Greetings rivetheads. My name is Gary, I live with my wife in Victoria, BC, Canada and I have one 24 year old son and a couple of grandchildren to keep me occupied. I have many interests, and modelling has always been one of them although it has been manifest in periods of dormancy over the years since the first experience, which was the attempted assembly and ultimate demolition of a prefectly good kit of HMS Fearless at age five... I am mostly interested in Armour, but the appreciation for Great War subjects is fairly recent, as for many years I built World War Two armour exclusively. The last kits I actually finished were a Matchbox Renault/Char B1 combi , but that was a good twnety years ago, so it's been a while... In the interim, I had a passionate affair with HO scale railroading, specifically '40s-'50s Canadian "transition era" modelling, geared engines and logging railways. My other passion is the enjoyment of classic British motorcycles, as I own two Nortons and occupy a lot of spare time working on other pre '70s BritIron. I don't know where this is all going to lead, but I am looking forward to things with anticipation. I did build an Airfix Mk 1 when I was a child, and had almost all the soldier sets, but a diorama of a western Front trench under attack seems to be a distinct possibility. Fantastic website, great content, looking forward to it all! Onward through the fog! cheers, Gary
I may actually have something pretty cool to contribute here in the near future, I have an acquaintance through the classic bike community here in Victoria who owns what must be a very rare machine, it is an ex Canadian military (WW1 era) Indian motorcycle with a lewis gun trailer....with the lewis gun and all associated accessories present! I will make enquiries to see whether a viewing and photos are possible. More later.
Hi Gary, Welcome along. That sounds like an interesting combo, was it used "in anger" do you know ? Would be great to see some pictures. My elder brother owned a Norton Commando, complete with oil leak, but it was his last Brit bike before he turned japanese lol Paul
__________________
The finest stories of the Great War are those that will never be told.
I'm not certain of its history, it is owned by a local collector who specializes in pre 30s motorcycles, he has a fair few in his house. Things like Yales, Thors, Aces, Hendersons, a Douglas from around 1921, Indian #600 (!!!) and this glorious ex Canadian Army bike which I believe is a 1914 model but don't quote me on that one. I went on a "Garage tour" of his collection a few years back and viewed all of them, and I see him fairly often at swap meets and so on. His thing is local bikes, he had an idea to preserve BCs motorcycle heritage in the form of a museum, but we all know about those good intentions and how difficult it is to pull them off.. so for now his eye popping collection of VERY elderly bikes is in his house and cellar. Very cool indeed for those of us with a mechanical bent, (and I'm sure most on here would appreciate...) We have a number of ex WD Second World War vintage machines here Nortons, BSAs, Matchless and of course the ubiquitous WLC Harley Davidson (Canadian model as opposed to the WLA US version), as with most places in the old dominions, but to find WW1 era M/C is, as you are no doubt aware, exceptionally rare indeed. Add to this it's remarkable carriage and contents and it's all a qwee bit overwhelming for a classic bike nut such as I. I ride with a good bunch of blokes and geezers here on Wednesday nights (11 years now) all of us on old iron, and I have brought up the idea of another garage tour to Daves place with my mates, all it will take I hope is a couple of phone calls and I'll have pics for everyone to peruse. cheers, Gary PS: we have a number of significant collections here, so if anyone has any non WW1 classic bike questions, feel free to send me a line and I'll get back to you. (Obligatory name drop: I am currently the Canadian rep for the International Norton Owners Association until someone else steps up to replace me)
If you can get enough images for a walkaround I have a website that would be interested in putting them on the Web - www.ammsbrisbane.com. there are a fairly eclectic collection of walkarounds on the AMMS Brisbane site. (switch hats) Landships II doesn't have any WW1 motorcycle information and is the poorer for it.
They shall grow not old,as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them,nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.
