In 1977 my brother and i visited South Shields, near Newcastle England. When we were there we wanted to get some motorcycle gear, cooler and cheaper than home in Norway. We went to Westgate road, The Hill, in Newcastle who were packed with (still is) motorcycle shops. I got myself a Lewis leather jacket with fringes (!) and a white Sprint full face helmet. The Sprint helmet costed £ 17. In all of the shops in The Hill there was only one Barry Sheene helmet for sale. But the price! £ 50! That was more than double the price of my helmet.
We went back to South Shields with only one set of gear. But my brother could not sleep that night, and in the morning founds where found and money was sent with a friend going to Newcastle.
Well...He still has his helmet......mine is long gone...
The AGV helmet has not seen much use.....If you thought you saw Barry Sheene in Sandefjord late seventies early eighties.....I don`t think it was him.
I recently saw Jeff Decker posted photos of his "real" Sheene helmet on his blog:
This is a book well worth reading.
Did you know that Barry’s father was importer of Bultaco TSS road racers to England? And that Barry started his road racing carrier braking in and testing TSS racers before they were delivered to customers?
In the photo a young Barry with his father and Mr. Bulto.
Suzuki is the brand that Sheene is mostly connected to.
Barry Sheene was a devoted smoker. I have read that he even drilled a hole in the helmet so he could smoke close up to the start of a race. I don`t know if that`s story is true.
Barry Sheene returned to the circuits on a Manx Norton doing well at Classic Racing.
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