RUST magazine: RUST#30

ust heritage
A competitive life
Charlie “Boy” Harris
H
is FiRst BiKe was £15 worth of 197cc, 3-speed, clapped-out rigid
James circa 1950, Charlie was 15 years old. this was followed by a
very second-hand BsA C15t which Charlie’s father, an ex car trials
competitor and car repair business proprietor, spent most of his spare
time trying to keep running. however, harris collected his first novice
award on this bike and was beginning to master the discipline.
the BsA was traded in for a Greeves 250cc 24te and by this time
harris was a messenger boy on the London evening standard based in
the City offices. in order to make the hP payments on the Greeves he
couldn’t afford to commute by train so the Greeves was pressed into
service. harris recalls, “i rode the Greeves to work every day and at the
weekends in trials. i parked it outside the Bank of england, never locked
it or washed it off and it was never stolen.”
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