The Place

Hi Bruce, remember this mate?

I can't for the life of me remember who was behind you..........any ideas?

nice pic mate,1994 vintage your on Molly's old outfit,im on my old converted 350 shelborne with a standard ZZR600 motor,complete with 7" rear tyre ,in a class which i believe they call F2
not sure who that is behind

Is that Lowey on the side

not this time Chris,its Dave Bilton on the side,this was the first time out on the newly converted chassie,Steve Jones made the mods,Dave Gordons mate.superb job, a year later this machine finished 12th in both races,breaking the 100mph lap average in race A and 100mph race average in race B,this machine also ended up with Kieth Waters and then Andy King,dont know were it is now,or the moly outfit in the picture.

Not sure Mart and Bruce but it could be me and Dick Tapken who is behind Bruce-ask Tappo!!!Steve Knowles

Did Mr Bilton not have a tumble somewhere? I seem to recall him getting a very bruised backside and it being a condition known as Bilton's Bottom. Maybe Helen can remember the story?

The year was 1996, Dave was on with me. He caught his backside on the wall at Greba Bridge in the first practice session, blood all over my nice new bike! Ihad Wade Boyde on for the next two practice sessions, Dave recovered for the last session and the races. Although he was in a lot of pain, and some of the stitches the hospital had put in broke we still won replicas.

Cheers Howard. Nice to know I was not going barking mad

thats when we changed his nick name from Big Nose to Billy Bum !!!!!!!
Dave's left buttock was torn downwards,he had 13 stitches inside and god knows how many out,typical passenger didnt feel a thing,just a cold wierd feeling,as you said Howard it ached like hell after,still Dave being Dave,wasnt going to let that beat him

Wasn't this the first year you wore glasses, Bruce?

I seem to remember you saying that it was frightening you, as it was all now in sharp focus!

1992 was my first year with glasses,during practice the road was so bumpy,i had trouble picking the appex, i hit the kerb at Glen Vine ,carried on for another lap,got back to the paddock,removed the fairing and found that the front fairing mount had sheared straight down to Douglas and got a pair of glasses like Dennis Taylor used to wear made all the difference.
I can remember the first time i passengered Wally Saunders(2003) we went off from the start,as i went to laydown,one of my lenses fell out ,i remember watching it rattling along the platform and falling through the gap between the platform and the radiator hell of a lap could see two of everything

I wore contact lenses at the TT for the first time in 2005 and couldn't beleive how much more i could see & everything in focus (except from Ginger Hall to School House)

It was like doing my first ever TT again.......except 7m 35s quicker

I knew you had contacts but I didn't know about the lenses