I love this photo of Bernie post Bultaco days. He looks such a rascal
If I haven't said this already. openly in my eyes, Bernie would have and should have been World Champion many times over but he was born under some very unlucky stars. What happened to Bernie, if Bernie was five to ten years younger he would have probably dominated the whole of the 1970s. He would have been a Jordi Tarres or a Dougie Lampkin. Lucky for me that he didn't hahahahaha, but you can't turn the clock back and what followed after the demise of Bultaco and him going to Italjet and all this it was just, I don't think he ever fully recovered from it but definitely had the ability and the mental capacity to do it. What's your relationship with Ulf any stronger because you were both from Scandinavian countries? Yes I think so most definitely because Ulf sometimes felt lonely. |
Which language did you speak together in Scandinavia?
There are five different languages in Scandinavia . Icelandic, Which is like ancient Norwegian, Danish which is a bit like Swedish with some German to make a bit more confusing then there is Norwegian. Swedish and Finnish for others. The Finnish language is independant and isn't related to the others at all. Swedish is the second language in Finland and if you go to Grammar School like I did, automatically you are taught Swedish so I learn Swedish at school so I communicated in Swedish with Ulf.
I found it a little bit strange looking through the results for 1978. It looked like there were only four riders who rode the full championship. This was a buoyant time in bike sales with dealers and importers. Trials fans and everyone look back at this time as being the Golden Years of Trials with many more bikes being sold then, than is the case today. Do you remember this as being the case?
That's news for me.
It could well be wrong?
It's possible, it's very possible, but why that would be I don't know. Probably because Bultaco was dominating everything and the others have given up hope hahahahaha
There are five different languages in Scandinavia . Icelandic, Which is like ancient Norwegian, Danish which is a bit like Swedish with some German to make a bit more confusing then there is Norwegian. Swedish and Finnish for others. The Finnish language is independant and isn't related to the others at all. Swedish is the second language in Finland and if you go to Grammar School like I did, automatically you are taught Swedish so I learn Swedish at school so I communicated in Swedish with Ulf.
I found it a little bit strange looking through the results for 1978. It looked like there were only four riders who rode the full championship. This was a buoyant time in bike sales with dealers and importers. Trials fans and everyone look back at this time as being the Golden Years of Trials with many more bikes being sold then, than is the case today. Do you remember this as being the case?
That's news for me.
It could well be wrong?
It's possible, it's very possible, but why that would be I don't know. Probably because Bultaco was dominating everything and the others have given up hope hahahahaha
And you knew Bernie very well back then didn't you and you would spend quality time practicing together?
Yes we used to practice a fair bit and I visited his parents’ house in LA. Bernie also stayed in my flat in Finland. You once made a comment in 1977, I said to him, Bernie, we're going practicing, he looked out of my flat kitchen window and said it's raining, I said yes of course it's raining. Bernie said I don't like practicing in the rain ha ha ha ha ha.
Are you able to go back to the old Bultaco at the end of 1977 and say hey I am the double World champion I want some more money or did you not do that. Was it not a thought that crossed your mind?
All of my contracts were multi-year contracts, 2 or 3 years so I honestly don't remember any more about how they spanned out but I've got a feeling that one of the negotiations took place in 1974, the end of the year for 75 and 76 Seasons and to cover 1977, but I can't remember. To me money was important to be able to exist and also during the time that I was a professional trials rider I thought that I was on top of the world and that the money I was earning was really good only to realise later that if you want to make some serious money it doesn't actually come through trials riding, it cannot, because the market is so small and it is not viable. Perhaps it might have been the case for Jordi Tarres and Dougie Lampkin but my time in the 1970s it wasn't possible, there was no more money to ask from the company. They needed to run successful businesses so I had to keep levels sensible. But I later discovered If I wanted to earn more serious money than I should have become a brain surgeon or a bank manager.
Yes we used to practice a fair bit and I visited his parents’ house in LA. Bernie also stayed in my flat in Finland. You once made a comment in 1977, I said to him, Bernie, we're going practicing, he looked out of my flat kitchen window and said it's raining, I said yes of course it's raining. Bernie said I don't like practicing in the rain ha ha ha ha ha.
Are you able to go back to the old Bultaco at the end of 1977 and say hey I am the double World champion I want some more money or did you not do that. Was it not a thought that crossed your mind?
All of my contracts were multi-year contracts, 2 or 3 years so I honestly don't remember any more about how they spanned out but I've got a feeling that one of the negotiations took place in 1974, the end of the year for 75 and 76 Seasons and to cover 1977, but I can't remember. To me money was important to be able to exist and also during the time that I was a professional trials rider I thought that I was on top of the world and that the money I was earning was really good only to realise later that if you want to make some serious money it doesn't actually come through trials riding, it cannot, because the market is so small and it is not viable. Perhaps it might have been the case for Jordi Tarres and Dougie Lampkin but my time in the 1970s it wasn't possible, there was no more money to ask from the company. They needed to run successful businesses so I had to keep levels sensible. But I later discovered If I wanted to earn more serious money than I should have become a brain surgeon or a bank manager.