When painter and decorator Roger Simkin wanted a Beezer that looked good and went even better, it was Mick Bennett he went to.
Ever regretted selling something? I bet you have. In Roger Simkin’s case it was a neat Triumph engine Cotton, reputed to be an ex-Arthur Lampkin machine. Roger was approached by someone who called his bluff when he put a gulp-inducing price tag on his Cotton.
“I didn’t really want to sell it and thought that would put him off, but the bloke came up with the cash and that was that.” Luckily, Roger had been discussing a BSA Victor with ace Beezer guy Mick Bennett and with his shed soon to be a bike down, the deal for Mick to build the bike went ahead. It took a bit longer than originally expected, but eventually the bike came along. “To be honest,” the Staffordshire painter and decorator told me, “I don’t know a great lot about the inside of the bike other than it’s well put together and has a lot of NEB bits in there, you’re better off talking to Mick Bennett who built it.”
Roger and I crossed paths over a year ago and the offer was made to feature the bike before it was ridden in anger, but life isn’t straightforward, time stretched on and the feature never happened. Then, during a recent email cull, there was one from Roger, so I zapped one back asking how the bike was. It turns out Roger’s life wasn’t that simple either and he hadn’t ridden the bike in the intervening year and it was still in his kitchen… we were there in an instant.
Enjoy more Classic Dirt Bike Magazine reading every month.
Click here to subscribe & save.
Read more in the Spring 42 Issue of CDB – out now!
