My memory is that crated bikes leaving Andover in 69/70 were as shown in the pictures, that is with the front wheel removed and stowed alongside and the bike "nose down" resting on the bottom of the forks.
To add another item for confusion, in 69/70 the bikes were fully assembled at the Andover factory, then transported to Thruxton where there was a final test and fault correction facility, totally separate from the racing set up. I can't remember if the bikes were ridden or trucked to Thruxton, but I suppose that it would make sense for them to be ridden, it would be about 7 or 8 miles I suppose, its been a long time. I know that there was a test loop from Thruxton, up the road a couple of miles to a roundabout and back to Thruxton. So I suppose that the test procedure would have gone something like
1/ Fully assembled at Andover
2/ Ridden to Thruxton any faults identified during trip, and documented on arrival.
3/ Faults corrected at Thruxton
4/ Test ridden on "loop" & back to Thruxton for rectification of any further faults
5/ If ok ridden back to Andover for packing and dispatch
I remember that they had a sizeable team of production test riders, one of whom was a good road racer, name of Tony Holland. I also have a vague memory of the locals dripping about "....the roads being full of bl**dy motorbikes". You would have thought that they would have been proud, but there we are.
cheers
wakeup
