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Dave Gifford
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David John Gifford, known the world over
as giffy was born 18th April 1944 in Herne Bay Kent England.
His family settled in New Zealand and giffy came to the UK in
1965 as a Kiwi import but he had dual nationality, English by
parentage and birthplace but he was always referred to as a Kiwi
he turned out in New Zealand colours a number of times. GB's loss
was New Zealand's gain.
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| John with help from his mate Keith, wrote
the above history article which appeared in the award winning
Newcastle Diamonds Programme of 2013. |
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| Dave began his UK career in 1965 with the
Newcastle Diamonds. Giffy was a Diamond for 6 years.
Newcastle started to fail and Mike Parker pulled out at the end of
1969. Giffy stayed on with the new Ian Hoskins promotion for
1970 but the club closed down at the end of the difficult 1970
campaign. giffy then departed for the USA he came back to
the UK and re-joined with Mike Parker at Wolverhampton in 1972. He
found it tough and decided to drop down to the second division
riding for Coatbridge becoming their top scorer. giffy then joined
Berwick where he stayed from 1975 to 1978. Dave then aged 34
decided to call it a day and retired at the end of the 1978
season. |
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Giffy and I exchange emails on a fairly regular basis. I
hope by starting this "giffy page" that I can get Dave to contribute
a bit more to our Defunct Speedway website. |
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giffy's
Early 20th Century Photographs |
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| 1920s |
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| 1914 |
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1920's Board Track |
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| giffy's photographs show
early motocycle racing, pre
speedway as the above USA pictures are from 1914 and the 1920s. |
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Excelsior
JAP
Engine Restoration |
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| giffy can do the business as a restorer.
This is his finished Excelsior/JAP engine. It is a beautiful
"sculpture" is it not? giffy says the motor is a “Long Five”
model. This engine will be fitted by Dave into an Excelsior
frame. I wish I had Dave's skill to turn out functioning
works of art like this engine. |
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| The Crocker
-USA |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| Albert Crocker (1882–1961) was an
American inventor and the founder of Crocker Motorcycles. His
innovations had a substantial influence on the motorcycle and
racing business. |
| The Crocker Motorcycle Company was
an American manufacturer of single-cylinder speedway racing
motorcycles from 1932, powerful V-twin road motorcycles from 1936,
and the "Scootabout," one of the first modern styled motor
scooters, in the late 1930s. Production ceased in 1942. In 1999 a
new corporation was formed to manufacture replica parts, and now
produces complete Crockers in kit form, following the original
specifications. |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| John says: Dave has supplied these items
regarding the USA's third maker of dirt track/speedway machines.
The Americans had Harley Davidsons and Indians vying with the
short lived Crocker machine. I believe Al Crocker only
produced about 30 speedway bikes but his bikes gave the big two a
run for their money in the USA when speedway was at its heights. |
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| Dave's New Zealand Motorcycle Racing
Photos |
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| The early 1908 motorcycle makers borrowed
their bike components from pedal cycles as can be seen here. The
front wheels and forks show the origins of petrol powered machines
before the motorcycle makers developed the whole machine as a
motorcycle. |
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| The bikes in this picture are two years
later from the above picture dated 12th February 1908. These
bikes look more like motorcycles. |
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| These photos show how the early motorbikes
were developed since 1908 to 1914 just 6 years and motorcycles had
become heavier and more potent looking. This is a Triumph.
Are we looking at a dirt track/speedway machine? No! that was
approx. 10 years in the future. |
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| The two pictures shown above, the wrecked
Douglas and the caption on the Harold Plimmer photo show how
dangerous motorcycle racing and speedway in particular are. |
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1915 Indian
V Twin |
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1921 Excelsior
V Twin |
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| Another Indian |
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1923 Spencer Strattons
500cc Indian |
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| This photo seems to suggest that New
Zealand were running Dirt Track come Speedway in 1923 when Johnnie
Hoskins was running "The Inventing Speedway Show" at West Maitland
Australia. |
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New Zealand's
One Legged Rider
1924 |
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| Restored Jawa |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| Dave says: The black Jawa was built up by
my good mate Joe Hicks out of the bits and pieces left over from
other restorations, I was tempted to ask if I could borrow it for
a comeback! Another of his stunning creations! giffy |
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| John says: Joe Hicks restorations must be
pretty special if giffy is praising him as Dave turns out restored
masterpieces himself. Younger fans only used to laydowns
will surely like this view of an upright engine. |
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Expensive 1915
Board Track Bike |
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| The Cyclone |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| Courtesy of giffy |
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| A beautifully restored V-Twin machine from
1915. |
| giffy says: American Cyclone
Board Track
bike of 1915. V Twin overhead cam with bevel gears and timed at
111 mph in 1915! The most exquisite piece of engineering ever and
sold in 2008 for $551,000 US dollars! |
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giffy's
1940s/50s
New Zealand Photos |
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| An excellent
selection of photos taken in New Zealand late 1940s and early
1950s. |
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| John says: My thanks go to giffy for all of the
photos/items on this webpage. Dave is a top class bike restorer
and I hope he will find the time to send me some more of his photos and descriptions of bikes
he has restored. |
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| The contents of the site are © and should not be
reproduced elsewhere for financial gain. The contributors to this site
gave the pictures and information on that understanding. If anyone has
any issue or objections to any items on the site please
e-mail
and I will amend or remove the item. Where possible credit
has been given to the owner of each item. |
