Ident please

[Brian Catt]

Who is the gent on No 5? Bert, Brian, Vic Willoughby and ??? Note Herrman Maier expansion box and cover over carb......What's that hiding?

[John Wakefield]

Who is the gent on No 5? Bert, Brian, Vic Willoughby and ??? Note Herrman Maier expansion box and cover over carb......What's that hiding?

Looks like Andy Lee https://www.flickr.com/photos/758507...57629294774550 Dont think he ever rode Greeves though, but I think he & Brian were mates. The cover over the carb would have been to shield the air filter from mud & dirt. Most riders at the time used rubber cut from an old lorry inner tube, this alloy one looks a bit more professional as one would expect of Brian Stonebridge.

[John-Boy]

Brian

I suspect the other person is Basil Hall, it is certainly not Andy Lee.

I have an article written by Vic Willoughby showing Brian Stonebridge wearing his boiler suit on the number 5 bike (tuned for top end power, with the expansion chamber exhaust) with Basil Hall (wearing his suit) on the other bike with a stubby exhaust, tuned for low end power. I believe that was the bike later marketed as the Hawkstone 20 SAS.

I will try to dig out the article but it has probably appeared in LL at some time.

[Brian Thompson]

Basil Hall.

Hi John-Boy,

You beat me to it!

I agree 100%, definitely Basil Hall. Not sure what the strange object is in the bottom left of the pic though....someone's shoelace maybe...?

Here are scans of the article you mentioned, which as you say, was written by Vic Willoughby and published in 'The Motor Cycle', 1/8/57.

I've blown up a couple of the images, and pic 4 shows that these were taken at the same testing session. Note Basil's same reversed flat cap, worn that way for safety reasons no doubt.....

Brian.

[Sean Bowers]

Brian Stonebridge

Very interesting article Brian, Thank You

Sean.

[John Wakefield]

Not sure what the strange object is in the bottom left of the pic though....someone's shoelace maybe...?
Brian.

Its not actually in the original pic if you look closely as it crosses the border of the pic which Brian C has scanned or copied with a digi camera. So camera strap maybe. Looks like the pic was taken at the same time as Vic Willoughby's article but not used in it.

[Brian Catt]

I shared it out of a Greeves orientated Facebook page and it certainly looks like a camera strap. Many thanks for the identification, I will pass it back to the originator.

[Brian Thompson]

Caption Comp?

Is this one a bit too 'risque'...even for us......???

What will Higgo come up with..... What will The Chairman come up.....

The mind boggles.....(well, mine does anyway......)

Brian.

[dave higgins]

This is gonna hurt, said bert, as he brings the full force of his invisable stick down on basils hand, now don`t rev it so hard next time.....

[Brian Thompson]

Oh noooooooo.......and so it begins (again....!)

Or;

As Basil demonstrates his notorious kung fu throttle technique to a sceptical BGS, Bert shows the lads the special karate chop move taught to him by the legendary Frederick Nung, 8th dan grand master of the flying elbow dojo (Thundersley Branch)......Meanwhile, poor Vic gets lumbered with screwing on yet another solderless nipple to the overstretched throttle cable......

Brian.

[dave higgins]

Nice one mate.....,but i think you`re reading it wrong, as bert adjusts his hearing aid to hone in on basil explaining to bs that those cheap watches berts been selling have made his wrist swell up bad & vics trying to pull his off quick....

[Brian Thompson]

Boxers!

Vic; Brian, for goodness sake dress yourself man! We can't have the flags flying at half mast if these pics are going in a family publication!!!!

(So THATS why they didn't use this pic for the article then.....)

Brian.

[Brian Thompson]

Nice one!

You haven't lost your touch mate.....!!!

Brian.

[Dick F]

Caption comp

Listen EAR you three, i am the boss man and give out the orders!

[Rob]

"Are you sure its safe to take the new catalogue home tonight" said Vic, "that's the worst case of wrist-lock I've ever seen after you borrowed it!" "That's nothing" said Bert, "Look how I ended up by publishing it".