Bought as a ‘winter bike’ to protect the already cosmetically suffering GPz, this turned out to be a real gem. Unlike Japanese low capacity machines, it was full sized with a 5 gallon tank and a nice torquey engine (281cc?). It was very comfortable so, good for long runs, and, being a two-stroke was great for short journeys: no oil to heat up.
I even used it to do the National Rally in 1999. First I had to ride to Bicester for the 2 pm start, then by way of numerous checkpoints, covering a ‘standardised’ 540 miles to the finish at Doncaster, before 10 am the following day … and then home again: another 250 miles. All in all I covered 850 miles in 27 hours. There was a statutory one hour rest stop during the night but I still managed to fall asleep once … happily briefly, on a straightish bit of road! Quite a machine.
It was an interesting event in that there was every possible type of machine involved. Following advice from the LE Club magazine I planned my route on the ‘little white roads’ and it was common for me to arrive at and leave a checkpoint with a man on a Ducati 916 (see Suzuki DR350) and arrive at the next around the same time as him. He was flying up the motorway doing a ton and I was ring-a-dinging along the lanes but only doing half the distance. There was a Police team who, inevitably, were not hanging around and a lot of effort had gone into making checkpoints as welcoming as possible. A good event … which I’ve never done again!
The front brake – a large diameter disk, was far too powerful for the bike. One day, leaving my cousin’s house, on a steep hill, I swept round a blind left hand corner on the ascent and found a car parked on the right and the remaining space occupied by a descending BMW. Rather incautiously grabbing a hand full of front brake, the wheel locked and I slid off to the right happily missing both vehicles, but I still have a lump on my elbow!
The large tank was not only handy for long rallies, it also came in useful during the petrol tanker strikes in the early 2000s. My wife, Maggie, needed her car to not only get to work (25 miles away) but also during the day to attend business meetings over her quite large patch, and had no time available to queue up at petrol stations. So, every day, I would go out and get 5 gallons, and every night drain the tank and fill her car up.
Eventually it started to become a bit noisy and I sold it on, not losing too much money. An excellent machine.
Peter Robert Turnill, third and youngest son of Joan, b 1/5/1947, m 19/10/1971
Little more than a shed! The picture shows it in 1982 shortly before we demolished it. The house to the left was built by Joan and occupies half the plot they bought in 1952. They had about 2/3 of an acre of ground.
Margaret Ianthe ? ? Hanson, first child of Derwent & Margaret, b ??/??/1942, m ????? d ??/??/2008? Ellen holds Ianthe – taken 1/3/43
Richard Brian Turnill, first child of Joan & Victor, b 23/10/1942, d 12/1/1961. Douglas must have got lost somewhere.
They certainly did …
Derwent George Cooper Hanson was their 3rd child, born 8/9/1918, and thus just 21 at the start of the war. Died ??/??/??
Margaret Williams, born ??????,
