Dominating decades

Cliff Rees, born into a motorcycle family in 1938, Norton Dominator 88 purchased in 1959. He’s riding the same bike in 2016…you do the numbers!

A chance meeting at the Waterlooville Motorcycle Club run in Hampshire unravelled a motorcycle legacy nearly a century in the making.

 The perfect ride, complete with a pit stop for half a lager and some time to talk bikes

It would be my privilege documenting the full story; two biking characters that have been together for 57 years. A tale of the era when if something was broken you fixed it, you didn’t throw it away, a motto Cliff Rees has lived by – it was a case of having to make do in wartime New Malden, Surrey.

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“My earliest memories were of my parents with the Indian Scout my father bought in 1918. Both he and my mother rode it. Unfortunately, I didn’t aid its longevity when I put sand into the crankcase as a toddler and it was sold for half a crown.”

Cliff’s first job post-school meant passing the Villiers Showroom in Regent Street, where display models from both Francis Barnet and James cemented his decision to head for two wheels, the rest was just a question of savings.


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