South Island WARRIOR
Jonny the photographer and I let out the equivalent of “Cor!” simultaneously, as ahead of the car, Ken Powell treated us to a virtuoso display of fast, smooth motorcycling, up and down through the tree-lined, hilly, stone-walled lanes of the Isle of Wight.
The car was from 2016, its speedo was nudging 70, and I had to try hard to keep up with Ken on the wartime 13bhp WD M20 500cc side-valve single. It wasn’t just me; former Motor Cycling Weekly man Dave Richmond admitted that he’d once had to ask Ken to slow down, while following the M20 on his XS1100 outfit.
M20 man
It was a combination of Ken’s deep knowledge of South Island’s roads, his uninhibited attitude, and his long involvement with BSA’s M-Series, which went back to the days when he’d had problems with the open bell-mouth of his M21’s angled carb sucking in his flares. He once filled the 600 with diesel by mistake, but simply retarded the ignition, rode it home, and next morning, “just to do it,” started it again.
He also has a firm grasp of the
