May/June 2002

May 2002

It happened at the Stonleigh show. I had driven there in my Leader with Dave, a good friend who
lives in the village who is also a petrolhead (and a better one than I). He has always riden
motorcycles, and was looking for a trike, preferably a Grinnal.

And so we came to the Pembleton stand. Dave started talking to Phil Gregory and was smitten
with the Super Sport, even more so when he heard it had a dickey seat (that is dickey as in extra
temporary seating, not dickey as in likely to fall apart). I however was smitten with the
Brooklands in the corner.

It really looked like a '20s special racer, and was so different to anything else I had seen,
except the Sherpley which is too big for my garage.

So I took the literature and went away "to sleep, perchance to dream".

Of course, I had to mention this to my wife who is lukewarm about my "toys". Blow me down, she
took one look and said it "looked fantastic and when could we go and see it?" I'll never
understand women!

June 2002

In mid June we all went across to Bayton in Worcestershire, with Dave and his family, to see Phil
Gregory. Over the next week I cleared up some details and the deposit cheque went over the
weekend.

In the meantime I had been looking for donors. I say donors, I was still undecided whether to
stick with the 2CV engine or go for the BMW unit. The 2CV engine comes free, but in talking to
specialists there is little that can be done to raise its 30 BHP. Talking to BMW specialists, a
dressed re-con engine (by this I mean with carbs, starter motor, alternator etc) starts at around
£1000. That blew the budget big time. Yet strangely enough SWMBO still said go ahead.

Looking around in Loot, I happened across a complete bike in full running order with a low mileage
engine for less than half the price of an engine. Beer tokens were exchanged for the bike and I
brought it home on the back of a bike trailer. So, it looks like it will be the BMW engine then.