The Place

After seeing a couple of old pics recently and getting bit nostalgic... Does anybody know the whereabouts of the old 'Tin' Windle that my Dad and I raced between 1982-1985? (mainly down south in those days)

Not sure how many of these were made by Terry (in 1979 I think) but was a Box Section main chassis (semi-Monocoque) that the Yamaha TZ700/750 sat in, with no top tubes. This bike had been built new and sent to South Africa. But with very little use was sent back to UK for Sale at end of 1981.

Our Chassis had been painted Green (don't ask.....?) And I think Dad modified the original dual Braking system on the rear - so that one Master Cylinder faced forwards and one Master Cylinder backwards off the pedal. It also had HandleBars bolted on top of Forks rather than the original welded on versions (at the time).

It was sold in 1986 to Alex Aitkin from Hounslow (Middlesex) who sadly passed away before he ever rode it. And I don't know what happened to it after that.

It wasn't the first chassis I rode, and it wasn't best chassis I rode..... but at 17 I was 'racing' a sidecar the same as Jock had won his first GP on just 3 years earlier, with a TZ700 Yam in it in an orange jacket So as all of us old gits can appreciate, some special memories going on there!!

Anyway Would just be interested to know if anybody has any knowledge if its still around somewhere?

Cheers All
Yangi

Yangi wrote:Dad modified the original dual Braking system on the rear - so that one Master Cylinder faced forwards and one Master Cylinder backwards off the pedal.

I'm obviously being thick here Ian , but ... ehh ???

I don't know the whereabouts of any of the Tin Windles now; but these photos show the one my father raced in 1985/86; he knows more about the history of it than me; but it ran TZ700/750 motors.

smiffy wrote:

Yangi wrote:Dad modified the original dual Braking system on the rear - so that one Master Cylinder faced forwards and one Master Cylinder backwards off the pedal.

I'm obviously being thick here Ian , but ... ehh ???

Probably one each side of the pivot point Gary !

Wal wrote:

smiffy wrote:

Yangi wrote:Dad modified the original dual Braking system on the rear - so that one Master Cylinder faced forwards and one Master Cylinder backwards off the pedal.

I'm obviously being thick here Ian , but ... ehh ???

Probably one each side of the pivot point Gary !

Sorry to confuse Gal, Wal is correct in his assumption

And Tim, thanks for the pics - it all looked so 'modern' then..... well at least it did if you couldn't have a Seymaz

The 'other' Feature of the one I rode, was that the 'Big Fuel Tank' was cut about, and mainly used a small 2 Gallon Tank strapped into the remains of half the old tank..... 8 laps around Lydden didn't need so much fuel....but could also use the Bigger (half remaining) Tank if required for longer races I think that was Dad's way of not wasting Avgas/Castrol R mix LOL

Howards bike still looks the part now Ian. Terry did tell me why he went back to tubes. Cant remember his reason now though . Have you noticed , over the years , Howards grass has also always looked the part .

Howards grass is still immaculate, may be its the copious amounts of Castrol R that fed it when it was young........

It's astro turf lol

Dave Cheesmond has one sitting in his workshop at the moment, I saw it yesterday, I don't know who it belongs to though

I know where theres one being rebuilt back into a tz750,it maybe the same bike in Daves at the moment.

Are you all sure that Tim hasn't been photoshop'in the Grass to make it look immaculate
I guess you just look at Howard's bikes to know that everything else would be spot on too....

Anyway Geoff, I'm guessing that the Box Section version may have had too much flex? Or more likely, knowing Terry, took more time to make and offered no more benefit than tubes?

Anyway, thanks to this post, I now know who's got it and 'restoring it' as we speak

Good to know it's still about.

Cheers All
Yangi