Who: John Wilcox
What: Mods & surfers
Where: Newquay, Cornwall
When: August 1966
Why: This was our time, the best time – 1966
My name is John Wilcox, I am 67 & I ride with a small Plymouth group, (not a club), called P.O.M.S. Plymouth Old Mod Squad. We are only 14 strong but tight, some of them I knew back in the 60’s when we went to the same mod club, The Quay Club on Plymouth Barbican.
The picture was taken on a campsite in Newquay Cornwall, this was around August 1966. The scoot on the right was a red & white 1966 LI 150 (EDR345D) it belonged to my pal Derek Baxter, the Series 2 UCO 702 was blue & white & belonged to Pete Catchpole. Pete ended up staying in Newquay as a ‘beach bum’ he would go to the early market each day, load the Lammy up with boxes of peaches & sell them on the beaches around the town. The scoot on the left was mine, Derek & I bought them new when we started work as shipwright apprentices. It was a Silver Special Pacemaker 150 in silver with kingfisher blue side panels, EDR 354D. I have never seen another one like it, that was as supplied from Scooter Services in Plymouth. At the time of the photo my bike had just been robbed of all the mod stuff, well most of it, they left the front crashbars because they had broken in a recent accident.
The Mini was Pete Baker’s, (Beaker to us) Beaker didn’t have a scooter but was one of us just the same.
We used to go to Newquay all the time, apart from the ride, the camping & the freedom from holidays with the parents, there were good clubs, dances & lots of girls. At that time we had all learned to surf and as you know Newquay is ‘Surf City’ how cool were we? Mods & surfers.
These were great times, forever burned in my memory, I mean to be a mod in 1966 with a great bunch of mates, going wherever you wanted when you wanted, jobs, money, clothes, music, girls & all the empty waves we could ride. This was our time, the best time. 1966.
Today I ride a Lambretta bitsa, 1966 SX 200 that I’ve owned since 2007 (225 Mugello kit on an Indian GP 200 engine, completely re-built by me a few years back, 28mm PWK carb, Scoot RS expansion pipe, Agusto 6000 retarder, BGM stator etc.) it’s smooth, strong, reliable & quick enough.
KTF, John
Want to win an X44 chainguide, courtesy of Casa Performance?
Send us your ‘Moment in Time’ and you could win one:
