The Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy bike - the myth, the dream, the journey.
Part 1: The creation of the last bike Barry Sheene rode to victory.
It was the last lap, and having battled corner by corner with Wayne Gardner, Barry Sheene thrilled fans at both Goodwood and the world over, with his incredible win of the Lennox Cup at the Goodwood Revival in 2002. Tragically, as we all know, it was to be Barry’s last ever victory. And to commemorate that emotional occasion, Goodwood renamed the Lennox Cup, the ‘Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy’.
And what a victory it was, for the bike Barry was riding wasn’t the original machine assembled for him, it was a totally unique hybrid comprising components from at least 3 bikes.
The Lennox Cup was held on the Saturday and Sunday at Goodwood, with set up and prep on the Thursday and practices on Friday. The Sunday afternoon prior to that Fred Walmsley, who was with his rider John Cronshaw racing in the Czech Republic, received a phone call from Barry, on Australia’s Gold Coast. Fred and John were still in the paddock having achieved a fantastic result, winning not only their Inca series race, but John had also won the European Championship – spirits were indeed flying high and they were set for an evening of celebration. Fred assumed Barry was just asking about the race, which he did, swiftly followed by “Fred, I want to ride at Goodwood.”
Now, Fred was under the impression that Barry wasn’t riding at Goodwood due to his ill health. Before leaving for the Czech Republic, Fred had prepped his Seeley G50 ready for Wayne Gardner to ride – he wasn’t going to have time to do it in between Czech and Goodwood, and he didn’t have a bike race ready for Barry. So, Fred ‘Bloody’ Walmsley’s considered response was – you guessed it “bloody hell Barry, go on, I’ll do it.”
Such was the friendship between Barry and Fred, that Fred and John, sans celebrations (poor John) hotfooted it back to Blighty. Now, some reports will have you believe that Fred simply travelled overnight to get back – not quite the case. Fred was in a Ford Cargo van, which averaged about 55-60 mph so the 800km journey from Moste to Rotterdam, which should take around 9 hours would have taken considerably longer. Having reached the port, and secured an earlier than booked overnight crossing to Hull, they drove back to Fred’s home in Preston.
We’re now at Tuesday – they needed to be at Goodwood and ready to go for Thursday, Fred knew that John Cronshaw’s Manx Norton was unlikely to survive a full weekend, having completed a whole racing season and Barry’s Manx Norton wasn’t race prepped and was also missing a number of parts, which were actually on John’s bike! (Both the Norton’s were Fred’s bikes). Fred needed a plan B and that plan involved another bike….
“Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet the bloody thing.”- Barry Sheene
Part 2: The bike’s metamorphosis
Fred had previously built an engine for his good friend George Cohen. He knew George was going to Goodwood, so gave him a call and asked him to bring his engine. George, being a nice chap, offered the entire bike rather than just the engine. However, Fred had to explain that since Barry had first ridden Fred Walmsley’s Manx Norton bikes in 1999, he had declared he would only ride Fred’s bikes. Poor rebuffed George duly complied and brought just his engine!
Thursday arrived and Fred kept George’s engine to one side in case it was needed. 2 laps into the practice race on Friday, Barry’s engine gave up – just as Fred had predicted, so George’s engine went in. They now had the John Cronshaw bike frame with a bespoke swinging arm to allow for a wider tyre, (there was no time to switch that out for Barry) George Cohen’s engine, one of Fred’s spare front wheels and parts from Barry’s FW03 Manx Norton, such as gear levers (specially made to Barry’s liking).
Incredibly, Barry, seated on this completely unique Manx Norton, roared to victory, put his signature to the tank of the bike and a historic moment was set in stone. After the race the bike was dismantled, returning it to its former state as ridden by John Cronshaw and to all intents and purposes, it no longer existed, at least not in the exact state that it was ridden by Barry – John’s bike and some of the parts used were eventually sold, whilst Fred retained other specially made parts and the winning bike became almost a myth.
Until Now…
Twenty years after the untimely death of the revered motorcycle racing legend, the last bike Barry Sheene raced to victory has been recreated once more. Every piece has been doggedly tracked down, and in the expert hands of the very man who created the original bike for the race, it has risen from obscurity to be a tangible entity once more.
How were all the original race parts reunited after such a long time?
Now a good story has many twists and turns, and we can assure you this one is no different! A lot of it was down to sheer tenacity but, quite frankly there are some unbelievable coincidences with a dash of pure luck too. The journey to track down the missing parts and reassemble the bike actually involves 4 bikes, countless people, and a few countries thrown in for good measure!
Part 3: Bike no.1 - 1962 Matchless G50 and the renowned Fred Walmsley.
A syndicate of five individuals had purchased a Walmsley 1962 Matchless G50 from Andy Clews. Simon Roud, Nick Roud, Richard Andrews, Graeme Allison and Chris Newbold, all avid bikers themselves, were looking to race the Matchless, but had yet to find a rider.
Having spent the last 12 years exhibiting their vintage American motorcycles on a static display at he Goodwood Revival, their Thor (1 of only 5 in the world) 1928 1300cc 4-cylinder Henderson, 1922 4-cylinder 1300cc Ace, 1919 1,000cc v twin Harley, 1928 Indian and a 1912 Triumph, nicknamed ‘Wheezy’ which had belonged to the Roud brother’s grandfather (we’ll loop back to that part of the story later!) they had made the acquaintance of Fred Walmsley (the very Fred Walmsley who had built Barry Sheene’s bike and the same Fred Walmsley who had built their Matchless G50).
Fred who was positioned right next to them with the race bikes, had with him a rather well-known rider who had ridden for him for forty years and they all got chatting.
Part 4: The rider and bike No. 2 – The Triumph and the one that got away!
Simon and Nick Roud, are grandnephews/grandsons of Frank and Len Raiser who had co-owned a Motorcycle shop in Plaistow London in the 1950’s. Frank and Len were in business with Archibald Sidney English, who raced an AJS in the Isle of Man TT, under his race name, which was also the name of his business, ‘Sid Franklen’ - Sid/Frank/Len (clever huh!). He had also raced at the single ‘Motorcycle only’ race meeting at Goodwood in 1951 on his no. 37 AJS.
Fred’s rider was Glen English – Classic FIM World Champion. Whilst sitting on and admiring a 1912 Triumph (Wheezy), Glen began asking questions about it. Simon explained that the Triumph had belonged to his grandfather and was the last remaining bike in his grandfather’s motorcycle shop when he died. Sid, Frank and Len were quite the entrepreneurs in their time.
In the post war years of the 50’s, they saw an opportunity in the form of selling motorbikes. Due to the tragic number of fallen heroes during the war, there remained a vast amount of now disused motorcycles sitting in sheds. Widows had very little money, so were eager to sell them, and the remaining young men of the time were looking for cheap modes of transport. Sid English and the Raiser brothers, advertised their home phone numbers in the newspaper and offered to buy and collect the bikes. The business boomed, a shop was purchased, a landline installed and they never looked back!
After Len Raiser’s passing, Simon & Nick’s father had to sell a great many of Len’s assets including 2 motorcycles, which were sold to Don Hitchcock, a family friend and motorcycle hoarder! Don said he wouldn’t sell the bikes, but instead would leave them to the family in his will. Sadly, the bikes instead went to auction upon his death and whilst the Roud brothers had bid on them and thought they had been successful, they were unknowingly and confusingly outbid via telephone and one of the bikes, a Zenith, got away.
It was after hearing this story, that Glen divulged that he too, had been born in, and his family came from Plaistow in London! Glen English as in Archibald Sidney English? Could there possibly be some connection? Could it be that three descendants from Sid Franklen Motorcycles had been brought together to race all these years later?
How incredible would it be to race the Matchless G50 at Goodwood, with all three men being a part of the team, honouring their ancestors and with the same No.37 badge? We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the future as to whether or not that dream is realised. However, in the meantime, the owners of the Matchless had found themselves a rider – Glen English.
A couple of years ago, Simon had seen photographs of the Sheene bike (in its post-race state) and discovered that a friend in Jersey had previously owned it. Whilst in Jersey on business, Simon paid his friend a visit in the hope of acquiring the bike, but to his dismay he found it had been sold to someone else within the same Jersey Parish, and unfortunately his friend wasn’t at liberty to divulge their details, despite searching, Simon returned to England empty handed and disappointed.
During the Spring of 2023, during chats with Fred Walmsley about the Matchless bike they’d bought (Fred was doing some work on it) the subject of Barry’s bike came up. The Jersey owner of the bike had passed away, his family wanted to sell it, so had listed it with Bonham’s Auctioneers. Bonham’s had detailed that the bike did not contain all the actual race components, but it turned out Fred Walmsley knew the whereabouts of most of them. Fred offered to act as a mediator with Bonham’s and between the two of them, they provided a fantastic service and negotiated a private sale agreement between the family and the syndicate.
Part 5: Locating the missing parts…
So, we now have the original John Cronshaw FW02 bike. If you remember from earlier on, we said that Barry’s original engine had failed, and George Cohen’s engine was used instead. Fred said he had tried to buy the engine from George after the race, but George refused saying “not likely, this engine is famous now!”
Sadly, George had passed away suddenly and his bike had been sold to some colleagues of Fred, who put a different engine in the bike and kept the Sheene race engine separately. Fortunately, when the syndicate purchased the Cronshaw bike from Bonham’s Fred was successful in buying his old friend George’s engine. The bike and engine were now reunited.
As a number of parts had been specially made or adapted by Fred, he was the only person who could verify the authenticity of those parts – he was as much a key part to the resurrection of the bike, as he was in its original creation. Fortunately, all those ‘specially created parts’ had been retained.
Just one part remained – the exhaust. No-one knew where it was, they were going to have to use the one that was fitted to the Cronshaw bike – it was hugely disappointing for everyone.
Part 6: The dash of pure chance– and bike no 4
Now during this time, the syndicate continued to attend classic bike rallies and events, all the while looking out for missing parts, (mainly the exhaust). Speaking to fellow enthusiasts was the surest way to trace them. Trips to vintage bike runs in other countries yielded no leads for the Sheene bike parts, but……. a chance meeting with a Dutch man brought some incredible information.
Whilst at a vintage motorcycle gathering in Belgium, a lunchtime break saw Simon unable to sit with his friends due to a lack of room at the tables. Another biker, a Dutch man saw this and very kindly beckoned Simon to sit with him. Conversation flowed freely due to the shared motorbike interest and it wasn’t long before the Dutch gentleman, Gert De Boer, told Simon about a bike he’d bought at auction 2 years earlier in London – it was a Zenith – it was THE Zenith!
Pure chance had brought Simon face to face with the anonymous bidder for his grandfather’s bike. Gert, it transpires, is an expert motorcycle renovator, who has now promised to renovate the Zenith and sell it to Simon, thus returning it to the Roud family once more…
Part 7: An unbelievable co-incidence
Back to the Sheene bike; remember Andy Clews who sold the Matchless to the syndicate? Fred was chatting to Andy one day, telling him how he was restoring the last Sheene bike. He happened to mention the missing exhaust used for the race and how no-one knew where it was – ‘Oh I’ve got that’ says Andy!
Fred needed to be sure it was the actual part, so asked Andy if it had been repaired. Andy then described the exact repair that confirmed its authenticity to Fred. Unbelievably, it had been sitting on the wall of Andy’s workshop when the syndicate had gone to purchase the G50 Matchless from him – hiding in plain sight the whole time! It turned out that Sam Clews had purchased the exhaust on Facebook from a guy in Finland!
With all the parts reunited; it was time for the last bike Barry rode to victory to be restored.
Fred Walmsley had not seen the bike since he dismantled it all after the race in 2002. Since that time, it had not existed as a whole. The syndicate had taken delivery of the bike from Bonhams’ warehouse and transported it to Fred’s workshop and Fred had agreed to sell all the parts he had retained, to the syndicate.
Fred now began the journey of taking the bike apart and reassembling it back to its historic race form. It proved both thrilling and highly emotional at times for Fred, who very kindly documented the rebuild for us and everyone to enjoy.
Barry’s last winning bike, displaying that iconic number 7, is now complete once more. It made its first public appearances at Goodwood Festival of Speed and Donnington Race Track in July 2023.
But, in September, it will return to its historic birthplace – Goodwood Revival. Twenty one years after that enthralling last win, Barry Sheene’s last winning bike will complete a lap of honour in Barry’s name, with Barry’s son Freddie in the saddle.
The syndicate members would like to express their thanks to everyone who has been involved in this incredible journey, but especially to Fred Walmsley, The Duke of Richmond and the Goodwood team, and Bonhams Auction House.
