Barber Engineering

From the beginning of the 1970s Denny Barber, a well respected grass track rider, produced speedway and grass track frames and made replicas of Rotrax Frames from his workshops at Besthorpe, Attleborough, Norfolk. He had and has several sponsored riders, Berwick rider Denny Morter, Andy Smith, Belle Vue & other teams, and Berwick rider Graham Jones. One of the Barber frames notable features was a needle roller headstock.

Beckwood

Ron Beckett, a Hoddesdon based frame builder who, it is believed, built frames for other manufactures including, during the 1970s, Weslake.

Bessemer

Speedway rider (1931 to 1949) Maurice Stobbart ran a speedway school in Workington, a track in Workington was where he raced in 1937) he taught boys at a local boys club in 1970s to cast components and build frames, calling the frames Bessemer after a local steel works.

It has been suggested to me by Geoffrey Kerr-Morgan that the training track used by Maurice Stobbart was the one at Aspatria (see in the Tracks section under A)  Geoffrey continues to say that he believes that Maurice was a tutor at the Further Education college and it was some of his students that made their own

Bessemer frames. He, Geoffrey, remembers that two sons of Maurice rode for Workington

Bewley Jap

George Bewley, well known for his Bewley 2 speed gearbox, also developed in 1961 a speedway springer incorporating a swinging arm with Girling shocks. He also made a frame that had a large diameter top tube and sprung forks a little later. George was,  at this time, a member of the Cradley Heath team as was the ex World Speedway Riders’ Associations secretary Vic White.

BHS Special

Bob Humphreys special, Bob an Australian rider who spent many years in the UK riding for Kings Lynn Stars, Reading Racers and Milton Keynes Knights and was never idle preferring to finding something to do to occupy himself, at Milton Keynes his sponsor, Alan Hodkinson, remembers a time when he was sure that to move the centre of gravity on a speedway bike would be an improvement. He constructed a frame with a completely alloy rear end, with engine plates extended upwards allowing the central carburettor as in the Hagon LTR, the engine and fuel tank were moved back near to the rear of the bike than would be thought normal. Bob rode it and pronounced it not as good as he had hoped and turned his mind to something else.

Bitza Jap

Pioneer speedway rider Frank Pearce built a JAP Bitza for fellow rider Noel Johnson at the end of 1928, said to be a modified AJS.  It was extremely unreliable on the track but no doubt because of this it was of considerable interest to the speedway press. Noel persevered with it and in the end got it going smoothly and his riding was greatly improved.

Bond-Hynes-Menzies

Three gents from Victoria Australia made their way to Brisbane in 1946 to set up a workshop and try out a number of frames and ideas. They were Bond, the man with ideas, Hynes who was an ace with a welding torch and Menzies who had a name for creating very fast motors. They did not set out to make branded equipment preferring to produce the goods to suit the rider, riders such as Keith Cox, Archie Neil and others riding in the Brisbane area. The trio split for a while to do their own thing, Bond replica cars and heavily modified JAP, Hynes continued to make frames this time under his own name and Menzies devoted himself to riding the equipment becoming an Australian Champion.

(Note, the order of the three names seems to have been interchangeable but here we have used the alphabetical)

Bottoms

Rare speedway frame built by Alf Bottoms of Wembley in 1946. Alf moved into the development of racing cars and was sadly killed during practice for the Luxemburg Grand Prix in 1951

Brine Machine

The brothers Brine, Cyril, Ted, Percy and Ron all having an interest in speedway  - Cyril a rider, Ted team manager, Percy also rode speedway and drove midget cars but Ron seemed more interested in the mechanical side of speedway known for his welding & frame building skills. The Brine Frame was not exceptional in anyway having little in the way of looks to set it apart, but it had something to attract riders to use it and many owned one including Bill Longley and Geoff Pymar. The brothers seem to have formed a sort of off season club known as the Speedway Workshop that saw them being joined by other riders who helped and were helped. One of the riders who was part of the off season group from 1948 to 1954 was Jim Gregory who told Tony Webb of Binbooks “it was a team effort, Ted was the design man, Tom the welder and everyone else pitched in, the frames were dispatched in a blued finish, but the tanks which were specially made were chromed” Production of frames stopped in 1954 but the “club” continued, the Speedway Workshops becoming a meeting place for North London riders until the late 1970s.

Briggo-Jawa

World Champion Barry Briggs acquired the sole UK rights to the ESO/Jawa Machine from Alec Jackson and set up business in Southampton marketing a complete machine and a range of products under the Briggo label. Ahead of the field, not a new experience for Barry, he introduced the Briggo laydown in 1974 followed by a 4V developed for the Briggo badge by George Wenn in the USA. Barry Briggs understood what the riders wanted, perhaps sometimes before they did, he was skilled in having the right product at the right time and the ability to market them in a professional & knowledgeable manner.

BSA DT - Dirt-track Machine

As opposed to other BSA machines that were used for dirt-track racing this one was built for the purpose and was a deliberate attempt to produce directly for the Dirt-Track (Speedway) market.

Click here for information and some images

BSA Sloper S2-S2

In 1927 the West Australian Sig Schlam took the dirt racing scene by storm on the BSA Sloper, a stripped down road machine amended to produce a shorter wheelbase and tuned by Walter Pidgeon. At High Beech Jack Parker showed what the BSA could do and the following year the BSA factory in Birmingham gave the machine a face lift, a special frame, shorter wheelbase and a higher compression engine with twin ports, the oil pump was operated by hand and sat on the top of the dual tank however its higher price meant, despite being endorsed by Jack Parker and Bert Perrigo, riders opted for the lower priced BSA and the Sloper S2-S2 was taken out of production in 1930

BSA-North 1972

BSA was brought back in 1972 when Nigel Boocock, George Hunter, Roger Hill and John Harrhy tried out the Rob North framed BSA B50 Moto cross engine. With its 45 bhp running on methanol and with a transistorised ignition it was extensively tested at the Coventry track and approved by all those testing but even with the backing of BSA and Charles Ochiltree the machine did not prove to be what the riders wanted and project was dropped.