Roadholder 364 - April 2018

11 After a short time working at Geoff Dodkin's Velo shop and a year building McLaren race cars, I went to Gus Kuhn's in Clapham to look after their racing stable, which included Seeleys and, of course, Commandos, which they raced with great success. I particularly enjoyed preparing and looking after their Nortons for the 24-hour races in both Spain and France, where we discovered first-hand how the new Commando drive system could smash gearboxes. In my spare time, I was helping a racer friend, Roy Simmons, another Norton rider, with a Commando-engined bike. We fitted a Panther rear wheel, which had rubber shock-absorbers and dealt very well with the lack of a cush drive in the very strong Commando clutch. It was quite pleasing to find that Norton came with a similar plan a little later. During all this time, I was still looking after some of Harold's old customers' bikes, just for fun. Today, some 50 years later, I still ride Nortons, both on the road and track, but only parading. I never was a solo racer. An old friend lent me a 500 Manx which I rode on a parade lap at last year's MGP. I am hoping to run on the Island again in the Manx this year with any luck. My home workshop is full of Norton bits and, besides my own bikes, I build one or two engines and gearboxes for other folk, but just for fun these days. 65 Dartmouth Rd, 'the old shop' is now a hairdressers, which would amuse Harold as, like me these days, the man who coined the name 'Featherbed' had very little hair. What an adventure and a privilege to have worked for the great man. Lady Rose Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville, elder sister of Queen Elizabeth, congratulates Harold Daniell on winning the Senior TT, 17th June 1938.