Me and a mate riding thru the Fens in East Anglia one balmy sunny evening to a do, me on my T140,

Did you know anyone from the Colchester Triumph riders? A ’76 T140V with breadbox tank was my first Triumph.

My bikes there in the mid 80’s

’52 Ariel VH Red Hunter - 500 single

Moto Guzzi Le Mans II (with Crossbow Equipe fairing) 850 V twin

TriBsa - ’58 T110 in A10 Frame with Triumph Conical hub front end (& green Ferodo linings) -650 vertical twin

Honda C90 90 single

BSA A7 500 vertical twin

Stable2.jpg

All very nice bikes. Did you mean the Colchester TOC? If so, no. But i did know some of the nutters from that area, John John (RIP) etc. I also ran PSP Engineering Services, the Triumph shop in Norfolk between 88 and 2003. I also really love my Guzzis.

Did you mean the Colchester TOC?

Yeah, sort of. It was a branch of the TOMCC when I first joined, but there was a parting of the ways & we just ended up calling ourselves the Colchester Triumph Riders. I met a good mate of mine there, an eccentric bloke by the name of John Pullen Appleby. Lives on Mersea Island. Still has the same three bikes he had when I met him. No car licence just the bikes, with one always on the road (just). He was also known as Rickman John, cos one of the bikes is a Rickman framed Triumph. The other two are a 650 Bonnie & a 350 BSA. I’m sure he would have been a customer of yours at some stage, he went to Norwich uni during the time you had shop.

I left the UK in ’87 & brought just one bike to Oz, the Le Mans. Looked great with a 2 into 1 Dr John pipe. Don’t have it any more though.