H.L Daniel's Motorcycle Shop & Buckley's Bike Shop

A Memory of Forest Hill.

I lived in Forest Hill in the 1960's on a road off Dartmouth Road. Two shops on the road stand out in my memory. Probably in 1965 both were still trading.
H.L. Daniel was a Norton works motorbike rider , probably in the 1930's and competed in the TT. Later he had a shop in Dartmouth road selling Nortons and there was always a big featherbed* twin and later the first Commando displayed in the window. He was an unlikely looking works motorcyclist, small, balding with pebble glasses and he wore a white coat while working in the shop.
I had a motorized push-bike with a Trojan Minimotor, 50cc which drove the rear wheel with a roller. I bought it for £5 at Buckleys the nearby bike shop. Buckleys were a bike shop of the old school, at one time they assembled their own Buckley badged frames. On two occasions I needed to get the motorized push-bike MOT'd and for that I took it to H.L.Daniel. I have a lasting memory of a TT works rider, bald with white coat flapping riding my 50cc motorized push-bike along Dartmouth road during the test. I didn't realise how famous he was then, but I kept the two MOT certificates with his autograph...

One of the shops might be visible on the right of the picture if you lighten it a bit, sadly I cannot get at it with Photoshop.


*Bikerspeak for the Norton motorcycle frame which was so good it gave a comfy ride and superb handling, had one once, it was true.