My Grandson mentioned to me recently, that his Lady friend’s father had been out on his “Harley” and met up with some other bikers on older bikes, like you had Granddad. “I wish I had some of them now, Joe” I said. Joe told me that his Lady friend’s Dad had bought it in Mottingham Village at Fred Warrs, I told Joe that I used to know the guy that used to own that place when it was selling the odd motorcycle and Honda cars, it was owned by Reggie Gilbert. Reggie was a real character, he started life in Catford and Forest Hill in SE London in the early fifties. He had a little shop in Sangley Road, Catford, he later opened up a corner shop further up the road. This shop was originally owned by Des and Ron Deeprose, the Vincent dealers. They off-loaded it because it was not large enough and because they had bought larger premises in Brownhill Road, which ran parallel with Sangley Road. This was to become one of the local Saturday meeting places. I had a least 4 bikes which I bought from Reggie, it just goes to show how much money used to be made buying and selling second-hand bikes, to achieve what Reggie Gilbert did.

I used to be friendly with a chap called Dave Goodman of Pratts Motorcycles of Greenwich and went with Dave to many auto jumbles where I would help him to get rid of most of what was left of Pratt’s stock. This was all left to Dave in approximately 1982, when Ted Pratt Jnr returned to the U.S.A. Whilst helping Dave at the VMCC Annual West Kent Run Auto jumble at Avery Hill, Reggie Gilbert would turn up on a brand new Honda Goldwing. They thought it was part of the show, so he didn’t have to but a programme – tight sod! He once offered a good friend of mine £35 for his 350cc AJS, he then went to Deeprose and they offered him £55, but unfortunately did not have the bike he wanted, so he then went to Pride & Clarkes of Stockwell. They had the Triumph he wanted and offered him £65, so even all that time ago all the dealers varied, but Pride & Clarkes had an enormous turnover, any rate it kept Dave happy.

Moving onto other characters, does anybody recall a chap called “Gunkey”, a regular at Johnsons Cafe? I believe that he had a Triumph Speed Twin or Thunderbird (although I stand to be corrected). He was a quiet single man, always sporting leather helmet more like a First World War pilot’s helmet. He would leave Johnsons at about 10.30 pm and you would find him down at John’s tea stall at the Lewisham Clock Tower with his usual cup of tea and Telfers meat pie. He was sometimes seen talking to another biker whose name was Vic, he was always dressed in a smart dark blue (black) Belstaff style mac like the Army D.R’s used to wear – again another very quiet man. He owned a lovely T110 or Ton Ten as they were known. He also owned a D.O.T. Trials cum Scrambler fitted with Earles forks, a nice machine. I liked it so much that 2 years later I got my hands on one, but I did not keep it very long. Many years later I met Vic in our local woods at West Kingsdown whilst walking my Staff, Jake. Isn’t strange how you never forget a face. I spoke to him briefly, but did not get much of a response. I thought it might please him to see someone who he had not seen since the mid fifties, but when you haven’t seen someone for about 46 years, I suppose that’s about right, I thought the guy he was walking with must live in the village, but to this day I’ve not seen either of them.

Another guy who could always be found at Johns tea stall was a well known local racer – Dickie Harding or R. M. Harding to anybody else. Dick was a good “Scratcher” at Brands Hatch and could rub shoulders with the likes of Hailwood,