Cotton Telstar or Conquest Pictures
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Not quite sure what this bike is. It has a 1964/65 Starmaker engine and from the kickstart on the gearbox it may be a Conquest, as ridden by Derek Minter (and won!) at the Thruxton 500 miler. Seen at the Cotton’s 90th Birthday party in Gloucester 2008.
I had a cotton conquest in 1965 and it looked just like that.
5 1/2 gallon fiberglass tank with a fly-screen, clip-ons, rear-sets and 12volt electrics as optional extras.
I too had a Cotton Conquest, I bought it from a dealer of racing bikes in about 1970, paid £100 for it. The bike was the ex H &L Motors sponsored machine ridden by Roger Corbett. Roger was sadly later killed whilst riding in the TT. I loved this little bike, it went like stink and it handled very well if you kept its head up in bumpy corners. I kept it for years racing it and using it in sprints, it did quite well against more modern machines. I raced it at Staverton, Gaydon, Olivers Mount, Brands and Snetters. It took me to the TT in 1978 where it did many laps of the mountain circuit. My particular bike had a 1 1/2 inch concentric carb on it, at low revs it would reject more fuel than it burnt but when it chimed in on the box it howled like a mad thing. I eventually had to sell it when the kids came along. GHT 425 D where are you now?
I had a secondhand Conquest that was the love of my life it was purchased in 1968 from Brian Lee Motorcycles in Scunthorpe it was my first bike and was delivered to our house two weeks before I got my licence and couldn’t wait to ride it. This was the road version which was aestheically different. It had a great party trick, when it had been raining or the atmosphere was damp it would start up backwards. Because there was no keys just a switch somebody stole it one night from outside a youth club so if you have one and the reg is HBE 89 D THATS MY BIKE.