A path chosen twice

by David Crawford

During 1958 the place where I worked got a new manager from England (can’t remember what area), some days he came to work on a strange two-wheeled contraption, he parked it in the store room, I took very little notice as cars were my thing then.

One day in May 1960 he came into our department for something, as an after thought he said he was selling his bike and buying a car. The asking price was £10, which seemed very reasonable. That evening I asked my Aunt for the lend of the money, she agreed but was not happy – anything but a motorcycle - and said that my Mother would hold her responsible if anything happened to me.

Next evening we travelled up to collect it at 18 Joanmount Park in North Belfast in my father’s Hillman car (of which I have fond memories as I passed my driving test in it the previous May). I handed over the £10 and was given £1 back as a ‘Luck Penny’, given the insurance policy. I had the 25/= policy changed over to me, a learner, at no extra charge by the Royal Insurance Company, it was already taxed - Bond Minibyke 1952 model 98cc Registration number FVL392 was mine!!!!!

I remember coming home for the first time with my pride & joy, parking it on the pavement outside our window. My brother who is now also in the Vintage movement was 7½ years old and recently told me he considered it to be a big machine.

I had a great summer on the little bike, the use of Villiers engines by a manufacturer meant that you could go to almost any motorcycle shop for service, piston rings, contact breakers, cables, sparks plugs etc. which all seemed to be five bob.

One Friday evening in early July 1960 I rode into Belfast. I leaned the near side footboard against the kerb outside Funland in Great Victoria Street where ‘Tattoo Jack’ as he was known had his studio. I got a tattoo on my right arm. With my pocket ten shillings lighter I took off again only to run out of gas and had to walk to the nearest petrol station.

This taught me my first motorcycle lesson of what not to do, I did not know to switch off the petrol tap. I asked the attendant for a gallon of two-stroke mix, he poured ½ pint of oil into the empty tank then the petrol. After paying him the 5/=, as I primed the carb it had a funny feel and sound - you have guessed it - the carb and petrol pipe were full of oil!!!!

Next morning I was off to Dublin 100 miles away to visit my girlfriend who was there on holiday. In those days at the Northern Ireland frontier a compulsory stop each way meant a long delay as forms had to be filled in at both the British & Irish customs. I did not own a crash helmet or gloves, it was cold & damp so the run seemed to take forever.

Lesson number two was about to be learned – About a week before my trip I had to fix a rear wheel puncture, no one had told me that you fitted the slip link with the closed end facing the direction of travel of the chain. I was lucky to get as far as I did. On the return journey the chain broke at Loughbrickland 27 miles from Belfast, I thumbed a lift in a Ford 100E and luckily the owner only lived about five minutes walk from my home.

The following week I put 10/- worth of petrol in my friends 1938 Morris 8 Series 2 and we recovered the Bond on the roof rack, I don’t think the police today would allow that sort of thing!

One of my friends persuaded me that I should have something bigger and the Bond was sold I never forgot that little bike and now we come to the second part of the story: -

One day in the summer of 1983 we went to Celbridge Co Kildare to visit Mr John Ellis who, at that time had the largest collection of cars and motorcycles in Ireland. As we viewed his collections he got his money’s worth out of me, removing dust sheets, turning engines over several times then putting the sheets back on again. As we went along we came across what looked like something very small underneath a bike cover, I asked Joan (now my wife) to run her hands up and down it and guess what machine was under it, I had been telling her about mine, Joan got it in one. Off came the covers to reveal a new unregistered Bond Mini Byke, 125cc JAP engined version. Our host John Ellis had been the manufacturer in Leeds and had bought the design from Laurie Bond in 1951, Laurie had made them for about a year in Lancashire.

One day in the fall of 1989 I phoned Temple Mills House Celbridge, the housekeeper answered,

"Could I speak to Mr Ellis Please," I asked, she came back to ask me what it was about.

"Please ask Mr Ellis if he would sell me the Bond Minibyke"

She came back again to say

"It’s new you know and yes he would sell it ".

Next day Sunday we jumped into our van were on our way, later at his home John Ellis spoke about Bond production as Joan made notes, photographs were taken, he gave us original sales leaflets and an owners handbook priced 1s / 6d. The machine weighs 96lbs has 12lbs tyre pressure

John Ellis died in the spring of 1991 and was well over 90 years old; he remained an enthusiast to the end.

Joan with John Ellis at Temple House Celbridge, Eire, in Autumn 1989 when we purchased the Bond Minibyke from him, the manufacturer, who had taken it off the production line. It had 36 miles on the clock

We took the little Bond to the IoM TT in 1992, while we were there we learnt of the death of Rex McCandless back in N. Ireland whom we knew very well, Joan rode the Bond, I rode my 1974 Ducati 750 Sport. The Bond clutch cable broke on the way to the boat, Padgetts on the island soldered on a new nipple and all was well. The Bond caused quite a stir when parked, took part in the VMCC events and won two prizes.

It still has it’s original tyres, tubes chain, light bulbs, tools etc., has a total of 375 miles to date but has not seen the light of day for several years due to Joan’s health.