Dream Motorcycle Trips: Madness in the Desert

If you've read this blog you know I've written a historical fiction of my granddad's time in the RAF during World War 2. The two books I've done already are about his time behind Nazi lines in France in 1940, but after he escaped he got sent to Africa and spent the the next chapter of his time overseas crossing the Sahara (in 1940s vehicles!) and fighting in Egypt and Libya. I'm keen to eventually trace his steps but when am I ever going to be on the east coast of Africa?

The Allies didn't have control of the Mediterranean in late 1940 (remember Guns of Navarone?), so the Royal Navy took Bill and his RAF squadron down the east coast of Africa to Takoradi in Ghana. There they unloaded their Hurricanes and ground support vehicles and then they (incredibly), saddled up in their 1940s vehicles and leapfrogged with their planes ***across the Sahara***!!! It's a 5000+ kilometre odyssey that leaves me absolutely awe struck:

Sure, Tim, you're saying, but when are you ever going to get to Ghana? Well... I applied to the Global Forum for Cybersecurity Expertise's cyber-research proposals in the summer and my paper on quantum disruption in cyber got accepted... which means I'm going to Accra, Ghana to present it at the end of November at the Global Conference on Cyber Capacity Building. That puts me about 200 kilometres away from Takoradi where I'd have a chance to stand where Bill stood in late 1940.

I'm feeling pretty scrappy. The dream ride would be to get a collection of 1940s RAF bikes, cars and lorries and repeat that astonishing trek across the desert to the southern coast of the Mediterranean. That's some pretty gnarly country, so doing it as part of a documentary with a film crew that looks at what life was like in the desert in World War 2 would be the dream part of this ride.

Some of my cousins ride and some of their kids are old enough to do it too. There are several times in Bill's military career when he shouldn't have made it out, but he had a knack for it. An opportunity for his descendents (who wouldn't be here if he didn't have that knack) to repeat this Sahara crossing while talking about the history and passing through the heart of the desert on 1940s technology would be... epic.

Yep, that's what epic looks like.

Austin Vince did Mondo Sahara, which was ambitious. This is... more.

RAF in the desert collecting downed Hurricanes. Engines of Western Allies WW2.
This was my first go at colourizing a black and white photo in Photoshop, whatcha think?

Forging Moto-Maker Spaces

As a family we attended a blacksmithing day at Happy Knife Forge last weekend.  Highly recommended, it's money well spent.  Jason will not only show you the basics, but is keen to get you up and running as a blacksmith.  My granddad was a coal merchant back in the old country and the smell of coke burning on the forge prompted a sense memory from the crib; it smelled like home.

I've ruminated on fabrication and micro-manufacturing on TMD before from a digital perspective using the latest techniques.  Given the space and tools I'd quite happily spend my time designing and creating using everything from medieval blacksmithing through 20th Century metal working and on into 21st Century digital manufacturing techniques.  Connecting these processes separated by time but with the same intent would produce some genuinely interesting and bespoke combinations.

I've had the itch to get back into welding for some time, but a lack of space and gear means I'm not while I'm where I'm at.  The blacksmithing experience has me wanting to expand my metal working beyond just welding, which means even more space and kit getting added to the wish list.  You can do a lot in a tight space, and I am, but when it comes to storing the chemicals and managing the heat in some of these processes, there is no substitute for space.

A property with an old industrial building on
it would make for a fantastic restoration
leading to a multi-millenial foundry covering
everything from blacksmithing to digital design!

Given the time and resources I'd hit an intensive welding program, then set up my multi-millenial forge/shop/maker space with everything from blacksmithing tools through metal working and mechanical to 21st Century 3d scanning, digital modelling and printing.  The forge would be in the corner of a repurposed, old brick building that also includes space for metalwork, all very fireproof.  Across the floor in the same open concept.would be space for a paint booth/shot blasting station and plenty of mechanical workspace.  Upstairs (open concept, with just a railing) would be digital design and manufacturing in a cleaner workspace.  If I could walk out to that every morning to create, restore and repair, I'd hardly care if there were pandemics or anything else.  Put it near some good riding roads (ie: not in Southern Ontario), and it'd be just about perfect.

I've been thinking about a digital workshop for a while now, but the blacksmithing experience has me thinking old school as well.

The future-garage scene in Big Hero 6 gets the digital side of it right.

Dream Shop Links:

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/3-car-modern-carriage-house-plan-with-sun-deck-68541vr

https://www.coolhouseplans.com/plan-90821

https://www.towersteelbuildings.com/building-styles/garages/

https://www.olympiasteelbuildings.ca/garages/

https://canadianmetalbuildings.com/metal-buildings/cmb-ready-built/

https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-stable.html

https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2015/11/iihtm-digital-workshop.html

https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2015/04/space-limitations.html

https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-mclaren-p1-or-motorcycle-nirvana.html

https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2020/10/diy-garage-expansion-plans.html

Forging Links:

https://canadianforge.com/products/l-brand-forge-coke

https://www.thecrucible.org/guides/blacksmithing/blacksmithing-forge/

Welding links

https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/how-to/a15739/how-to-get-started-with-welding/

https://www.weldtechtraining.com/welding-courses/individual-welding-courses-certification-canada/

https://www.esab.ca/ca/en/rogue/index.cfm

https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/products/esab-rebel-emp-205ic-ac-dc?variant=14036287946796

https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/

Used Options:

Metal Working Tool Links

https://www.amazon.ca/Solary-Magnetic-Induction-Flameless-Automotive/dp/B08XTHTMZP

https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/products/metabo-5-variable-speed-rat-tail-angle-grinder

Digital Manufacturing Links

https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/car-sos-tv-show-uses-3d-printing-and-scanning-to-restore-classic-car-195222/

https://www.javelin-tech.com/3d/artec-3d-scanner-price/

https://all3dp.com/1/best-professional-3d-scanners-industrial/

https://all3dp.com/1/best-professional-3d-printer-small-business/

My First Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

I'm going to get past my age related hipster-imposter-syndrome and commit to taking part in the The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride this year, complete with ascot and tweed.  I bet I have a pillion willing to dress up and join me.  I'm hoping I can channel my granddad's riding style when I do it.

From my DGR Suggestion from the summer of 2020.

My '03 Triumph Tiger also struggles with the idea of being a faux-classic hipster style icon (DGR likes classics or faux classics to fit the image - I'd argue the Tiger is a kind of, um, scrambler?).  Tigger's too genuine for that kind of style police nonsense, but it's an old warhorse with over 80k on it from another era so we're both going to commit.  I wouldn't take the C14, that's missing the point, but the Tiger deserves the work.

The Concours is a fine thing and my wife and I are enjoying the rides together, but the old Tiger is still my two-wheeled spirit animal.

The question now is do we fight our way into the misery that is the GTA for an event in the Six with hundreds of riders or enjoy a similarly (time wise) ride through the country to London for a smaller event with far fewer riders but without the traffic?

There are many Canadian DGR events forming this spring to ride on Sunday, May 22nd:  Get out to one if you can, and don't be anxious about not meeting the hipster bike style code (though do dress nicely).

This is last year's poster - I'm sure they'll come up with a 2022 one shortly (it's on Sunday, May 22nd.)

Motorbike Research from the 1920s, 30s and 40s for Under Dark Skies

I'm eighty-thousand words into writing a novel loosely based on my granddad's experience in World War Two.  He was in France in 1939 and 1940 during the Blitzkrieg and the Battle of France.  Weeks after Dunkirk he was still trying to make his way back to Britain from occupied France as continental Europe fell to the Nazis.

I've always found that period of the war interesting.  Germany had the initiative and everyone else was struggling to understand what armed conflict had evolved into after two decades of incredible industrial progress following the trenches of WW1.  The allies weren't proud of their losses early on and it has since become an embarrassing and forgotten period in history.  If you don't believe me, just look up how many movies and books came out of the final year of the war when the allies were winning.

The novel, tentatively called Under Dark Skies (though I'm not married to that title), tells the tale of my granddad's service in a Royal Air Force Hurricane squadron sent with the British Expeditionary Force to France to stop the inevitable German invasion.

I've tried to keep it as accurate as possible, but in the absence of any specific details (my grandfather was never vocal about his war experience), I'm taking some other influences and mixing them in, Quentin Tarantino style.  Inglorious Basterds is one of my favourite World War Two films and I love the liberties he took with history, so much so that it's tempting me to do the same.

Bill was a member of the RAF White Helmets and a handy gymnast back in the day.  I've taken his
hidden-to-me, life-long affection for motorcycling, mixed in a bit of Guy Martin and Steve McQueen, though I don't know that Bill's history needed it, but it's just how I like to write.  Back in university I got into a difficult to get into creative writing course.  Leon Rooke came in a few times to help us with our writing process and commented on my ability to convey action effectively.  I like flowing, scripted action and that is the backbone of this book.

The fictional Bill's war experience was also influenced by this news article I found in a 1941 newspaper about motorcycle based 'suicide squads' who wreaked havoc inside Nazi occupied Europe.

That's out of the Spokane Daily Chronical on Saturday, January 4th, 1941!

I've had a tough year at work and needed to find a way to work off frustration, so when I can't sleep at 5am in the morning I get up and escape into 1940 France, it's been a life saver.

One of the enjoyable side effects of writing an historical novel is that you end up doing a lot of research in order to look like you know what you're talking about.  I have an equivalent of a minor degree in history, but the digging you do when writing in a time period is much more nuanced, and this case, very motorbike focused.  Here are some of my favourite motorcycle specific research bits from writing this thing:

Motorcycle Focused Research from Under Dark Skies

1938 Triumph Speed Twin:  I was looking for a state-of the-art fast bike to use in France that would outrun a supercharged German Mercedes staff car (that was a good scene to write).  Triumph's Twin was a massive step toward modern motorcycles and an early candidate for the job, though not what I eventually settled on.

1930s supercharger speed record bike from Italy (I was looking up ideas for a customized 'uncatchable' suicide squad bike...

History of military motorcycles. 

https://www.thrillist.com/cars/history-of-u-s-military-motorcycles

Triumph 3HW, Triumph's WW2 bike has a history closely tied to company and Coventry's brutal experience in the war:  

https://cybermotorcycle.com/marques/triumph/triumph-3hw.htm

Triumph History overall:

http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycles/triumph/time02.html

Norton 16H: Norton's WW2 motorcycle contribution:

https://silodrome.com/norton-16h-history/

https://www.wdnorton.nl/Contents_page.htm

Inge Stoll: Bavarian motorcycle racer and sportswoman - I'm looking to diversify the cast a bit towards the end. It's hard to do in the British military of 1940:

https://www.carolenash.com/news/bike-news/detail/female-motorcycle-racers-inge-stoll

https://www.technischesmuseum.at/language/en-us/home/sammlung-forschung/motorsport-in-%C3%B6sterreich/bestandssuche/personen/person-detail/articleid/1949

Peugeot used to make motorcycles!  They were quite common in France in 1940 where I'm spending my time.  I needed a bike that a local would have, so I had a look at the Peugeot listings:
http://www.motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/classic_bikes/peugeot-classic-motorcycles.php

Peugeot motorcycle history: https://peugeot-motocycles.com/en/success-story/

NSU was a German moto manufacturer.  German bikes have a very distinct style back then that was quite divergent from the lighter more handling focused British machines, though the NSU 351 OSL is a pretty little thing:  https://bikez.com/motorcycles/nsu_351_osl_1939.php

The operating manual for a T-100 Triumph Tiger!  I'm partial to Tigers and a chance to bring the T-100 that started the breed into the novel was too good to miss:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120420015718/http://www.klassiekrijden.nu/techniek/triumph-1939-tiger-speedtwin-deluxe-manual.pdf  The original instruction manual is really handy when I'm writing about details on the bike, like where the controls are.  I could just make it up, but then I might as well have just written a book about moon nazis in rocket-ships.

RAF bikes of WW2 (some good photos in there):

http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/20156-ww2-raf-bikes/

BMW bikes in WW2:

https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/material/vehicles/bmw-r12

https://bikez.com/motorcycles/bmw_r17_1935.php

... and sometimes you want to know how they sound:

... which is just like Jeff's tractor!  I'm sure there's a BMW that doesn't sound like a tractor, but I've yet to find it.

1930s vintage motorbikes riding across France:

https://www.rideapart.com/articles/356572/1930s-motorcycles-across-france-video/

This one was handy from a bike and a geography angle.  A nicely nostalgic thing too.

Motorcycling in 1936:

https://motorcycletimeline.com/1936-2/

http://www.vintagenorton.com/

Scottish Six Days Trial ended up playing a part in Bill's backstory (so there is a bit of Ross Noble inspiration in there too).  I liked the idea of Bill's amateur riding background somehow elevating him from lorry driving but didn't want the flash of road racing.  I get the sense that Bill's motorcycling was frowned upon by family and was never recognized as something that might improve his lot.  SSDT seemed like a good amateur-accessible option that demonstrated not just exceptional bike craft but also a toughness of spirit:

https://trialsguru.net/scottish-six-days-trial-the-sporting-holiday-in-the-highlands/  Back in the day it wasn't the gymnastic insanity that the sport has become now.

German women in the 1930s seem quite sports driven.  Ilse Thouret was another Bavarian motorbike racer who looked like a real tough nut:

https://motoress.com/motoressence/woman-rider-motoressence/ilse-thouret-woman-motorcycle-racer/

Bill was a freemason so I'm thinking about bringing on of these women in as a daughter of one (freemasons were killed in death camps as jewish sympathizers).  If the Craft gives you the willies maybe you can take some consolation in knowing that Nazis hated it.

I was looking for a retired French moto-racer who could help Bill sort out a modified 'uncatchable' bike.  Louis Jeannin was one of few French winners, having won the 350cc championship in 1932, but I was reduced to wikipedia for the only mention of him:    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Grand_Prix_motorcycle_racing_European_champions

I ended up giving him a shop at 16/18 Rue de la République, 57240 Knutange, France where Bill goes to pick up a modified T-100.  Jeanin raced Jonghis, which I'd never heard of, though they have an interesting history:

 http://www.woiweb.com/index.php/Jonghi#:~:text=Jonghi%20is%20a%20Italian%2DFrench,%2DJonghi%20and%20Motos%20Jonghi%22.

1939 Tiger T100 for sale at Bonhams!  If the book does well and Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Ewan McGregor and Orlando Bloom all pick up the movie rights (they're all big bike nerds) then I'll get myself that T-100:

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24885/lot/421/?category=list

Looking for a cheap bike a lower class Cockney kid would ride and came across the BSA Blue Star thumper:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSA_Blue_Star

Banger’s bike at home:

https://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-british-motorcycles/classic-bsa-motorcycles/1934-bsa-blue-star-zmsz19jazhur (est.) top speed 75mph.  Good nick name for a kid who rides a single cylinder banger.

1946 Triumph repair manual!  At the end of the war production lines were restarted with little updated because things were so exhausted.  This was a brilliant find as it details all sorts of bits and pieces that help me detail mechanical happenings accurately:

https://partsbooks.britishonly.com/partsbooks/20-10250C.pdf

A Belgian sniper makes his way into the story and has become central to it.  I wanted him on something that spoke to Belgian industrial arts and came across the Gillet Herstal 720 AF - a state of the art machine that never saw wide production due to Belgium's invasion:

https://autowise.com/ww2-motorcycle-sidecar-bikes/

Gillet Herstal 720 AF motorcycle and sidecar (Belgian)

https://motos-of-war.ru/en/motorcycles/gillet-herstal-720-ab/ a great Russian resource on motos of war!

A fantastically named French combination option: The Moto Gnome Rhone with Dragon Porte sidecar!

https://www.lesmaquettistes.com/t4819-sidecar-bernardet-2-modele-1938-dragon-porte-rm-1-35-scrath-fin

I was looking for an alternate German Sidecar combo since everything has been very BMW focused on
the German side, then I came across the Zündapp KS 750, a combination so good that the German government asked BMW to build it instead of its iconic boxer (BMW refused):

http://www.wehrmachtsgespann.de/zuendappenglisch/ze1.htm

https://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-german-motorcycles/1942-zundapp-ks750

http://www.zundapps.com/models/ks750

With sidecar removed: https://www.coys.co.uk/cars/1944-zundapp-ks-750

A fine example of German modernist design.  They're big and heavy though (over 30% heavier than the svelt Belgian Gillet Herstal combination).

***

Those are just the bike related links.  I have more than a dozen pages of links and notes on all
sorts of mad details.  At one point I got lost in WW2 vintage brass blowtorches (they're paraffin fueled!):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-T-C-Military-Extra-Large-Blow-torch-Lamp-1942-/362977608876

When I wasn't looking up details on British warplanes that simply didn't work well, like the Fairey Battle that I'd never heard of before, I was digging deep into fasteners used during WW2 (Germany was metric which is a problem if you're working on a German vehicle in a British hangar).

Writing UDS has been a great trip at a time when I'm frustrated by people's response to a crisis and can't go on any other trips anyway.  Thematically this erupts out of the text with regularity.  This weekend we're off to try and take out Luftwaffe high command at the HQ of Fliegerkorps VIII in Roumont Château, near Libramont in southern Belgium (check out May 26th).  At this point the story is writing itself and I'm often surprised at the direction it takes.  In my best moments I'm reading it as I write it, lost in time.

DGR: Social Connections Challenge: Remember The Ride

I took a swing at the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride Social Connections Challenge with MOTR Garage in the last post, but that idea might not tick the "innovative and disruptive" box - motorcycle coops already exist, though not in the format I'm suggesting.  My angle was to leverage retired teachers to connect men inter-generationally, but otherwise it's an existing concept and not particularly disruptive, though it is scalable anywhere public education exists.

I just heard back from Motorcycle-Diaries and learned that I did not win their 2020 Dream Ride Contest, though being a top 5 finalist worldwide was pretty good by itself.  The winning trip by Theo De Paepe on riding to the northern lights is a moving piece worthy of the win.  Participating in this contest and reading all of these moving dream rides got me thinking about how digital connectivity might be used to reach out to younger potential riders lost in the digital wastes of 2020.

My own piece for that contest was on riding my granddad Bill's path though France as a part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939 and 1940 before the Blitzkrieg swept them out of continental Europe.  William Morris's war record was another one of those family secrets that wasn't talked about, but his military service during World War 2 is the stuff of film.  One of only a handful of his RAF squadron that escaped occupied France, Bill recovered downed planes during the Battle of Britain and then experienced three harrowing years in Northern Africa fighting Rommel as a driver in the RAF armoured car division.  He finished his tour in the white helmets motorcycle stunt team, doing drill and stunts on motorbikes!

Discovering my Granddad's history was a great way to reconnect with a man I was close with as a child, but lost connection with when we emigrated to Canada.  As I was working through that family history I uncovered another mystery the family had been very quiet about, the death of my great aunt Faye.  My mum's middle name was Faye, but I hadn't realized she was named after her aunt.  I also didn't know that Faye had died in a motorcycling accident in Norfolk in the mid-sixties when she was hit by an army lorry.  My mother had always stridently opposed me riding, and now that all suddenly made sense.  That my great aunt's death ended my granddad's life long love of riding and also prevented me from getting on a motorcycle when I first started driving is a lasting source of frustration.

Motorcycling isn't easy, but it speaks to your very being, and it tends to self-select a certain kind of person.  It tends to run in families because families are literally all certain kinds of people.  Trying to bury my motorcycling family history only worked on me because I was an immigrant child separated from his extended family.  While I had uncles and cousins riding in the UK, I was oblivious in another country.

Finding my way back to my motorcycling gene played a big part in me eventually getting my license, though I'm frustrated at the lost decades I could have been riding.  It got me thinking about how many people are separated from family and live in a cultural void where they feel like they come from no one and from nowhere.  But we all have history, and many of us will have ancestors who rode.  Motorcycles used to be transportation before they became recreation.  Any rider can tell you how often an old timer will come up and start chatting about a bike they once owned - it happens to me on the Tiger all the time (Triumph is an old brand with a long history and a lot of old-timers have owned one).

DGR's Social Connections Challenge wants to focus on disruptive, on-the-ground projects that help socially disaffected men who are more prone to suicide.  As a group, immigrant children are more socially disaffected than most, growing up in a strange country where they have no extended family.  The UN's latest report has over two-hundred and seventy million people living as immigrants in countries they weren't born.  On top of that there are many more people living without connection to their family history for various reasons.  Having grown up in a place where I had deep roots and moving to North America, I often meet people who have no idea where their families came from or even who anyone was before their grand parents.  In the early 20th Century motorcycles were transport, not a recreational activity, so many people have family history on two wheels they know nothing about.  I speak from personal experience when I say that making that connection is a powerful thing.

With that in mind, here's another pitch to DGR's Social Connections Challenge:

Granddad Bill on his bike in rural Norfolk well before I was born.

Inspiration:  As an immigrant child I’ve been separated from my extended family for most of my adult life and missed out on motorcycling through family as a result.  After my grandmother’s death I returned home to England for the first time in three decades and discovered secret family motorcycling history which prompted me to get my license.  Family connections have allowed me to bypass the postmodern amnesia many people face; that feeling that we are no one from nowhere. Ride To Remember would be an online resource that connects riders and would be riders to their family motorcycling history.  Realizing that riding is a part of your personal history is powerful.  Not only would this encourage new riders to ride by normalizing what is now considered a high risk activity in our sedentary, safety-first societies, but it would also reconnect us to a sense of continuity and belonging through our own family history.  Motorcycling is an acknowledgement of an inclination that often has roots going back generations.

Target Group:  disassociated men who feel that they don’t have a culture or family history related to riding.  The UN reports over 270 million people have immigrated internationally, and many others are separated from family through circumstances such as adoption.

Proposed Solution:  An interactive website/online community that collects and shares family history related to motorcycling: an ancestry.com for motorcyclists.  By connecting disenfranchised men to their family history, I hope to offer them the same sense of belonging and cultural connection that I have discovered.  By leveraging online connectivity and modern data management, Ride To Remember collates historical motorcycle related media in an easy to access database surrounded by a engaged community that encourages disassociated men to rediscover their moto-roots.

Project vision:  the pilot period involves setting up a .org site that creates an online relational database of motorcycling history using existing online documents tagged with details that allow users to search for material based on time, geographic location, names and other details.  A.I. image recognition software would be used to web-crawl and archive historical motorcycle related online images and online sources.  Long standing manufacturers, museums and vintage motorcycling organizations already have online presences that would provide regional structures in this growing information cloud.   With a growing data structure in place, analytics would allow users to quickly find connections.  They would also be encouraged to add information to the database, further enriching it.  We are at a pivotal time where a lot of analogue material will get lost in digital translation, this project would also encourage digitization of photos and documents for future motorcyclists.  The final stage would be an interactive database that connects people to their motorcycling past and reminds us that none of us comes from no one, nowhere.

Project leads:  writers, photographers and family historians who ride (like myself), anyone with family history in riding (motorbikes used to be family transport!) would be encouraged to share their ancestral motorcyclists.

Project title:  Ride To Remember

***

LINKS

The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride Social Connections:
https://www.gentlemansride.com/blog/dgr-scc

Over 270 million immigrants in the world today:
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/international-migrant-stock-2019.html

My granddad's war history and my great aunt's death while riding was hidden family history that, once exposed, allowed me to embrace riding in a deep and personal way:
https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2018/03/walking-in-bills-footsteps-1940-france.html
https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2013/09/biking-family-history-part-2.html



The Motorcyclist, by George Elliot Clarke - an ode to George's father, who rode at a time when Canada made it difficult for black men to do anything:
https://quillandquire.com/review/the-motorcyclist/

We live in a broken world where families are torn apart while chasing (or being stolen) by globalism.  There is a power in riding that self selects a certain kind of person.  Remember The Ride will reconnect lost people to family two-wheel roots that run deep.

https://pier21.ca/home
Pier 21 in Halifax is the location of the Canadian Immigration Museum.  As a nation of immigrants, Canada is particularly prone to family amnesia.

Dream Ride: help me by liking this post!

I applied to Motorcycle Diaries Dream Rides 2020 Contest based on the research I'd done around my Granddad's service in World War 2:

If you have a moment, like and share this post: https://www.facebook.com/MotoDiaries/posts/1676582355842212?__tn__=K-R

If I get enough votes I might actually get to ride through Northern France on a period, 1930s motorcycle and see the many places Bill passed through with his squadron as they were decimated escaping from the Nazi blitzkrieg before Europe fell.

Motorcycle Diaries: Win Your 2020 Dream Ride

Motorcycle Diaries is a website that shares rides from people from around the world.  I've posted a number of Ontario specific rides on there.  They currently have a 2020 Dream Ride contest going on until April 30th, so here's my pitch.

My Moto-Bio:

I didn't come to motorcycling until later in life. When I was very young, maybe six years old?  I was at my grandparent's house in Sheringham, Norfolk in England one spring Saturday morning in 1975 when a group of vintage vehicles passed by on what was probably a rally.  I was the little blond kid standing on the railings by the side of the road waving at them as they thundered by, and many of them made a point of smiling and waving back, including a guy on a Triumph Speed Twin.  It was one of those flashbulb moments you never forget.  Nothing looked cooler than that bike and rider thrumming through the receding sea mist in the cool morning air.

Years later after immigrating to Canada, I was finally old enough to start considering driving and I immediately gravitated towards motorcycles, but my mother was strangely insistent that I not do that.   Even though we weren't well off my parents dug deep to help get me a car instead.  I got deep into cars owning a wide variety of vehicles, learning how to repair them and even pursuing performance driving courses and cart racing while living in Japan, but that bike itch was always there.

After my mum's suicide I discovered that my great aunt, with whom she shared a name, was an avid rider who was killed in a motorcycle accident a few years before I was born.  I also discovered that my mum's dad, who I was very close with growing up in Norfolk, was also an avid motorcyclist up until the death of his sister, which must have rocked the family since no one had even mentioned her to me.  I've never understood how an accident like that (an army truck accidentally pulled out into her, killing her instantly) warranted this kind of silence, but my mum's side of the family has always been... interesting.

Despite being a major part of the previous generation's lives, motorcycling had evidently became a taboo subject that left me ignorant to a deleted great aunt who I now feel a great affinity for and a love of my granddad's, who I thought I knew well.

I've been riding now since 2014 and I'm on my seventh bike.  I've taken multiple advanced off road training courses and done some long, international trips, including a trip to the last MotoGP race at Indianapolis that had us ripping down the back straight of the historic Brick Yard on our own bikes - mine being an $800 field find I'd restored in my garage.

I've made a point of expanding my familiarity with different bikes by renting them and riding in places ranging from Pacific tsunami zones to the Superstition Mountains in Arizona, usually with my son on the back.  We've had some great adventures.  I've also made a point of becoming mechanically proficient with motorcycles, having just finished my latest restoration.

That's my bio.  Here's the dream ride:

In discovering my family history around motorcycling I also connected my grandfather's rather incredible Second World War tour of duty to riding where, among other things, he served in the RAF's motorbike stunt team.

Bill served as an MP in the RAF and travelled with the British Expeditionary Force to France in 1939 in order to repel the oncoming Nazi war machine.  When it all went wrong, Bill ended up trapped in occupied France for a number of weeks after Dunkirk before eventually finding his way back to the UK just in time to catch planes that fell out of the sky during the Battle of Britain.  He then went on to fight in Africa for several years, but it's his time in France during the 'Phoney War' and once the disastrous Battle of France began with the allied retreat that is the basis for my dream ride.

After some exhaustive research I discovered Bill's path through France from the autumn of 1939 to the spring of 1940.  My dream ride would be to follow in my granddad's footsteps on a period motorcycle through Northern France in the springtime, just as Bill did.




From letters to my grandmother and military records, I discovered that Bill was attached to RAF Squadron 73 who operated across Normandy and up to near the Belgian border over the winter of the Phoney War before being chased south under fire around Paris and through Ruaudin and Saint Nazaire before he finally found a boat back to Plymouth out of Brest, nearly two months after Dunkirk.  In the process he failed to get to the Lancastria with the rest of his squadron, the majority of whom died on it as it was sunk by dive bombers in Saint-Nazaire.

Being able to follow Bill's chaotic retreat with his squadron through France while finding evidence of the great conflict and seeing things he saw between moments of terror and heartache, and doing it on an RAF Norton H16 or a period Triumph Speed Twin would be a heart wrenching and mind blowing experience that would connect me back to a forgotten piece of family history on a number of levels.

What a dream ride that would be.