Andy Kershaw'snew Autobiography Charts the DJ and Music Journalist's

www.motorcyclenews.com www.motorcyclenews.com THE WEEK FOCUS COMMENT BIKE LIFE SPORT FOCUS 02-06 07-33 34-37 38-57 69-76 07.11.2012 18 WEDNESDAY 19 I didn’t get to see Hailwood race the Honda six at the TT but I was there when he made his comeback Andy Kershaw SKIPPING SCHOOL TO WATCH THE TT: ANDY KERSHAW ON BIKES OU Andy Kershaw’s new autobiography charts the DJ and music A ICOL N L E K Y journalist’s volatile life - and his enduring passion for motorcycles M By Mike Nicks sixties, but I saw him when he made lad had played truant to get to the TT. of the family, because for all that I’ve 750s,” he says. “The racing was guaran- “It was the first time I’d ridden a real any apexes or a line - it was just this his comeback in 1978 and he won the WHAT’S He slept in plastic bags in a small tent, done and for all of my life, I have never teed to be close because everyone was racing bike,” he says, in his Lancashire growing ocean of Tarmac.” t’s turning into a perfect day Formula One TT on an 860 Ducati.” with only £5 to last a week. “I bought left them. It’s been the one constant.” on a similar TZ350, but also because of Kershaw’s dream garage accent. “There was Alex George, Jim Now Kershaw’s got the parade bug, for Andy Kershaw. This morn- Kershaw’s autobiography, No Off THE STORY? lumps of cheese and bags of nuts and His friends in the racing world in- the nature of that bike. It had a good Redman, Phil Read and other famous and he’s open to offers if anyone needs a ing the DJ and global wanderer Switch, relates how the 18-year-old raisins and washed them down with clude the owner of the Honda that’s just power-to-weight ratio, and was light 1966-67 250-297cc Honda six and Jarno Saarinen raced the Italian names all around me, and I thought, keen young lad to handle a classic rac- bought a house in Yorkshire, the risked failing A-level history by fleeing n Andy Kershaw became a cartons of milk,” he relates. shattered the peace of a Leicestershire and very agile. At seven years of age, Kershaw was fours, and Kel Carruthers won the ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ ing bike. “I’m not good enough to go paperback edition of his autobi- to the Isle of Man to watch Hailwood’s cherished national institution No Off Switch charts Kershaw’s rise village, George Beale. Beale specialises “They were pioneering, in a way, already aware of Honda’s technical 1969 250cc world title on one. “Everybody warned me that it was a racing,” he says. “But in a parade you ography is just out, it’s his dog high-stakes return to the TT just two before a marriage breakup, from humble beginnings in Rochdale to in classic 500cc Matchless G50 racers those larger-than-life characters. mastperpieces, but couldn’t get to difficult bike to ride, that it would spit get to go out on beautiful old bikes with Buster’s sixth birthday - and days before the exam. nervous breakdown and prison become one of Britain’s most treasured of the sixties, and has also completed, They would break open a crate, put the Isle of Man to see them. HIS Own BIKES me off if I didn’t ride it in a particular none of the pressure of competing, and he’s twirling the twistgrip of his “I walked the four or five miles spells shattered his life. But DJs, a foreign correspondent for Radio in an act of breathtaking boldness and a TZ250 and a TZ350 in the back of a 1970 883cc Harley-Davidson way, that I would never even get it off the camaraderie is wonderful.” dream bike, a 17,000rpm Honda six. almost to Kate’s Cottage,” he writes. now he’s back – and he says his 4 and broadsheet newspapers in places complexity, several replicas of the six- Transit van towing a caravan, and do 1973-74 Yamaha TZ350 Sportster the startline. Charlie Williams (an Kershaw is also a regular visitor to IKershaw is blipping the 297cc motor “There I settled down for the day with lifelong love of motorcycles has where a mine or a bullet could easily cylinder Hondas. a whole grand prix season.” Water-cooled twin made 60bhp, and ‘What a proper bike should look like.’ eight-times TT winner) said, ‘Use the British Superbike rounds, even though to only 8000rpm in this warm-up ses- my sandwiches, my race programme helped drive his recovery. have ended everything, via a divorce, Kershaw may never get to sample Kershaw got to ride the TZ in a parade was the journeyman racer’s short- clutch around the hairpin.’ But Stan he has reservations about modern sion at a workshop in Leicestershire, and my history exercise books. I boned prison spells and poverty. Try packag- one of those, but this year he fulfilled at Mallory when its owner, collector, circuit and grand prix tool. 1974 Harley-Davidson X-90 Woods (a former British champion) racing. “The machinery and the rid- but even so the bike sounds louder than up on the Causes of the First World War. ing that lot into 52 years. an ambition by riding a Yamaha TZ350 Dean Want loaned him the 1974 bike. minibike said: ‘Don’t touch that clutch going ers have no personality, when you 10,000 Samurai warriors screaming I could scarcely concentrate. Modern bikes are vastly more powerful But his passion for bikes surges for the first time. Kershaw saw his first The build-up seems to have been more 1966-68 250cc Yamaha V4 ‘One of these was my first bike when around the hairpin.’ I was terrified, think of the characters that used to into battle. It could be the loudest rac- “Those around me were reaching a animals than those of Mike’s heyday. through the book’s pages. “The peo- motorcycle race at Oulton Park in 1974, gut-twisting than when Kershaw pre- Yamaha’s answer to the Honda six – I was 14.’ with all those spectators watching. be involved with racing,” he says. “A ing motorcycle ever made. state of near panic. If we weren’t en- The best we could hope for was that he ple I feel most confident with are al- when he was 14, and Barry Sheene was sented Live Aid at Wembley in 1985 to the 70bhp RD05 70° V4 two-stroke. “But it was dead easy to ride - I felt modern 600 is enormous compared “This would be my number one bike tirely fearful for Mike’s life, we were wasn’t humiliated.” ways the bike racing people,” Kershaw the star on his Suzuki RG500. hundreds of millions of TV viewers 50cc Honda Monkeybike that I could have ridden it all day. My to a 350 Yamaha - it weighs a ton in if I could put together a dream garage,” dreading disappointment. He was no Kershaw’s faith was rewarded by says, after shutting off the Honda six. “I used to enjoy the 350cc races in worldwide, at the age of 25 and only 1969-73 250-350cc Benelli four ‘I love the downright silliness of small only difficulty was that I couldn’t find comparison. I liked the very elegant Kershaw says. “I didn’t get to see Mike youngster any more. His familiarity Hailwood claiming his 13th TT victory. “The racing scene feels to me like my the seventies at circuits such as Mallory 18 months after being on the dole, Kershaw’s heroes Renzo Pasolini bikes like these!’ my way around Gerards Bend. It goes riding styles of the TZ era.” Hailwood race the six at the TT in the with the TT course will have faded. The previous year the motorcycle-crazy natural home. They treat me as one Park and Scarborough more than the without a plan. on and on and on, and I couldn’t see Continued over www.motorcyclenews.com 07.11.2012 FOCUS 20 WEDNESDAY ANER S ILL B Kershaw prepares HEROES for a TZ350 outing Mike Hailwood: Nine world at the Festival of a titles, 14 TT wins Thousand Bikes at ‘I was there in 1978 when he won Mallory Park his comeback TT’ Bill Ivy: 1967 125cc world champion ‘I was also very small as a youth, so I identified with him. He was ‘It’s dead easy to ride’ – Kershaw at Redgate corner, Donington Park, on the TZ no more than 5ft 4in, but he was Right: TT winner Charlie Williams offers guidance on the grid before the TZ debut a tenacious little terrier on a bike’ Kershaw’s future looks like becoming is once again bubbling with the energy Jim Redman: six 250 and even more involved with bikes in 2013. and passion that’s made him one of 350cc world titles He has been invited to be the curator Britain’s favourite broadcasters. His ‘A huge talent, with the humility of a Legends Museum being planned autobiography is an inspiration in how of an earlier age. An almost for Scarborough’s Olivers Mount, and to take courage and do the things you mythical figure to me as a youth’ motorcycles will feature in his broad- really want to do. casting work. He’s training to be a In 2010 Kershaw was relaxing in Jarno Saarinen: 1972 250cc wall of death rider, and he’s making a Bangkok after making programmes world champion piece on the 98cc military Welbike for for his Radio 3 Music Planet series, ‘He won the Daytona 200 on BBC1’s The One Show.

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