For sale at the motorcycle races at Knockhill. Something of a rarity, a 1979 Silk 700S Mk2. British made two-stroke twin, with water-cooling.

An entertaining day, and I took quite a few photos, finishing off the previous spool, and starting this ISO400 version. Some results are okay, but the general quality is noticeably poorer than the ISO100 film.

Travelled up from North Berwick with Andrew Shaw - he on his Yamaha RD250, and me on the Honda CB250RS. Stopped twice by the Police on the return! The first was just a mile from the racetrack, from which everyone tends to zoom away from at high speed. They didn't have a speed trap there... did they? They asked, "What's your vehicle registration, and where is it registered?" They were doing us a favour, by trying to catch motorcycle thieves.

The second time was in Edinburgh. We noted a Police car heading the opposite direction, and thought nothing of it. About a mile later, and after pulling away from the a set of lights in Queen Street, they suddenly appeared alongside us (on the other side of the road) flagging us to pull over. We hadn't been doing anything we shouldn't, and by the time they'd parked and walked back to speak to us, we were off the bikes, which were on their stands with the engines stopped, and we'd our driving licences out for inspection. They looked a bit surprised, so I politely  asked, "Was there something wrong Officer?" One of them fumbled a reply, "Er, er... it was the way you were riding." Andrew and I gave each other a, "what's he on about?" look. And that was largely it. Off they went... no doubt disappointed. We knew exactly what they were up to.

The law had recently changed for learner motorcyclists, so that the previous maximum engine size had reduced from 250cc to 125cc. There were an awful lot of 250cc bikes about before the law changed, and a lot people were suspected of taking off their L-plates, and continuing to run about on 250cc bikes, especially as the value of such bikes had dropped dramatically. Those Police obviously thought we were an easy catch, or perhaps, "another" easy catch. Afraid not. We were being very good law abiding citizens... as always... of course.



Ricoh KR-10 : 135mm : ISO 400

Lens: Hoya 135mm f/2.8
Film: KodaColor II 400 (Colour negative)

[Frame : 05]


Extra:  Another British bike, and also a rarity - first Hesketh 1000cc V-twin I'd seen.  [Frame : 08]