page 7 2007

At the end of 2006 I was offered the opportunity to buy a special triple. The legendary story of the old bike in the shed.
The bike was build by Norman Miles and I was told to be raced by Tony Osbourne before it was sold to Jan Braas.
The bike raced successfully in Holland till 1982, then it was put in a barn where it stayed for several years.
The winter of 2007 was a lot of work, restoring and checking the bike. The bike has a BSA engine and no frame or engine number on it. Many special parts where fitted, Magnesium hubs, Mahle pistons, unknown camshafts, etc. The rear Dunlop tire dated 1978! The former owner, Jan, claims it was Miles first build bike, Tony Page explained that the first four bikes had no numbers.So it is up to Norman to tell.




The first outing was Nurburgring in April, but it was no success. Battery and carb problems, very tiring.







Because Dirk had engine troubles just before the Coupe Moto Legende at Dyon we took both bikes to France. I was exited to be able to see the bike on the track. My old lady ran perfectly till the last run when I found out the rear wheel bearing had given up. But by then the Miles engine was running perfect.



And Dirk found out that handling is far out, while the power comes in at more than 6500 rpm, but than there is plenty of it.















Spa Francorchaps was a party (as you can see on Youtube), three Rob North triples running perfectly.



























Then the last outing was at Gedinne in Belgium. Together with good old Norton Eric we went into the Ardennes. The trac appeared to be a country road that was not been improved since the battle of the Bulge in 45. There we met to my surprise Norman Miles, he immediately recognised the bike. We had a very nice meeting and a lot of talk, but his memory... it is still not clear if the bike is his first or second.






Unfortunately the weekend was no success, the long frame and the old type racing cams made it very difficult to handle at the small twisty track. Several accidents gave it a sad end with a deadly accident on Sunday.













Norman Miles and his bike.