[BITList] OBIT: One of the idol of my youth.

[John Feltham]

Geoff Duke was one of the idols of my youth.

Geoff Duke, motorcyclist - obituary


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11583993/Geoff-Duke-motorcyclist-obituary.html <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11583993/Geoff-Duke-motorcyclist-obituary.html>


I still remember watching him on TV - in the days when TVs were still B&W.

He was giving commentary of a the Isle of Man TT circuit which the BBC showed. He was commenting on film of himself.

He was coming up to a bend in the road and he said, “Riders have to be very careful going around this bend, we are leaning over so far that if you don’t know when to lift your head up, your head will hit the telegraph pole. And then we saw him do just that. Lift his head up as he was shown going around that bend in the road.

"In 1961 Duke was offered a drive in a Formula 1 Cooper car at the Karlskoga track in Sweden. He suffered a locked gearbox, precipitating a crash that proved to be, as he later described it, “the most physically shattering experience of my life”. His injuries included damaged ribs, a collapsed lung, trauma to the heart muscle, a broken collar bone and a cracked pelvis. It was the end of his racing career, although in 1963 he ran a motorcycle racing team known as Scuderia Gilera.”

With injuries like that! He died at the age of 92!

And I remember the 500cc Featherbed Nortons!   Could they go!

What about the 4 cylinder Gileras? They went past with the sound of torn up magazines!

Then it all fell apart as the Japanese bikes started to race.

:-(

ooroo




  

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