Vintage Thing No.88 - Gregory 500
Slim and light, this Jawa Rickman looks very inviting for uphill blasts. Another mysterious machine from the past is this speed hillclimbing motorcycle from the 1980s. When I say hillclimbing to many people they automatically think of the dirty business of trialling but hillclimbing, in Britain at any rate, means against the clock and and on metalled roads. My friends know what I'm on about but others who not so steeped in engine punk don't quite catch on. These photos are so old they date back to when I would carefully write on the back what they depicted and a good thing, too, for the Gregory 500 apparently was a 1980 Rickman JAWA. This is not a common motorcycle and Phil Gregory, who was named in the long since lost programme for this event, made it even more special. It looks like he had some help along the way. There's a sticker on one of the downtubes that says "Don Barton - GRP" and another on the tail is for Kidderminster Engineering Services....