen in that year. In
reality, it appears they just folded up their tent and faded into
the night.
It is interesting to note that the original agreement covered only
the importation of the 250 and 305 bikes in 1960, then the agreement
was for everything under 100cc's with the exception of the Benlys,
then they did want the Benlys.
Distribution for Northern Ireland was an exception, and was handled
by Artie Bell, the old TT rider over there. In the beginning Maico
did their best to wangle a commission on all units shipped to and
sold by Bell, but the Japanese weren't daft enough to go for that.
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I hope this helps to put together a useful chronology. This letter
clears the waters a bit for me. Jonathan started working for Honda
in 1962, and always worked out of the Kingston on Thames address.
We have no idea how he had the files from the earlier two outfits,
unless perhaps Honda bought the whole shooting-match.
There is lengthy correspondence from the early period in which
Geo. von Loewenstein explains at length to the Japanese how the
motorcycle business is run in the UK, what the regulated profit
margins are at each level, etc. etc. There is a lot of stuff here,
and I'll get it all scanned and sorted in the end, but it is going
to be a helluva job. As for the Japanese chaps who were involved,
it seems Mr. Neuchi was first over to scout the Euro markets etc.,
meet with Maico, and report back to Japan. Mr. Ishikawa appears
to be the head lad at Honda Europe, and Mrs. Glover refers to Mr.
Ishikawa as "Jonathans' boss". He appears as ' directing manager'
( Managing Director?) of European Honda in Hamburg as early as Oct.
1961. All quite fasinating .....
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< left ..... A letter to Jon from Richard Wyler an American
Racer and writer for Motorcycling dated 8th February 1963
At right ..... >
300 Mile technical service sheet for the C92, CB92,
C72 & CB72
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1963 C102 parts list
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1963 C102 parts list
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1960 125 / 150 Manual
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CB72 - 77 Brochure
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CB72 - 77 Brochure
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The man with his hand up, waving to the crowd,
is Bob McIntyre, after winning the 1957 Jubilee Isle of Man TT 500
cc class, for the first time in history lapping at over 100 mph on
the Gilera four. Earlier in the week he had won the 350. Standing
next to him is his mother, and next to her Gilera's race mechanic
Giovanni Fumagelli, who was Duke's race mechanic, and later Bob Mac's.The
man in the black leathers bending down next to the MV with nr. 64
is John Surtees, who came in second |
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IOM Trophy Presentation
Motor Cycle Illustrated vinyl sticker
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In reading about the '57 TT to figure out who's who I discovered
an interesting tidbit. Since that was the Jubilee year for the
TT they ran it at 8 laps, longest ever, Bob Mac broke the first
100 mph lap on his Gilera. A bit further on in the book something
else caught my eye.
The one and only woman to ever compete in a TT was Mrs. Beryl
Swain, 1962 on a 50cc Itom. She came 22nd. This is the same lady
who rode in the Honda 50cc endurance run at Goodwood with Ivy
and Dave Degens and that lot. There are pictures of her in that
event in this mess to.
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This is a little photo album of the TT, no year. Its about 4" long,
closed. There are 11 pics of guys like Duke, Anderson, Bob Mac.,
Hailwood, Jack Brett, Surtees etc. on everything from NSUs, Mondails,
Notruns, to the MVs. Nifty. Put out by Motor Cycling, called "Stars
in Action".
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Honda Xmas card
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CT110 Brochures |
CT110 Brochures |
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C110 brochure
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50 Brochure |
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1962 / 1963 50, 55 and 90 Brochure |
An add for 50's
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< Left ..... Feb. 1961 .... Lloyd Chapman with his Honda
special 125cc engine mounted in a BSA Bantam frame - this set a
new Australian class time for the quarter mile at Kalgoorie, WA.
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Honda Lube diagram
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Right .............. > From Honda Mag. May 1964 .... Interesting
to see how Honda had virtually taken over the market by 1963. These
are production figures for various manufacturers for Jan. 1963.
Also a surprise to see how few Lilacs were being made. I've heard
of them on and off over the years, but never actually seen one
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Photos of Honda Marshalling bikes for the
Blackpool Milk run Cycle race |
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Honda cloth crest |
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This is the sign which was on the 250 four
displayed at JAL offices during TT week |
These tickets were for a showing of Honda
films |
"E" in emblem, for European Honda - cloth
crest |
1935 Velocette |
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1937 Coventry Eagle Pullman |
1938 Vincent
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1937 OK Supreme cover
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Francis Barnet cover
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< At left ..... Mobil Advertising
Handbook on motorcycles - it worked like a pretend riders' reference.
How to lube your chain (using Mobil), pack your bearings, (Mobil),
maintain your engine (all they need is lashings of Mobil, lubricate
your saddle and grips, etc .... Neat though. |
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1964 TD-1
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