Page 11 Exclusive Mick Andrews 2014 Interview
Mrs Jill Andrews enters the room, she offers me a cuppa and some toast.
Did you ever go to Ralph’s house in Treyford?
Yes, one time.
RT - I remember he was a lovely guy, cos when I used to go to the trials, he was always full of such enthusiasm and he was always such an upbeat happy guy and he's got a little corner now in the Sammy Millers museum.
MA/GA - ah that’s nice.
Now back to the AJS in the garage............ Ralph had said to Hugh Viney that you need to get this lad and he did do it in secret, so I have this beautiful bike, but, once we got the bike, Mr Viney said Mick, you do realise that when you ride for us you have to ride Motocross and Enduros, so I said that’s ok, so that’s where I learnt the trade, I did Motocross, Enduros and Trials.
Did you ever go to Ralph’s house in Treyford?
Yes, one time.
RT - I remember he was a lovely guy, cos when I used to go to the trials, he was always full of such enthusiasm and he was always such an upbeat happy guy and he's got a little corner now in the Sammy Millers museum.
MA/GA - ah that’s nice.
Now back to the AJS in the garage............ Ralph had said to Hugh Viney that you need to get this lad and he did do it in secret, so I have this beautiful bike, but, once we got the bike, Mr Viney said Mick, you do realise that when you ride for us you have to ride Motocross and Enduros, so I said that’s ok, so that’s where I learnt the trade, I did Motocross, Enduros and Trials.
Two early photos of Mick.
All on the same bike?
No, I had a scrambles bike that they supplied me, but those bikes I could never work on them, after the weekend me Dad used to go down to Matlock, to the station with the bike, put it on the train and it was sent down to Plumstead, London and every Friday he’d go down to the station and collect which ever bike to ride for that weekend and fully prepared.
So you would just hose the bike off?
Yes, and I wasn’t allowed to do any work on them apart from if anything was broken.
Would you use the same bike for Motocross and Enduro?
Nope, I have 3 bikes.
What age were you when you got that deal with AJS?
16.
No, I had a scrambles bike that they supplied me, but those bikes I could never work on them, after the weekend me Dad used to go down to Matlock, to the station with the bike, put it on the train and it was sent down to Plumstead, London and every Friday he’d go down to the station and collect which ever bike to ride for that weekend and fully prepared.
So you would just hose the bike off?
Yes, and I wasn’t allowed to do any work on them apart from if anything was broken.
Would you use the same bike for Motocross and Enduro?
Nope, I have 3 bikes.
What age were you when you got that deal with AJS?
16.
Mick in the early days competing on the AJS.
And what size engines were those you were riding with?
Trials bike was a 350, scrambles bike was a 500 and the enduro bike was a 500 and also they wanted me to ride a 250 class as well in scrambles, so that was that one, I really enjoyed all that.
You remember all this well, I was just talking to my wife last night and she said James, it was a long time ago, Mick just might not remember it, but I’m glad you do?
Well remember, I’ve been professional now for what 50 years, that’s been my life has bikes. After the AJS started to dwindle they put me onto a James trials bike and the other riders, Gordon Jackson, didn’t like it, so I said I liked it and I won 6 National Trials in a row with it. So that was quite good, 1965, I rode the Scottish with it.
Why did AJS dwindle do you think?
I think all the Japanese had started to come and the rest of them were all going downhill, maybe the unions also.
Did you ever go down to the AJS factory?
Oh yeah, in London, Plumstead.
What was that factory like, was it a big place, small place?
I don’t really remember, it was quite a big place and the James factory was at Birmingham near the BSA factory.
Was this a step forward above the AJS, better bike than the AJS?
Oh yes, this was the time when the small bikes were coming in, so yeah, I rode the James in 65 in the Scottish and then because they was finishing the Rickman brothers from down your way again, the Rickman brothers said Mick, would you ride for us in Motocross, so I rode, it was for about 6-8 months, for the Rickman’s and they was the Bultaco importers at the time, so they gave me a Bultaco trials bike.
Trials bike was a 350, scrambles bike was a 500 and the enduro bike was a 500 and also they wanted me to ride a 250 class as well in scrambles, so that was that one, I really enjoyed all that.
You remember all this well, I was just talking to my wife last night and she said James, it was a long time ago, Mick just might not remember it, but I’m glad you do?
Well remember, I’ve been professional now for what 50 years, that’s been my life has bikes. After the AJS started to dwindle they put me onto a James trials bike and the other riders, Gordon Jackson, didn’t like it, so I said I liked it and I won 6 National Trials in a row with it. So that was quite good, 1965, I rode the Scottish with it.
Why did AJS dwindle do you think?
I think all the Japanese had started to come and the rest of them were all going downhill, maybe the unions also.
Did you ever go down to the AJS factory?
Oh yeah, in London, Plumstead.
What was that factory like, was it a big place, small place?
I don’t really remember, it was quite a big place and the James factory was at Birmingham near the BSA factory.
Was this a step forward above the AJS, better bike than the AJS?
Oh yes, this was the time when the small bikes were coming in, so yeah, I rode the James in 65 in the Scottish and then because they was finishing the Rickman brothers from down your way again, the Rickman brothers said Mick, would you ride for us in Motocross, so I rode, it was for about 6-8 months, for the Rickman’s and they was the Bultaco importers at the time, so they gave me a Bultaco trials bike.
Sammy had just started to develop that in 65 and they gave me that and then, I was working at a motorbike shop in Clay Cross and I said to Eric Hughsley, oh I’ve seen a photo of an Ossa trails bike in one of the magazines and I said I wonder if they would be interested in making a trials bike. So we sent them a telegram, cos remember there were no faxes and that in those days, so we sent them a telegram and we had a reply back. It said "Oh yes Mr Andrews and Mr Hughsley, we would be very interested to make a trials bike, would you come to the factory" . So we went to the factory in Spain, in Barcelona.
How did you get down there Mick?
We drove down.
That was a long way in those days, cos cars weren’t like they are now?
How did you get down there Mick?
We drove down.
That was a long way in those days, cos cars weren’t like they are now?
It was a long way, no motorways in those days and the thing was, remember mid 60's, nobody travelled, you’re not going, you’re not going to Spain, I say yeah (Mick chuckles), so we went down there. Jill wasn’t with us that time and they said yes, we’ll make a bike, what do you think, we don’t have a lot of money, so I look and I can do things in those days, I knew exactly what we wanted to do, we’ll convert the trail bike into a trials bike and see how it goes, so we did that and we made a little production version and the Americans had just joined them and they had an American importer and we showed them the bike and he said oh we like that and it was a big success this particular bike, we called it an Ossa Pennine, because of the Pennine range here, and in Spain it was called the Plumer, feather and in America they called it the Plonker (more chuckles) and because it was a success and then by 1968 we decided we would make a proper professional trials bike instead of it being a converted trail bike. And that’s what we did and that’s when MAR came and we did that.
|