Brough Trials Model?

[laird387]

Hi,

No, don't worry, I'm not being serious.......

This is an image from my offroadarchive of a scene from the 1913 SSDT, where as part of the scrutineering process George Brough, in cap, watches as an official of the Auto-Cycle Union acting on behalf of 'The Motor Cycle' magazine, fixes lead seals to various components of his machine.

George planned to continue riding a further twenty miles after the event to qualify for a thousand miles endurance award for his machine.

Now that's real 'numb bum' territory.

Enjoy

[cleanorbust]

Thanks for posting. I may be swiftly corrected, but could this be the only V-twin to have done the Scottish?

[crowley]

I think you'll find that it was attempted by Captain Eric (killer) Steerforth riding a specially adapted Wilderbeeste model from the Hurley-Pugh factory, prior to that date!

[laird387]

Hi cleanorbust,

I was not being sarcastic - but a great many SSDT enthusiasts seem to have missed the book - 128pp with every page devoted to images of the history of the SSDT from 1909 right up to 2011.

As for those dreaded V-twins - here's another just to give you a clue as to how different it all used to be for the Army riders of the day as Captain Jefferies readies himself for the first day in 1919 - the trial started in Stirling that year.

And finally an image that would make the current organisers of the SSDT drool - just look at all those spectators they garnered in 1910.

[cleanorbust]

Hi,

Thanks - I hadn't interpreted your post as being sarcastic, I really should have thought about it before posting as V-twins were obviously common in those days.

Nice photo there, I wondered if it was Blackford Hill in Edinburgh, which was of course used as the finishing point of the Scottish right up to the 1970s - the path alongside the stone wall suggests this to me, also the size of the crowd perhaps indicates the scene is Edinburgh rather than in the highlands.

Looking forward to many more of your posts - they're providing a wonderful nostalgic kick and I note many of the photos aren't ones which appeared in the press at the time.

[b40rt]

Could well be Blackford hill, just above the stop and restart "section". Hill covered in gorse now. Boys in uniform could have been Gillespies, or Watson's, both fairly local.

Edited January 15, 2014 by b40rt

[laird387]

Hi cleanorbust,

I agree it most likely was Blackford Hill - and equally that would have, as you say, indicated a centre-belt rather than a highlands crowd.

But I also have hundreds of photographs taken over the years on places like the Devil's Staircase with spectators perched on every ledge and even adventurous ones up in the trees - yet today it is quite difficult to even find the old Staircase, especially since the old landing stage that used to be a landmark for where you turned up the hill, has long since decayed and disappeared. So where did all those crowds come from?

It's worth finding because one day a pair of the Gay Gordons pinched Arthur Lampkins wallet and hid it in the fork of a tree for devilment............

But I will find one of my favourite landmark photographs for you and post it here shortly.

It shows Rex Mundy - who was the founder, I believe of the motorcycle dealer 'Mundy's', on his Williamson on the eastern side of Bealach-na-ba (The Pass of Cattle) on the Thornapress side climbing towards the summit, where it becomes known as Applecross Hill as it descends into the village of Applecross. When I first climbed this track in 1954 it was gravelled just as is seen here, later it was tarmaced the whole way - as it remains today. It is the highest road in the British Isles and when Rex climbed it in the early 1920s it was part of the run from Stirling, over the hill for a lunch stop at the 'Temperance Hotel' - now the Applecross Inn - before returning back over the hill and away to the first night stop on their way north.

In those days it was the only way in and out of Applecross - the coast road to the north wasn't built until the 1970s.

To this day the secondary school children from Applecross are picked up by school bus on Monday mornings to be delivered to Plockton school, where they board through the week and are returned home on Friday afternoon. They used to be picked up from Toscaig by the mail steamer through the winter on Mondays and returned on the afternoon boat on the Friday afternoons.

By the way - that stone wall is still there, and you can still see which stone the spectator was sitting on.

Cheers.

Edited January 15, 2014 by laird387