LIFE CYCLES, WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND . . . . GRAEME TRINDER PEDALLING DAVE BLOMFIELD'S G45 AT LAKESIDE IN 2000 . . . . DAVE WAS MY PARTNER IN 'CLASSIC BIKE TUNE' IN THE EARLY NINETIES . . . . THE KEEPER OF ALL KNOWLEDGE WHEN IT CAME TO BRITISH BIKES . . . . BLIND AS A BAT, HE WORKED IN BRAILLE.

'BLOOMERS', AS HE WAS KNOWN, WAS THE SHOP ZEN MASTER, HE WAS THE WIZARD, THE PROFESSOR, THE FONT FROM WHICH ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE FLOWED, HE HAD BEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN AND HAD TOLD BUDDHA 'IT'S TOO FAR AWAY, YOU'LL HAVE TO MOVE IT CLOSER' . . . . AND VERILY, THE MOUNTAIN WAS MOVED . . . . IT WAS DAVE WHO GOT ME TO BUY AND THEN READ COVER TO COVER, 'TUNING FOR SPEED', EVEN THOUGH I AIN'T NO MECHANIC, IT IS STUFF THAT STAYS WITH YOU FOREVER.

Dave has a viciously sardonic sense of humour and an ability to take the piss out of anything and anyone at the drop of a hat, which came in handy given how much shit we used to put on him about the pictured G45 that was cluttering up the entrance to the shop for the best part of six years . . . . a legitimate, 500cc Geefer, frame #197, it had been owned and campaigned by Graeme Trinder back in the fifties/early sixties, fallen into disuse, like so many great Pommie race rockets did at the time of the Invasion of the Rising Sun, then resurrected by Dave in the late seventies.

By the time I had connected with Bloomers and our other partner, Ron Payne, in about 1990, it was in fine, but stationary, fettle. I wouldn't have known a G45 from a B52 at this point and old Bloomers would drip feed me info-bytes after which I would do my own research/homework thereby becoming more familiar with these not totally successful parallel twin racers . . . . that Dave was attempting to sort out his B series Rapide simultaneously with his Manx Inter and the Black Beast, along with customer bikes, a penchant for vintage handguns and rifles and a propensity for gabbing to other like minded eccentrics turning up to distract his attentions, it was no wonder the old Matchy stood guard in the doorway for so fucking long !!!

He took it to the legendary goat track that was Lakeside from about '91 through to '95 just to see how it would go in a fast 'regularity' event with a good scratcher on board courtesy of Johnny Stamnas, but it was not until the late nineties that the beast got its chance to run at full noise in combat . . . . beautifully enough with its former owner/pilot Graeme Trinder at the helm, shit had come full circle, what goes around had well and truly come around. So here's a pic of Graeme pushing Dave's, that was once his, Matchy G45 around the goat track at Lakeside circa 2000 . . . . I can still hear the fucking wonderful howl those open, shorty megas made as the crankshaft pushed those slugs quicker and harder in their barrels, as Neil Diamond once sung, 'it's a beautiful noise' . . . . love ya Bloomers, you've been a monumental influence in my life.