MOTORCYCLE fanatic Tom Melia may be 60, but he’s still young at heart and is gearing up to take part in the Aintree Motor Cycle Sprint.
Tom, who lives in Bispham Green, started racing bikes in the mid-1970s after his neighbour sold him his motorbike.
“It was about 1976, I’d just got married and we had moved to Westhead, when a very good neighbour of ours, Arnold Farrington, offered to sell me the bike,” he says.
“I went to the British Credit Trust, which we called the British Credit Crust in those days, and asked them for a loan to buy it.
“ They told me they couldn’t give me a loan for a bike, but they would be give me one for a television and settee.”
Tom, who is a mechanical fitter by trade, bought the Norton International and began work on it.
“I traced the history of the bike and found it was built by the late Reg Dearden in 1964, using a 1956 roadster Inter engine. It was built for Major R. B. Jordan who took it with him to Gibraltar and North Africa when he was off to serve Queen and country.”
“The parts were originally from a bike owned by a couple living in Wrexham, who honeymooned in the Isle of Man with it in the 1950s. It’s amazing the history behind it.”
Soon after improving the bike, Tom began to enter races.
“My first race was in Bispham, Blackpool, and was a quarter mile sprint. I’d never done anything like that before and the bike stayed together and ran well so I was happy.”
Soon, Tom began competing in sprints up and down the country and joined the Classic Racing Club now based in London.
“I just did my own thing – classic circuit racing and sprinting. I even got to race against some of my idols Ron Haslem and Stanley Woods on the Isle of Man in about 1982,” he said.
Tom bought his second bike a 1949 Norton 500T from good friend, Eric Ridge, an engineer with British Aerospace.
“He started building this bike in Munich, Germany, where he was stationed, then he took it to Italy and continued building in there. He was doing this as a hobby for 25 years and made an absolutely amazing job of it,” says Tom.
Tom is a member of the Vintage Motorcycle Club based in Burscough and has recently joined the TT Riders Association and has starting doing marshalling for the grand prix on the Isle of Man.
But what does Tom think of more modern bikes?
“I’ve had Yamahas and Zuzukis in the past, but the old classic bikes are the best. There is just something really special about them. Those bikes are my pride and joy.”
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