Riding with Jamie Whitham

World Supersport star James Whitham is passionate about his
collection of classic Jap bikes. When his mate Jerry rang up and
suggested a trip to Scotland there was only one way to travel by LC!

You know when you're in the pub and your mate asks you if you want to go on a trip he's planning and, because it's miles in the future, it's easier just to say you'll go than to think of an excuse. And the back of your mind is saying 'it'll never happen' and 'he's drunk anyway; he'll never remember he asked me' Well that's how the whole thing started......

Fort William and bust

The mate in the pub was a bloke called Jerry. He and his three brothers are owners of the local bike shop a huge, bang-up-to-date bike shop but one with a rare asset these days... the staff are motorcycle enthusiasts! We share a terrible affliction, Jerry and I, an unhealthy interest in Jap two-strokes.

Jerry with his X7s

The trip he was planning was a two-day, no-motorway, classic two-stroke (I use the word 'classic' in its broadest possible sense), 850-mile round-trip to Fort William in Scotland. That's 850 miles in two days on an LC my piles started itching just thinking about it!
All the usual work/family-related excuses were null and void after Jerry had bumped into my wife and she'd said 'of course I don't mind him going', and 'no, I think he's quiet next week'. So I waited till a couple of days before zero-hour and played my joker. I called to tell him there's no tax on the LC. "That's no problem you can take my power-valve," says Jerry bugger! I was committed now.
I pitched up at the back of the bike shop at the allotted time, 6.30am. I'd picked up the power-valve the night before and spent five minutes preparing the thing by kicking the tyres and bungying a bag to the rear seat containing everything I thought might come in handy... oversuit, spare undies, earplugs, diarrhoea tablets, gas mask and had my teeth checked for loose fillings.
Jerry said he had asked several people to come and wasn't sure who'd turn up. The runners and riders stupid enough to get out of bed that early were: Jerry on an X7 Suzuki; Brin, a cop and regular customer of the shop on another X7; Marcus, a mate of mine and cousin of Jerry's on a fully-faired Yam YPVS; Zac, another old mate of mine and one of those intelligent daft blokes on a shed of a 350 LC that hasn't turned a wheel for months (what could possibly go wrong?); Steve, a businessman and LC nut on the 350 example he bought new in 1980; and me on Jerry's unfaired YPVS.

"...no problem you can take my power valve"

We hit the road at 7am and headed for the nearest fuel station to tank up on fuel and oil, a distance of two miles, and had our first mechanical hiccup. When Zac tried to kick his bike up, he succeeded in snapping the kick-start lever off. It was becoming apparent that his bike had been prepped for the trip regardless of any effort on his part, so we tried to get him to turn back now to save us all trouble later. He was having none of it and pointed out that LCs are the easiest bike in the world to bump-start. Couldn't argue with that so off we went, headed for Hawes in North Yorkshire and a planned bacon sarnie stop.

Classic Motorcycle Mechanics February 2005 edition

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