DIRTTalk
Ahead of the rest
In 1965, when I was an RAF airframe fitter on active service stationed on the island of Labuan, off the Borneo mainland, working on Westland Whirlwind helicopters, my colleague and I, Cpl ‘Ginge’ Thompson spotted something a bit different when looking around the local town of Victoria.
Both of us were keen motorcyclists and there, in the offices of the Borneo Trading Company, leaning against the counter, was a brand new scrambler with a strange name on the tank – Kawasaki. We knew Kawasaki made helicopters and excavators under licence and also Second World War fighter aircraft but this was something new.
On making ourselves known to the Trading Company staff, the outcome was an offer to try out this 125cc two-stroke with
