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Paul Langman…
Paul started on 2 wheels when he was at the tender age of 14 riding
anything that he could get his hands on at the Horse Shoe Canyon at
Aylestone (an old quarry working) his mounts included Bantams, Tiger Cubs
and stripped scoots… well ok then anything with 2 wheels and a
motor.
The Cub pack
He eventually bought a Tiger Cub (must be mad. Ed.), he liked the machine
but yearned for a flasher bike so he swapped it with a lad he knew who
had a Red and Chrome BSA C15 (definitely mad Ed.), trouble was looks
deceive and it was as Paul put it “a pile of crap”, so back
he went to retrieve the Cub but met strong resistance from the family.
The rockers
At this time he used to hang about with a load of rockers and their
collection of the best of British Steel at the old Roman café (now site
of the Holiday Inn). When he took his test at the Glenfield road test
centre part of the test route took him past the very same café. So each
time he went by all his mates were out there waving him past with pretend
chequered flags using their hankies…. Kind of odd really when you
think about it that this bunch of hardened rockers should all have
hankies…. After the seventh time round the block Paul’s
attention wandered to the mini skirted girls on their way to and from
work, unfortunately the examiner chose exactly this moment to do the
emergency stop thing and Paul nearly ran him over. He questioned
Paul’s observation skills and Paul countered with where had he been
while he had been riding round and round the block, turned out that the
examiner had a problem of a personal nature...and had to go back to the
test centre. He gave Paul the benefit of the doubt and passed him.
The search was on
Test now passed a bigger bike was sought Paul’s dad asked around at
the GEC and it wasn’t too long before he turned something up. There
was a motorcycle enthusiast at his work who had a bike for sale he lived
in the Pool Rd. area so off they both went to go have a look see. It was
a Triton with full Dunstal running gear, wheels, gearbox and seat, all
mounted in a Featherbed frame. Trouble was it was all a bit too tall for
Paul, no problem the chap simply whipped out the wheels and replaced them
with 16 inch ones , altering the gearing to suit and all this for just
under £100, what a bargain. He even managed to negotiate a pay weekly
deal with his dad, Paul reckoned that the engine was so good it ticked
over as smoothly as his brothers Seeley CB72 Honda.
Best time on his bike
This was on a trip to skeggie with about 20 biker mates this left him too
broke to afford petrol to come home, so he and Johnny sought casual work,
his mate sold candy floss and he worked in a café, this weekend trip
lasted almost 6 months In hindsight Paul reckons that when he eventually
got home it would have helped if he had written and told his parents
where he was!
Time moves on
Paul sold the bike when he married, he still regrets the sale, that was
way back in 1969/70 and that was it until about 10 years ago his first
mount was a Virago 535, which he persevered with until on an outing with
the club he parked up in Matlock and to his horror a girl riding the same
machine parked next to him, it just had to go!!!! Following on from that
he rode a Kawasaki VN750 twin for about 4 years but he fancied a
different look and that is Paul’s current mount the 650 Langman
Triumph.
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