Thursday, 9 August 2012

Stanley Woods – The World’s First Motorcycle Superstar

The 1929 Norton team and Byrne.
Woods, Hunt, Simpson, Byrne and Guthrie.
The machine most probably is a 1929 works Model CJ.

-SG- It is now over three months since David Crawford's new biography about Stanley Woods was published. I have now had a chance to read my copy and cannot recommend it highly enough to those with an interest in Woods, Nortons (he was a member of the works team from 1926 to 1933), Velocettes, Guzzis etc. David has provided a wealth of background and historical information about Stanley as well as many quotations from him, gathered over the many years he knew him as a personal friend. Indeed, he accompanied Stanley in later years to most of the events to which he was invited.

The book is profusely illustrated with many photographs, a large number of which have not been in print before (one is reproduced above) and all proceeds go to the Northern Ireland Hospice.

No book of this type has been written without the odd error creeping in and one I spotted is not David's fault but  that of Stanley himself: he has written on the reproduced publicity photo of the Works 1930 TT Norton that it was the machine he used to win the 1930 Ulster. Not so -  the Ulster winner (OF9502) had a two stay frame and down draught inlet tract and the road test of it from late 1930 has appeared on this site already.