Flying Officer James McQuaid DFC

From our good friend Al McQ. His Shell XS is in Sideburn 1.

'Hello Guys!
Although this Velocette KSS isn't a flattracker, I know you're interested in shots of people looking cool on bikes so how about this?
It's my Dad - Flying Officer James McQuaid DFC. WW2 has just ended and here he is in his demob' suit & coat, RAF issue goggles and gauntlets. The bike is fuelled on unrationed methanol and running on castor oil.
Check out the haircut and moody guy expression, pre Elvis and Dean. Undaunted by the lack of helmet and minimal front brake, he's just 23 but looks older - here's why...
Quite realistically he didn't expect to see 21. His odds of survival were less than 1 in 3 and he knew it. During his time on 100 Sqn, 25 aircraft and crews went missing, representing a full turnover of the Squadron strength. Of his comrades in Bomber Command, 55,573 died, of which 41,458 have no known grave; many simply logged as "missing - no news after take-off." During the period following D-day, Bomber Command was losing more airmen than the army was infantry in Normandy. They lost more aircrew in one night over Nuremburg than fighter Command did in the whole of the battle of Britain. They made up only 2% of Britain's armed effort but over 14.5% of War dead. Of any combatant force, only the German U-Boat fleet suffered a higher percentage loss rate -although the actual number killed was very much smaller.
So here's to you Dad and all the others, God rest your souls - and I wish I had that Velo'...
Cheers! A
BTW - Revell have recently released an Avro Lancaster kit featuring "his" aircraft markings.

King Shed

Thanks for Captain Simon for forwarding these to us.

Burt and his shed. 1970.

Great Clunkers follow-up

When we first started the blog we'd look at others, specifically Max Schaaf's 4Q Conditioning, and say 'Wow, he gets a lot of comments and we don't get any.' We even had our patron saint put out this plea. But now we get plenty of comments, and some are amazing. The fastest man on two wheels, Rocky Robinson, left a comment on the post about himself a couple of weeks ago. Then Donald from South Africa commented on Great Clunkers, and emailed this in. Cheers Donald.
The bikes look very similar, and must be the same bike, but the one in Donald's photos is obviously a sprinter, so I still don't understand why the original clunker had knobblies.

"I left a comment on your "clunkers" post regarding the first photo [The comment was 'That first one looks a bit like Burt Munro's Velocette, apart from the knobblies. I've got photos, I'll send them to you. You can see both of Burt's bikes, the Indian and the Velo, at E. Hayes & Sons Hardware in Invercargill, New Zealand].
Here's a couple of photos of what I believe it is. I was in NZ in 07 and travelled a couple of days out of my way to see Burt Munro's hometown, Invercargill. I was disappointed with the museum where I had to pay a $10 entry fee to see a bunch of props from the movie "The Worlds Fastest Indian", and I couldn't even take photos! There was nothing original of Burt's, mostly just random bikes that had no connection to him. Later that day while sitting in a cafe with my girlfriend and perusing a local bike mag, I read that Burt's bikes were at the hardware store down the street from us. E. Hayes & Son's (I hope I got that right) was a Velo and Indian dealer and good friends of Burtg. They had his bikes on display among the lawnmowers and garden tools! We rushed over there and I was allowed to take photos and even twist the throttle on the original record making
Indian! I much prefered the Velocette, I wish that had been featured in the film as well!

Follow the link to my Flickr page
Regards, Donald Hosier, SA Motorcycles, South Africa

Also, Hugo Wilson from Classic Bike emailed to say this about the original Great Clunkers post...
'Bike in the top picture is a fairly dramatically hacked about with Velocette, probably a 350 MAC (I'd have to count the fins on the barrel to check) that is even more bastardised than mine. Second one is, I think a Harley. Third an Indian. Bottom one an Enfield.'

Keep the comments coming.

Respect Pop

The late, great Ernie Pico out at El Mirage. A noted Velo Tuner with the only competitive flat track Velo in the golden era of the 60's. His most famous Velo resides in Dan Riouts museum in Fresno, Ca. Respect Pop. Dig the helmet too.