Had one of those "slip back a few (!!) years" moments, and wonder if Ron May is still around? His Triumph (he insisted it was a speed twin....) was ridden by a host of riders in the 70s - Ray Knight, Roger Bowler, Graham Bailey (I think). He was a hard taskmaster as a sponsor, pushing you to do as many laps as possible in practice (and of course the race) and entered it in all manner of classes - Production, Senior, Formula750...
He was one of the archetypal tuner/sponsors, in the mould of Francis Beart - brown warehouse coat, beret, dour sense of humour.
His bike won more replicas than most - maybe more than any!?

Ron May passed away a few years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend some time in his company, a man with a wicked sense of humour.
At one he held some British and possibly world records on his supercharged 3TA sprinter. He brought it over to ride the Ramsey Sprint a few times and it was not unknown for him to test the bike up through the arches above Empire Terrace and up and down Victoria Road, the sound of that thing was ear-shattering!
Ron's bikes seemed to rev out more than other Triumph twins, just occasionally the were over-tweaked, I remeber Roger Bowler coming back to the paddock, with half a con rod in his helmet as a souvenir for Ron!
You can add Tony Rodger, Allan Rogers, Dennis McMillan, Ron Baylie and Graham Dixon to Peter's lisy of riders list of riders

I remember Ron well,what a character! He used to stay at the Fernleigh and the competitors who also stayed there were known as the "Fernleigh Fairies"! Stuart Noon and local rider Alan Phillips regularly rode his Triumphs.Few people knew more about Triumphs than Ron.We used to call him the Onion Man because of the beret he wore,and the similarity to a french guy in some tv ad.He lived alone,and we were very sad to hear when he passed away,as you say,a few years ago now.

(14-08-2006, 09:25 AM)Hilary M Wrote: I remember Ron well,what a character! He used to stay at the Fernleigh and the competitors who also stayed there were known as the "Fernleigh Fairies"! Stuart Noon and local rider Alan Phillips regularly rode his Triumphs.Few people knew more about Triumphs than Ron.We used to call him the Onion Man because of the beret he wore,and the similarity to a french guy in some tv ad.He lived alone,and we were very sad to hear when he passed away,as you say,a few years ago now.

Sorry to be draging up an old thread, but I was wondering if any of Ron's TT bikes were still around. I know his sprint bike is still in action, but did his 500 unit Triumphs and the Hughes T21 350 racer survive?
Regards to all, Woody.

I remember Ron, I knew him through Alan Philipps - "Flip" used to race his bikes along with Stuart Noon at the Classic - 350 and 500 Triumphs through the 90s. Lovely man, apparently an ace hill climber even though he had to be lifted onto his bikes!