My grandpa was a biker

G

gpzkat

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Location
Mission Viejo, California
Just reminiscing. The first picture below is my grandfather, Bryan 'Mac' McKinnis, taken around 1914. I believe he was 15 years old (and 6'3" tall, like I was at that age). Greeley Colorado. On the tank of the 'Silent Gray Fellow' is my grandmother, Velma (nee Hodges) McKinnis. Yeah, I know... He went off to war a couple of years after this photo and was an MC courier in the war. He had some stories. My grandmother had a few big bronze medals I used to look at as a kid. Not sure where they are now. He came home and married her when he was 28, I guess she was of age by then. :rolleyes: The bike DNA runs deep in my family, except for my dad, who hated, yet somehow tolerated motorcycles.

The 2nd pic is my 8 years older brother with my late brother Bryan in the middle, and me on the far back, '69 I think. He had just gotten a used '68 Trophy, as memory serves. Big bro would wake us up on Saturdays, cook pancakes, and take us each for an hour ride through the suburban Massachusetts curvy roads. Flipped a coin for who got the first ride. What a wonderful time and brother(s) I had.


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Nice story there. I find quite a lot of us died in the wool motorcyclists have it in the blood.
In our family our grandfather was the first to ride a motorbike across the Coorong, a big patch of sandy wilderness at the mouth of Australia´s biggest river system, I seem to remember newspaper cuttings from the brag. My dad was apparently somewhat of a hooligan on two wheels as well. My mum was almost killed on the back of her then boyfriend's bike in a crash, and was very concerned when we all took to motorised two wheelers.
 
The Sock said:
My old man bought a new Bronze Head Rudge Ulster as his first new motorcycle, Chris.

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My old man would stretch his arms forward and wide and make a ‘brrrrrr’ with his mouth every time a Rudge was mentioned.

Makes me wonder if I subject my family and friends to similar antics …..

“Laverda” ✊ 👊
😖brrrrrrroom brmmmm brmmmmm
 
I have no knowledge of anyone in my father's family having any interest in motorcycles but I know my mother's brothers dabbled with two wheels. My interest, initially, was as a powered alternative to my pedal cycles, so I could travel/commute a bit further. Never thought it would turn into an obsession/illness....... ;)
 
My maternal grandfather was a biker. I have heard stories of doing a top end rebuild in the middle of the night half way across Swarkestone Bridge; he and his mates used to ride up and down the brook at Twyford. He also used to hoon around Derby with a steam car. Was a gun artificer in France in WW1 and then supervised Merlin refurbishment at Rolls Royce in WW2. Great guy!
 
One of my grandfathers lived in Kingston and had a mate who was the manager at Hawkers ( aeroplane fame) so bought & rode a Hawker. He also used to ride a sidecar from Kingston to Polpero in the twenties, which would have been a hell of a journey on rough roads or tracks.
Other grandad was riding a Royal Enfield sidecar in Tooting and was hit by a taxi- had a very early bone graft to his leg, just after the war.
Grandads cousin was Ginger Wood - who was a speedway rider, Vincent works rider and latterly SU designer who worked on the SU for the original Thunderbird. He was first guy to do 100mph for an hour at Brooklands on a New Imperial and also did the TT on a New Imp. He is also credited with having one of the first personalised helmets with a winged “W” . My dad remembers him riding down from Birmingham in the rain averaging something like 60 mph on a Triumph.
 
My grandpa was a biker.
My dad is still a biker, to my understanding he got his first moped around 1967.
My uncle is still a biker.
My another uncle has a bike, but puts just around 500 kms on it in every 10 years.
My godfather is a biker.
Two of my cousins are bikers.
My brother drove a bit when he was younger.

Grandpa bought his first motorcycle, a Jawa 250cc in the late 1940's, a couple of years after WWII, after being survived from his worst wounds he got in a battle against Russia. Quite bad wounds and he strangely still survived, but I don't know what happened to the other side, considering, a story tells he used all of the ammo he had for his rapid fire rifle, but grandpa never told us. It was also said that anyone else from his unit didn't survived and he needed to pull himself with his bare hands for kilometers to the nearest road to survive, his legs didn't worked. Just one example how peace-loving country there is on the East, in Finland almost all families have these stories.

Later grandpa changed the Jawa to another more new similar Jawa, but I don't know when. He used them as everyday vehicles before he bought a VW beetle. In winter he went to work by bus. He drove many longer trips, such 500 kms to the summer cottage and back, etc. Once the Jawa blew its cylinder head gasket and it was roadside recovered. When my dad was a couple of years old they were driving to a beach very near wearing just a few clothes, there was sand on the asphalt and they fell. The speed was notably slow, but they still got road rash almost everywhere and needed to stay for longer time in a hospital looking like Egyptian mummies. There was a bigger mummy and a smaller mummy next to each other laying on the hospital beds. This happened in late 1950's and a couple of years ago my dad said he was not able to find any scars from it anymore. Grandpa quit driving motorcycles around very late 1960's.
 
This is Mac only 3 years later, in France I'm told, 18 or 19 years old. He has leg wraps on. Supposedly, shortly after the armistice he picked up a German hitchhiker and was invited for dinner. Probably apocryphal, there are many stories like that. But cool to think about.
 

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Schurminater said:
That’s crazy,I too lived in Kingston and worked at Hawkers!👍
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Just dug out pics of Gramps on his Hawker, lady is my grandmother. Sidecar shot is on holiday in Polpero- that would have been an epic journey from Kingston hence the AA badge. His mate in the chair is Tom Toms the local fisherman, Toms family still fish out of Polpero.
 

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