The joys of a typical British summer. The words follow the original studio recording - they won't match up so well to the lyric page on the net that I used which was slightly wrong in places & had to be amended.

Fond memories from my youth in the early 1980's with a bit of embellishment to make it fit. It wasn't Porth (a town in south Wales) & he did have a low speed spill but he didn't land in dog poo - apart from that it's pretty much a true story of one of our weekend ride outs. My inspiration for this one came from the 'arms of Atlas' bit - it always makes me think of my mate Alan and the Norton that he used to have. This has actually happened to us several times over the years when going on bike runs. You leave home in England in brilliant sunshine and as you get nearer to the Welsh border you can see the rain clouds building over the mountains. By the time you get there it's chucking it down. The next bit will only be of interest to fellow bikers. The Beezer Lightning was a 1968 BSA 650cc A65L. The 750cc Norton Atlas was from 1963, was in standard trim and had a similar performance to the Beezer Lightning (top speed 108 mph). To really be blown away by an Atlas it would have had to have been the Dunstall Norton Atlas Sprint (top speed 130 mph). The bike my mate had a low speed spill from was a 1970 500cc BSA A50 Royal Star. For the past twelve years I have owned a 1969 Triumph Bonneville 650cc T120R (top speed 112 mph although I've only ever had 102 mph out of mine because of the weight and wind resistance - I'm 6 feet 6 & 268 pounds). My mates take the mickey out of me quite a bit when we're out riding because they say I look like a normal sized bloke riding a 125cc - good job I've got a sense of humour. For those who have heard the stories about old bikes from this era being nothing but trouble, they're only like that if they are not maintained regularly. My bike has only ever let me down once where it couldn't be fixed at the side of the road with a basic tool kit. I've had about half a dozen minor problems which were fixed on the spot. The main problem is vibration making things come loose such as one time a wire inside the headlamp shell came off the ammeter and the bare end touched metal which caused a short - spent ages trying to work out what the problem was but another mate I was with at the time eventually solved it and we were on our way again. Happy biking. Toodle pip.