He’s been at it for years. And even now he’s still at it... Steve Linsdell. Top man
otorcycling racing is a tricky enough endeavour, even to those blessed with the determination and talent to make their mark in the sport. Not everyone takes the path of least resistance either, Steve Linsdell has spent his career delighting race fans with his exploits on a succession of unlikely machinery – with results to justify his unique approach too.
Linsdell managed some extraordinary placings on self-tuned Royal Enfields, and his sixth place in the 1995 Isle of Man TT Formula One race on a hub-centre steered Yamaha GTS1000 fitted with a YZF750 engine is the stuff of legend. Ahead of him were four Honda full-house RC45s and a Ducati 888 Corse. An extraordinary achievement. At the TT in 1996 he set a lap record for a British bike, averaging more than 114mph on a Saxon Triumph. That record stood until 2003 when Bruce Anstey broke it on a Triumph Daytona 600.
Also known as the proprietor of Yamaha dealers, Flitwick Motorcycles, Linsdell, now 67 years old, has been involved with bikes for more than half a century.
Linsdell’s introduction to bikes came at a young age. “Dad had an ex-army Royal Enfield 350, which is fitting given I later became so hooked on Enfields, but that was only transport for him. Then I got given a BSA Bantam 125 field bike when I was about 11. It had been in a shed on a local farm and I eventually got it going with some friends, trying to learn things as we went. That got me madly hooked on motorbikes, and that’s been me ever since,” he says. “They’re all I think about; I still work with them, play with them, and I still love them.”
On leaving school at 16, Linsdell was apprenticed as an agricultural engineer. He also got his first road bike and in another portent of his future, that bike was a Yamaha, a YDS3 250cc two-stroke twin. Struggling to engage in his career, Linsdell packed in his apprenticeship to drive a 3.5-tonne truck, delivering chairs from the very same building that now houses Flitwick motorcycles, another omen of the path his life would take, perhaps.
After six months of that, Linsdell went to work for the local Belarus tractors importers where he worked as a mechanic on the East European farm machinery. The firm also imported Ural motorcycles, on which his skills also proved useful. Three years later he opened a lawnmower repair outfit at his parents’ garden centre on the outskirts of Flitwick. Girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, Carole took care of the business book-keeping side while Linsdell got on with the spanner work.
