Badgerf responds:

Oh, yeah. How about a Norton Manx 500cc thumper in a featherbed
frame,
with reverse cone muffler. A friend had one and it was my first trip
to
100 on a bike.


First bike I ever fell off, a gardengate manx, mum made dad sell it
after that, I was only 10 at the time....Got me a few BMW's down the
years, still got a '52 G80C Matchless though ;-)

Love to get hold of an old Matchless or AJS. I'm not sure what the
Gardengate version of Manx was...in the States we only got the Manx,
hairpin valve springs and all.

The friend who owned that Manx raced it at Laconia (NH) a couple of
times before things got as formal as they are now...they barely
required a helmet back then ('56, '57, '58). I don't know what happened
to the bike, and I haven't heard from Gene since he showed up at my
apartment in Albany, NY, with girlfriend (something he was never
without after about his 14th birthday), driving an old VW back from CA.
Every concealed spot on that car was filled with grass (not for sale,
though). This was about '68 or '69. He was a real wandered, by that
time a master machinist, and still crazy. He was in touch with my
mother a few times after that, but I could never catch up with him.
Then she moved.