(31-03-2020, 08:14 AM)SILJA Wrote: I was a bus driver in Orebro, Sweden 1970. For five years I had worked nine hours a day in the light blue Scania Vabis busses. The steering was heavy as the engine was in the front beside the driver. There was as well an overhang of the body ahead of the front axle. High pressure in the front and no power steering. The diameter of the white steering wheels was gigantic. I’d been working in the morning three years earlier when Sweden changed to right hand traffic. In 1968 I bought my first new motorcycle. A Suzuki T20. A two-stroke twin with a six-speed gearbox. Earlier my rocker carrier was on my father’s Monark Blue Arrow with the same type of engine but an ILO from Germany with four speeds. The Suzuki’s acceleration was phenomenal. When the red light turned to green I gave full gas and my friend “Gadda” was suddenly behind on his Triumph Bonneville. After, when we stopped at the hot-dog stand he kicked my front wheel: – Bloody fast moped you’ve got! was his admiring comment.

I spent only one summer with the Suzuki because there arrived better things from Japan.1969 a completely new model came. A three cylinders two-stroker, Kawasaki 500 Mach III was introduced and one of these became mine. A “widow maker” with 60 horse-powers and 500 cc. Mine was one of the very first in Sweden. A friend had one a week before me with electronic ignition. My pearl had three pairs of contact breakers. I adjusted the ignition very often just for fun. My father made me an adapter with the same spiral as the spark plug. I put on an indicator device and started the work. Twisted the crankshaft to get one of the pistons to the T.D.C. Back 2,73 or was it 2,78 mm before T.D.C? Ignition on and adjust so my little control lamp went off exactly when the breakers opened. Ready! Only two more to adjust. After a while it took me only 15 minutes to adjust all the three! The first winter I painted my Kawasaki green. Probably the first green one in the world. On the sides of the tank there was written Ka Wa Sa Ki with Japanese letters in white.

In the gang of rockers who hanged around at one of the city’s squares was a young guy with a new Honda CB 350. Per or Pelle Jansson. His big brother Borje should compete in the TT-races 1970. The IoM-races were a part of the World Championship at that time. We started to talk about it early in the spring. It would be great to go to the island to support Borje. My friend Jorka Blomberg had been there three years earlier for the Diamond Jubilee Races with the famous battle between Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini. Jorka and three other friends should go in a Citroën 2CV to stay in the paddock for the entire TT.

More guys in the gang were inspired and plans started. To go by motorbike to Isle of Man. It was “Mellis” on his Honda CB 750 that was new, Borje’s little brother Pelle should travel on the Honda behind “Mellis”. “Gadda” on his Triumph Bonneville and Lasse on his Suzuki T 500 that also was new. I got a strong feeling that I didn’t want to miss that adventure. I walked into the CEO’s office and asked for vacation with a short notice. I got a blank no and I resigned on the go. The day after I wasn’t a bus driver anymore and I missed my vacation-salary for that year.

In the end of May the journey started. Four bikes with five persons 300 km from Orebro to the ferry ship in Gothenburg. The name of the vessel was Tor Anglia with the destination Immingham. The long trip over The North Sea took more than 24 hours in calm weather. Some schoolgirls made our trip pleasant. When we came to UK it was left hand traffic again. Now it was just a little more than 200 km to Liverpool and then the steamboat to IoM. There were not as many highways as nowadays so it took some time. An incident happened in Manchester. Stopped by the police! Speeding in the city. Suddenly our English became quite bad and we asked about the speed limit. Pointed at our km speedometers and asked politely the constables to translate to miles per hour. They didn’t succeed so we could continue to Liverpool without any fines.

Liverpool is quite large. We found a signpost pointing at the docks. We followed some British bikers and found the harbor. It was hot in the sunshine. Leathers off and then a long waiting started including some sleep on the quay. It wasn’t more than two departures a day. The queue was extremely long. At last we came to a booking-office. After almost a day and night with only tea and sandwiches it was time to empty the petrol tanks. We got empty-stickers and our bikes were airlifted in metal crates three and three to the deck of the vessel. The sea trip was with old steamboats and the bikes were transported on fore deck. The unloading from the crates we had to do ourselves and park the bikes on the central stand without any lashing. There were several hundreds of bikes there on fore deck. The crossing Liverpool – Douglas took about five hours. The name of the vessel was Manxman. When we arrived all the bikes were unloaded from deck with a crane and then was the time to put in petrol again. In one tanking station! It took some time.  

In the queue to the petrol we had a chat with some British riders. Where to put up our tents? Glen Lough was recommended. It was close to the course about 5 km from Douglas. It is just before the right hander Ballagarey or Balla Scary as some pronounce it. The facilities there were not as nowadays. The morning washing and tooth brushing took place in a poultry house. The farmer offered milk and eggs and that was the breakfast with some help from the portable gas stove.    

The first shock came when the practice started after a couple of days. We had absolutely no idea about the morning practice between 5 and 7 am. Soon after 5 we were wide awake in some seconds. The course was about 25 – 30 metres from our tents. Among others, Norton Manxses, Agostinis MV Agustas both 350 and 500, two 350 cc four cylinders Benellis ridden by Kel Carruthers and Renzo Pasolini and a cluster of 750 BSA- and Triumph- triples roared through in full gas. Two-strokers from 125 cc and bigger howled past in top revs. What an alarm clock!  

We went to the paddock almost every day through the practice week. Chatting with Borje and his mechanic Anders Hallberg. We had fantastic local ice cream and enjoyed the heat of the sun. Bo Granath had his tent close to Borje’s and we started to know him as well. He competed in the 250 cc and 350 cc on Yamahas and in 500 cc on his Husqvarna twin. Kent Andersson was also on the island but he wasn’t staying in the paddock. He and Rodney Gould competed in the 250 cc and 350 cc in a team managed by the Dutch Yamaha importer and they were living in a hotel down in Douglas. Kent decided to not compete after his first practice. His gearbox locked, according to himself, at the fast section at Wagon and Horses in the downhill towards The Highlander. Kent succeeded to stop with a locked rear wheel without a crash. Some years later Kent became the World Champion in 125 cc. In 1973 and 1974. One more Swede competed 1970 in the races. Billy Andersson who made his 18th and last race that year on a Matchless. I believe it was a G50. On the evening practices and race days we went to exciting places of the TT Course. The entire race program was done as scheduled. There was not one drop of rain in the three weeks we spent on IoM. We were sleeping outside the tents some nights because of the heat.

We had mostly fish and chips from small kiosks in a lot of places along The Promenade. – Salt and vinegar? – Yes please! was the standard reply. The dish was served in an old newspaper. It tasted delicious! That’s the explanation why fish and chips today often is served in glazed paper looking as newspaper pages. More hygienic today but in 1970 it was really old newspapers they used! UK and Ireland changed to the decimal monetary system in these days. How many pounds are 20 newpence? We’ve read and sometimes we had to explain to the dealers how the coming system worked. Another problem showed up quite quickly. Lack of underclothes. Our planning was too bad and the solution was the big department store in the city, was it Marks and Spencer at that time? They had paper panties for sale. Fantastic! The washing troubles were solved!  

The evenings were mostly spent at the pub in the corner of The Promenade and Broadway. The building is still there but now it’s offices and homes. The name of the pub was The Central. - A pint of bitter, please! It was cheap and some pints slid down dry throats in the hot weather. The English Bitter Pale Ale need an explanation. The tax of alcohol in England was based on the strength of alcohol in the brews. The brewers learned how to make tasty beer that wasn’t very strong. There are at least four classes of bitters from 3% to 7% strength of alcohol. Ordinary Bitter, Best Bitter, Special Bitter and Extra Special Bitter. We had probably the weakest and quite many pints. It didn’t effect us very much but it quenched or thirst. I really don’t remember in what way we came back the 5 km:s to the tents at Glen Lough in the warm nights but I hope that we walked or took a cab!

My Kawasaki started to leak oil from the gearbox. The gland at the shaft for changing gears wasn’t tight. In 1970 there were absolutely no glands to find in millimetres on the island. I asked everywhere. But my friend Jorka found out how to manage, as always. In an unwatched moment, when Bo Granath went to the city, we nipped off a couple of centimetres of the tube to his LPG stove. The piece fitted exactly to the gear shaft. A piece of a Coca Cola can got a hole and was placed outside the rubber tube. It all was secured with a piece of barbwire that was clenched outside the whole thing. The gearshift lever was reassembeled and it was completely tight again!

One horrible experience came on the Friday afternoon at the Senior race. In the fine sunshine Pelle Jansson and me were sitting on the left wall of the Milntown Bridge as it was named at that time. Now Glen Auldyn Bridge about a mile before Ramsey. A policeman told us to have the legs inside the wall. His advice was - When Agostini arrives you will put them inside anyway! It happened at the third lap. John Wetherall came too far to the right before the righthand bend and he touched the wall with his shoulder on the inside. We didn’t see the crash but we heard that the engine stalled. John was thrown to the lefthand wall. He was taken to hospital but he passed away an hour later. The TT 1970 was very, very black. Additionally four solo riders were killed though the nice weather. Les Iles, Michael Collins, Brian Steenson and Santiago Herrero. Upon that the sidecar rider Denis Blower. Herrero was a top rider who had three victories the 250 Grand Prixes in 1969. He was involved in the fight for the 250 championship at the last race in Opatija in Yugoslavia 1969. Three riders had the chance to be world champion before the 250 race started. Kel Carruthers won on a four cylinders Benelli before the Swede Kent Andersson on a Yamaha and Santiago Herrero on a single cylinder Ossa. Before Herrero’s fatal Isle of Man race 1970 he won a GP in Yugoslavia.  

In the biggest class, 750 Production, Malcolm Uphill on a Triumph Trident was winning before Peter Williams on a Norton. Giacomo Agostini was first in Senior TT on a three cylinders 500 MV Agusta ahead of Peter Williams on a Matchless and Bill Smith on a Kawasaki, the same model that I rode to the island. Ago was winning the 350 Junior TT as well, on a three cylinders MV before Alan Barnett on a single cylinder Aermacchi.      

In the 125 Dieter Braun took the victory on a Suzuki twin before Borje Jansson. Borje rode his single cylinder Maico to a fine second place after three laps without any stop. Borje is still the best placed Swede on a solo bike at the TT course. He made the equal result at the TT 1971 though a stalled engine in the uphill after Ramsey Hairpin. Borje still says that he never been that close to the death as when he pushed his bike to live again in the uphill. Kel Carruthers won the 250 race on a Yamaha before Rodney Gould as well on a Yamaha. Günter Bartusch was third on a MZ. Borje Jansson finished 8th om his Yamaha after six laps with one stop for tanking. Time 2.28.59.6. Notable is that Borje rode three laps on almost the same lap time. There were only fractions of a second in difference at all his laps with a flying start. Lap 2, 5 and 6. He needed help to come off his bike after the race. Imagine. 360 km:s in racing speed for two and a half hours!

Back in England our plan was to travel north on the west coast. The first night was planned to be in Southport not very far of Liverpool. We went into a camping and the heavy loaded 750 Honda with a passenger came to a depression. The chain snapped off. At the early 750:s there were not any splinterguards in front of the primary gear wheel so we could have a look into the gearbox. It was a huge hole! In such situations it’s good to have a bike with some torque in the gang. “Gadda” on his Triumph had to tow the Honda across England and the 300 km:s from Gothenburg to Orebro. “Mellis” on the Honda was quite tired in his arms when we came home after a tremendous adventure. The hole? Jorka, of course, rapaired it with some stuff named Belzona!  

Now it’s 50 years since I visited Isle of Man for my first time. I’m planning to come for some celebrations in 2020. I hope to have some own vehicle to ride on. That’s a bike with an engine needed to travel, on the island of motorbikes, Isle of Man! The last cacelled by, you all know why!