What an era, these guys were ordinary blokes doing extraordinary things. This modern professional era has lost a lot of the charisma that existed back then. R.I.P. Barry.
Great guy for the sport, watched him as a 12 year-old, glued to the telly!! He loved racing & would have died for it & almost did a few times. I believe he retired to Australia for the climate, to aid his crash damaged bones, but unfortunately it was stomach cancer that claimed his life, aged 52. Sport needs guy's like Sheene, James Hunt, Graeme Hill, real characters, but not with us anymore. R.I.P to all who have given us joy for so many years, long may motorsports live.
After his accident I saw him race at Kyalami in South Africa where he came third in the rain. He had to be helped to get his leg over the bike before the start of the race! Definitely my bike racing hero.
"birds and booze" - great stuff! and I'd say he hit 2 of his 3 goals, the most popular rider ever, and a guy who did the most for riding. Consider how popular he was in the 1970's - the fame he had was ridiculous, and then think about how many people he drew to the sport? How many young riders he helped? The impact he had on 2 countries - England and Australia? Big time. RIP
i remember going round to hes house in putney bridge rd i worked in a factory we heard that barry sheene live on the corner we knocked on he door and a beautiful lady opened the door we said we worked in the factory at the end of the rd we asked if barry was in would he sign autographs barry come to the door he said hello lads what a lovely fella he signed 14 autographs for all the boys we wish him all the best he said thanks lads he told us he was of to australia ONE OF THE GREATS
I used to try to follow him everywhere, when I was a kid, all over the UK to watch him race. I remember him at Donington when we could camp on the old loop, testing a BMW car for the SUN newspaper and everyone was trying to get his autograph and he just asked us all to wait. Then once all photographers had finished taking the pics they needed he stayed and signed everyone's requests and there must have been a couple of hundred of us. My day was made. Just one of the happy memories of my hero.
I had a secondhand replica Barry sheen crash helmet in 1979 I loved it ..... the Duck had faded but my Artistic friend Kevin Bellchambers painted it back on , we were both 16 years old and us and our pals must have drove so many people mental with the sound of our first motorbike mainly the fs1e Aka fizzy Brilliant times in Walthamstow , never forget
My first bike was an old second-hand Casal 50 (i think it was originally made in switzerland) which was very similar looking to a Fizzy. One day i was at a traffic light and a lad pulled up next to me on a brand new Suzuki TS 50ER and gave me a really smug smile whilst revving his engine, anyway the lights changed and i left him disappearing into the distance, his bike was brand new but mine wasn't restricted.
I went to Cadwell Park once to see him guest in a 500cc race against the best amature and semi pro`s in the country. You could tell where he was at the start, because his front wheel was above all the other riders head! He started in the middle of the pack. At the end of the first lap, he was in the lead. By the end of the race, he could have had a cup of tea before the second place rider crossed the line. He did a victory lap, no helmet, smoking a cigarette, waving to the crowd, big grin on his face. I remember thinking that I would never see anything or anyone as cool as him again.
I used to pester him for stickers when he was sitting in his garden chair in front of his garage on pit lane at Silverstone (proper old silverstone). I was about 7 I think. They tolerated cheeky kids sneaking through back then. He'd tell me to come back later again and again. Then later he'd have a stack of stickers for me. I always rode with 7 on my tomahawk push bike as I scraped numerous legs around corners copying Barry. It's quite something to take stock of his remarkable attitude during those devastating injuries all these years later. They don't make them like that anymore.
Still a big Sheene fan riding round on my 1976 Suzuki GT500 6 months short of 60. I will never forget the 1979 British Grand Prix as long as I live. We just don't have such characters now in the sanitised PC world we live in, love MotoGP still, but it's not the same as racing was in the 70's or 80's.
Barry Sheene, Eddie Kidd, Evel Kneivel ,CHiPS....what influenced me & many of my generation into a lifelong obsession with bikes. Race In Peace Bazza 🏆👍👍
Its been 20 years since his departure and Barry is still cool 😉 I thought this small BBC tribute was a really nice thing to do at the time and a perfect track from the Eagles (one of Sheenes favourites too apparently)
He was the ultimate of what a sports hero should be in every way possible.... 53 what a terrible young age to have died at .. Over 40 Yrs since he’s still revered the world over
I started riding bikes because of this guy. Won his first 500GP World Title in the summer of 1976 with rounds to spare and I bought my first motorcycle a few months later. Hell every 18 year old at that time wanted to be Barry Sheene.
Bike racing on the track was so dangerous in those days, unprotected hard barriers on the edges, no run-off on circuits designed for cars. It's still dangerous now but most track riders slide and walk away from the crashes that used to be bone-smashing.
The greatest, I'm American and I gotta tell ya they didn't come any better than this guy, I'd rather have hung out with him then Kenny Roberts any day.
Which teenage boy, with a Moped in the '70s, wasn't pretending to be Barry? It was pretending to be Barry that squeezed another 1mph out of my "Fizzie" ..... up to 42mph!!!! .... indicated.
@@philipbooth7779 well to be honest. Me neither. Always yamaha kawasaki but mainly honda. Never owned a suzuki apart from an ap50 about 30 years ago as a field bike
@@alexmorrison1122 where I lived during 74- 80. There was a Yamaha and a Suzuki dealership so I could have bought a Suzuki if I had wanted one. The nearest I came was in 1979. I wanted a Suzuki GT 380. Sports Motorcycles in Manchester wouldn't put me one away for three months while I saved up. Johnson's was just across the road and their advertisement in MCN said they would put a bike away for three months with a deposit so I bought a Yamaha RD 400 F.
watched barry at silverstone crashed my gt750 in weedon northampton had right arm pinned WENT ON TO COMPLETE 2 MILLION MILES ALL DEDICATED TO THE GREAT BAZZA FROM STEVETHE BREEZE MANCHESTER,S 2 MILLION MILE MOTORCYCLE DESPATCH RIDER Reply
barry sheene the greatest bar non so much so i dedicated my 1st million miles on a motorcycle to the one and only no 7 FROM STEVETHEBREEZE EASY 27 ONLY 27 BECAUSE THERE WAS ONLY ON E NO SEVEN
5.25 Sir Barry Sheen ?????? Did he get 'imself a Knighthood ????? I think Henry did but Barry ??? I'm not sure ??, Mind you that Frank Bough , now there was a dodgy bleeder , Ho Ho Ho HO HO
He was a nice guy with it-very down to earth and he simply loved the sport and racing bikes.It's a shame his life should have being cut so short under tragic circumstances.
