Special feature: Dicko tells us how it was

They were introduced as Dave Dewhurst and Mannix Devlin and they'd come to do a workshop feature for a new, yet to be published, off-road weekly newspaper. 

Crooks Suzuki were big into off-road at the time and we were flat-out prepping and tweaking RM crossers and RL trials bikes.

Anyway, Nigel Birkett was to strip and rebuild a Suzuki RL250 engine for Dave to chronicle. 

Birks could do this in his sleep but because the photography and note-taking interrupted his natural flow he made the odd mistake so they would have to go back a few steps and Dave would have to re-jig his pics and notes.

Of course we were all laughing and taking the p*** out of Birks and a jolly afternoon was had by all.

That was our introduction to TMX and a month or so later Crooks Suzuki was sent a pre-production issue of the paper and we all gathered round to see what it was all about. 

Nigel was roped-in for trials bike tests in those early days and I blagged along with my RL250 and we had some cracking sessions.

I got to know editor Bill Lawless, Dave and Mannix well – Bill often made the 50-mile ride from Morecambe to Barrow to see if Crooks had any interesting road bikes in, as he changed his bikes as often as his socks. 

In fact I got to know them so well that in 1981 I was offered a job and two weeks later found myself sitting at a desk between Bill and Tommy Sandham, getting a crash course in putting a newspaper together.

"We ride it then we write it,” was the TMX slogan in those days and each weekend I'd be out there riding anything from a club trial to a British Championship round. 

The British Trials Champs were all classic National trials back then and while I never threatened the points it was awesome to be able to ride BTCs at such superb trials as the St David's, the Cleveland, West of England, Otter Vale Presidents, Cotswold Cups, Kickham, etc, then bang out a report having sampled every single section.

It was also awesome to be riding exactly the same sections as Martin Lampkin, Malcolm Rathmell, John Reynolds, Rob Shepherd, Rob Edwards and later John Lampkin, Steve Saunders, Tony Scarlett etc, etc. 

Eric Kitchen provided the pics back then as he did for the next 30-odd years – which was recreation for EK, an escape from running his two thriving businesses.

We used to test bikes in British Championship events, picking one up at the start and just riding off to the first section.

I once did that with a Montesa 248 which importer Jim Sandiford had personally brought along to the Cumberland club's Alan Trophy British Champs Trial. 

And I embarrassed myself beautifully looping it spectacularly off the big step at the Lay-By section on Hartside – right in front of Jim. 

"I bet that doesn't get a mention in the report,” was Jim's dry comment – and he was right.

Young TMX staffman Mike Greenough – just 17 at the time – was a really gifted rider but he was very hard on bikes. 

Testing an Italjet one day the bike was unloaded and Mike fired it up and went off, wearing jeans and trainers. 

Two minutes later Greeny had trashed it so comprehensively that the test had to be cancelled before it had even started!

Mike also spectacularly set himself on fire one night during an impromptu test session. 

Greeny was a smoker and he stuffed his box of matches down his sock (No, I don't know why either!) before having a rip on a Fantic 50 that we had just ‘tuned' by hacking 5mm off the back of the piston. 

As he lunged at a pile of pallets the matches somehow self-ignited, there was a blue flame (very impressive, as it was dark at the time) and Mike's leg was ablaze. 

The Fantic was dropped and the flames extinguished, revealing Greeny's polyester socks melted to his ankle.

Another visit to A and E – there was never a dull moment.

Meanwhile, Birks had bought a long-wheelbase, twin-wheel Transit and its debut trip was to take in three World Rounds – France, Italy and Austria. 

Nigel was a Fantic factory rider but was travelling with SWM's Martin Lampkin, Mart's nephew John – just 17 and also on SWM – plus young north east rider Butch Robson, on a private 200 Fantic.

I was offered a trip along with them and editor Bill said, "Go for it!”

That trip deserves a book all of its own as we did the three rounds plus visits to the Fantic and SWM factories. Highlights included Birks, Butch and myself hiring a Trandem (a three-up pushbike – think The Goodies) and pedalling this contraption right through a brass band parade in the centre of a seaside resort in Italy.

The locals thought it was part of the show and Malc and Rhoda Rathmell almost died laughing.

Reporting on the trials wasn't simple in those days with no mobile phones, laptops or internet. 

On the Monday morning I had to find a phonebox somewhere and dictate the report (and results) to a tele-typist in Morecambe. 

The films from the camera had to be posted and Motorcycle News reporter Peter Howdle, who was flying out to each round individually, very kindly posted them off to Morecambe from Heathrow each Monday morning.

Peter was a real character. He was a smoker and on his outward flight he would buy his allotted 400 fags and then attempt to smoke them all in his long weekend away. Not much fun if you were sharing a car! 

Then he'd buy another 400 on the return flight to take home. I ended-up doing quite a lot of travelling with Peter and on one occasion we had visited the Montesa factory in Barcelona and I left my car at his house and we motored to Heathrow in Peter's. 

For the return trip Montesavv had provided Business-class tickets and when Peter realised that meant free booze for the two-hour flight his eyes lit-up and he went for it. 

I stayed sober when I saw how fast the brandy was disappearing and had to drive Howdle home in his own car while he loudly snored in the passenger seat!

Dave Willoughby (ACU and FIM bigwig) was another frequent travelling partner and we drove and flew merrily to many European World Rounds in the 1980s. 

One memory was getting stuck in the mother of all early morning traffic jams in Barcelona but ploughing on hopefully to eventually approach check-in 15 minutes after the flight should have gone.

To our amazement the girl said, "No problem, the pilot is still an hour away!”

We actually had to go back outside and park the hire car correctly as in our panic we had literally abandoned it on the Departures steps! 

Barcelona was grid-locked as it was undergoing a massive road-building programme building up to the 1992 Olympics.

I also took a memorable trip to Bilbao with John Shirt Jr, who flew out to mind for Steve Colley and we were treated to a genuinely scary early morning high-speed ride to the airport in a wreck of a taxi that clearly had no brake pads.

Shirty and I were in the back cowering behind the front seats just waiting for the CRASH!

The 1990s saw several years of crazy end-of-year parties at Gas Gas in Girona which always ended in severe hire-car trauma. 

The Gas Gas country Finca (farm) was up (or down!) a five-mile rocky dirt road which, five-up in a Panda or similar was like a rally stage. 

The petrol pipe got ripped off on one trip after the tortured little Peugeot bottomed painfully during an enthusiastic yump. 

Birkett made us tip it on its side, then flagged down a guy on a trail bike and purloined this Hombre's petrol cap flexible breather pipe. The bodge worked a treat, we dropped the 208 back on its wheels and were flying inside 10 minutes.

The rent-a-racer that Jake Miller was driving one year was never going to be revived, though, after the sump plug got wiped out during a wildly optimistic off-road overtaking manoeuvre and hardly surprisingly it underwent terminal seizure. 

It was pitch black and John Shirt Sr climbed out of the passenger seat – only to disappear down a rocky ledge, he was clinging to the sills by his finger tips.

On the riding front there were many memorable trips to the Isle of Man for the Manx Two Day. 

These were fun-filled, beer-fuelled epics centred on the Little Switzerland chalets that we rented and somehow Nigel even managed to win a Manx, despite all the distractions that we provided. 

Yep, the Birkett Transit was frequently packed with five bikes and eight or nine bodies as it growled the length and breadth of Britain and Europe. It had also grown into a three-litre, petrol-guzzling, V6-powered monster that never went anywhere at less than 100mph or returned more than 15mpg – but with half-a-dozen bodies chipping-in no one cared. 

It did come home minus a cylinder several times as the high revs tended to knock out big ends.

Nigel could remove a piston and rod in record time and it ran surprisingly smoothly as a five-cylinder.

Given the superb spec and performance of modern transporters this might seem laughable to younger readers but it was cutting edge travel back in the early 80s and Nigel, myself, Chris Myers and assorted pals virtually lived in that van.

Bikes were never a problem – there was always something to test – but I always had my own as well.

I went through a Suzuki 250 and 325, a self-built Jerred Honda, Ossa Gripper, a superb 250 Majesty with John Shirt Sr tweaked motor that was as near perfect as it was possible to get, several TY monos and an early Aprilia Climber. 

The Aprilia was a real handful in the sections but the best fun ever crossing moors.

Being a local event the Lakes Two Day was a favourite, especially the early years when it took place in January. 

It always seemed to snow and freeze hard back then which led to lots of fun. 

Martin Lampkin saw his SWM shoot off a track and ended up hanging in a tree at the bottom of a sheer ravine when he hit a frozen stream. 

Martin had stepped-off sharpish and Gerald Richardson had to climb down the ravine and then up the tree in order to rescue the bike.

My best Lakes featured a snow-covered, frozen Sunday run. 

I had fitted a Pirelli to the rear wheel of a development TY350 that John Shirt Sr had lent me. 

The motor was a real slogger and with low revs, high gears and that Pirelli it was virtually unstoppable. Even with a noggin like me on the throttle I finished sixth best on the day and 13th overall. 

It gripped up frozen hillsides that most couldn't even look at.

In contrast, another day stuck in my memory was a roasting hot Wainwright National in Raydale, west Yorkshire. 

I was riding in company with Dave Willoughby who refused to ‘go modern' and was riding his venerable Bultaco twin-shock. 

Bounding down a moor we hit a bit of a wet patch and I was mighty impressed when Dave jumped the Bult over a drainage ditch. 

Snag was after this beautiful leap the front wheel landed bang in another and Dave flew over the bars and skidded on down the hill on his backside...

We used to laugh when in June, as we were struggling to complete that week's issue, editor Bill would shout: "We need to start thinking about Christmas features boys”.

Then, before you could turn round it would be December and the infamous Christmas Double Issue would be looming.

This really has been a very quick skate over 30-odd years and the stories would fill several volumes.

Maybe I'll sit down and pen a few more in future if you're interested. And maybe even if you're not!

When TMX first arrived on the scene back in 1977 and Dave and Mannix were out and about accumulating features for the first issue, I don't imagine anyone involved would have imagined it would still be going strong 2,000 issues later and heading for 40-years on the news stands.

For most of the time I've been involved we have rarely had time to think further than the next week – but we never missed a single deadline.

And the milestones have ticked by, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years... in 2017 it will be 40 years.

For now, though, let's celebrate 2,000 issues.

 

FOR MORE HISTORICAL CONTENT, MAKE SURE YOU GRAB A COPY OF TMX'S 2000TH EDITION!
 

It really is something to be proud of.n Words: John Dickinson

n Pictures: Various Contributors

BACK in early 1977 I was gainfully employed at Crooks Suzuki in downtown Barrow in Furness, when into the workshop wandered a snappily dressed dude with a camera and a long-haired student type in jumper and jeans. 

They were introduced as Dave Dewhurst and Mannix Devlin and they'd come to do a workshop feature for a new, yet to be published, off-road weekly newspaper. 

Crooks Suzuki were big into off-road at the time and we were flat-out prepping and tweaking RM crossers and RL trials bikes.

Anyway, Nigel Birkett was to strip and rebuild a Suzuki RL250 engine for Dave to chronicle. 

Birks could do this in his sleep but because the photography and note-taking interrupted his natural flow he made the odd mistake so they would have to go back a few steps and Dave would have to re-jig his pics and notes.

Of course we were all laughing and taking the p*** out of Birks and a jolly afternoon was had by all.

That was our introduction to TMX and a month or so later Crooks Suzuki was sent a pre-production issue of the paper and we all gathered round to see what it was all about. 

Nigel was roped-in for trials bike tests in those early days and I blagged along with my RL250 and we had some cracking sessions.

I got to know editor Bill Lawless, Dave and Mannix well – Bill often made the 50-mile ride from Morecambe to Barrow to see if Crooks had any interesting road bikes in, as he changed his bikes as often as his socks. 

In fact I got to know them so well that in 1981 I was offered a job and two weeks later found myself sitting at a desk between Bill and Tommy Sandham, getting a crash course in putting a newspaper together.

"We ride it then we write it,” was the TMX slogan in those days and each weekend I'd be out there riding anything from a club trial to a British Championship round. 

Superb

The British Trials Champs were all classic National trials back then and while I never threatened the points it was awesome to be able to ride BTCs at such superb trials as the St David's, the Cleveland, West of England, Otter Vale Presidents, Cotswold Cups, Kickham, etc, then bang out a report having sampled every single section.

It was also awesome to be riding exactly the same sections as Martin Lampkin, Malcolm Rathmell, John Reynolds, Rob Shepherd, Rob Edwards and later John Lampkin, Steve Saunders, Tony Scarlett etc, etc. 

Eric Kitchen provided the pics back then as he did for the next 30-odd years – which was recreation for EK, an escape from running his two thriving businesses.

We used to test bikes in British Championship events, picking one up at the start and just riding off to the first section.

I once did that with a Montesa 248 which importer Jim Sandiford had personally brought along to the Cumberland club's Alan Trophy British Champs Trial. 

And I embarrassed myself beautifully looping it spectacularly off the big step at the Lay-By section on Hartside – right in front of Jim. 

"I bet that doesn't get a mention in the report,” was Jim's dry comment – and he was right.

Young TMX staffman Mike Greenough – just 17 at the time – was a really gifted rider but he was very hard on bikes. 

Testing an Italjet one day the bike was unloaded and Mike fired it up and went off, wearing jeans and trainers. 

Two minutes later Greeny had trashed it so comprehensively that the test had to be cancelled before it had even started!

Mike also spectacularly set himself on fire one night during an impromptu test session. 

Greeny was a smoker and he stuffed his box of matches down his sock (No, I don't know why either!) before having a rip on a Fantic 50 that we had just ‘tuned' by hacking 5mm off the back of the piston. 

As he lunged at a pile of pallets the matches somehow self-ignited, there was a blue flame (very impressive, as it was dark at the time) and Mike's leg was ablaze. 

The Fantic was dropped and the flames extinguished, revealing Greeny's polyester socks melted to his ankle.

Another visit to A and E – there was never a dull moment.

Meanwhile, Birks had bought a long-wheelbase, twin-wheel Transit and its debut trip was to take in three World Rounds – France, Italy and Austria. 

Nigel was a Fantic factory rider but was travelling with SWM's Martin Lampkin, Mart's nephew John – just 17 and also on SWM – plus young north east rider Butch Robson, on a private 200 Fantic.

I was offered a trip along with them and editor Bill said, "Go for it!”

That trip deserves a book all of its own as we did the three rounds plus visits to the Fantic and SWM factories. Highlights included Birks, Butch and myself hiring a Trandem (a three-up pushbike – think The Goodies) and pedalling this contraption right through a brass band parade in the centre of a seaside resort in Italy.

The locals thought it was part of the show and Malc and Rhoda Rathmell almost died laughing.

Reporting on the trials wasn't simple in those days with no mobile phones, laptops or internet. 

On the Monday morning I had to find a phonebox somewhere and dictate the report (and results) to a tele-typist in Morecambe. 

The films from the camera had to be posted and Motorcycle News reporter Peter Howdle, who was flying out to each round individually, very kindly posted them off to Morecambe from Heathrow each Monday morning.

Peter was a real character. He was a smoker and on his outward flight he would buy his allotted 400 fags and then attempt to smoke them all in his long weekend away. Not much fun if you were sharing a car! 

Then he'd buy another 400 on the return flight to take home. I ended-up doing quite a lot of travelling with Peter and on one occasion we had visited the Montesa factory in Barcelona and I left my car at his house and we motored to Heathrow in Peter's. 

For the return trip Montesavv had provided Business-class tickets and when Peter realised that meant free booze for the two-hour flight his eyes lit-up and he went for it. 

I stayed sober when I saw how fast the brandy was disappearing and had to drive Howdle home in his own car while he loudly snored in the passenger seat!

Dave Willoughby (ACU and FIM bigwig) was another frequent travelling partner and we drove and flew merrily to many European World Rounds in the 1980s. 

One memory was getting stuck in the mother of all early morning traffic jams in Barcelona but ploughing on hopefully to eventually approach check-in 15 minutes after the flight should have gone.

To our amazement the girl said, "No problem, the pilot is still an hour away!”

We actually had to go back outside and park the hire car correctly as in our panic we had literally abandoned it on the Departures steps! 

Barcelona was grid-locked as it was undergoing a massive road-building programme building up to the 1992 Olympics.

I also took a memorable trip to Bilbao with John Shirt Jr, who flew out to mind for Steve Colley and we were treated to a genuinely scary early morning high-speed ride to the airport in a wreck of a taxi that clearly had no brake pads.

Trauma

Shirty and I were in the back cowering behind the front seats just waiting for the CRASH!

The 1990s saw several years of crazy end-of-year parties at Gas Gas in Girona which always ended in severe hire-car trauma. 

The Gas Gas country Finca (farm) was up (or down!) a five-mile rocky dirt road which, five-up in a Panda or similar was like a rally stage. 

The petrol pipe got ripped off on one trip after the tortured little Peugeot bottomed painfully during an enthusiastic yump. 

Birkett made us tip it on its side, then flagged down a guy on a trail bike and purloined this Hombre's petrol cap flexible breather pipe. The bodge worked a treat, we dropped the 208 back on its wheels and were flying inside 10 minutes.

The rent-a-racer that Jake Miller was driving one year was never going to be revived, though, after the sump plug got wiped out during a wildly optimistic off-road overtaking manoeuvre and hardly surprisingly it underwent terminal seizure. 

It was pitch black and John Shirt Sr climbed out of the passenger seat – only to disappear down a rocky ledge, he was clinging to the sills by his finger tips.

On the riding front there were many memorable trips to the Isle of Man for the Manx Two Day. 

These were fun-filled, beer-fuelled epics centred on the Little Switzerland chalets that we rented and somehow Nigel even managed to win a Manx, despite all the distractions that we provided. 

Yep, the Birkett Transit was frequently packed with five bikes and eight or nine bodies as it growled the length and breadth of Britain and Europe. It had also grown into a three-litre, petrol-guzzling, V6-powered monster that never went anywhere at less than 100mph or returned more than 15mpg – but with half-a-dozen bodies chipping-in no one cared. 

It did come home minus a cylinder several times as the high revs tended to knock out big ends.

Nigel could remove a piston and rod in record time and it ran surprisingly smoothly as a five-cylinder.

Given the superb spec and performance of modern transporters this might seem laughable to younger readers but it was cutting edge travel back in the early 80s and Nigel, myself, Chris Myers and assorted pals virtually lived in that van.

Bikes were never a problem – there was always something to test – but I always had my own as well.

I went through a Suzuki 250 and 325, a self-built Jerred Honda, Ossa Gripper, a superb 250 Majesty with John Shirt Sr tweaked motor that was as near perfect as it was possible to get, several TY monos and an early Aprilia Climber. 

The Aprilia was a real handful in the sections but the best fun ever crossing moors.

Being a local event the Lakes Two Day was a favourite, especially the early years when it took place in January. 

It always seemed to snow and freeze hard back then which led to lots of fun. 

Martin Lampkin saw his SWM shoot off a track and ended up hanging in a tree at the bottom of a sheer ravine when he hit a frozen stream. 

Martin had stepped-off sharpish and Gerald Richardson had to climb down the ravine and then up the tree in order to rescue the bike.

My best Lakes featured a snow-covered, frozen Sunday run. 

I had fitted a Pirelli to the rear wheel of a development TY350 that John Shirt Sr had lent me. 

The motor was a real slogger and with low revs, high gears and that Pirelli it was virtually unstoppable. Even with a noggin like me on the throttle I finished sixth best on the day and 13th overall. 

It gripped up frozen hillsides that most couldn't even look at.

In contrast, another day stuck in my memory was a roasting hot Wainwright National in Raydale, west Yorkshire. 

I was riding in company with Dave Willoughby who refused to ‘go modern' and was riding his venerable Bultaco twin-shock. 

Bounding down a moor we hit a bit of a wet patch and I was mighty impressed when Dave jumped the Bult over a drainage ditch. 

Snag was after this beautiful leap the front wheel landed bang in another and Dave flew over the bars and skidded on down the hill on his backside...

Quick

We used to laugh when in June, as we were struggling to complete that week's issue, editor Bill would shout: "We need to start thinking about Christmas features boys”.

Then, before you could turn round it would be December and the infamous Christmas Double Issue would be looming.

This really has been a very quick skate over 30-odd years and the stories would fill several volumes.

Maybe I'll sit down and pen a few more in future if you're interested. And maybe even if you're not!

When TMX first arrived on the scene back in 1977 and Dave and Mannix were out and about accumulating features for the first issue, I don't imagine anyone involved would have imagined it would still be going strong 2,000 issues later and heading for 40-years on the news stands.

For most of the time I've been involved we have rarely had time to think further than the next week – but we never missed a single deadline.

And the milestones have ticked by, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years... in 2017 it will be 40 years.

For now, though, let's celebrate 2,000 issues.

It really is something to be proud of.