The Barry Sheene helmet

In 1977 my brother and i visited South Shields, near Newcastle England. When we were there we wanted to get some motorcycle gear, cooler and cheaper than home in Norway. We went to Westgate road, The Hill, in Newcastle who were packed with (still is) motorcycle shops. I got myself a Lewis leather jacket with fringes (!) and a white Sprint full face helmet. The Sprint helmet costed £ 17. In all of the shops in The Hill there was only one Barry Sheene helmet for sale. But the price! £ 50! That was more than double the price of  my helmet.

We went back to South Shields with only one set of gear. But my brother could not sleep that night, and in the morning founds where found and money was sent with a friend going to Newcastle.

Well...He still has his helmet......mine is long gone...

 

The AGV helmet has not seen much use.....If you thought you saw Barry Sheene in Sandefjord late seventies early eighties.....I don`t think it was him.

I recently saw Jeff Decker posted photos of his "real" Sheene helmet on his blog: 

http://jeffdeckerstudio.blogspot.com/2011/01/barry-sheene.html

This is a book well worth reading.

Did you know that Barry’s father was importer of Bultaco TSS road racers to England? And that Barry started his road racing carrier braking in and testing TSS racers before they were delivered to customers?

In the photo a young Barry with his father and Mr. Bulto.

Suzuki is the brand that Sheene is mostly connected to.

Barry Sheene was a devoted smoker. I have read that he even drilled a hole in the helmet so he could smoke close up to the start of a race. I don`t know if that`s story is true.

Barry Sheene returned to the circuits on a Manx Norton doing well at Classic Racing.

Ariel HT 5 for sale.

Paul Sr with a decent bike…..For sale on EBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120685102526&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Swedish auto jumble.

We could not go to Sweden just to pick up an exhaust pipe.  We had heard about an auto jumble In Örebro…..The saying was that it is a god place to find motorcycle parts…..Luckily I had made some appointments and deals before we went. The only thing I bought on the market was a cup of coffee. But then again you never know….

Some interesting engines.

A “cable remote” Lotus made me stop.  I managed to tear myself from it when I saw the price tag.

The trip took 24 hours…..4 hours on a ferry….12 hours driving… 4 hours sitting/sleeping in the car….3 hours at the jumble….1 hour eating…

Rusty pipe.

Where do you find a 1933 OK Supreme exhaust pipe? Well there are not many OK dealers left.....But there are still some people who master the art of pipe bending. We went to Sweden last weekend to pick up the pipe. Thank`s Anders for a job well done

The metal worms have been feeding......

Vespa toolbox accessories?

Just to keep that Rockers vs Mods thing going....

Men`s file....

Got a thick brown envelope in the mail today....

Cool photos, vintage style, stuff you did not know you wanted......but the most important thing..........vintage motorcycles.....Get your copy at Southsiders:

 http://southsiders-mc.blogspot.com/2011/02/mens-file-issue-4.html

A dirty book is rarely dusty.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

Garage scenes 4

….And now to something totally different….A home made BSA, small and narrow. I don`t think I have ever seen anything like it.

 

The engine is mostly 1971 lightning and so are the wheel hubs.

BSA had a model called the Wasp; this one has wasp colors for sure.

The BSA Lightning engine was powerful for its day. So a small and light the bike is now, it have a lot of sting to keep up with traffic.

It`s impressive to know that it only took four months to build this bike, without catalogue parts…..

Garages scenes 3

The reason for the weekends garage visitations was this HD flathead 750cc engine. We wanted to have a look at some of the parts before they finished the engine.

A new hotter cam

Flathead porting.

Longer stroke demands new pistons.

Size does matter........