NN202A - Flipbook - Page 34
outside workshop. It takes some imagination to see that these
days but that's exactly how the legend was started, l built my
昀rst featherbed dominator on those slabs with the guidance of
Les. He taught me everything Norton that l knew back then.
Although at the time l didn't realize what he was doing, he
certainly gave me the knowledge to write this as a testament
to his skills. He would let me ride his black Atlas which was
almost totally vibration free. l also courted his sister in law
Marjorie at this time.
Les used to give pet names to his friends, he called me
Colinge.
Back in those days Les was a fearless rider, these were the
days when British roads were greatly improved but didn't have
the volume of traf昀c, there were stretches of dual
carriageways with huge islands that could be rode around at
speed, Les referred to them as Commando country and
believe me he could scratch around them like a man with a
charmed life.
We would drive around in his blue Ford Classic repairing
people's Nortons, he would do this for no charge, just the love
of keeping a Norton on the road and seeing a happy face. We
travelled to race meetings and the IOM, he gave me shit once
for cleaning trout in the bathroom sink in our shared room at
the MGP in 1979.
Les&sue and family later moved to Rugeley Staffs where
he upgraded to a brick built garage for his developing norton
spares business, soon after they opened a shop in the town
centre, there was sign outside, ye olde Norton shoppe. The
business was called Fair Spares during this period. This was
a time when the classic bike scene in the UK really got going
and it wasn't long before the business was relocated to
Burntwood staffs, where it still is. This is where the legend of
Les Emery really gained momentum, with Les's Norton
hotline,
building new Commando's, the clean room
workshop, and building the experimental eight valve
Commando.
l rode that bike, Les told me to take it out and wring its neck.
It had a close ratio gearbox and would really 昀y. It really
needed a racetrack and not country backroads on Cannock
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