The Special One
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics|May 2018

Our Down Under correspondent has a touching story that shows dreams can come true and memories can be kept alive.

Jeff Ware
The Special One

Okay, stick with me here, this is along story so let me grab a beer from my fridge as I’m in the shed and it’s bloody hot.

As I write, it was this exact day 25 years ago – Australia Day, January 26, 1993. I was 17 years and eight months old and working as a first year apprentice motorcycle mechanic at Willing Motorcycles (of the brothers Len, Warren and Glen Willing fame). Warren, a multiple Grand Prix champion here, was the Marlboro Roberts 500cc GP Yamaha engineer at the time, Len was my boss and was Australian 500cc champion and a super bike legend and Glen was a production racing and tuning guru.

The head mechanic, Dudley Lister, was the ex Mick Doohan mechanic.

In short, I was in heaven. I’d been skipping school and hanging around the shop for years, scabbing brochures and stickers, rummaging through the bins, and as soon as I turned 17, Len Willing said to me one day: “Oi, I suppose you want a job you little f***er?”

Working there and dreaming about 500cc GP bikes day in day out, while servicing RG500s and RZ500s along the way, had me well hooked on two-strokes. I owned a rough 1987 TZR250 and Australia Day, being a public holiday, was race day up the local hills for us dreamers.

With fresh rubber fitted, a new pair of jeans bought after pay day, and no idea what ‘scrubbing in’ was, I headed north to the Old Road, my local famous bike stretch of 30 miles of tight and challenging corners. I had no mates that rode bikes yet, so when I saw a bunch of riders at a café, I kinda parked up and hung back in the shade (it’s bloody hot in January!) I remember hoping they would notice the extra effort I went to that day cleaning my TZR250, including the chain of course!

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2018-Ausgabe von Classic Motorcycle Mechanics.

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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2018-Ausgabe von Classic Motorcycle Mechanics.

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