Classic Bike Guide - Real rides, real riders

Nearly a Rocker...

He was older than me but we both went to the same barber – I had to have a cushioned plank across the arms of the chair to get me to adult height. Joe lived at the pub run by his grandfather, the Sultan's Arms, in Plaistow, I think. He was a real tearaway but he learned to play the guitar, taught by George Dance, the local 'resident' Gipsy. George tried to teach me but I was never any good. As much as Joe might have liked to have the 'Pompadour' his blond hair just grew vertically so he was blessed with a head full of spikes - see right.

By the time I got into bikes the Mods and Rockers thing was all over, though as a kid I was desperate to be part of it. I liked the mod’s music (ska, bluebeat etc) so I bought a Vespa Sportique when nobody else was riding scooters. It was awful so I bought a proper bike, a pre-unit Triumph Thunderbird. It had a splayed head Bonnie engine, clip-ons and rear sets, clearly a cast off from the cafe racer scene. When I started playing in a band, I attached a sidecar chassis and mounted a wooden platform. Then I could strap my Marshall amp on the sidecar, sling the bass over my shoulder and ride to whatever dingy pub we were playing. I fitted raised bars as the guitar would ride up my back with clip-ons.

I have one claim to fame. We all decided to learn the organ chord from 'I'm a man'. I was at a party when somebody said one of the guys was forming a band and we were going to jam. So I was given a keyboard and spent the next hour playing the same chord over and over. The guitarist was pretty good, his name was Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac). Before Geoff Lawson (designer of the XK8 Jaguar) died, being a mate of Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), he reckoned we should start a Jaguar band with me on bass. I ran a mile.

Bikes never went away. When I was 19 I was driving an XK 120, followed by an E-type but soon had a Dresda Triton, then a Mach III Kawasaki. If only I’d taken some pictures. These days it's still an E-type with a motley assortment of bikes. If it’s two wheels and interesting, I have a home for it. There's even a scooter next to the Norton, Triumph, BSA and Z1 – it’s a Swallow Gadabout!

Just keep making me smile.

Jim Patten
Jaguar World