The Solent City Scooter Club-Black Death

the solent city scooter club dave tooley mallory park 1970

Tales of adventure, stupidness, teenage sex desires, friendships a great time was had by all and I remember it just

Black Death

Black Death
By Dave Tooley

Solent City Scooter Club racing activities were limited to only a few determined and resolute individuals; namely Keith Champion, Marten Holdway and myself ( Dave Tooley).

After Keith and I had our abortive ride to Mallory Park on his Wildcat 150, I decided to build him a bike dedicated only to racing.

It was cobbled together, as usual, from a hybrid group of abandoned Lambretta's of dubious pedigree from the Gosport area.

I can remember that bike like I built it yesterday. It was sprayed Matt Black (from a Dag aerosol) because that was the easiest way of covering up the varieties of different coloured parts it had been built up from. I had hand painted (in vivid yellow, and very bad taste) the words 'Black Death' on the front legshields.

The engine was an Li 150 'sort of wildcat' In other words, a combination of anything in the way of go faster goodies I'd managed to scrounge from Les Rafferty.

I'd race ported the barrel myself after studying Les Rafferty's methods, but to be quite honest it was hopelessly outclassed in the 150 specials but was sufficiently quick to give a few of the also rans a run for their money.

I remember on it's first outing at Lydden in Kent Keith crashed it at the top of Hairy Hill whilst trying to make up for its power shortage by taking risks on the bends, but he wasn't badly hurt. Incidentally this was the same meeting that Les came a really bad cropper whilst riding passenger for George Matthews on the sidecars, so we had someone far more important to worry about.

● Solent City Scooter Club

□ The Clubs Formation
□ My First Scooter
□ The Weekly Meetings
□ Trips to Stoney Cross
□ The Meeting Places of the Club
□ The Club Warehouse
□ The Thorngate Halls Disco
□ The Club Newsletter
□ Miss Solent City
□ Grumpy Old Man Blog have some fun

● Scooter Picture Gallery

● Contact Us

● The Member List

□ Members Tales Then and Now
□ Angela Twigg
□ Dermot Omalley
□ David Seymour
□ John Coles Metalflake SX
□ Keith Champion
□ Muriel Rowe
□ Kenny Erridge
□ Mick Estlick
□ Colin Fry and Debbie
□ Dave Tooley
□ Trevor Aspden
□ Phil Blatch
□ Terry Langridge
□ Pete Boyle
□ John Searle and Jackie Catchpole
□ Pete Thomas
□ Marten Holdway
□ John Olde
□ Chris Bracey
□ Mick Platts (Digger)
□ Ken Jackson
□ Colin Thompson

● Articles on Scooter Racing

□ Scooter Racing
□ Crystal Palace
□ Mallory Park
□ Thruxton
□ Lydden Hill
□ Castle Combe
□ Black Death
□ Les Rafferty

● Scooter Rallys

□ The Southend Scooter Rally 1970
□ The Isle of Wight Rally 1970
□ The Comax Rally

● Other Tales to Tell

□ Tales from the River Bank
□ Suzuki Stinger
□ Speed Cop
□ Ned Newman
□ Taking the Mick
□ Memories from Daves garage
□ First Blood
□ Club Party
□ Martens Wildcat Gp225
□ Such a Teaser
□ Braggers and Bullshitters
□ End of an Era

● Other Websites of Interest

Solent City Scooter Club The Clubs Formation Grumpy Old Man Blog have some fun Articles on Scooter Racing Scooter Rallys Other Tales to Tell Other Websites of Interest