The Famous James

Though the 'famous' tag is from an earlier period, James did add to it by being the first lightweight manufacturer to win a trade national trial outright.

- Tim Britton

In one respect it is a shame Bill Lomas' win in the 1951Tiavers Trophy Trial continues to be trotted out by the likes of us journalists, as it suggests James did nothing else after it. This, of course, is far from the truth as the Greet based maker has a long and proud competition career and though Lomas' win is noteworthy, James had success before and after it.

What that win did was provide James with the basis for the best rigid lightweight trials bike of the time, even if it was mostly 'Lomas' rather than 'James' who did the building. James did produce a replica, or as close a replica as they could, of the Lomas machine, minus of course, the personal tuning Bill had done to the Villiers 197cc engine unit.

In his book 'Bill Lomas - world champion road racer', Bill details some of the work which he did to create his national winning motorcycle and was full of praise for the freehand given by James for his work.

The rigid machine enjoyed considerable sales success but once the world had realized rear suspension wasn't such a hindrance to the feet-up scene as it had been thought, almost overnight the rigid was out.

James did have a roadster with a swinging arm frame and offered this in trials form to older at first, then it became a production model. History records the frame as being too weak and while suitable for the road it needed a strengthening brace for trials or it would bend in the middle if dropped in an event. Still, the factory had to go with a swinging arm and the factory riders would have to persevere with it and be seen to be winning or competing on the production machine.

Meanwhile, one young James rider in Northern Ireland was making a name for himself, not only in the trials world but road racing too and had engineering talent to develop what seemed, to him, obvious solutions to trial bike design.