Me and Dr Joe

Dear CR
I enjoyed the article on Dr Joe Erlich recently. I met him when he had a workshop in Bedford which is local to me. It was interesting dealing with him – but somewhat difficult!

My last conversation was cut short when a call came from below (we were up on a mezzanine floor) saying ‘your engine has arrived from Aprilia’.

Dr Joe hurried off to get his hands on it. I believe it was for the abortive carbon framed Aprilia project that he had on the go.

I suspect that would make a whole story on its own.

One small correction to the article, Dr Joe did not finish with GPs in 1988 as he did run a 125 with Alex Bedford in 1989.

The bike was not really competitive, scoring only one championship point, but Alex did a few rounds of the Shell Supercup with two wins and a fourth place; the bike was run in ‘7 Up’ colours.

The bike was on display at Stafford in October, the other picture with the fairing on was at a previous Stafford show.

Nick Crocker
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Hello Nick.

Thanks for the additional bit of info regarding 1989. Apologies, that was my error in not including this. As for the carbon framed Aprilia project, I seem to remember photos of this doing the rounds in various late 1980 paddocks – but I fully admit that I may be wrong and that what I am thinking of might be a totally different motorcycle. Does anyone else remember this particular Aprilia project (or have a photo?). Tony

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