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Scrambling


This might be the best piece of moving imagery you'll see all month. It was brought to our attention by Harley, in the Isle of Man who says, 'When MotoX was scrambles, protection while working on a lathe meant standing a bit further back, you could build a bike in three hours, garage decoration came in the form of centrefolds and two strokes sounded remarkably like four strokes…'

Yep, the soundtrack is overdubbed with four-stroke engine noise. The Greeves factory is featured, making 250 Challengers. Eamonn Andrews, famous to all British TV watchers over the age of 40 as the presenter of This Is Your Life, describes development of a 360 engine, which dates this film as probably 1976/68, just two or three years before On Any Sunday was filmed. There are even Husqvarna CRs, similar to those ridden by Malcolm Smith and Steve McQueen, in this clip, but the feel is very different.

Perhaps the most startling part of the film is just how hard the racers are hitting the bumps and ruts on pogostick suspension set-ups. That, and how determined the wheelchair-bound sales manager was to forge a career in a time when disabled access was not even a consideration. It's an eye-opener.

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