Hello Everybody out there

Please say HELLO and tell us about yourself, your bike[s] and where you are located etc...
in-two
Diana
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:20 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by in-two »

Paddy,
I can't seem to either receive or send PMs, don't know why, my message just sits in the outbox. Anyway try my email z.zawada (at)* msz.com.pl
* use the usual symbol, this is a feeble anti spam measure.
Cheers
zed
'75 900 SS
"don't get behind on your cheating, but don't get ahead either" Cook Nielson, California Hotrod
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BevHevSteve
SITE OWNER
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Location: Lafayette, California
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Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by BevHevSteve »

zed - your PM will sit in the OUTBOX until the person you are sending it to logs in at which point they get a messages saying there is a PM and they view it (or not). It will stay there until they view it.....
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Steve Allen (925)798-BEVL[2385] Ride'm, Don't Hide'm
Ducati/Euro Spares -> https://Store.BevelHeaven.com
in-two
Diana
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:20 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by in-two »

Duh! didn't realise that the pm system worked on the Schrodinger's cat principle, the message may or may not exist depending on whether it is observed...

Cheers
zed
'75 900 SS
"don't get behind on your cheating, but don't get ahead either" Cook Nielson, California Hotrod
tobaccoblender
Diana
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:47 am
Location: Citta di Castello, Italy

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by tobaccoblender »

Zed
Did you get my email? I'm guessing not...
Paddy
KUD1980
Cucciolo - the Lil Pup
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by KUD1980 »

A friend spotted this thread recently and suggested that I read through knowing that I bought my 900ss from Oxford Motorcycle Engineers in late 1980. Brought back loads of memories, not sure how accurate they are.
I’m struggling to remember the OP but certainly remember Tim and Ed, always helpful. There was also a guy called Oliver worked there, hated being called “Ollie”. The collie dog was there, I recall he loved sticking his nose up the end of exhaust pipes when bikes were started up!

OME where on the top floor on Hythe Bridge street, Kwik Fit(?) on the ground floor and the wig factory in the middle.
The DOC used to meet just north of Oxford, at a village called Islip. In a pub called the Swan. A guy (Tim?) from OME used to attend occasionally, he also raced a 900ss(?). He turned up to one meeting clearly in a bad mood because he had left the good tank and fairing on his bike rather than fitting some tatty parts he would usually fit while racing and getting skittled off by some idiot in an orange jacket at a recent race. A guy from Bike magazine occasionally attended, don’t recall the name.

Tony Brancato also came along to meetings at the Swan. I think the OP summed him up nicely, but I think the quality of his work was beyond reproach. At this time 1981/2 I think Tony was setting up his business, it was always difficult to get any real Ducati information out of him, perhaps understandable as he was building up his business.

I did fall foul of him on one occasion. I modified the swinging arm pivot for easier lubrication, something I had been making and selling for another make of bike for a few years. He had just started selling the same for Ducati’s and accused me of copying . It was probably made worse because I made the parts for a couple of other guys at a fraction of the cost he sold them for. Soon all was forgotten and he was always good for a technical bike conversation. For some reason he would always call me “Pete”, we told him my name is John but it made no difference!

The guys who met at the Swan also organised some good rides, local race meetings were always a favourite. One that sticks in my memory was a ride up to Chipping Warden for the DOC UK AGM. It was held in the function room of the Griffin public house, the landlord of the time was Ducati enthusiast. It was a stormy meeting, I think the DOC were having some problems at that time, early 1980’s. I cannot recall what the problems were. Some difficult questions were asked of the committee, led by Tony B, for which they struggled to answer. A great days riding and an entertaining meeting!

Apologies if I have rambled on, the OP’s first post, it has brought back lots of, hopefully accurate memories.

One final memory, mention of that fine brew “Hobgoblin” (still enjoy now), reminds of a trip to the Hook Norton brewery, turning up on bikes was not a good idea.........

One more final memory (really!), what goes bump, bump, bump, bump? A customer falling down the stairs at OME.

John
tobaccoblender
Diana
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:47 am
Location: Citta di Castello, Italy

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by tobaccoblender »

John
Well that was great to read your recollections!
Oliver replaced me as I had just left to work as a prototype engineer at the Mercedes engine plant at Marienfelde, West Berlin. Actually when I got bored of that job I did actually come back and work for OME for a few months while I was lining everything up to found the Wychwood Brewery. Ed was a very good mate of mine and helped me get through the nerve-wracking first ever full size brew of Wychwood Best bitter.
Also, I missed out on the DOC meetings at Islip (the village where my wife and 'the Venerable Bede' was from) because they hadn't started at that point- we used to meet at the Fox and Hounds & Mawsons Arms, which was the brewery tap of Fullers brewery on the Hogarth roundabout, Chiswick. There were only 6 or 8 of us then but I guess they started having meetings in Islip because OME had sold enough bikes by then for there to be demand.
It wasn't a 900ss that Tim raced then, it was actually a '75 squarecase 750ss that we got for a song from Sports Motorcycles. I happen to know as I prepped the engine and remember I once put trade plates on it, got a bent mot from Faulkners (OME hadn't started doing mots yet) then set off for Ross on Wye at the crack of dawn one summer morning. In those days there was a stretch of the M50 known as the Ross spur and I knew at dawn it would be more or less deserted. Well that very-hopped-up 750ss took me to around 150mph and I held it til the motorway finished. For me, that was and still is the defining Ducati ride of my life. Fantastic.
Just on the offchance, I don't suppose you remember a blond haired guy called Pablo do you? He was a good and long time customer of ours, he bought a 900ss but used to tune the hell out of 500/4's. I just wonder what ever became of him...?
Anyway, forgive my waffling!
Ps I discovered Ed is alive and well living in NZ. Had a long phone chat with him earlier this year, the first in 35 years!
KUD1980
Cucciolo - the Lil Pup
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by KUD1980 »

I may remember Pablo, the blond haired guy, 5’ 10”ish, stocky build? Did he ride a blue/silver SS? If it’s the guy I’m thinking of he was very ingenious in his thinking, plenty of good ideas that, I think, his father would help turn in to reality. One of his fixes that I know a few people used was the repair when the clutch cable anchor on the crankcase behind the rear cylinder broke off. The late night rewire of a 750GT at the Peartree services was another example of his ingenuity. The bike had pretty much fried its wiring, but he managed to get the ignition working. The owner of the 750, Clive(?) was able to get back to Kingston Bagpuize following me lighting the way.

Me and a couple of others used to occasionally ride down to the Fox and Hounds & Mawsons Arms, Chiswick for the DOC meetings there. It was well attended, 25 – 30 at this time, 1982/3(?). One of the guys mother lived in Chiswick, so we could leave the bikes in the underground garage at her place and then it was just a short walk to the pub. Then it would be, for me a quick early morning flog along the M4 to Swindon for work. We got asked if we would push the bikes well away from the house (and neighbours) we stayed at, three Ducati’s with conti’s being started at four in the morning was bound to upset someone!

Another guy, whose name escapes me at the moment, had a 350. He rented in a house right on the M40 just outside Oxford. He and his girlfriend moved up to Fort William, Scotland to run a Hotel. We organized a couple of runs up to Fort William where we were well looked after at his place. A week like that with something like 1200 – 1500miles of riding would wear out a rear tyre so it could get quite expensive.

A couple of weeks in France on the 900ss needed a stop at tyre fitter, it took the old boy there all morning to fit rear tyres to eight assorted SS’s! Once the Phantom had squared off the bikes handlng and steering had gone. There was a journalist from Bike magazine with us on that trip, Bill Hitchcock(?). I always enjoyed his writings, I think he left Bike to do something entirely different, might have been to study.

Great to here Ed is alive and well! Have you had any contact with Tim?

I will now enjoy my Hobgoblin even more knowing the connection with Ducati and OME.

I’ll apologise now for any names/times/dates I’ve got wrong, and for rambling on but I’ve enjoyed remembering, happy days!

John
in-two
Diana
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:20 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by in-two »

Can't resist re-joining this eighties Ducati nostalgia fest, the London DOC meetings at the Mawson Arms have a lot to answer for. My girlfriend, now wife of 37 years, had temporary digs in Chiswick Maternity Hospital, 50 yards from the pub. Don't ask... Actually do, the hospital was no longer used and student physios from West Middlesex hospital got to live in the private wards, the warden liked steady boyfriends hanging about for security reasons and even provided a locked shed to keep my 900ss in overnight! The parties we held in the old operating theatres were legendary.
The Bike Magazine journalist was Bill Haylock, a great writer, an even better rider and a Ducati single enthusiast, he was politically and lifestyle wise 'alternative' before the term was invented. I also heard he ended up as a teacher or even professor, but have had no contact for decades.
Oxford Motorcycle Engineers featured heavily in a dramatic (for my wife, Anne) trip to the Isle of Man for the TT. I was on my 900ss she on her new Yamaha 350 LC, holding it against the stop along the M40 to stay with the loping Desmo. This time it was the Yamaha that threw a rod, coming to a screaming, tyre smoking halt on the hard shoulder. I broke out a tent guy line and towed her to OME, much to Ed's and the assembled cast of grease monkey's massive amusement. Her eventful day out didn't end there, two up on the 900ss (I had a dual seat on it at that time) we headed to Slater Bros in Worcesteshire so I could pick up a Laverda test bike. It turned out to a be a Roger Winterburn Special, a brutal, tuned 1200 with a no compromise single seat. Anne was therefore 'volunteered' to ride my 900ss to the TT, complete with no lock, no tick over and a clutch pull from Iron Man, she was not impressed, although she eventually admitted that it 'went quite well' whilst rubbing her left wrist with ice in the Castle Mona Hotel.
Cheers
Zed
'75 900 SS
"don't get behind on your cheating, but don't get ahead either" Cook Nielson, California Hotrod
Vince
750 Sport [BEVEL]
Posts: 203
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:28 am

Re: Hello Everybody out there

Post by Vince »

Great thread,keep it going
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