> On 21 Mar 2017, at 2:45 pm, Graham Hockingpf4366@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:

>

> Incidentally, after your accident Tony, someone has down a first class repair job for you?

>

>

Hi Graham

The bike was repaired by my mate Norm Mifsud as an insurance job - fork, footrest and brake pedal straightened, headlight, brackets and speedo replaced, repaint, new saddle (plus an unsprung pillion), new handlebar, levers, grips, footrest rubbers etc, so it’s all shiny and new. There was no damage to the engine, gearbox, frame or exhaust pipes, so it came out of pretty well, considering it hit a truck. The accident happened in a 40kmh school zone and I hit the rear tyre on the truck - so it could have been a lot worse.

Norm’s a certified repairer and has worked on these bikes for almost 50 years now. He has a mechanical engineering degree, was the mechanic at Jim Eade motorcycles in Ashfield, now retired, and he runs a small restoration workshop in his shed. I met him in 1975 after I got my first bike (a 500cc Triumph - what a surprise) and we’ve been mates since. He taught me a lot about bikes and a couple of my mates did apprenticeships with him. Norm can return a barn find basket case to showroom condition, with a balanced and blueprinted engine, or build a tasteful custom out of it. There are plenty of Norm built Triumphs, BSAs and Nortons running around that are better than new.

Recently he’s been a bit overwhelmed with demand so he’s mainly working on “mates’ bikes” these days (he has lots of mates), people who ride ‘em not hide ‘em. Like me, he reckons people who buy bikes to hoard and speculate with should find some other interest, like antique clocks, or stamp collecting, and leave the bikes to the riders.

And if anyone reckons my bike isn’t relevant, remember it was on the road at the time the O car in Noel’s Abbotsford terminus photo was still in service, so is a direct link from the original tramway era in Sydney to the present one. It was on the road two years before the last R1 was delivered for that matter - does anyone else have a vehicle that’s used nearly every day that can claim that ?

Tony G

Here are some before-and-afters :