Showing posts with label motorbike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motorbike. Show all posts

Friday 16 March 2018

Walking In Bill's Footsteps: 1940 France

I'm going to build this one in stages.  Putting together the research in order to eventually build a map of my grandfather's path through 1940s France will take some time.

The goal is to work out how my granddad, William Morris, worked his way through France as the British Expeditionary Force and the French military collapsed under the weight of the German Blitzkrieg during the Battle of France.

What I know so far:  
Bill was already a member of the RAF when the war began.  He was able to operate everything from heavy trucks to motorbikes and found himself supplying Hurricane squadrons in France as a heavy lorry operator.  Being stationed in France as a part of the British Expeditionary force in 1939/40when the Blitzkrieg began he started to make his way to the coast.  He got close to Dunkirk at the end of May but the chaos made it look like a bad idea, so he kept pushing south, avoiding the fast moving German Panzer divisions that were pushing into France in huge leaps.
The rough map so far on Granddad Bill's escape from German occupied France in 1940

Sinking of the Lancastria in the National Maritime Museum
He got down to St  Nazaire by mid-June and witnessed the sinking of the Lancastria - where more people were killed in a single sinking than in the combined losses of the Titanic and the Lusitania; it's the largest single maritime loss of life in British history.

By this point it must have seemed like the world was ending.  Here's a quote from the man himself:

“When Paris was made a free city (June 11th) the British Expeditionary Force had to evacuate and make for St. Nazaire. The roads were clogged with retreating troops and equipment. What couldn't be carried was destroyed. We arrived in St. Nazaire in the afternoon just in time to see the ship that was to carry us out destroyed by dive bombers. An officer directing traffic suggested we try to make for Brest. We arrived there two days later just as the last ship was preparing to leave, I had to leave my German Shepherd behind on the docks as there was no room for her on the boat.”

Bill got out of France through Brest on June 13th, 1940 - over two weeks after Dunkirk.  From May to June, 1940, Granddad saw more of France than he probably intended.  His unit was disbanded due to losses, but I'm not sure which squadron he was attached to.  A number of them were decimated trying to battle BF109s with biplanes.  The few Hurricane squadrons could stand up to the Messerschmidts but were badly out numbered and inexperienced.  If the documents I've got are accurate and he was providing support to a Hurricane squadron east of Paris, then there are a number of candidate RAF squadrons who were based around Reims.

At some point the planes and air crews must have taken off and left the support people, including Bill, to try and find their own way out.  He had been missing for so long and so many British soldiers were lost in the Battle of France, that he was declared missing or dead.  When he got back on British soil and was given leave, Bill headed straight home to Sheringham in Norfolk where he waited on the street for my grandmother to walk by on her way to work.  She must have been stunned to see that ghost standing there.  Bill always had a flare for the dramatic.

This is the opening chapter in a war story Bill never talked about, but I've been trying to piece back together from existing details.  A couple of interesting things could come out of this...

1)  Build up a map of Bill's route through France in 1940.  Put together a collection of World War 2 era British bikes and ride them from the air field he was stationed at and follow the meandering route he may have followed, stopping at the places we have evidence he was, eventually ending where he escaped the continent.  I've got two brothers and several cousins, all direct relatives of Bill's, who could do this ride with me.

Films like Chris Nolan's Dunkirk shine a light on the often ignored
early moments of World War 2.  There is more work to be done.
We could do it on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of France in May and June of 2020.  It's a forgotten moment in the war that is often misunderstood and mocked historically.  The French didn't surrender (in fact they bloodied the nose of an otherwise technically superior German force and vitally weakened it prior to the Battle of Britain.  There would have been hundreds more German planes and thousands more personnel available for the Battle of Britain had the French military and British Expeditionary Force not fought as they had in France.  Bill's journey would be an opportunity to highlight a lot of that forgotten and misunderstood history.

2)  This is the first part of William Morris's rather astonishing path through World War 2.  His improbable survival (he was the member of multiple units that got disbanded due being decimated in battle) is the only reason I'm here today, and I find the serendipity and skill involved in that fascinating.  Had Granddad not survived the war he would never have fathered my mum in 1946.  Our family exists as it does today because of his survival.

A longer term goal would be to put together a based-on-true-events narrative of Bill's experiences during the war, from his time in occupied France, to his work retrieving wrecks during the Battle of Britain, to his years in the desert in the later half of the war, his story sheds light on a working man's experience in the conflict.  So often the attention has been on the wealthier officer class of pilots and commanders, but this is a look at World War Two from the trenches (so to speak).  It's a war far more people experienced than the scientists and upper class types did.

3) If the book got written, it'd make for one heck of a TV or film series!

Meanwhile, the research continues...


The Norton 16H in RAF blue (once the war began they
just churned out army green ones).  The TV show would
have myself and my cousins - all the current descendents
of Bill Morris, following his trek through 1940s France.
BIKE RESEARCH:

Norton 16H in RAF colours (up to 1940, army green after that…)
https://www.nortonownersclub.org/history/1936-1945-wd


BSA M20
http://www.classic-british-motorcycles.com/bsa-m20.html

Triumph Tiger 100 (not used in service but might have been found in 1940s France)
http://gregwilliams.ca/a-history-of-triumphs-tiger-100/
1940 Battle of France WW2 RESEARCH:

A paper I wrote for a history course at university in 1996:   https://docs.google.com/document/d/14N2QfA8P8UQP_YK426gUZlGNbP7NNCcJcsd31OAaDVQ/edit?usp=sharing


Statistics on the Battle of France:
http://www.historynet.com/fall-of-france

Some photos of Hurricanes in France in 1940...
Hawker Hurricane RAF 501 Sqn SD being refueled by a bowser at Bethenville France 11th May 1940




73 Squadron


Bloodiest Battles of WW2:
http://www.militaryeducation.org/10-bloodiest-battles-of-world-war-ii/

The WW2 soldiers France has forgotten
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32956736
Aircrafts and bases of the Royal Air Force on May 10, 1940
https://ww2-weapons.com/raf-squadrons-in-may-1940/



Get a copy of military service records:


RAF french bases in 1940 May - by June they were all gone...
Berry-au-Bac (France)
Merville (France)
Douai (France)
Poix (France)
Rosieres-en-Saneterre (France)
Reims (France)
Lille (France)
Betheniville (France)
Villeneuve-les-Vertus (France)
Conde-Vraux (France)
Berry-au-Bac (France)
Reims (France)
Vintry-en-Artois (France)
Abbeville (France)

RAF in France 1940, (Fighting against Odds)


Hurricane Squadrons in the Battle of France
"British losses in the Battle for France:  68,111 killed in action, wounded or captured. Some 64,000 vehicles destroyed or abandoned and 2,472 guns destroyed or abandoned."


Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle, 10th May 1940


Traces of World War 2 - Royal Air Force, Battle of France 1940


RAF base Marham history


Royal Air Force - Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940


A simulation of the Battle of France in 1940:


Mapping the Maginot line RAF supporting stations in France:


MUSEE DU TERRAIN D'AVIATION DE CONDE-VRAUX 1939 / 1945
Association Maison Rouge
http://amrvraux.com/

Abandoned and forgotten airfields in France:
http://www.forgottenairfields.com/france/picardy/somme/poix-en-picardie-s1121.html

OTHER RELATED RESEARCH:

Moto-raids into occupied France (from a January 1941 article): might be good as a chapter piece between the BoF, the Battle of Britain and heading off to the desert...











Sunday 14 January 2018

Classic Motorbike Pyrenees Trail Riding Fantasies


The legendary Austin Vince put out the video below about this year's orienteering trail rides in the Pyrenees in northern Spain:
Come map reading and trail-riding with me this summer. Watch this film with the sound up and note that the early bird offer ends in a week. This one is for Tim Kent and Del!
Posted by Austin Vince on Friday, January 12, 2018


If there was ever an excuse to load up a shipping container with old enduro bikes and send it to Europe, this is it.  The Twinshock Trailfinder is a two day event that focuses on older bikes (with twin rear shocks).  I'd dig up four old XT500s, clean them up and have them ready to go, in team colours.

Some soft luggage would make them as touring ready as they are going to get while keeping everything as light as possible.  The Trailfinder event starts on June 6th in Tremp, Catalunya, Spain and runs until June 8th.  An option is to container the bikes over to Antwerp, Belgium.  It's a two thousand kilometre ride if you go the pretty way around through the Alps down to Spain.  Two thousand kilometers on thirty-five year old enduro bikes is pretty hard core, but that would kind of be the point.

If the container got into Antwerp mid-May, we could get them sorted out and on the road by May 21st.  We could then wind down through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and France before reaching Spain.  At 300kms a day that's a seven day trip.  With a couple of days off in there to explore, we could roll into Barcelona at the beginning of June and get the bikes sorted at the Yamaha Motor Centre before heading up to Tremp the next week.


Rather than get all GPSy with the ride down, we could do it all with survey maps like the ones used in the Twinshock Trailride.  By the time we found our way to Spain we'd be very familiar with how European survey maps work and would be able to find our way around without looking like lost North Americans.

After three days of trail riding with THE VINCE in the mountains, we could then spend an extra week getting better at it now that we've had a pro show us the ropes, maybe with some Jo Sinnott style wild camping in there.

When we're all done we could find some storage for the bikes and park them up, waiting for the next time someone needs to go trail riding in Spain.

Digging up old, twin shock enduro bikes is tricky, especially in the icy wastes of Canada where old machinery quietly rusts away under the snow and salt.  Ten years in Canada is like thirty anywhere else.  Looking country wide, the only XT500 I could find was in Victoria BC, over four thousand kilometres away.

Expanding the search into The States means I might be able to find non-rust belt bikes that have had easier lives.  Unrestored but road worthy bikes look to be about two grand.  Restored bikes go for over three thousand.  There is one in North Carolina, and one in Mesa, Arizona.  With some some searching and a US broker I think I could collect together four road worthy or thereabouts XT500s for under ten grand, and then spend some more prepping them.

If I started now I could probably have the bikes at hand by the end of February and then spend March sorting them out.  April could be spent breaking them in and shaking them down for any last minute issues.  They'd be shipped the end of April to show up in Antwerp when we needed them.

I'd be dangerous if I had money and time on my hands...



Sunday 17 December 2017

The Motorcycle Industry is in Real Trouble

Google 'biker' and you get a lot of pictures of old white guys.
Good luck selling them bikes in 20 years.
The other day a fellow rider on twitter shared a link to this article on how the motorcycle industry is in real trouble.  Among the litany of problems was the hyper conservative nature of the industry and its habitual focus on old white guys.  The biker image is a bastion of pre-Twenty First Century prejudices; women (unless they're pillions and dressed like dolls) and non-white riders need not apply.  Groups like Bikers for Trump continue to find a comfortable place to operate within these old-school prejudices.  I'd suggest that an industry that wants to cling to this dying sense of privilege deserves to be in big trouble.

Of a less cut and dried nature (unless you're clinging to colonial, white guy privilege) was the piece about how young people aren't riding motorcycles or even driving cars as much any more.  I'd argue this is a larger and more difficult problem to solve.  I struggle daily with getting young people to engage with and master real world technical problems (it's my day job).  I wasn't at all surprised to see this as a conclusion from the research:

"...many millennial consumers were “bubble-wrapped for safety in their youth” or raised by overprotective parents who discouraged risk-taking"


A few years ago I suggested we start a motorcycle club at our school.  Some of our students go out and get their licenses and begin to ride and others dirt bike, so there would be interest.  We could use the experience and expertise of our teacher-riders to help students more safely and effectively take to two wheels.  The skills learned in maintaining and repairing motorcycles in our shop would mean safer vehicles for our students to use and an increase in technical skill.  They all sounds like good ideas, right?  It was nixed immediately: a hard no.  We run rugby teams and downhill ski race teams and go camping in bear country, but riding a motorcycle?  Way too dangerous.  I suggested that was exactly why we should do it, but still a hard no.

There is, no doubt, a danger halo around motorcycling that is a big part of its mystique, but the operation of a motorcycle isn't dangerous in and of itself.  Many riders like to play to this mystique, making it seem more edgy because that's the image they want to convey, but it isn't helping the sport.  That focus is also used to hyper masculinize the image of a motorcycle rider and plays to the conservatism that plagues the industry.  

It's always a relief when someone subverts that tired, old stereotype...


Enjoy having your assumptions subverted, it's good for you.

Apart from the prejudices and mythology around motorcycling, we also have a new generation of people who aren't taking up the sport, but then they aren't taking up vehicle operation in general.

"For 16- through 44-year-olds, there was a continuous decrease in the percentage of persons with a driver’s license for the years examined. For example, the percentages for 20- to 24-year-olds in 1983, 2008, 2011, and 2014 were 91.8%, 82.0%, 79.7%, and 76.7%, respectively."

There are a lot of social reasons for this to be happening.  More of us live in cities than ever before and driving in cities is misery.  Many jurisdictions don't acknowledge the advantages of riding a bike in an urban environment either, making riding an even dimmer proposition than driving.  The independence afforded by vehicle operation that used to define coming of age as a teen has become increasingly expensive even as wealth has been concentrated in a smaller and smaller class of people; fewer rich get richer while more poor get poorer.  With money slipping out of the hands of a vanishing middle class, the idea of buying into the independence of operating your own vehicle becomes increasingly impossible for many youngsters, especially with systemic economic discrimination like insurance forcing them off the road.

There is a final piece to this perfect storm diminishing the motorcycle industry that I haven't seen as much about.  Last night I watched Kingsmen: The Golden Circle, and like every other film I've seen in the past few years, it's a few moments of acting tied together by ludicrous computer generated imaging.  When I was young I stumbled upon a Bruce Lee marathon late one night and got really fired up about it.  Watching Bruce do his thing was inspiring.  I'd make the argument that a generation brought up on fake, computer generated action wouldn't feel that kind of inspiration to get out in the world and do things like kung fu or ride a motorbike.

Marketing is happy to pick up this idea of showing you cars doing things they can't actually do because you're buying an idea.  How the car makes you feel is what makes it valuable, not what you can actually do with it.  Whether it's Nissan pretending their cars are in Star Wars or Chevy pretending their cars are skateboards, the marketing and special effects departments are more than happy to sell you on an idea rather than engineering.  I won't even get into Kia selling you on a car that will drive for you because you'd rather be daydreaming.

In this digital dream-time we're all immersed in, you can you see why something as unforgiving and physically challenging as motorcycling might be one of the first casualties.  It's going to be a long time if ever before we see accident avoidance on something as elemental as a motorbike.  For all those young drivers who expect their car to drive for them when they can't be bothered to pay attention, this moves motorcycles even further away from the realm of possibility.  Coupled with the danger mythology many riders are guilty of promoting, it's little wonder that motorcycles increasingly seem like something from another time and place.


We need to bring back the kind of inclusive advertising
that worked for Honda so well over forty years ago.
Forgetting the old white guy thing for a minute (it's going to go away on its own anyway), how can the industry get people back on motorcycles again?  The obvious first step is to make your advertising plausible and inclusive.  Don't digitally animate anything.  Show riders of all types enjoying the elemental freedom of riding.  This doesn't need to include jumping canyons or putting knees down; the joy of riding is a simple, accessible pleasure.  Show people commuting, going out on a date and otherwise living their lives.  Minimize the costuming, especially the pirate thing, emphasize how effective modern safety gear is.  

Honda had this figured out decades ago and it prompted a renaissance in riding.  There is no reason why we couldn't do it again.

Build bikes that appeal to all sorts of riders.  Smaller, easier to handle bikes for beginners that push technology to create something so efficient that it makes snooty hybrid car drivers look like diesel pigs.  A 100mpg bike is an immediate possibility.  A hybrid touring bike that gets mega mileage but can still move two up easily?  An all electric bike?  Self leveling suspension, anti-lock brakes, fuel injection and the myriad of over things that make modern bikes dependable and safe?  These things should be what define modern motorcycling and should be moved on aggressively in marketing them.  The safety and dependability of a modern motorcycle is a marvelous thing.

When coupled with a campaign to emphasize how efficient bikes can be at moving people around, especially in cities, it would play to the urbanization of our population instead of against it.  Motorized bikes are capable of moving people more effectively and efficiently
Governments ignore a lot of research that clearly
demonstrates how efficient motorcycling can be,
especially in an urban environment.
than just about any other form of transportation, if we let it.  Pressuring governments to recognize this and encourage two wheeling instead of vilifying it would be a great step forward.  Can you imagine how many people would flock to a motorcycle industry couched in marketing around environmentalism, dependability, modern safety technology and the elemental thrill of riding as an escape from the digital miasma?  Escape the Matrix indeed.


Ontario offers thousands in incentives for people driving environmentally questionable hybrids.  What would happen if you got thousands back in incentives for buying a motorcycle that gets better mileage than a Prius?  There are a lot of them - my fourteen year old 955cc Tiger gets better mileage than the Toyota green flag waving hybrid and was way less damaging to manufacture.  Can you imagine how many more people would ride these environmentally minimalist machines in cities if they could lane split and move quickly to where they needed to be, reducing traffic and improving the flow for everyone?

Why not do one better and apply those incentives to emphasizing the power and importance of the rider?  Instead of advertising about how your car will drive for you because you're too much of a drip to do it yourself, maybe motorcycling could emphasize the importance of the rider and include them in any upgrade.  How about training being automatically included when you buy a bike?  This would immediately result in lower accident rates and better insurance costs.  If you're a beginner you get the training as a part of the purchase because you are immediately recognized as a vital part of the riding equation.  If you're already experienced then an advanced riding course in the area of your choice (off-road, track, road) is included to continue your advancement in pursuit of mastery.  Motorcycle training courses blossom and grow and sales are encouraged.  How about industry and government formerly recognize the importance of the rider and collaborating to make riding the life-long learning opportunity that it should be; motorcycles become paradigms of skill, self-discovery and mastery.


Shows like Ride with Norman Reedus are gender and race
inclusive and celebratory of motorcycle culture in its many
forms.  We should be encouraging more shows like it.
De-snootying motorcycle culture, especially where it's at its snootiest (North America) isn't something to wonder about, it's a marketing imperative.  Anyone out in the wind, even if they aren't on a cruiser, is a part of the culture.  Scooters and three wheelers aren't for losers, they're a part of the sport that needs to be embraced and included.  Three wheels mean older riders and those less physically able can still enjoy being out in the wind, how is that a bad thing?  Next time someone gives you a wave from a trike, don't be a jerk, wave back.

If the current motorcycling industry is unwilling to embrace the Twenty-First Century maybe they should be in real trouble.  There are always smaller concerns in the shadows waiting to step in and make changes where the established, conservative powers are not.  Business as usual is clearly not working.  Hopefully the industry that feeds our hobby will realize that and stop coddling Twentieth Century prejudices.  A brave new world of opportunities awaits them if they do.



LINKS

No easy ride: Motorcycle industry is in deep trouble and needs help fast, panel agrees
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-motorcycle-summit-20171214-story.html

The Decline of the Driver's License
Fewer people of all ages are getting them, and it’s not quite clear why.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-decline-of-the-drivers-license/425169/

Saturday 23 September 2017

Commuting on a Motorcycle

It isn't a giant commute - about a 15km round trip each day.  Our strangely summery autumn here in Ontario means I'm commuting on two wheels every day.  Over two weeks and ten commutes I've put over 150kms on the bike (I sometimes go the long way home).  What is commuting on a fourteen year old Triumph Tiger like?  Glorious.


In addition to actually looking forward to my commute each day, I (and the planet) are also enjoying the fact that I'm barely using any fossil fuel to do it.  In the past ten days I've used 6.88 litres (1.82 gallons) of gasoline to get to and from work; I've still got three quarters of a tank from my fill up two weeks ago.

The Tiger is currently getting better mileage than a Prius and didn't make anything like the hole in the world that the Prius did in manufacture.  My 0-60 in under 4 seconds Tiger is very nature friendly.


Other than a light rain on the way home one day it's been a dry time.  The bike has been fire-on-the-first-touch ready every day.  If I won't get soaked on the way in I'll take the bike (being at work with wet pants is no fun).  I could attach panniers and have rain gear with me (I've done that before on committed 2-wheeled commutes), but being only fifteen minutes from work means I and the Tiger travel light.  Riding home and getting wet means being uncomfortable for fifteen minutes, no big deal.

How long can I keep it up?  With the current forecast it looks like I'll be car-less until well into October.  The most recent forecast suggests a drop into the teens in the upcoming weeks, but I'll keep going until ice is a threat (I won't do that again on purpose).  Warm, never ending autumns are a lovely thing.


Unlike driving to work in the car, when I commute on the bike I arrive oxygenated and alert; it's difficult to cultivate the same level of alertness sitting in a box.  Showing up at work switched on and ready to go is a great way to start the day.  

With no morning radio I'm not as plugged in to the world, but that's no bad thing either.  Instead of pondering the latest human generated catastrophe (aka: the news), I'm gulping down morning mist and beautiful sunrises; it puts you in an expansive state of mind.

Soon enough we'll be into the long dark teatime of the soul (Canadian winter).  In the meantime I'm going to keep drinking from the commuting on a motorcycle fire hose.



Wednesday 5 July 2017

Trying to understand UK PCP deals on motorcycles from a Canadian perspective

I've been trying to understand this since reading the
advertising, um, I mean buyer's guide in BIKE last year.
I'm trying to get a handle on PCP financing that seems to be popular in the UK right now. If you're going to buy a Kawasaki Z1000 with ABS in the UK, you're looking at a price of £10,389 ($17,453CAN). The on the road price in Canada is about $16,000, so you're already almost $1500 ahead, but cost of borrowing is where I get really confused.

If you PCP (personal contract purchase) you're paying a £2500 ($4200CAN) downpayment and then £147 ($247CAN) per month for 36 months. At the end of that time you've got nothing, all while paying 5.9% interest and having to ride the bike under mileage and keep it pristine to keep your investment intact.  You're also hit up for financing paperwork fees.  If you go over mileage or the bike is in any way less than mint when you return it you suffer additional costs. I imagine the same goes with any farkling you might want to do - don't. When you hand it back you've paid $13,092 Canadian dollars in interest and what basically resolves itself as rental costs; you own nothing. That's when they ask you if you want to do it again with another bike or now pay a balloon payment equal to the current value of the bike (assuming it's in perfect shape).

If you buy the same bike in Canada and put the same amount down, you're looking at a monthly payment of $348 Canadian (£207), and at the end of the 36 months you own the thing. There are no mileage restrictions, no worries about keeping it stock and perfect and if it is in good shape you'll have spent about $550 in interest and have a vehicle that UK Kawasaki says is worth £3628 ($6095CAN).

The pure costs of borrowing in the UK would be the down payment plus the monthly interest costs. That'll be £2500 down payment + £465 in monthly interest, all for the favour of giving you this great deal. The pure costs of interest on the PCP deal is £2965 ($4981CAN). The amount of interest you're paying to own (rather than borrow) the same bike in Canada is $460.

The context of borrowing in the two countries is quite different. The UK happily followed the US down the rabbit hole that caused the 2008 financial crisis by deregulating banks. That never happened in Canada where interest rates and the cost of borrowing has always been held to reasonable standards. Canadian banks still make huge profits (they now own a number of US banks that crashed in 2008), but they don't break the financial system in the process and people who live here aren't subject to the ridiculous costs of borrowing that British people seem to think reasonable.  I frequently see ads on UK TV for credit cards with interest rates that would be illegal in Canada.

With that in mind, maybe throwing away nearly five grand Canadian to borrow a bike for three years (that's $139 a month just in borrowing and rental costs!) makes sense, but it sure doesn't from this side of the Atlantic.


I'm also left wondering what a flood of lightly used bikes will do to the marketplace in the next few years.  In classic short term financial thinking it looks like PCP will flood the market place with short term ownership and then flood the market again with bikes people couldn't afford in the first place.  Won't this eventually hurt new bike sales as dealers become swamped in returned PCP bikes?  Maybe the idea is to return the bike and the go looking to get a massive discount on it when you show up a week later and they don't have enough room on their lot to hold all the PCP returns.

I'm starting to see why the UK found keeping up with the EU too difficult to continue.  They seem to have a very loose grasp on how marketplaces work and seem determined to ignore anything like sustainability.  I'm heading over there in a couple of weeks and enjoying a great Canada/UK exchange rate thanks to their wobbly economic choices.  I'm curious to see if I can get a first hand look at what this approach to bike selling is doing.

UK Kawasaki's PCP calculator

Canadian Kawasaki's offer on the same bike...

Cost of borrowing on Canada Kawasaki's 36 month financing offer...