Motorcycle hero Colin Seeley has died aged 84

Seeley’s affinity with motorcycles began at a young age, upon learning to ride his father's Vincent Rapide. After taking his licence at the age of 16, he became an apprentice for Harcourt Motorcycles, nearby to his family home in Crayford, Kent. Before long, Seeley was experienced in working on many different marques, while also repairing and motorcycles in his spare time in his parent’s garden shed.

While working his way through various mechanics positions Seeley became acquainted with Bernie Ecclestone, with whom he would later work – first in the 1970s as joint Managing Director of Motor Racing Developments at Brabham, and later in 1986 with the Brabham Formula 1 team.

But long before that, Seeley saw success in racing himself. His first race was a one-hour endurance event at Brands Hatch in 1954 aboard a 500cc BSA Star Twin. His second came three years later when he entered a scramble on a part-exchanged Triumph twin.

This lacklustre start to his racing career was due to pressures of work. By 1958 he was riding scramblers for Greeves, before turning to sidecars come the ‘60s.

Bolting a Matchless G50 race bike to a Canterbury racing sidecar, Seeley dabbled in local events before entering the Isle of Man TT in 1961 – his first Grand Prix event – and finishing sixth.

From 1961 to 1967 he raced in British and world championship sidecar competitions, originally aboard his own machines with Matchless and Norton engines. But before long, he had swapped the single-cylinder Matchless for the flat-twin BMW S54 Rennsport engine. During this period, he achieved a first place at the 1964 Dutch TT and second-place finishes in the sidecar competitions at the 1964 Isle of Man TT and the 1966 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand.

Following his retirement from competition, the talented craftsman began producing his namesake frames, powering them initially with AJS and Matchless motorcycle engines and later with engines from the likes of Yamaha and other Japanese manufacturers.

These frames – both production and race – earned a reputation for their fine handling, with Derek Minter describing it as the describing it as “the best steering solo he'd ever tried”. They were soon the race bike of choice for privateers of the era.

In the 1969 Isle of Man Senior TT, Seeley-framed machines finished third, fourth, sixth and seventh. The following year Tommy Robb rode to a fourth-place finish in the 500cc world championship aboard a Seeley. And in 1971, Barry Sheene rode a Hi-Tac Suzuki T500 engined bike to win the British national championship, before declaring it the best-handling motorcycle he had ever ridden.

The popularity and highly-rated performance of Seeley’s race bikes promoted his road production bikes, a business which thrived throughout the ‘70s. Since the late ‘80s, when vintage racing rose to popularity, Seeley machines have won twelve times at the Manx Grand Prix. Following his stint alongside in automotive racing, in 1992 Seeley became involved in running the Norton Rotary race team.

He dedicated much of his later life to charity work, establishing The Joan Seeley Pain Relief Memorial Trust in memory of his first wife, who died of cancer. And in 2006 and 2008, he published two autobiographies, documenting his life and memories of motorcycle racing from the 1950s to the present day.

Colin Seeley made an irrefutable impact on motorcycle racing and will be greatly missed.