22 Tuesday Apr 2014
We now have a map … not sure when I will have time to start making a digital version. Let me know if anyone has any better information please.
Image – The routes followed in each of the six days of the trial. The numerals indicate the particular sections used on individual days. ISDT 1952 (Speedtracktales Collection)
22 Tuesday Apr 2014
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So read the title of the editorial in ‘Motor Cycling‘ in the issue of 25 September 1952 in a report covering the ISDT 1952 that had recently taken place at Bad Aussee in Austria. You can read a copy of the Cyril Quantrills report on the event at our issuu.com library of old ISDT magazine reports and programmes here.
“Bad News From Bad Aussee:
THOUGH these words are being written while we still await the final confirmed results of the International Six Days Trial it seems evident that things have by no means gone as planned by Great Britain. Until our representatives return home it will not be possible to establish a clear picture of what went wrong and, In any case, this is not the moment to conduct a post-mortem. Rather is it one to congratulate the winners on their success, to compliment the organisers on what seems to have been a difficult yet fair trial and to commiserate with those who found that their luck was Out.”
Photo – Conditions at the start of Saturday’s run are depicted above. Reflected in the waterlogged ground, spectators and officials see the riders off on their third day’s journey ISDT 1952 (Speedtracktales Collection)
21 Monday Apr 2014
Flicking through an issue of ‘the Motor Cycle‘ 19 July 1951 I spotted this article which drew my mind to a video I had seen on Youtube and thought I had featured it in a previous Blog here.
Image – clipping from ‘the Motor Cycle‘ 19 July 1951
After being unable to find it, I presumed it must have been posted on the Speedtracktales facebook page, so I retraced my steps and found the movie on Youtube. Although dedicated to the Observed Trials events held in the mighty Yorkshire Centre of the ACU, it has links to the ISDT through the many Six Days riders who competed well at a national level in Observed Trials and Reliability Trials. None more so than the narrator of the film Shipley man, Allan Jeffries, who apart from wins in the Scott, Scottish Six Days and British Expert Trials was a well-respected and regular ISDT competitor and who captained the successful winning British Team in the ISDT 1948. The film called ‘Rock, Moorland and River‘ was professionally made, with its own soundtrack medley of Yorkshire Aires played by a Brass Band and received a World Premiere 22 July 1951 at the Victoria Hall, Saltaire, Yorkshire.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Jdnb2Gz3c]The Bradford Club deserves the nations thanks for the effort in making the original film which is a factual and informative historical insight into motorcycle sport in the heyday of Britain’s national love and obsession with the Motorbike before the car became common place in our streets and roads. Also our gratitude for subsequently the digitisation and restoration before loading for public enjoyment on Youtube.
21 Monday Apr 2014
Posted in England, Manufacturers, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, restoration, Trials
Image – Catalog cover H and H Classic Car Auction, Imperial War Museum 24 April 2014
H and H Classic Car Auctions Duxford Sales – April 2014 – Digital Edition.
Limited ISDT interest again however of interest to many may be this Ex Works BSA XB31 Trials bike of 1947 ridden by Irishman Terry Hill to victory in the 1949 British Experts Trial.
Photo – Ex Works BSA XB31 Trials Bike 1947
further details here
My personal favourite from the auction, but judging by the guide price I am not alone in considering the bike is from possibly the greatest motorbike builders in the interwar years who were able to use great engineering tools and design to focus on the future rather than concentrating on building ontop of existing traditions and reputation. Although they may no longer be making Motorcycles the parent company remains at the forefront of the Motor Industry.
Photo – DKW SS250 Split Single 1938
20 Sunday Apr 2014
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Auction, Automobilia, Bonhams, Classic Motorcycles, ISDT, Sale, Stafford
And Christmas v2 for the Classic and Vintage Motorcycle lover has arrived early in 2014.. around Easter time at the Staffordshire County Showground.
Bonham’s Spring Stafford Auction 27 April 2014
Apart from a few attractive lots of prewar copies of ‘the Motor Cycle‘ or ‘Motorcycling‘ bundled with a few programmes or photos of interest to ISDT collectors. Of motorcycles a few nice pukka trials bikes and a few road trim Tiger Cubs, but the most obvious item is this rather nice Ariel Red Hunter although no evidence of it having been used in the ISDT.
Download the programme as pdf here
18 Friday Apr 2014
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This week ‘British Pathé‘ archive was officially released on Youtube. This famous news reel archive that would have been the main feature of cinema visits in the past includes short articles for news features of the time on the ISDT.
Not many seem to exist and I hope more are subsequently found and released
1926
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGfB5o3mSUM]16 Wednesday Apr 2014
10 Thursday Apr 2014
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We have just received advance news of a new book to be published this coming Spring that may be of great interest to many Speedtracktales readers.
In late August 1939, Hitler’s armies were poised to invade Poland, while in Austria the International Six Day Trial was underway. The trial was dubbed ‘The Motorcycling Olympics’, where the crème de la crème from five or six nations competed in six days of hard riding.
Image – Cover for new book ‘The Six Day Affair’ ISDT 1939
Following the Olympics in Berlin just three years earlier, the ISDT was seen by Hitler as being another opportunity for Nazi dominance – and the event was unexpectedly held in occupied Austria! Half way through, riding through the mountains surrounding Salzburg and with the British teams once again doing very well indeed, they received a telegram from the British Embassy telling them to get out immediately. WWII started just a week later.
The story of how the British competitors and spectators successfully made it away through Switzerland with the help of their German escort has so far only been mentioned in magazine articles and websites, but extensive research has revealed much new material about this fascinating and exciting event in history.
09 Wednesday Apr 2014
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Maybe you or some of your readers can help me, re the 1939 ISDT please?
I’ve read that Bert Perrigo, BSA Competition Manager, travelled over to Austria in his BSA saloon car with the Army convoy. (This was in addition to Tom Davies accompanying the BSA Team.)
However, when did Perrigo return to England?
Was it early Friday morning, together with the great majority of the competitors, support crews, spectators, with Vic Brittain in the passenger seat of his BSA car, leaving his Norton behind? (as his son, Johnny Brittain says today, and who also says that Allan Jefferies told him he’d seen Vic’s Norton in Austria after the war…..
or
Was it late Friday evening, after the day’s competitive riding, when “…Perrigo waited for the riders to return, filled their tanks and sign off for good, while Lt.Col.Bennett dealt with the administration.” from p46, Walker & Carrick’s ISDT history Col.Grimm & Col.Bennett then led the three Army teams, together with Cottle, Edge, Sim, Sanders and TSRs and spectators, to the Swiss Border.
Any hard facts re this would be much appreciated, as I’d hate to promulgate false ‘facts’ in my forthcoming book.
John Bradshaw
http://www.jrbpub.net
09 Wednesday Apr 2014
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With much thanks due to Deryk Wylde the ISDT historian and classic off road motorcycle journalist I have now taken ownership of the original Clerk of Course OS 1″ maps used by the route markers. Hopefully apart from now being preserved for ever they can help update the course mapping we have and be shared with ISDT historians
Speed Track Tales 