“Have you got an hour to spare”?
As I sat astride my bike in the capital of the island, St Peter Port, the tall, slim, leather jacketed motorcyclist engaged me in biking conversation for ten minutes until he felt he knew me enough to invite me to visit a very special man cave. Oooer you must be thinking, especially as I’m so easily led?! Well by chance I did have an hour to spare, in fact substantially more due to the ferry not departing for another eight! So Paul, on an original Royal Enfield, led me around many of the island’s country lanes until we arrived at Phil’s gaff, on the face of it a fairly typically modern bungalow, but around the back (of the house) was something quite rare!
It didn’t take me long to realise that Phil is a craftsman, a perfectionist of engineering genius. He welcomed me into his inner sanctum, confident that anybody who was an established friend of Paul’s is obviously a character of trustworthiness.
I was immediately drawn to the immaculate Triton, I bike I was too scared to buy when I had the opportunity back in 1974. This one was a work of art, you could’ve examined it under a microscope and everything was just perfect. It came as no surprise to me that it had cleaned up numerous best in show awards in England.
He had about six Triumphs in various stages of refurbishment, every item Phil had replaced, polished, painted or had chromed was as good as every nut and bolt on the Triton.
The concours conditioned AC Cobra, of which Phil had personally made the detachable roof, was almost a sideshow.
After a brew in his kitchen where we chewed the fat about his amazing work, the offers he’d turned down and simple things like how to get a perfect finish to alloy, I had a quick look in his second garage where there were yet more bikes.
So the spare hour turned into two, which was great, after which we said our fond farewells and I explored the maze of country lanes of the island’s interior.
Photographs may follow.
Sailing back to England now……..
