One sunny Sunday evening Ray Southgate, I and a few others were standing outside in the Bee car park talking bikes when two coaches pulled in for refreshments.

The passengers had been to the seaside on a works outing from the factories in the Midlands, and this was the last stop before the M1. Most of the passengers were middle aged women, except for four young ladies who walked over to us and started talking about the bikes.

One young lady begged for a ride on Ray’s Super Rocket pillion and Ray agreed, although she was not dressed for a bike wearing only a summer dress with many petticoats beneath it. However this would not stop her and soon she was aboard ready to go.

Up the by-pass (A41) ray sped to the roundabout by the Elstree reservoir, on exiting the roundabout in second gear the rear wheel locked up with her dress and petticoats jammed in the chain and sprocket, Ray managed to keep control as the bike skidded to a stop. With his passenger trapped on the pillion seat, Ray tried to push the bike backwards to free the dress, but after moving back and forth many times it would not free. There was only one choice left, the dress and petticoats would have to be taken off. After much debate the clothing was removed leaving the young lady standing in the briefest of underwear. Ray handed over his leather jacket, but it didn’t cover much. Quite a few minutes were spent removing the clothes from the chain, but it was not fit to wear, being torn and smothered in grease. Some time had passed since they left the Bee, so the rush was on to get back to catch the coach.

On entering the Bee car park both coaches were already loaded and ready to go, Ray rode over to the coach and the young lady jumped off, removed the leather jacket and ran up the steps of the coach with a blush on her cheeks, and a big cheer from all the Bee boys, but the look she got from all the older women was something else.