The International Classic Bike Show has landed, at the Staffordshire County Showground, and there was plenty to see and do.
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00:00That's what I'll do.
00:05Hey, Paul.
00:06I'm a fish-fartic club today.
00:09How are you, lads? You OK?
00:13We're good, thanks. Having a good time.
00:15So, you represent a particular club. What's the club called?
00:17It's called the Christie Motorcycle Association.
00:20So, how long have you been going as an association?
00:23You've got me there a lot longer than I have.
00:25Many years.
00:26Yeah. It started in America.
00:28Yeah.
00:28Big branches in South Africa.
00:33Now, there's clubs in a lot of countries in Northern Europe.
00:39So, yeah, you come from Staffordshire, Shropshire Club.
00:41We've got a club, yeah.
00:42We cover kind of Southern Cheshire, Shropshire, Henry and Lambas, really.
00:48Yeah, yeah. Nice one.
00:50Well, enjoy your day, lads, and thanks for bringing you to the play.
00:53Cheers, guys.
00:56Hello, William. How are you doing?
00:58I'm all right, thank you. How are you?
00:59I'm good, thank you, bud.
01:00So, you represent Motorcycle Magazine.
01:03Yes.
01:03And we've got a rather special bruff here, haven't we?
01:05Just fill us in on who was it that graced the saddle of this one.
01:09So, Lawrence of Arabia has graced this 1929 JTOR SS100 Roadster.
01:17Yeah.
01:18So, it was the cross superior.
01:21And friends of Lawrence, Mrs. G. Bernard Shaw, funded the purchase of the machine.
01:28Wow.
01:28And Lawrence kept the machine until March 1932.
01:32Awesome.
01:33And he traded it for the GW2275.
01:36So, the machine was restored 10 years ago by Tony Cripps, current owner.
01:41Great.
01:41It is a special machine.
01:43Indeed.
01:44Thank you, sir.
01:44Salt class was a terrifying experience.
02:04But a wonderful thing.
02:05All right, so, I get this call one day.
02:07I'm sitting in the office.
02:09This geyser goes, hello, is that Henry Cale?
02:13I go, yes.
02:14He goes, I just wonder whether I'm the boss of Brock Superior.
02:19I said, oh, all right, okay.
02:21Would you be interested in coming to do a land speed record at Bonneville Salt class?
02:27I went, have you got the right Henry Cale?
02:29Because honestly, I'd be crapping myself if that was the case.
02:33He says, no, no, and I want you to make a documentary about it.
02:37I said, all right, I'll do that.
02:41So, he said, there's this long-haired friend of Jesus down in Cornwall who's building a
02:48Brock Superior for us.
02:51I said, who's that?
02:52He said, it's a bloke called Sam Lovegrove.
02:55So, I go, oh, I suppose I'd better go and meet him then.
02:58So, to cut a long story short, I went down to Cornwall, met Sammy.
03:03We got a lot of house on fire.
03:04And he was building for Mark Uppen, this 750, because I think Mark had a very rare 750
03:12lump on the shelf, right?
03:14He was building, Sammy was building the bike to go with it, if you see what I mean.
03:18Anyway, cut another long story short.
03:20We tested it a bit, and Sammy and I got on really well.
03:23And then we ended up at Bonneville, okay?
03:25And Alan Kapkar and Eric Passer were my teammates.
03:29And Alan had given me all this advice, right?
03:32Now, what I want you to do is, when you're actually riding down the salt, this is crazy.
03:41He said, just go like that, right?
03:44So, you're just really flat on the tank.
03:47I said, I can't see where I'm going then.
03:49He goes, don't worry, you can see the markers either side.
03:52So, I saw him go first.
03:54He wasn't doing that at all.
03:56Right?
03:56He was looking straight ahead, so I think he could have been winding me up.
03:59Anyway, so I'm lying there on the bike.
04:01You have to wait for five hours, okay?
04:05Because everyone's having a run of different records.
04:08So, I'm waiting for five hours in the 40 degree heat of Sammy to have a go, you know?
04:16In full black leathers.
04:18So, I'm sweating my tits off, you know what I mean?
04:21And I also, I've been thinking, well, shall I go to the loo?
04:25Do I need to go to the, yeah, you know that kind of, well, you don't have a problem, I don't.
04:29I do, because you would certainly have had to go to the loo at least twice during that five hours.
04:33Exactly.
04:34Yeah, I would have done, but there isn't that, so you've got to hold on.
04:38Anyway, so, I'm lying on the bike, right?
04:40Okay?
04:41And I've completely forgotten what anyone has ever advised me to do on this breath.
04:47Apart from Sammy said to me, just keep it at 4,800.
04:52Right?
04:52And so, that's the only thing that I remembered.
04:55And I said to him, look, I've forgotten any advice.
04:58I thought, what's it, just give me some advice for Sammy now.
05:02And he goes, just imagine that you're going to the shops to get me some jaffa cakes and I'm really hungry.
05:11And that was his advice.
05:14And then, he starts tying a little plastic toy with lock wire to the frame of the bike.
05:23And I go, what the heck is that?
05:25He goes, oh, that's Applejack.
05:27And my son Gregory wants him to go down the bottom.
05:33So, that's with me.
05:34Literally.
05:35Literally.
05:35Anyway, just as I'm really pooing myself, a bloke goes, he's got this huge, great green flag.
05:43Okay?
05:43And he goes, are you ready?
05:46And I went, no, not really.
05:48Don't think I ever will be.
05:50He goes, stand by.
05:52Okay, you're clear to go.
05:55Godspeed.
05:56And he does this with a flag, like that.
05:59Godspeed, Jesus Christ, all right.
06:02So, the thing that you mustn't do is just go for it.
06:07Because you've got a two-mile run-up.
06:10There's no need to rush.
06:11You can scuffle your fag out halfway through.
06:14Do you know what I mean?
06:15That's a large swig of coffee for her.
06:17And then hit the bottle bar.
06:19Do you know what I mean?
06:20Because you see the rookies, and they're going,
06:23It's just like, chill, man.
06:26Anyway, that's the only other bit of advice Sammy gave me that I kept to.
06:30Anyway, so, I'm there.
06:32I hit the mile marker, and I'm feeling, good, man.
06:35Everyone has told me that riding on salt is like riding on ice.
06:41Which it absolutely is.
06:43You have no front brake on it.
06:45Cool.
06:45That is stunning.
06:46You have no front brake, because obviously the first thing you're going to do, Jack, isn't it?
06:50If you get a bit of a shimmy-o or something, is touch the front brake.
06:53Well, you think I wouldn't know what it's like?
06:55I'm just one of those off-clubs.
06:57No.
06:57No.
06:58Okay, look.
07:00Anyway, so, you mustn't touch the front brake, so they take the bloody front brake off.
07:04Okay?
07:05So, anyway, I'm going on, I'm thinking, this is alright.
07:08It doesn't feel like ice at all.
07:10There's a little bit of movement in the bike.
07:12But, you know, now, Sammy said 4,800, so 4,800 it is.
07:17Come up there.
07:18Right.
07:18Hitting the mile marker.
07:19Bam!
07:204.8.
07:23And a lot of people hate that.
07:25A lot of racers.
07:26Okay?
07:27Because it's so silent.
07:28There's no one around you.
07:30There's no one trying to...
07:31You're racing against history.
07:33Do you know what I mean?
07:33Anyway, then suddenly, I think, just when I thought, I'm a man, the whole thing started
07:42going like this.
07:43Right?
07:44And it's like, like that.
07:46And I'm desperate.
07:47And it's a proper tank slapper.
07:49Okay?
07:50And what's happened is I've hit a rut.
07:52Okay?
07:53And it's sent the bottom into the most awful tank slapper.
07:58So, I'm swearing my head off in the helmet.
08:00Right?
08:01But the explosives were so bad that they couldn't use them in the show.
08:08It was proper terrifying.
08:10And I thought, normally, with a tank slapper, you try and drop a cog and open it up and try
08:15and settle it down.
08:16Yeah?
08:16But you can't at Bonneville.
08:18If you break, you're off.
08:21And if you drop a cog and it's sort of just, you know, that's a problem as well.
08:25So, you just have to hang on.
08:26Cut a long story short.
08:27I hung on.
08:28And I didn't come off.
08:30But I have to tell you, that bike, I think, sold for about $450,000 or euros after I've
08:37finished the bike.
08:38And that's the reason.
08:39I knew it was going to be about that price.
08:41But I absolutely didn't want to fall off it.
08:44Can you imagine?
08:46Hey?
08:46Henry Claw's stuff's rough.
08:48No chance.
08:49Anyway, so, this is the, it sounds really embarrassingly small.
08:54It was 98, I think, 0.98.
08:57So, I was 112 going one way.
09:00Having this far coming back.
09:02So, we've got a lovely BSA here.
09:06And we've got a lovely man by the name of?
09:08Malcolm Clarke.
09:09Where are you from, Malcolm?
09:11Lincolnshire.
09:11And this club, it's the BSA Gold Star Owners.
09:15Now, I've just found out, that's the name of the bike, isn't it?
09:17Gold Star.
09:18It is.
09:19So, you're celebrating a special year, aren't you?
09:21We are.
09:21It's 50 years of the club this year.
09:24And how long have you been coming to the Staffordshire Show?
09:26Oh, forever.
09:27Forever.
09:28Forever and ever, I mean.
09:29Yeah, and it's a good event, isn't it?
09:31Nice kind of, you know.
09:32Very good, very good.
09:33Yeah, yeah.
09:33Any particular favourite bike on the stand here that you guys have brought along today?
09:37Well, mine isn't here.
09:39So, mine is the favourite.
09:40It's at home.
09:41But there is a very old one.
09:44Yeah.
09:44That is down there.
09:47Okay.
09:47It looks a bit of a wreck, but...
09:49But in a precious way.
09:50The lady that owns it, her father bought it, and she was brought home from hospital when
09:56she was born on the back of it.
09:58On the back of the bike?
09:59Yes.
09:59Well, that doesn't happen anymore, does it?
10:01How about that?
10:01So, a nice little story.