Top dog

Barry Winter is a lucky man, but it’s the kind of luck that comes out of sustained effort.

With a successful career as a skilled engineer at the Environment Agency behind him, he could concentrate on his small, interesting collection of classic bikes; some of them have featured previously in these pages. But the story of perhaps the collection’s high point, this 604cc Gold Star, which he uses mostly on the Island and for track days, began back in the day, and has a complexity unexpected in such a monolithic motorcycle. For there’s another Gold Star in his garage.

The family way

“I bought my original Gold Star, a 1955 500cc DB34, around 1960,” Barry explained. “Then my brother had it, but I bought it back from him.”

So time passed, and when circumstances allowed early in 2002 it was this original bike that the big engine – from Gold Star specialist Phil Pearson – was fitted into. Barry had provided Phil with the 500’s set of crankcases, as back then cases and cylinder heads were the only Goldie engine components Pearson could not supply new, and Phil did the conversion, details of which later.

But for over 40 years Barry had also