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Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:34 am
by Warwick Biggs
The champion hardly anybody talks to... Carl Fogarty

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:35 am
by Warwick Biggs
Another rather lonely champion - Phil Read...

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:37 am
by Warwick Biggs
Read

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:43 am
by Warwick Biggs
And finally your blogger, yours truly. The bike was borrowed from a trusting acquaintance (was he mad?) and taken over Snaefell at speed 2 up which is why it came back with a few scrapes on the fairing. Those mountain bends are fast. 120-140mph if you can string them together well. The Thunderace wasn't that fast but averaging over the 'ton' from the Gooseneck to Craig ny Baa 2 up was a nice Sunday run. Look at the grin...

R.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:35 am
by swarrans
Blimey it's one thing being the rider but the passenger must be seriously deranged!!

Simon

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:42 am
by Warwick Biggs
She must be because she still hangs around and I can't really figure out why.

R.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 6:10 am
by Warwick Biggs
And here is the lady in question, Ms Thompson also the photographer on many of the pics on this site. The other person is my old mate, bikie, photographer and helping hand in the pits from the 70's, John. This pic snapped at the end of the 2016 International Island Classic after a challenging meeting. I think we were all happy to be heading home.

Incidentally this year the Poms have run true to form and done a Brexit. The UK team led by Roger Winfield have pulled out of the International Challenge in a hissy fit after they were beaten last year by almost everybody. Well the Oz crew anyway. The excuse is the ban on Avgas that they rely on to make their over heated motors run at all (between blow ups). No doubt they blame the Europeans as it started with the FIM but even tho' the UK is a small island off the coast of the European continent, has nobody told them that most of the rest of the world banned leaded fuel years ago? And 7 engines per rider is profligate waste. And they still couldn't win.

Sorry to my UK friends but things seem to be going a bit awry in Blightey.

And guess what? Our local entry fees have dropped by a factor of 60% which gives creedence to the rumours that local racers were subsidising the likes of Jeremy McWilliams to come over with their faux 'historic' hotrods. Too bad, too sad. creates an opportunity for British clubman racers with genuine historic racers to fill the breach. Entries are open folks....

R.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:50 am
by Syscrush
Warwick Biggs wrote:The champion hardly anybody talks to... Carl Fogarty
It could be because I bought my first bike in 2000, but whatever the reason, I'll always love Foggy. He just exuded intensity every moment he was anywhere near a track, and he had the results to show for it.

Thanks again for sharing, I always love these updates with the photos and backstories.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:35 pm
by cbxmel
Thanks for the pictures. great to see my old friend Phil Read. Not seen him for around a year. I was his bank manager for five years before I retired. He would tell me many a great story about his racing career.
Mel #1876 :auto-sportbike: :flags-wavegreatbritain: :flags-canada: :flags-usa: :flags-australia:

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:53 pm
by cbxmel
Warwick,

Thought this might interest you. Mel#1876

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:55 pm
by cbxmel
Warwick,

Thought this might interest you. Mel#1876 Phil with the F4 MV gave him as a belated thankyou.

Mel #1876

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 11:41 pm
by Warwick Biggs
Phil Read was part of the 'hand to mouth' generation of racers. The riders then were chasing start money and the promoters were often scoundrels. There were no multi million $ factory or power drink contracts nor massive motor homes, insurance or any other financial incentives beyond a 'piss up' at the end of the racing. In the 60's and 70's there was no such thing as a 'racing career'. You considered yourself lucky if you could scrounge a set of pistons from a dealer.

When racers of his era were paid it was often in crumpled handfulls of cash that had to be smuggled out of whatever country they were in (sometimes behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War), sometimes in shoe boxes full of zlots that then had to be changed into a negotiable currency. Hopefully, one that avoided the penurious UK taxes of the time. It would have been a challenge to manage, including for any rider's bank managers.

Good that the Castiglionis eventually gave Phil Read a bike with the MV logo on the tank. Riders of his era were lucky to get a race bike from the factory at the height of their fame and many relied on whatever a dealer or distributor pushed out to them. Count Augusta was never known for his overwhelming generosity. Ago continues to speak of him in deferential terms that hark back to an Italy b4 'modern' Italy came into being.

One of Read's team mates was Mike Duff, pictured in an earlier post. When he crashed his works racer when it seized in testing in Japan and shattered his pelvis the factory was not exactly supportive even tho' their undeveloped prototype immediately ended his racing career. It wasn't like he had any sort of fall back. He was lucky to get back to Canada and some skilled surgeons or it might have been even worse. Riders like Duff had every reason to be bitter but some were luckier.

I don't seek to diminish more contemporary racers like Fogarty when I say that to my mind Read's generation and his predecessors were true champions in the sense that they were having to struggle mightily just to survive. Some world champions like John Surtees, Hugh Anderson, Ago and a few others even managed to do so with good humour and grace, if not substantial fortunes. These truly are remarkable men.

Did you enjoy the party Mel?
R.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 9:46 pm
by steve murdoch icoa #5322
Warwick Biggs wrote:Sammy Miller on the Gilera/4...
Looking for something else i came across this clip of Michael Dunlop on the Gilera 4 at the IOM.
Brave men now and even braver back then for such speeds on that course, 60 years ago. Wow!
Great sounds, the tribute ride starts at 1:08.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbX2pmV5pmw

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 1:42 am
by Warwick Biggs
Thanks Steve. They were faster than you might think but as always, it is the rider that stretches the limits of the machine.

Here is a pic of my current house guest, Miriam Orlandi on 'the lump' . Miriam is a very independent minded Italian lady who travels around the world on motorbikes, is a writer, health expert and fantastic cook. I believe she is quite famous in Italy and I can certainly attest to her culinary skills and she is pretty accomplished on the spanners too.

Re: CBX Racing

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 7:21 pm
by Warwick Biggs
Miriam's comment in her vivacious Italian accent on the CBX, "Ooh, it is very big, no?" I believe cyclone Miriam is now at the Melbourne Motorcycle Expo after leaving here in a gale under purple skies. Intrepid is the word.

I'm reliably informed that Michael Dunlop will be contesting the Island Classic International Challenge at Phillip Island in January. He will not be on a Gilera 4 tho' because the Challenge is a team race determined on points over a number of legs, all contested on Period 5 bikes. That is, the last of the air cooled superbikes. Under our rules the cut off date is 1982 so the CBX Prolink is eligible but under the special rules of the Island Classic they allow bikes up to 1984 or anything special that takes Fergus Cameron's fancy.

It does make for interesting grids tho' as last year I had Cameron Donald on the Daytona winning Irving Vincent next to me on the grid. Most of the field is made up of replicas of TZ750''s , XR69's, Harris, Mackintosh and Spondon framed CB1100R's and Katanas, Compared to these 200hp hot rods the CBX is a production road bike pussycat. I should add, a pussycat that in the right hands can still cut impressive times for a 36 year old proddy bike.

Of course the Dunlop family has experienced more than its fair share of tragedy. As Joey oft said in his soft Irish brogue, " You've got to be careful, motorcycle racing can be dangerous". Any body who has seen that classic Irish Arts Council film, 'The Road Racers' cannot fail to be impressed that all of the riders featured from the small Ulster village of Armoy were killed racing. But none of them at the Isle of Man TT, I should also add.

Miriam Orlandi is from the Lombardy comune of Brescia, a fiercely independent northern Italian city. She is very proud to claim Giacomo Agostini as a fellow Brescian and it was 'Jacko' who put the kybosh on the TT as a world championship circuit. Barry Sheene was often blamed for having the circuit removed from the GP circus but in fact it was 'Jacko', who won many TT's, who declared it too dangerous to race. Well, it is very dangerous but to my mind it is the greatest motorcycle racing circuit in the world.

It is not easy to get a TT road race licence. For a start you have to have competed in at least 6 national FIM sanctioned senior road races in the prior 12 months and finished at least 3 of them within 92.5% of the winning times. You have to pass a stringent medical and the scrutineering of first time bike and rider is rigorous and unforgiving. Because Classic or Historic racing is very competitive with many young professional racers as well as 'retired' GP and Superbike stars on bespoke specials, just qualifying is a huge challenge.

So whether 'the lump' and its ageing owner ever make it onto the grid in the middle of the Irish Sea for the classic TT is a long shot but we will see...
R.