Mike Naish has been involved interviewing personalities from the South West, now it’s his turn to be interviewed by Trials Guru!

Words: Trials Guru and Mike Naish

Photos: Mike Naish Personal Collection

Trials Guru: Are you Devon born and bred Mike ?

Mike Naish: “Not exactly. I was born in a small town in the Gordano Valley near Naish Hill in Somerset during the War. We moved to Devon when my father was demobbed from the army in Egypt. Because both my Mother and Fathers families came from Devon, we moved to Exeter which was where I went to school.”

TG: How did you get involved with motorcycles ?

MN: “My interest had not always been in competition but I did have one road bike. I started off with a Harper Scootamobile which had been made at Exeter Airport as a design project, and I used it to go to work as I was an apprentice there. I had become enthused by two characters who worked there, Arthur Brown, a good all rounder in scrambles, trials and sidecars, and also Bob Melhuish who sometimes gave me a lift home on his Greeves Scottish. They advised me to go to a scramble they said would be a good one to start at. It was a world round at Glastonbury in 1962. When I saw Dave Bickers and Torsten Hallman going around that Tor circuit- I knew that level of riding was beyond me.”

“Later I had a look at a Crediton Trial that Arthur Brown was running with Alex Ridd and  thought ‘ I can do this’ so I started off with a DOT that I purchased from Gordon Squires- the brother of Reg and Maurice the scramblers. It had the very heavy Earles type forks.”

TG: Mike, Can you remember your first event?

MN: “Very well. It was the West of England Good Friday Trial in 1963 which started from Chudleigh Knighton Common. I was nineteen years old and I rode the 197cc, 1954 DOT from Exeter and back home. I finished last but did not retire as many did. The winner was Peter Keen on a Tiger Cub who lost sixty marks I believe. I lost about ninety and could not see how somebody could loose so little as six.  I was totally knackered but felt exhilarated at finishing my first event intact.”

“As an aside I was exceedingly happy to enter the event in 2005 and to loose no marks at all, OK it took me forty-two years but I got there.”

TG: What was your first award?

MN: Ah, that would be the Novice award in a Moretonhamstead Trial on 19 January 1965, followed by the Knill Trial a week after, the miniature West of England, as it was called. It had snowed a lot and was bitterly cold, probably all the other novices retired. But really you couldn’t have a better event to get the award in and it upgraded me to non-expert. We used some of the old West of England Sections like Gatcome, Downclimb and possibly Hadrian’s Wall.”

TG: Was there any of those early events which particularly call to mind?

MN: “A couple, there was a Mortonhampstead event in the 1960s, April  I think it was because there was snow on the ground.  I had by this time graduated to a later DOT 1963 on which I had put a Marcell Barrel. I carried the bike on two planks on an outfit powered by a big 600cc Panther. Coming out of Morton down the hill to a hump back bridge, it’s no longer there, just before the rise to Lettaford, I slid into the back of a caravan towed by a Land Rover that had stopped to let another vehicle come over the bridge. The back of the caravan was all staved in by the back wheel of the DOT and I stopped there in horror thinking about the cost that I was going to have to face. I expected the Driver to come round so when he pulled away I followed him slowly expecting him to pull over to inspect the damage in a lay by. But he just carried on and on and when Lettaford turning came I peeled off and he carried on over the Moor. I bet he had a shock when he got to Cornwall. That day wasn’t my day because I was hit by a car on the trial and broke my leg.  Roger Wooldridge took me back to the start and made all the arrangements to get me home The outfit stayed at Lettaford for about three weeks until I got a lift out and rode it home.”

“I also remember the West of England National in 1966, I think it was when ‘Ruby Rocks’ was used for the first time. I was on a Greeves Anglian, those Rocks seemed huge, they still do! There was a narrow road near Denbury and I was following Jeff Smith and Arthur Lampkin both on their works BSA’s, doing about 30-35mph, they were talking to each other I could see that. Well suddenly a car appeared in the lane from nowhere and they both accelerated up the hedge either side of the car and carried on talking to each other as they went. I found a gateway and got in, so the car could pass. The driver was shaking his head, I think he must have closed his eyes waiting for the crash, only to open them again and the road was clear. Such quick reactions bythose two consummate experts.”

TG: So what bikes have you had?

MN: “I liked the DOT so moved up to the square framed model- I bought that at Comerford’s at Thames Ditton. It was while I was there that I met and had a chat with my hero, Steve McQueen who was financing the ISDT team for the USA at the time, but that is another story.”

“I moved on through Sprites to the ex-Brian Slee 250 BSA, then to the Greeves Anglian and then to a Montesa, a quintet of new Bultacos from the 250 to the 325 every two years, finishing up my modern era with a Fantic in the early 1980s. I had always been interested in old British bikes, I had a BSA Gold Star, so in 1984 I went Pre65 riding and bought a 350 AJS and started competing. I had three Matchless/AJS, one girder fork, one telefork rigid and a springer I converted to 410cc all to ride in the Sammy Miller Championships. I also had a BSA B40, BSA Gold Star and a Tiger Cub from Charlie’s Motorcycles in Bristol who sponsored me to ride in Scotland. I then moved on to twin shock trials and have a 175 Yamaha, a 200 Honda and the last project, a 340 Bultaco with a six speed gearbox, one of the last ones made.”

TG: Have you ever ridden or been involved in Scrambles?

MN: “Ridden? No, but involved? quite heavily. When I moved up to Rolls Royce in Bristol to work in 1967 I joined the Bristol Motor Cycle Club and their competition committee. Running many events like the regional restricted Don Mountstevens Trial, but also the 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix at Doddington Park for some six or seven years. That was a lot of Work. We also ran the Trophee de Nations one year and my job on the two days was as Technical Steward. I had to affix the seals to the front and back wheels and also between the head and the barrels and then check them after each race and the final. Some of the riders did not like me getting their hands on their machines, but there were great riders like Roger De Coster and that real tough man Heikki Mikkola. Dear old Walter Baker from my old club Crediton, where I had been a committee member, offered me his help and he came up on the day. Motor cycling is a close world and I have made many friends. Anyway after seeing that lot ride there was no way I was ever going to be as good as them so I decided to stick to trials.”

TG What do you think was your biggest achievement ?

MN: “I suppose it was winning the British Championship in the Rigid Class in the Sammy Miller rounds in 1992. I was runner up in the Pre-Unit class in 1993 and the Girder Fork Class in 1994. It was these rounds that were held all over the country that allowed me to make many friends from Yorkshire to Kent. I also won the Rigid class Championship in the Five Nations in 1995 held in the UK, France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Later that year with Mick Andrews and Jean Yves Sellin and his crew we marked out the first St Cucufa Reunion Trial held at Beauval in Normandy. That was followed by at least the next four events in Beauval that I was involved in the organisation with Fabrice and Marion Bazire- they were times that I remember with great fondness.”

“One year I managed to persuade Mike Palfrey, Vic Burgoyne, Doug Williams, Keith Beards and Steve Grinter to ride at Mons in Belgium so we all piled in to my van and Steve’s pick up and had a good old weekend in Belgium on Armistice Sunday.”

“The Pre65 Scottish Trial has also been a favourite of mine and I have ridden a Matchless, Tiger Cub and BSA B40 in the seven events I have ridden. Such a feeling of achievement when you finish, never mind the result.”

TG: So how did you find time to get to all these foreign events?

MN: “When Deryk Wylde started off his Off Road Review Magazine he approached me to be Trials Editor, a job I did from 1992 to 1999 when the pressure of doing that in my spare time together with my day job got too much. I was with the Ministry of Defence and I was head of Airworthiness for the Sea Harrier which meant carrying out trials to set the flying limits with the navy at Boscombe Down with the Sea Harrier amongst other things. Prior to that I had been attached to SSBN’s on the Polaris missile trials so I was up in Scotland at the submarine base and out to Cape Canaveral for firings down to Portland Underwater Weapons Establishment for static trials. Finally as part of the team I saw the Eurofighter Engine into production at Rolls Royce, for which I was invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, one of the highlights of my life. At weekends it was either European trials or the Sammy Miller British Championships and then back at night to write the reports and submit photos if any were suitable. Family holidays always seemed to have a trial somewhere in it. Looking back now I am not sure how I did it all, but then when you’re young!”

TG: And what of the future ?

​MN: “Well I am retired now, back to my home in Devon and I hope to continue my interest in trials for as long as possible.

I am a member of both the South West Classic Trials Association, SWCTA and the West of England Clubs and sit on their committees helping to run events like the Exmoor and Dartmoor 2 day Events and many others. Throughout my life I have to say that trials and trials riding has dominated  and been influential in almost all the things I did both in work and play The friends and comrades made, have been second to none, and I am sure that there are many more out there that feel the same.

Now unfortunately I am losing my sight and cannot drive, but I am picked up by club members to attend meetings and events where I can, and it is good to catch up with everything that is going on.”

‘Mike Naish – The Full Story’ is the copyright of Trials Guru and Mike Naish.

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