DYLAN

CHAPTER 10

Dylan The Biker Bear

Y DDraig Goch a’r Bear

So we had a rally flag with a huge Welsh red

Dragon emblazoned at the center.

The Welsh national flag which we displayed at rallies by linking 3 – 4 bungees together from one tent to another or using a tent guide rope if no bungees were available, and then the flag was then draped over the bungees/rope, it was a way of indicating where we were all camped on the rally site, and for any later arrivals of our club to know where we were in the sea of tents on the rally field.

We would all arrive in small groups or even one at a time at rally’s, so a focal point was needed in the middle of a field with hundreds of very similar tent’s, it was a simple way to find your way through the maze of tents.

There were no quick instant put ups or dome type tents back in the day, they all looked the same, nearly every tent was a ridge type tent and there was not really a wide range of colour choices.

We always created a kinda loose encampment, where all the tents and bikes could be watched over.

I don’t recall having any problems with the tents or bikes, but a bit of awareness of that kind of thing can prevent it happening.

( Photo 1 ) . The Welsh flag at a rally, with John Hawkins propping himself up on my Rickman/Honda and Brian and Wobble grabbing a quick mid-day snack behind the flag.

The flag was an expression of our Welshness and a handy location tool, something we all needed when we were returning to the camp site after we left the beer tent or the disco/barn dance at the end of the night.

We also had a rally mascot and this what this story is all about.

His name was Dylan and he was Bear.

He was a large brown stuffed toy bear, the type that a young child would have.

But Dylan was no ordinary bear.

He was Biker Bear.

We needed a mascot, so a call went out to everyone to see what was available, it was necessary that out new rally mascot came of his own free will and as a gift.

So, the choices were a large grey rabbit with big floppy ears, he was a favorite at one point, a blue elephant with a long trunk which wobble was far to fond of, he would go around the pub asking the girls if they wanted to see his baby elephant, I will leave that to your imagination to what he meant by saying that, there was also a blue smurf and a brown bear.

We took a vote one night up at the plough and the brown bear won, but only just, the rabbit was a close second.

So, the bear won and became our rally mascot, he was given the Welsh name of Dylan.

The name Dylan is of Welsh origin.

The meaning of Dylan is “ son of the sea “, this is totally irrelevant to the story, but I found it interesting.

If he was to come with us to rally’s, he had to look the part.

So we found him a leather type jacket that was cut to fit him, he was also supplied a with a pair of blue jeans which were cut to suit his size, and then he had a pair of black motorcycle Derry boots sewn on to his legs.

A white T-shirt was donated that was brought back from a trip to the USA with the words “ move over Miami “emblazoned on the front and over his leather jacket he had his own denim cut off.

We fitted a black open face helmet to his head and finished him off with a pair of sunglasses that we again sewn to his head, because he didn’t have any ears, he also had a pair of goggles he wore now and again, everything he had was freely given by everyone.

After all this makeover, he looked the part, and he was ready for his first rally.

( Photo 2 ) . Dylan chilling at a rally, showing off all his rally badges and his googles.

Dylan lived in various places throughout his biking life with myself at numerous times then with wobble and fat mike at their flat in Bridgend, he was passed around everyone who wanted to have him for a little while, he never complained.

He went to all the rally’s and party’s that we went too, it would have been rude not to take him, he became a common feature everywhere we went, if we could take him, we would.

He enjoyed a good party, at the rally’s he collected his own badges which he proudly displayed on his denim cut off.

If there was a party, he was there in the corner getting pissed with tony dog, tony was human just in case you are getting confused with the animal references, once tony found a corner to sit in, he stayed there all night.

When we were off to a rally anyone who did not have a pillion passenger and had room on their bike, they would also have had Dylan on their back seat.

He was held on with a bungee over his lap and that hooked onto the side of the bike and a second bungee warped around the rider, maybe more than one bungee for the larger rider, Big Roy comes to mind.

The bungee was run around Dylan’s waste and then around the rider's waste, so he was not in any danger of falling off when we were on the move, he was fully secured strapping him on in this way.

We didn’t want him lying around in the middle of the fast lane on the motorway, God knows what chaos that would have created, and the news headlines would have been interesting, so to keep him safe and not to give us the wrong kind of attention he was always bungee`d down tight.

( Photo 3) . Dylan on the far left of the photo with me with my helmet and scarf on, leaning on mikes Honda CB 550 and with Mike, Budgie and Wobble doing something strange with an inflated Durex, PJ and Sharon on the far right, Mike messing around with this Durex had us thrown out of the roadside café we stopped at, I blame the Durex if they did not sell them in the café, mike would not have been tempted to buy it, this photo was taken in 1980 coming back from the Fools rally, wettest rally I have ever been on and that’s why we are all covered in mud.

THE BUS

I can remember coming back from a rally somewhere in England, we were back in Wales on the M4 in between Newport and Cardiff, I was riding last in-line of the column of bikes, the reason for me riding last on this occasion was that I had a fast bike at the time and if there was an issue at the tail end, I could motor up to the front of the column and let everyone know something was happening.

Well I was at the back and wobble was just in front of me, he had Dylan on his pillion seat sitting up right just like a passenger would normally be, we were just overtaking a bus in the middle lane, the bus was full of school kids, they were all in the windows watching the world going by, looking very bored, they had heard the bikes pass and had been watching the line of bikes overtaking the bus.

When it came to wobble and Dylan running alongside them, they all went crazy.

I could see them jumping up and down on the seats, they were really excited, they were calling the other kids on the opposite side of the bus to come over to their side and see the bear on the bike, and in no time the bus windows were completely full of excited laughing smiling faces.

I couldn’t hear them, but I bet the noise in the bus must have been hurting everyone’s ears.

I could also see the adult teaches trying to get the kids back under control, but to no avail, the kids were not going to settle down until we had passed them and gone out of sight, they were waving to us trying to draw our attention or just possible the bear's attention.

We waved back.

Wobble at one point used his left hand and flicked Dylan’s paw up into air, it made Dylan look as if he was waving back, all the kids went even crazier when he did this.

It did not take long to pass the bus, we were all traveling in a group and all at the same pace.

The kids on the bus could not believe what they were seeing.

A bear dressed up like a biker and on a motorbike.

The sight of this unusual event made them happy and turned a boring bus ride into an adventure.

It would have been a story that their parents would not have believed when they told the story to them when they got back home.

It made them happy and put smiles on their faces and it also put a smile on my face, not that they could have seen it because of my helmet and the scarf I wore around my face.

It is something that I have never forgotten, something as simple as a bear on a motorcycle made all these kids happy for a short time in their lives.

I wonder if any of them still remember.

( Photo 4 ). Dylan on the back of wobbles Honda 400/4 with PJ`s Honda 550 photo bombing at the side, possibly the Fools rally 1980.

SMILING COPPERS

On another occasion, the same kind of thing happened on a motorway sometime in the 80s.

Wobble once again had Dylan on the back of his bike, a cop pursuit car had been stalking us for a few miles, it hung back, but just kept us in sight and no doubt taking our reg numbers down.

We were sticking to the speed limit of 70 mph in the fast lane because of the coppers behind us, there was no point in pushing our luck and end up with speeding ticket.

The cops eventually pulled up alongside us in the middle lane, there was a male copper driving and a female cop in the passenger seat, I could see them talking to each other and taking a good look at wobble, they ran alongside us for a little while and from what I could see they seemed to enjoy the fact that there was a bear on a motorcycle.

The coppers just laughed, and the female p.c. waved to us as they undertook us in the middle lane and disappeared from our sight in seconds, some of them do have a sense of humour.

This as not always happened, some coppers were just awkward pricks using their authority to prove a point or just being a dick.

having three people on a two-Seater motorcycle Wobble was pulled in numerous times by coppers because of Dylan, sometimes he would be pulled over because the coppers thought he was riding 3 up (having three people on a two-Seater motorcycle ).having three people on a two-seater motorcycle).).).having three people on a two seat`er motorcycle ).

This situation happened to him twice, once when he had Tony Dog as a pillion, the coppers were confused and frustrated as there was no law broken, they were never very happy about it, it was as if they felt cheated by not convicting someone, they had pulled in.

don’t get me wrong they were not all dickheads some coppers like Fred Weston, a street copper in Bridgend town was ok with us, we got on with him just fine, but we did have quite a lot of harassment back in the 70s and 80s.

Speaking of Fred westson, he once had Dylan the Bear strapped on the back rack of his Moto Guzzi Spada and was riding with a pillion passenger.

A passing Police car going in the opposite direction spun around and came in “ hot pursuit “.

you can Imagine the look on the Officer’s face when he had a closer look at the 2nd passenger.

Fred recalls that the coppers could see the humour of their mistake, and they all had a good laugh about it.

I have already written a large draft of many of the times I have been harassed for no good reason, well in my opinion the harassment was unjustified, it will be posted on the blog site if I live long enough to get round to it.

DYLAN THE ICE-BREAKER

Anyway getting back to Dylan.

When we were at a bike rally Dylan was always a talking point, we would take him to the booking in-tent and demand a rally badge most times the club organizers joined in the fun and gave him a badge for free, sometimes we had to buy one for him, we didn’t mind it was all part of the fun.

it was a laugh, and it broke the ice with other bikers.

Dylan was doing a good job, us Welsh do seem to be more talkative than the English bikers and get more involved with things than they did.

We will talk to anyone.

Dylan did help to make some friends with complete strangers.

( Photo 6 ) . Dylan chilling out again at a Christmas party up at the Plough and Harrow in Monknash sometime in the 80s, he is sitting on the pool table which we moved to one side to create more room for the party and in front of Dylan, the bottled gas heater which only warmed you up if you wrapped yourself around it, from the look of it Dylan had just finished his drink.

THE END OF AN ERA

As the years rolled on, we all got older, some got married to people that were not into the same kind of lifestyle, then the rug rats would appear, work commitments and mortgages were all taking their toll, taking bites out of our bike rally weekends and the fun.

Looking back on things we would eventually outgrow the lifestyle we were leading, and eventually over a number of years people started dropping out of the bike culture and over a long period we stopped going to rally’s in large groups.

Life had caught up with us and made us all go in different directions, most of us do keep in touch with each other and still have bikes or still have an interest in bikes, I don’t think that will ever go away, I still turn my head now, if I hear a bike just to see what it is.

The carefree days of just deciding to go to a rally have gone, other commitments have gained the priority which I find very sad.

So in the early 90s Dylan was exiled to my mother's attic for safe keeping and for many years he was never mentioned and almost forgotten, then one day many, many years later, Brian my friend asked me did I know the whereabouts of Dylan.

I answered yeah, he is in my mother's attic, and then I realized my mother had moved to my Mamgie`s ( gran’s ) house and when she moved, I had forgotten that Dylan was still in the attic, my mother's house was empty for some time before it was sold, so if I had remembered I could have rescued him.

Ok, I accept the responsibility of him going M.I.A.

I was his last keeper.

So now he is in either one of two places.

He could still be in the attic which I think is very unlikely, or he has gone to biker bear heaven.

In his time, he had been on the rally’s, in all kinds of weather and being a V.I.P. guest at party’s.

With all the traveling and partying Dylan was looking a bit tattered, if it rained he would be put inside a black plastic bin bag while we travelled up to the rally, so he would not get wet, nothing worse than a damp bear, we did throw him off a cliff once, it was funny at the time , I remember Tony Dog was not happy about it, Dylan was looking a little worse for wear at the end of his biking career.

Hopefully he has gone to the great bike rally site in the sky.

who knows, maybe we will all see him again, propped up against the bar with a bottle wrapped up in his paw, he was only a stuffed brown bear, but we had some fun times with him.

( Photo 7 ). Wobble taking Dylan for a walk at one of the vine rally’s, possibly 1983.

( Photo 8 ) . Dylan and the blue Smurf , who was our second placed choice mascot, discussing the finer points of carburetor tuning, the photo was taken in Wobble and Mikes flat in Nolton street Bridgend with the bay window on the left and one end of the huge fireplace painted in blue smurf colours.

DYLAN THE OUTLAW

There was a police raid on a flat in Nolton street Bridgend and a member of a notorious biker club was taken into custody for further questioning and kept under guard at the local police station.

Very dramatic, yes, well that is possibly how the headlines of the gutter press would have pushed the story into the media.

but what is the truth behind the real story.

what really happened.

This is the true story of how Dylan was arrested and spent his time in the police station in Bridgend town.

In 1980/81, a police sergeant by the name of Fred Weston popped into Mike and Wobbles flat in Bridgend as he was passing just to say Hi and chill for a little while.

While he was there, he would use a C.B. radio, which he knew the guys were using an illegal bandwidth.

He would do this when he was on-duty and in full uniform and use the excuse just to skive off patrolling the streets of the town for a little while.

On this occasion only mike was in the flat, Fred would pop into the flat every now and again when he was passing just for a chat, relax and have a cup of tea.

Wobble’s C.B. radio was screwed to the windowsill of the bay window that overlooked the main road.

Fred was a biker himself, and he may well have been a copper, but he was one of the better ones, he got on with everyone and was well liked by us all.

On this particular day as a joke Fred decided to arrest Dylan the bear our rally mascot.

He told mike what he was doing and not to tell the boys what was going on.

Mike, depending on what mood, he was in was very fickle with his moods, he told Fred he would say nothing to the guys and joined in with the prank.

So Fred literary took Dylan down to the station to arrest him.

While Dylan was at the station Fred had him finger printed, well in Dylan’s case paw printed and went as far as having a mug shoot taken, I think Fred was having more fun out of this prank than anyone.

When Fred had finished processing Dylan, he went up to ( PAN`S ) bike shop on Ewenny road and left a message with Keith Williams who was behind the sales counter to let Wobble know that Dylan had been arrested and he was ready to be released, and he should come down to the station to pick him up.

The word got to wobble and with this information, Brian and Wobble walked down to the station which is only about a third of a mile away from the bike shop to secure Dylan’s release.

When they both arrived at the station, they were both escorted into the police custardy section where Fred and another copper were laughing about Dylan being a known suspect of a notorious biker gang.

Everyone found this prank very funny.

Fred was a biker himself and even went on a bike trip with the boys to the Bol d’Or , with P.J. and his girlfriend at the time Sharon also Mike and Anne keen plus a couple of other guys.

( Bol d’Or is a 24-hour motorcycle endurance race, held annually in France ).

Fred was a great guy, it was a pity there weren’t more coppers like him, he was always fair and good for a laugh, but with that in mind, he took his job seriously, but unlike some other coppers of his time he used common sense in his everyday working life.

Wobble and Brian must have looked a little strange walking up Nolton street in their bike gear carrying a huge teddy bear dressed like a biker, like I have said before Bridgend is a very strange place.

Me, having some strange thoughts.

If these life experiences that are on these pages, were put together in a book or if a film account was ever made, which will never happen, I’d have more chance in winning the lotto, which I don’t do, so no chance of anything like that happening.

I would like to see all these events witnessed through the eyes of Dylan with some narration from his point of view, after all Dylan during his biking life with us, spent more than 90% of his time going to our parties and going on rally’s he would have seen everything that was going on.

We even took him up the pub on a normal night and to our summer beach party’s down Southerndown and Nash point.

It is just a thought, but I think it would be an interesting concept to see how we would have all looked through Dylan’s eyes.