Okay. Here’s the deal. We’re printing some new t-shirts at Sump (my classic bike web site). We couldn’t find any BSA M20/M21 t-shirts on the market that we liked, so we decided to design our own. And this is it.
They’re printed on black only, and are (we’re told) quality t-shirts. And they’d better be. We don’t want any rubbish on this forum, or on Sump.
The tees are £15 plus £1.50 UK postage and packing. We don’t yet have postal costs for the rest of the world, but for visitors to this forum we’ll leave it at £1.50 for now.
The shirts are ready to print, so I’m just looking for some advance orders to help establish sizes. I expect to have them ready within a week. They’ll be despatched immediately. I’ll reply soon with buying instructions, etc.
No, we’re not exactly giving them away. But we think it’s a fair price in view of development and design costs, pre-production costs, and everything else that goes into bringing any product to market (we had two attempts before we got it right).
More importantly, we think they’re worth it. If you agree, email with an expression of interest, and sizes. We’re planning medium, large and extra large, but might print some small shirts if the demand is there.
Anyone named Henk Joore or Ian Wright need not apply. They’ll each be getting a free shirt for services rendered—and I know that no one on this forum will argue with that.
Hi Hans, you can't possibly be old enough to have a grandson. Yes, we can put a message on the back of the shirt, but we need to order about 50 of them to get the unit cost down, and the cost will be higher anyway.
Perhaps you could lend your grandson a paintbrush and a tin of something bright and wet.
i am not a bastard i know my mum and dad were married i was there at the wedding ok i will be the brave one and order a 3xl it should also have henk's heros on it
I'm starting to understand why you chaps struggle to find period battledress in sizes to fit....
I like the artwork a lot Danny, the combination of colour with moody black & white reminds me of Bob Carlos Clarke's images in the 'Bike' of the early to mid 1970s.
The engine would look better with an oil tell-tale on the timing chest.
As a non Beeza bloke, I'd consider one for the picture but I couldn't live with the chauvinistic message.
A 16H version next ? You don't have to say that it's the best...just that it's bloody good !
Hi Rik. thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. We did consider a t-shirt reading: Norton 16H. World's Second Best Sidevalve, but couldn't see a market for it.
More seriously, we are working on another design that might suit your good self and a lot of other people. But these things take a little while to "mature". Or fester, depending on your point of view. When we started, we thought that it would be a lot easier than it is. But there are all kinds of complications that need sorting out unless you simply rip-off existing designs, and even then there are issues to be sorted.
Personally (and don't spread this around) I like pretty much all the military bikes, and most of the bikes of the 1930s/40s. It just happened that the M20 came along at the right time and at the right price. But just think; if I'd got a Norton first, I might have managed to sell three or even four t-shirts.
You're absolutely right, Danny. I can't believe that it's all pre-ordained so it must just be down to chance. If the A65 hadn't been so damned ugly, and the Commando Roadster so good looking then I might never have gone down the Norton route (I certainly wouldn't have if T140s didn't vibrate so much !)
Strangely (thinking about it now), if the rolling chassis that I found when I set out to build a girder-forked green laner hadn't turned out to be from a military machine then the whole WD thing would have passed me by.
You're right about the lower sales volume with Nortons too. Tight bastards, most of 'em !
I'd happily buy any shirt with a nice 1930s bike on (apart from Broughs or HRDs 'cause I'm an inverted snob). I'm reduced to using those DIY iron-on transfers (and copying Carlos-Clarke and period adverts).
Nothing wrong with a little individualism, Rik. I'm now going to have to check out Carlos-Clarke. I must know his work, but I can't bring it to mind - unless he was responsible for an image of a 1970s Sportster in red that appeared in Bike magazine around that time. This was a side-on view that I think a lot of people cut out and glued on their wall or something. Maybe you remember it. Thanks for reminding me, anyway.
I don't recall the Sportster but his Trident and Commando at Stonehenge photos made a big impression. He made a lot of tinted b/w pictures before he became famous. He took his own life a few years ago, a long way from those carefree hippy motorcycle images.
Douglas, I ought to be offended, but I'm not. I think most people know that the t-shirts are available, etc, and anyone can contact me via my email address. So Henk, if you could "unsticky" the post, I suspect a lot of other guys would be grateful.