aawil

hi deryk why no pictures of the fantic outfits that we built and had great fun on if you are short i can probably dig out some shots from my old collection keep up the good work , will

hi rob give norman at njb shocks a ring,, over the years he has supplied me with shocks for most of the outfits i have built and ridden he always seems to come up with the goods at a reasonable cost ,he used to be the top man at girlings so really does know how to set up suspension, good luck with the outfit . will.

great deryk low handlebars a race tuned triumph engine and welsh rocks you cant beat it , keep ;looking at the picture of the greeves outfit and i am sure it was brian letheridge, who bought a lighter outfit toward the end of his riding days ,met mossman at the beamish trial last year who passed on the news that brian and his cigarettes has passed away, keep up the good work , will.

deryk a bit more about the jack mathews picture, its not one of the fairbrothers ,the passenger who;s name i cant remember (john) later bought the victor after the sad loss of jack an old friend who taught me a lot about s/cars when i first. started, and continued riding it with andy hay as passenger, you should reconise the guy starting up the bike to ride it out of the section ,i believe the caption you used in orr at the time was you were amazed at the service the aa could provide , i used to ride in a bright yellow aa waterproof suit , mary always complained that the reflective material played havoc with her camers settings , cheers,, will.

hi deryk a bit late but here goes ,jack mathews is exiting stage left after throwing his victor outfit over is head for about the fith time that day the lads all jumped in to clear the section,his language was quite colorful, alan browns passenger was martin bracey , who rode with me in the year that i was without a passenger keep up the great s/car pics make me feel young again. will hawkes

i may be a bit late in adding my bit but here goes ,my first bike was i 1966 greeves and progressed through ariel ht bsa b40 , b44 triumph 500 , mz 250 cotton wassell 125 saracen 150 fantic bultaco loads of home made specials ,have ridden in most events from club to british championship with some success over the years i have noticed that sections got harder to take marks of of the so called experts, the pre 65 or classic trials were nearly extinct it felt until a certain gentleman i think got talking to the lads from yorkshire , who ran the shawford shake trial for old bikes and thea classic series of trials to suit the old original bikes was started with great results,many thanks to deryk for this but over the years trick bikes crept in , and to some of us it was getting harder and more dangerous, i still ride and like to do well ,but riding a rigid 600 panther that is ideal for original events does not work at the talmag sitting rocking on the crankcase at the top of most sections is fun at first but gets a bit anoying, so i have built a lighter panther , with hindsight make the section to suit the original bikes ,no need to have different routes if the trick bike and rider turns up and finds that a good rider on a std old trialler can beat him . he will soon either go and ride in a !modern PRE65 event! or get a std old bike to ride i will keep riding an old panther ,but have just aquired a 1969 greeves so i will be back where i started 47 years ago,the odd thing is that all of the bikes have had s/cars attached as a road racing injury in 1966 left my left leg badly damaged, but what fun i have had , will

i have used rear hydralic system on a few bikes over the years worked great on a triumph mettise trials outfit back in the eighties and have just modified a panther rear drum this seems fine as well , it does make for a very efficent self adjusting brake. aa will.

i have a contact who has new wide ratio gear sets for burman boxes , i have fitted both of the panther outfits with them, give me a call on 01362 667 895 if you are interested will.

hi charlie just back from the beamish long distance trial the first run out on the big panther outfit goes and handles great so next year i will be back riding so put me down for it , if you get to the talmag next january i will have a chat about old times. will hawkes.

hi have a word with the allaways at jamsport i believe that they are in surrey , the whole family have been involved with sidecar trials for years i even sold them one of the ex works fantic outfits back in the early eighties, but why not build a pre 65 outfit and come out to play with the real **********s after a phone call from one of my old competitors from the early championship days , i am now on a diet and the rigid panther 650 outfit is nearing completion i think it must be the thirty third i have built over the years so a few easy trials this year , then a full sammy miller championship in 201 for, a final mad fling befor i get to old .good luck with your outfit will hawkes.

hi it was not unusual for works bikes to end up with the same reg nos , a few years ago when i was devolping the fantic outfits one of our first big events was the inter centre team trial held near banbury , although we rode for different centres at one group of sections we parked the three outfits in a row ,a well respected journalist (the late rafe venables) called me over as he had noticed they all had the same reg no a quick check on the tax discs , i had the original but the others were duplicates , roy carey (the fantic importer )declined to comment.if charlie wants some info on 60s-70s chairs i can assist having built most of the ones i have ridden over the years including the first fantic for the factory in italy,the latest being on a 1953 panther last year on which i have just ridden the talmag, my first outing for 7 years will hawkes.

finally been dragged into the 21st century and begining to learn how this computer works i am new to this sort of thing .but having ridden trials sidecars for the last 30 years , from club level to british championship level i thought that i could offer help and advice if it was needed , i am just finishing a panther trials outfit to have some fun outings on , will