Derek Rickman 1933 - 2021

A legendary early British dirtbike ace, later an astute businessman, Derek Rickman passed away on July 3 at the age of 88, after a recurring battle with cancer.

- Alan Cathcart

Together, he and his brother Don, two years younger, founded the Rickman Métisse marque after becoming two of the leading stars of British MX races back in the 1950s and ‘60s, when they were still known as Scrambles.

Their father Ernie Rickman was a professional Speedway rider with Southampton Saints, who died in 1948 when Derek was 15. Their mother Marjorie continued to run the family motorcycle shop in New Milton on the edge of the New Forest, providing enough income to send both brothers away to boarding school in Somerset. Thereafter, Derek began a four-year apprenticeship at Thorneycroft Commercial Vehicles in Basingstoke, as preparation for taking over the family business from his mother.

However, by then Derek had begun riding in Trials at weekends aboard his father’s BSA B32, on which in 1949 he won the Novice award in his very first Scrambles race. With Don acting as his mechanic until at age 17 he was able to start racing professionally himself, Derek enjoyed a meteoric rise to offroad prominence, which saw him enter the 1952 British 500cc GP at age 19, defeating Belgium’s reigning European champion Victor Leloup and American star Bud Ekins to finish third on his BSA, a feat almost emulated by brother Don in 1953, who finished fourth on his GP debut. Together, the Rickman duo competed all over the UK and Europe successfully, and from 1957 onwards were selected each year as cornerstones of the British team in the Motocross des Nations.