Dream comes true for vintage bike fan

When a 15-year-old Dave White saw his first motorbike – a Norton Commando made in Wolverhampton – he dreamed of having his own.

Now, not only does the former Walsall lecturer own one, but he has repaired and renovated dozens of them at his workshop near Penkridge.

"The Norton Commando was the first big bike I saw and I decided that it was what I was going to aim for," says Dave, 49, who owns a business at Pillaton Hall Farm.

"I spotted it one day outside the swimming baths, when I was a child living in Gnosall and I couldn't get it out of my head.

"My dad helped me to work on my first motorbikes, as during the Second World War he was in India as maintenance ground crew for the RAF, and so we could use his expertise. Before you get a motorbike you have to learn on a moped, I was 16 when I got my one and I thought it was brilliant.

"That was when I got my first experience of fixing motorbikes because it wasn't long before the gear box went on my moped and my dad helped me to repair it.

"After school I did an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering before doing a degree. I ended up lecturing at Walsall College of Art and Technology for 15 years in mechanical engineering."

Dave said it had always been his dream to start his own business as he has been building bikes since the age of 18.

"Two years ago I thought I would make the break from teaching and so far it seems to have paid off," he says. "In the last six months I have so much work that people are having to wait until the end of September for me to get to their job."

Dave currently has a number of motorbikes in his workshop including a Birmingham-made 1954 BSA B31, a 1956 Triumph Thunderbird made in Coventry, a 1969 Norton Commando made in Wolverhampton, a 1940s Vincent Comet from Stevenage and an AJS 650 C31 made in Wolverhampton. In 2000 Dave built, from scratch, a wideline featherbed Norton with a 750 Atlas engine, making many of the plates and one-off parts himself.

"I have been involved with vintage bikes for over 30 years and I really got into them when I was at Stafford Grammar School," says Dave, who now lives in School Road, Wheaton Aston, with wife Sue and daughter Amy, eight. "Bikes which were made locally, such as BSAs, Nortons and Triumphs, are phenomenally popular in the West Midlands. So much so that dozens of local companies stock the parts for them and it is easy to get items in the next day, whereas for other bikes I can be waiting weeks." Dave and his wife Sue take part in British Historic Racing events with their motorbikes.

"At these events people race bikes that were built before 1972 and we meet around seven times a year at places like Brands Hatch and Donnington Park," says Dave, who has had several victories at the races.