British Iron at CD6

[Marc.com]

Shit it would be a pleasure to fight a rabid Badger naked and smeared in catfood than to anger my women any further. 

[VMX247]

You can't mention Brit iron without mentioning Frank Stanboroughs Manx Norton Metisse. Frank is 72 years old and has hand built nearly every part of the short stroke Manx engine. It's a swiss watch of a  power plant with a Jawa speedway crank and shitloads of interesting and unique features. The bike was originally built as a racer but as Franks health problems and age pretty much prevent him from racing, he's made the bike road legal and it's on club plates. We may still see it in MX trim on the track though if current plans come off. He's currently building a '59 Greeves powered by an NSU Sportmax engine that replicates Brian Stonebridges 1958 GP ride and also features some amazing internal engineering. It was planned to debut the bike at CD6 but unfortunately time ran out.
below: Frank sits back in comfort outside the Kompound, guarding his precious Manx Metisse and Black Betty

Its a shame people like Frank don't live to be 150-cause they sure could make and teach a truck load of stuff in that time     

[firko]

Franks Norton will be featured in the next issue of VMX so I invited him to travel to Conondale with me so I could get the nitty gritty on him and his bike during the journey. Without giving too much away, that old bugger could indeed teach many of us more than we'd ever believe. He spannered the early works Kawasaki teams including rebuilding and modifying the below par works SR Kawasakis of Graeme Smythe. Little or no spares came with the ex Weinert bikes so when the weak gearboxes carked it, Frank made stronger complete transmissions with ratios more suited to our tracks from scratch. He was the fabrication genius behind the Aussie works Honda superbikes of the seventies and 80s and is well known as one of the best Matchless G80/85 tuners/modifiers in the world. He's the guy behind the engines in Glen Evans way too fast Matchless Metisse, Black Betty and a large number of road racers. The cute little NSU Sportmax powered Greeves he debuted at CD7 was a veritible work of art. The engine is normally single overhead cam, operated by a rocker type of arrangement but old Frank has converted his to twin over head cam with chain drive, all within the original rocker cover and cases. He's currently building a new 6 speed transmission from scratch for the ex works TD1A Yamaha 250 that Brian Hindle rode to defeat Agostini and his MV Augusta at Oran Park in the sixties.

All of this from a bloke who almost died from prostate cancer three years ago. He's one of our sports forgotten genius's and it's about time he was better known. We appointed him Klub Kevlar Grand PooBah for life at CD7 and he took to the lofty position of power with gusto.

[vmx42]

Its a shame people like Frank don't live to be 150-cause…

Well he just might [we hope]!! 

[Curly3]

Without hijacking the thread, I was at Oran Park that day and Brian Hindle was one of my favourite riders when I was a kid, sadly a Hangglider got him.
I'f my memmory is correct Brian was nearly half a lap in front at the flag.
Without taking anything away from Brian, I know AGO was freaked out by the lack of Haybales on our tracks.
It's stiil good to see an Aussie, Kick Arse.

[GD66]

..... for the ex works TD1A Yamaha 250 that Brian Hindle rode to defeat Agostini and his MV Augusta at Oran Park in the sixties.

Easy there, big fella. Hindle beat Ago's 350 MV on the Oran Park short circuit on a TR2 in December, 1971.

[matcho mick]

probably why people say if you remember the 60's "you wern't there",i was there too,& i would've thought it was late 69ish 

[Curly3]

Hey, my excuse is I was 9 or 10, everythings a blurr.

[firko]

a TR2 in December, 1971

That's what I meant! I wasn't there but I thought it was 1969..just goes to show how that there''s always someone to catch us out when we get it wrong. Whatever Yamaha it was, the engine's on Franks bench.

[pancho]

That Manx powered machine remindes me of Les Archer with his Norton scrambler, some may remember that he was unbeatable for some time with that big monster. It was an international motor with lots of manx bits I believe. I once had his very inspiring book which I lent & lost, but I remember reading in it that he had an intense dislike of wet meetings, I wonder why. Firko's comment about Frank Stanborough and tuning makes me wonder when one of our skilled journo's will produce a book about the amazing number of highly skilled tuners and engine builders this country produced. cheers