Panther 650 single..never owned one, though brought it out of London for a very reluctant owner. Seemingly incredibly low revs with plenty of torque at the lower end and an Advance/Retard lever on the handlebars..a feature I hadn't come across before. It was quite an effort to persuade the owner to ride the thing on his own. Very relieved to catch a train and disappear over the horizon afterwards. Did hear from another source that it remained unmoving on his drive for a month or two.
Can`t say I do , but at this ripe old age , I struggle to remember my own name some times . Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,, What was he up to then ?
Once upon a time, they was all like that with a choke lever on one side of the bars and a matching one for the advance retard on the other side of the bars. They didn`t exactly buzz when revved but chug chug brill yunt. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 600 maybe ?
Pah...amateurs...a few years ago I used to walk past the Moto Guzzi shop in Loughborough on the way to the station...that was hard. Now I drive past the big Ducatti dealership in Cov....that's really hard! Anyone here ridden a Moto Guzzi...they look like art...any good though?
Of course ... Bit early for me though My youth was spent watching the likes of John Banks , Bob Wright , Roger Harvey , Vic Allen etc etc Loved the big CCM`s and caught busses all over the country to watch the British Chamionships in the `70`s - i was still at school Bike-wise ?? Started with a Bantam on the fields in the mid 70`s and had a few dozen of various marques along the way , mostly off road / enduro racers but raced the tarmac half a dozen times a year on `proper` bikes ... Last bike to go was my old faithful 1972 T120v Bonneville when i moved down to `That London` 4 years ago. Had it 34 years , ran sweet as a nut , didn`t leak oil and never broke down . A sad day but i`d sooner it got used than sit in a shed and gradually deteriorate ... No plans to get another bike - i`d never really enjoyed road riding for the last 5 years before selling the Bonny and racing just hurts these days
Loved my LeMans, had a California that was OK electrics were a bit Italian (pre nippon denso). Bike I should have kept was a Scott Squirrel- sounded like a giant tearing calico!
Me and my brother was in local paper when Dave Thorpe opened culham I was about 5 and was sat on daves bike and my brother was about 2 and was in vic Allan's arms . This was in about 1990
It was a new experience for me! Think there was a special offer on the thing at Pride & Clarke...brand new and the owner didn't want to ride it home. At least a couple of times I thought I'd stalled it in traffic as you say chug chug..unbelievable.
Panthers were only ever good for hauling chairs, red line of about 6rpm! You needed the right leg of Arnie to start the barstewards..
I had a go on Manel Segarra's Guzzi at Cartagena, he was almost unbeatable there, a Spanish Legend, sorely missed in our racing world. Possibly the hardest racer I ever raced against. Could throw that Guzzi around like a GP bike. He'd never lost until we turned up. I NEVER went faster than him. We were just SOOOOOO much better at pit stops and strategy.
Dave and my Uncle were good mates, they both had CCMs then my uncle went on to the works CZ team, a 2 stroke when 4 strokes were king. Then came the Honda CR500! No-one beat that.
