Long before the 1979 season was over the champagne was on ice and British motocross fans were celebrating a 500cc world champion: Graham Noyce on his works Honda. In the blue riband 500cc class, Noyce was the first Englishman to lift a world motocross crown since BSA mounted Jeff Smith in 1965 and – in the open class – it was also a first for the Japanese giant.
As riders, there were undoubted parallels between Smith and the young man from Hampshire whose tenacious but silky smooth riding style earned him the nickname of ‘Rolls’ Noyce. Certainly both men displayed similar ‘never say die’ racing traits, although the 14 years that separated the two men had seen huge machine developments – especially where power outputs and suspension were concerned.

It’s perhaps worthwhile remembering that, in 1966, Smith’s ill-fated titanium framed 440cc BSA was turning out around 33.5bhp at 6000rpm while, by the end of the following decade, Noyce’s 480cc two-stroke was putting down 57 ponies at similar revolutions. Power outputs, of course, are fairly academic if it can’t be delivered on the track in a usable manner, but period reports suggest the works riders loved the strong mid-range and almost mellow engine characteristics of the big 480 Honda. Both the bike’s rideability and reliability speak for themselves in the results.

From his 24 GP starts, Noyce registered a staggering 22 finishes on the Bill Buchka prepared factory single. While the opposition were developing various monoshock suspension systems, Honda had long persevered with a fairly conventional twin shock rear end: albeit very different to the limited amount of travel on Smith’s BSA. By the following season – 1980 – they would also change to a single shock rear, making the Noyce machine the last twinshock bike to win a 500cc world championship.

To an aficionado, Noyce’s factory bike would be looked upon as the ‘ultimate twinshock.’ However, owning one represents a bit of a problem as the factory never actually made a production 500cc replica. Not content with letting the grass grow under their feet, Honda – as with most factories – were always looking to the next incarnation of their race bikes so, when a machine had served its useful purpose, it was usually returned to Japan: where it was either restored for the museum or simply broken up.
Works bikes would not normally fall into private hands – although I understand that such was Honda’s delight at winning their first 500cc world crown, they presented Graham with his factory bike as a wedding present.

The chances of acquiring such an ex-works machine are understandably rare but, if you’re Graham ‘Harry’ Roberts, there is another option: you simply make one. Photographer Nick Haskell and I had journeyed to Harry’s Somerset home to cover his ever-burgeoning collection of Maicos, but Nick was immediately drawn to a red Honda: a dead ‘ringer’ to the bike he’d photographed many times at GPs during its championship-winning season. While Nick clicked merrily away, Graham told me a little about his own background and also how he became known as ‘Harry.’
“When I was a kid, there was a convicted police killer called Harry Roberts and, as there were three Grahams in my class, one of the teachers decided to call me ‘Harry’ and it’s stuck ever since. I’ve been around scrambles bikes all of my life. My dad had some land, which one of the local clubs used for a scramble track, and I learnt to ride at the age of 10, perched on the tank of a Triumph Metisse.”


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