Nostalgia in my loft - my colours from biking 1977-81. Times like these are why we’ve kept this stuff. Staying at home is also about the attic/loft and those cupboards that don’t see daylight very often.
My colours: my identity and personal history of my early riding around Reading, Windsor & Maidenhead, Twyford, Henley and Slough. There were a lot of pubs at the time that wouldn’t serve bikers in leather jackets, let along cut-offs and certainly not colours. Yes, it is a heavy look and it was tribal - Angels or Greasers or Rockers etc - but we were all bikers and I kept away from the bad stuff.
I passed my test on a KH250 2-stroke triple and moved up to a Z750 twin, both kick-start only.
My cut-off (underneath) is plain denim, that was for everyday wear; it’s never been washed, nor have my colours.
My leather’s got a quilted lining; I put some flat studs on the lapel and lower back. There’s no maker’s label but it’s a Lewis Leathers look-alike. I think it came from a bike shop in the Old Kent Road on the left-hand side as you leave the City. There’s another leather with a lot more studs plus thongs on the zips somewhere in the house.
Note the Reading Rocks patch from ’78 or ’79, the Pink Floyd patch from The Wall at Earls Court; the Ton-up Kid metal badge and the rank badges from Brad of the USAF. Snetterton and Brands from having ridden those tracks, Silverstone from the Grand Prix. Guards Polo patch from working there for LWT outside broadcasts. Pentangle star on the back as protection and ’cos I worked for a television company (= star), as well as the other mystic meanings, man.
The 501 jeans are original nineties, worn and washed out from new dark blue denim. My 26 inch waist Levis flares of the seventies and early eighties have long since split and been thrown out. The belt’s too clean: it’s one I inherited. The white scarf is original.
Q: Why do you say colours there are no colours on that cut
A: That’s what we called them back in the day. round where I was riding. I had no specific allegiance to any one group so yes no club colours. Cut-offs to us were plain denim, like underneath in the recent photos, like I’m wearing in this photo from 1981 At last!
With memories of happy riding with Rat of Slough, Phil of Henley, Johnny Stuart of Kensington. RIP all of them.