Home! James...

Photo Courtesy Mr Martin...

The Mick Andrews "Replica" works James,

With now 2010 Derby Road and Race frame....and tank.

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Home! James……

We take a look at the phenomenon that was a New! Well replica, trials machine, which was the "Mick Andrews Replica"(MAR) James.

That’s after Mick had put the bike on show a couple of times at off-road shows, and I for one remember seeing it for the first time, at a show at the  Sports Connexion Ryton-on-Dunsmore Coventry, put on by Wrighty…( Alan Wright).

Well it was 2005, the year Mick Andrews had won the Pre65 Scottish trial, and every man and their dog wanted one of these “MAR” James... after that...

(Actually the frame they all wanted to copy was a Francis Barnett Model 85 trials frame, AMC had just re-badged the works AMC bikes James, and gave them a coat of maroon paint.) (Oh yes and replaced that terrible AMC engine back to a Villiers 37A.)

Well what seemed like over night, nearly every named trials motorcycle frame builder in the country, were copying what James Holland had now in 2003 created using one of his built frames for Mick Andrews...

James Holland had used an old beaten up original works frame that Mick had, so he says, to make his Jig for the replacement replica machines frame...

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story continues down the page.

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(Mick's actual Works James bike"306 AKV", the one he rode to six victories on the trot as soon as he threw a leg over the Works bike, was now in the ownership of Mick Wilkinson after he had taken over the ride in 1966, when Mick Andrews left AMC, and in fact Mick Wilkinson still has this James in his garage now 2024...)

Mick Andrews first "MAR" James was built by the late Roy Weston and son Mark, and most of these parts were used on the James Holland framed later version just progression of the breed.

Photo Courtesy Mark Weston...©...

A colourful dressed Mick Andrews aboard the Roy and Mark Weston built MAR James... back in the early nineties ...

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Again in early 2010 the frame and forks on the Mick Andrews James were changed again... two Paul Rogers-Ridgard built frames were built into machines by Mick Andrews  and Alan Whitton  using Alan Whitton's forks and yokes. Mick using the engine and wheels from the James Holland built bike, and Alan using his own Triumph Cub type alloy hubs and a new Villiers 37A engine and alloy barrel for his machine.

Photo Courtesy Mick Andrews Collection...

 The last reincarnation of the Mick Andrews James "MAR" in Mick's shed along with the long time Ossa.

Mick has now sold the James I am told... and it resides in the Colin Fray collection...

It should be noted that the registration number 306 AKV is not known by the DVLA. 2025...

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Back to story.

Some frame builders were even constructing jigs out of wood to catch this boat before it left port.

By 2007 these James "MAR"frames were everywhere, some were good quality, and some really poor, and a lot heavy as well.

Even Mick thought his James Holland frame was heavy, and drilled holes everywhere he could on it, even to the extent of drilling holes in the steering head tube and then plastering the holes with little paper stickers.

Apart from the frame builders who were cashing in, other Classic motorcycle engineers were making fork conversion kits to fit into Norton Roadholder fork sliders or AMC using Beta or Marzzochi stanchions and damping…

Even though Mick’s James MAR sporting a small Montesa front hub, and replica REH Grimeca type conical rear hub, these were not fitted to the replicas, as a certain trial beyond the Scottish border, said these were "not allowed" in their so called rules at that time, or even now.

So most were fitting BSA Bantam replica hubs made from aluminium….. which were deemed OK...

Photo Courtesy Lee Prescott...©...

Nice set of Norton converted forks, and Bantam type alloy hub, from Alan Whitton...along with the yokes... Mick Andrews rode in one of the Scottish Pre65 trials using yokes with outside clamps... How could he...

Most power units were the Villiers 37A type and Maccelle type barrels fitted.

Even the thriving Kart scene were getting short of Villiers engine parts as most were now getting ploughed into the MAR bikes…

By 2010 some of the replicas were that sophisticated, that even modern mapping of ignition and carbs was being tried behind the scene…

Then for some reason the James "MAR" Replicas started to slip out of favour, was it the poorly made frames of some that were dragging the good ones down? Or shortage of Villiers spares?

Or just that the fad for these bikes had come to an end, and something new and different was now needed, to replace this "MAR" James as they were just, well, too many in numbers, and competitors wanted something different again... And could that have been the rise of the, new phenomenon that is or was the Drayton BSA Bantam, or indeed any frame with a Bantam late type engine in, four speed that is... 

In 2021 it seems even the bubble may have burst on this brand too? And by 2024 more so in some quarters...

Photos Courtesy Lee Prescott...©...

Here is Dave Paxton's James MAR bike 2009....

This has a frame constructed by Wasp Motorcycles......

This company was responsible for a a great many of the "MAR" James frames constructed... the other noted well constructed "MAR"James frame and if you were from "up-narth" it would have been one from Paul Jackson...

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And Dave Paxton at full steam in the wild garlic of Weston Wood.......

Alan Wright Manx Classic 2007.......aboard his James MAR version...

The other side of the Wright, "MAR"James.......

Old Stoney Mountain, Wrighty again moving, after a L---o---n---g time inspecting the section...

 Then his foot slipped off the peg... Was it the evil stare?

This was 2007 and Wright'y still only had the frame in red-oxide paint.

 and note the kink in the top-frame-seat-tube bend...

Work in progress perhaps...

Here is "Rock legend" Barry Micklethwaite, riding his Francis Barnett version in the Sam Cooper trial.............

And another "Fanny Bee" version in the same trial, in 2007...

The proper job "MAR"James hiding behind Mick's Transporter, at

Bury-Cliffe Quarry...

  June 2010... and now with the Paul Rogers-Ridgard frame... 

Mick and his disciples.

Have they found that Van yet?

The van was Alan Whitton's, and it was later stolen...NC56KKN...

Alan Whitton's "Top-Of-The-Range" James "MAR" version, with him aboard... built in early 2010 with the Derby-Road and Race "MAR" frame. 

Photo's Courtesy Lee Prescott©

Why does Quality always stand out?

Most Photos Lee Prescott ©

2010...

The two Mick's, Andrews, and Gallagher, with the Gallagher version of the James MAR...

 And one of the first New batch  in the public eye... Mike Gallagher's  bike sported the James Holland designed and built  "MAR" frame."... And also the Mick Andrews porting to the cylinder barrel...

And Mike Gallagher riding in the 2010 Classic Trials Show...

And this is the frame they were all trying to copy.

The Francis Barnett Model 85 Trials...and these were the frames used on the three last James factory bikes.

Photo Courtesy Mark Weston...©...

Mark Weston riding in the Pre65 Scottish aboard his Brother James bike to the one he and father Roy built for Mick Andrews and started the trend of owning one of these machines a few years later...

Photo Courtesy Offroad Review Vol 25 november 1995 (Deryk Wylde)...

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So the big question is, have we seen the last of the

"Mick-Andrews-Replica" James ...

Or will they make a come back...We hope so...

Or do we get more like this.

Steve Gollings aboard his James? with Drayton BSA Bantam type frame, and New Villiers engine, off the shelf, I am told....

As Always More Later.......

Photo Courtesy Don Morley...

Mick Andrews riding in one of the early Pre65 Classic Scottish trials...

In 1993...the first Scottish Pre65 trial was 1984 and won by Maestro Sammy Miller.

The photo by Don Morley of Mick riding his first "Replica" of his old Works James....Built by Roy Weston and son Mark...

Mick won the Classic Experts trial in Rhayader Wales on this version in 1994 and again in 1995...

Photo Courtesy "Hammertight"...

2016, a shot of Giles Hixson riding his Francis Barnett version in a Autumn BMCA trial...

This frame was made by Wasp, has were quite a few others at the time, including the Dave Paxton James MAR above..

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The frames of the last James "MAR" bikes that both Mick Andrews and Alan Whitton rode were, and are, made by, Paul Rogers-Ridgard, at Derby Road and Race.... These are a supreme peice of lightweight frame engineering and a class above the rest...I think ...

Paul and Alan will build another batch of ten of these frames if there is interest in 2024.... and there has been rumblings of this happening, as more than ten potential customers had asked to buy the superb James "MAR" below...at the Telford Show.

Photos Courtesy Event Design and Build...

The superb New lightweight 2024 Derby Road and Race... Alan Whitton built James MAR...

Back to the future for the New Lightweight Mick Andrews James Replica...?...

Derby Road and Race... "MAR" James frame.......

These are still for sale from Paul at DRR or Alan Whitton...

More Later....with a New "MAR" James to come....this year 2025..01..

Updat2025...02...