My article the other day about fairings and naked bikes provoked quite a deal of discussion when I published the link on social media not the least because it proved, again, what a small world the motorcycling world is. One of my readers remarked that he had bought a Stone-style bikini fairing from a “backyarder” in Taren Point, a southern suburb of Sydney. That comment immediately rang a bell because I was pretty sure that my brother had bought a lot of fibreglass gear from a guy called Lew Robson, in Taren point at around the same time (1974).
I checked with Paul and my memory was correct. Not only was it correct but I also managed to troll up a couple of pictures of his bike with Lew’s handiwork installed. Not only did Lew make replica Stone fairings but he also made a full body kit for the RD-series Yamahas. You took off the existing seat and attached the cowl over the tank and the rear sub-frame and the result was as above. Included in the kit was the fairing and the fibreglass mudguard.
The fairing for his cafe kit was of Lew’s own design and differed considerably from the “Stone” pattern but it did look pretty sharp. Paul went the whole hog with this, brand new, RD350. As you can see he fitted rear-sets, Mulholland shocks and expansion chambers as well (seen in 2nd photo). What can’t be seen is that he also replaced the 248cc barrels with 348cc ones making it quite the cafe racer. Paul lived up in the Hunter Valley at the time so you can imagine the fun he had wringing this thing’s neck on the almost deserted country roads around Denman. 🙂
The discussion of fairings, however, raged on, and it produced some real gems of information, long buried in the memory banks. Most fairings in the day were produced by a company called Homebush Fibreglass (they were up all night thinking of that one!) and it was this company that designed and produced the archetypal fairing that was subsequently fitted to the bikes in the movie and also hundreds of wannabee cafe race fanatics for their road bikes.
The “Stone” fairing itself was not original anyway for, as someone pointed out, it itself was just a cut down copy of the Dunstall fairing from the UK but with the “lower” part removed. I didn’t know that but it instantly explained why I always used to wonder why the fairing bubble extended so far back past the fibreglass part of the fairing. 🙂 Learn something new every day.
Sadly, as is so often the case, Paul’s RD came to a sticky end. He sold it to a mate from Annangrove in Sydney who kept it for about three weeks before comprehensively writing it off in an example of an “ambition exceeding ability” accident. Perhaps that is a little unfair as Graeme himself survived the accident relatively unharmed only to succumb to cancer soon after at the appallingly young age of 33. The fragility of life.
On another subject, I hope you caught the item on the MotoGp broadcast the other night where they showed some video from the Asia Talent Cup tryouts in Sepang. If you didn’t, here is a video produced by Benny Baker’s family to celebrate his selection and also to seek sponsorship for him to continue prosecuting his career. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Yes, he does scrape his elbows, and, yes, he is only 12!
Martino says
And then there were the Le Parisienne fairings produced by Bertrand Cadart down in Melbourne, and used in the first Mad Max movie, which I believe was his first and probably last movie appearance personally…….
Phil Hall says
Yes, indeed, though that was a bit later, wasn’t it? I had a bikini version of that on my 500/4
