Saturday 30 June 2012

Captain Maurice Seddon's BSA 500's unearthed.

I met Captain Maurice Seddon after I answered an adverisment for some bicycles he was selling. The ad read "Roadster bicycles, many to choose from" I was given many specific instructions by Seddon, the self procclaimed eccentric on what to do and how to do it when arriving at the property. It was not like any other 'viewing' I had ever incountered. I arrived at the property and was greeted by a 7 foot fence with a tiny bell button on it. I was to press the bell then wait. After pressing the bell a voice appeared from some small holes drilled in this rickety oil covered fencing. "Hello, Hello, can You hear me? Who is there?" The Patric Moore voice crackled from the decaying fencing. "I'm coming very slowly, I do everything slowly and thoroughly". It took about 20 minutes for him to finaly reach the gate to let me in, 20 minutes waiting, listening to his pack of mongrel dogs barking and barking. All the time inhailing the smells associated with a muddy yard full of gaurd dogs who's droppings were left to their own devices. Upon entering the property, I was greeted by a barrage of turd covered dog paws pumelling me all over the torso and some in the face too! When on that day I first met Maurice he was so cool, like a mad proffessor of a tv film, long crazy hair, mad inventions and piles of machinery everywhere, super nice and welcoming, kind etc. The dogs were eventually fended off by his flailing walking stick and some Geman commands (Seddon is 1/2 German) and we went to look at the 'Roadster bicycles'. I was led to a rusted pile of frames and wheels under a birds muck and dog excrement covered tarpaulin. What a mess! Anyway The Captain gave me the lowdown on all this BSA stuff He collected over the Years, and all the other stuff. The Yard at the property was insane, piles and piles of things collected over 50 or 60 years living there. A total hoarder. To Your left - a mountain of vintage stereo equipment, protected from the elements by a tarpaulin, to Your right - another tarpaulin covering a barrage of vintage BSA parts. Sheds dotted around filled with reel to reel German recording equipment, so many things in huge piles everywhere. Basically his yard consisted of massive piles of hoarded electrical equipment and freezers, seperated by muddy connecting pathways. Quite a spectacle.
    Anyway, Captain Maurice Seddon is something of a legend, His life story is quite a read, He was there in the pioneering days of sound recording, he rose to rank of Captain in the Royal Signal Corps, He is known internationally as an inventor, one of his most known inventions was low voltage heated clothing. He has also appeared on numerous tv shows.
     To get a good lowdown on Him go to this article here.

   If it wasn't for Seddon I would not have been able to get my BSA together, He helped out a lot and I helped him to shift a lot of his parts. Alas now Seddon resides in a care home and his parts are all gone at auction etc.
   He is well known in bike circles for being the eccentric guy with the BSA's covered in heated clothing modificatins, including a car type alternator driven by a belt on the crank. Recently his 2 main B33's went up for auction. I was a bit dissapointed. My dissapointment was quashed when I casually wandered into Andy Tiernans for a bike fix, and BAM! The captains BSA's right there, running, cleaned up fully working. Well done to Tiernan for getting those. Thought they were lost, only to surface on ebay as nut and bolt breakdowns. So glad to see them out in daylight, running and sorted. Here are some pictures. I will do more than one post on them.











Friday 29 June 2012

CFH Photo Competition bump

Win Yourself 100 free business cards. We had some good entries so far. Anything goes so as long as there is CFH in the picture its good enough.
Here's the details, deadline has flexibility.
Moo Cards x CFH competition:-
If you've got a slammin' enough bike to warrant an ASBO (Absolutely Slamming Bike Order), or you've nabbed one of our postcards at a show then you've held a Moo postcard. Proper quality, fast turnaround and based in the UK. All you want / need from a business card company. Check them out  HERE

Wanna get some printed for yourself? Course. Brothers from another blog, Moo have offered 3 sets of 100 business cards to you. The best 3 photos we receive with CFH somewhere in the pic will win your own cards. The logo can be anything, written on paper, sprayed on bike, on a tshirt or whatever. Or you can scratch it on your tank with a rusty nail. Spread the word, take a photo and send it to info@corpsesfromhell.co.uk

Entries close July 1st so you've tons of time. (flexible)


Monday 25 June 2012

Wheels & Waves 2 Kristina Fender

Here is a second installment of images from the event. There were some really good photographers present, so it was a good perfect opportunity to get some superb bike/event shots. These images are by fearless photographer Kristina Fender. Check out her site click here and more of the motorcycle related stuff click here. It is nice to have so many professional documenter's around and not have to rely on my own pedestrian photos.
 Dimitri Coste BSA
 Blitz dude

 Conrad Leach (right) and La Isla del Tesoro (left)



 Ornamental conifer with catapault
 Paul d'Orleans

 The gang


 Organiser Vincent Prat (centre)


Sunday 24 June 2012

Wheels and Waves by Sam Christmas

Wheels and Waves event/ride photos by Sam Christmas. This was the event organised by Southsiders in France. I was invited to exhibit and ride in this 2 day event in Biarritz France. I rode down with 2 others from London to Portsmouth, then got the ferry to Santander Spain. We then rode up to Biarritz. The event was basically party one night, exhibition and long ride next day, then party, then long ride next day, then party. Then we rode back to England from Biarritz. The return journey was straight up through France to Calais. It was over 600 miles or 1000 kilometers. The Honda CX 500 broke down and ciesed near Bordeux, then a hole melted in the BSA piston at Calais. I dont know the total mileage covered during the trip but it must have been like 1000 miles or something. It was an amazing trip and I met all kinds of people from t'interweb and stuff. Really good fun.

 Ornamental Conifer
 Ornamental Conifer and I
 Ornamental Conifer, Dimitri Coste and I


Jonathan from Death Traps MC



 Kingdom of Kicks James contemplates





 I was quite a burden with the BSA



 Ben on Baybutts CX 500








 I try out El Solitario MC's Winning Loser
 Lazlo