Hold on tight, because if you like your vintage motorbikes and think modern machines lack a bit of character, you’re in for a treat with this picture selection.
It harks back to a time before the Japanese invasion and is a reminder of the rich motorcycle heritage of Wolverhampton and Britain generally. AJS, Ariel, Scott... they are names to resonate down the ages.
Today those of that special breed who prefer two wheels to four continue to enjoy the sensations and freedoms of motorcycle motoring which have always been an attraction, while benefiting from advances in technology and safety.
So take your seat and rev up for a trip down motorcycling memory lane.
- Missed our gallery from 1975? Take a look at all 63 pictures here.
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17. Gifts for children
Santa Steve Bayley abandoned the traditional sleigh in favour of a motorcycle when he took gifts to children at Sandwell District General Hospital in December 1984. Steve and about 100 members of the Moonshiners Motorcycle Club from West Bromwich had spent several weeks gathering unwanted toys for 45 children on three wards at the hospital. Pictured helping are motorcyclists, from left, Carole Hurley, John Bunch, and Kella Jaundrill. | Express & Star archive
18. Lone Wulf
A Wolverhampton-made Wulf motorcycle on show in 1975 when the British motorcycle industry was in its death throes. All the hopes and prayers of sacked Villiers workers were pinned on the future of the revolutionary motorcycle, which was intended to be made in the Wolverhampton factory of Norton Villiers. A 1,000-strong congregation packed into the Civic Hall for a people's service and offered a few words for the men and their machine. There was an air of reverence from the men, women, and children as they walked past the shining new Wulf, parked in the foyer of the Civic Hall, where the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Ted Mitchell, is pictured here looking at the machine, with John Boyd, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. Sadly this proved to be the one and only Wulf. | Express & Star archive
19. Wartime dispatch rider
This picture was carried in the Express & Star of November 28, 1941, with a caption which said: "Eighteen year old Felice (no surname was given) gets a real kick out of Army life as a motorcycle dispatch rider in a West Midland Anti Aircraft Motor Transport Company, ATS. (n.b. ATS stands for Auxiliary Territorial Service). In crash helmet, slacks, weatherproof leggings and jerkin and muffler, Felice, former nursemaid from the south, can be seen most days motorcycling with dispatches. When I talked with her at her billet in a former old manor house she told me that she had never ridden a motorcycle before she volunteered. Now Felice not only rides a motorcycle, but she has to maintain it in running order..." It turned out that her full name was Felice Dowden, and she was an evacuee from Jersey. Sadly here career as a dispatch rider was ended by a serious accident. Shortly after the war she married Arthur Waterman and had four children, living in the Portsmouth area. | Express & Star archive