I'm alastair w, a freelance bike journo for the last 20 years here in the UK. Got a book out with Veloce UK just now called The Cafe Racer Phenomenon, which is a skim through the history of the cafe racer, the factory cafe styled bikes of the 70s, personal memories from Paul Dunstall, Dave Croxford and many everyday riders, plus a look at the revival of interest and the re-opening of The Ace in London.
A big thanks to everyone who helped with that project over the last year or so.
The next book I'm doing is The Kawasaki Triples Bible and I'm really interested in any memories, photos etc from those who owned 250/350/400/500/750 triple road bikes, worked in Kawa dealers, raced in the KH400 Cup, or Coupe Kawasaki in France. Equally, any info on the H1-R and H2-R racers in the US and Canada is very welcome.
In particular I want to talk to anyone involved with Kawasaki's expansion into Europe and the USA in the 60s, or who worked for C Itoh or Agrati the UK importers. PM me on this site and I will contact you - deadline for all copy is end of Jan 2010.
OK, commercial blurb over...I started riding bikes in `75, watched my mates Chris and Rob `Alf' Garnett proddie racing at Oulton, Darley, New Brighton - a street circuit that doesn't require a ferry journey of Hell to visit - and Three Sisters. Alf was a decent RD400 rider and won stuff after having Dugdales build a blatantly cheating engine for him which meant the bike did 120mph plus on the M56 shakedown test run...
We used to climb over the wall with the broken glass set in the top near Knicker Brook at Oulton, to watch the Transatlantic, or bigger national race meetings in the late 70s. I recall Randy Mamola wheelieing nearly all the way around after winning there one year. I swear I saw Ron Haslam driving someone's Roller through the paddock back in the day when he never even had a single driving lesson, never mind a car licence...maybe I just imagined it.
One of the best amateur racers I ever saw was a kid called Evans Bowland, who raced an RD350 at 3 Sisters in the late 70s/early 80s. He turned up, entered almost every class, proddie to open and won by miles, or fell off in spectacular fashion. He never made the big time as far as I know...are you out there Evans??
Inspired by Alf's success, we formed our own street racing cult gang, the Tilston Street Racers. We taped skateboard knee pads to our jeans and hung off CB400/750s, RD400s then set up our own races using linked roundabouts on industrial estates. It went well until Chris highsided his CB750 and shredded a section of his arse, then locals in Wales started phoning the Police as soon as we arrived at the `paddock' layby...damn vigilantes.
Went to the TT each year from `77-80, and yep, Hailwood's comeback was THE year to be on the Island. Even though I rode a Honda road bike, I loathed Read back then and was delighted when his bike blew up. Mike just seemed more of a `real' bloke to us bike race fans back then, even though I now know Hailwood came from a fabulously wealthy background compared to rural peasants like myself.
I never tried racing until I was 3 and working for a bike mag, so it cost me nowt. Unsurprisingly, I turned out to be dog slow and finishing 14th felt like winning WSB for me. I watched a five bike pile up in front of me on the first corner at Croft and thought `what the frig am I doing here?' and apart from the odd trackday, I've retired. Racing is the acid test though, and you can only write about it properly once you've had some real glimpse of fear at Cadwell's wilder extremes, or tumble dried yourself through the gravel at Brands.
I'd say the difference betwen a racer and a road rider is simple; the place where fear tells your brain to slow down a tad, doesn't really exist inside a racer's head.
Might post a few photos, might find the software baffling to an old geezer...
al
welcome to the forum , and very much look forward to your postings 
