it wasn't all old junk at the classic bike show at stafford, there were some very, very nice bikes there especially on the owners club stands and particularly the classic racer paddock, yamaha's 50 year racing celebration was well represented with an impressive line up of former works machinery, phil read's lovely paton and john cooper's triple stood out, but, for me, the best bike was the incredible 1974 seeley-konig of dave hutchens and allen blasdell, i'm not sure if it was dave or allen who i spoke to but i must thank them for their patience as i bombarded them with questions about the remarkable 500cc flat four two-stroke, the story of it's restoration is inspiring, check out the full story here http://seeleykonig.info/, when i got home from the show i dug out my old copies of 'classic racer' to track down the story of kim newcombe's gp success, essentially he took on the factory riders and works bikes on a home built special using a marine outboard motor with considerable success, his posthumous second place in the 1973 500cc world championship testament to that fact.

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  1. Saw this bike myself, just fantastic.i also liked the old yamaha's especially the 50cc,125 V4 and 250 V4.Ian

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  2. his that a boat engine?

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    Replies
    1. hi anonymous, yep, it originally started life as a speedboat engine, google 'love, speed and loss', it's the poignant story of kim newcombe and the konig, essential viewing......

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