Readers’ Letters
A ‘Nod’ to the memory – tales of hardy souls
I really enjoyed your article ‘Saintly Collection’ (April 2019) about Terry Smith and his collection of ex-police motorbikes.
My father was a policeman who for years in the 1960s used to patrol on a ‘Noddy bike’ in Crosby, Liverpool. He often reminisced about his residential training somewhere near the Lake District and of being taken out on training days on big Triumph twins where the training group would hurtle along the roads of the lakes and surrounding areas in single file. The leaders would steadily increase the speed as the outings progressed to equip the police trainees with advanced skills of motoring on two wheels in a ‘swift but safe way’ and to acquaint the riders with high speeds. He clearly loved it.
His life as a local Noddy cop was being out on the police Velocette LE for entire shifts – that is nights, early and lates – before the introduction of the Panda cars, the first being Morris Minors.
He first had a hand start LE
