Ralph Bryans – Ireland’s Only Grand Prix World Champion 1965 | Season 4 – Episode 14
Wheels Mar 05, 2024
Belfast native Ralph Bryans (1941 – 2014) was Ireland’s only Grand Prix motorcycling World Champion. After finishing school, Bryans secured an apprenticeship as a fitter at Chambers Motors in Belfast. Then in 1959, while still in his teens, he forged his mother’s signature on the entry form and participated in the 1959 Tandragee 100 in County Armagh riding a borrowed 199cc Ambassador race bike and so began his motorcycling racing career. A year later, he had installed a Triumph Terrier 150cc engine onto his BSA Bantam frame, clinching victory in the 1960 Irish 200cc Championship.
In 1962, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) introduced the 50cc race class, and the diminutive Ralph Bryans, weighing in at just 57 kgs, proved to be an ideal fit for this new category and was in high demand from privateers and the Bultaco and Honda works teams.
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For the 1961 season, Bryans advanced to a 1958 350cc Manx Norton, supplied by sponsor James Wilson. He participated in the 1962 Isle of Man TT, marking the inaugural inclusion of lightweight bikes on the mountain circuit. Riding a Benelli, which was prepared by the factory (works) but formally entered by the Irish distributor, Joe Arnold, he finished a very creditable 15th, beating a number of professional works riders in the process.
In the 1962 Ulster Grand Prix, he achieved ninth place in the 350cc class while riding a Norton and secured tenth place in the 500cc class aboard a Reg Dearden, Manx Norton.
The Bultaco works team then recruited Bryans after he “guest rode” their machines in Spain.
In 1963, aboard Nortons, he achieved top ten finishes in both the 350cc and 500cc classes at the Ulster Grand Prix. As a result Honda extended an offer and Bultaco sportingly permitting him to accept, he secured a complete Honda works drive for the 1964 World Championship.
Competing as a Honda works racer, he triumphed in the Dutch, Belgian and German Grand Prix races and secured a second-place finish in the Isle of Man TT. These victories contributed to him earning second place in the 1964 World Championship rankings.
With the full backing of the Honda works team and their technological and engineering innovations, 1965 was to be his best year aboard the works 50cc race bike known as the RC115, (RC – Racing Service). The Honda featured a short stroke with a bore/stroke ratio of 34 × 27.4mm, boosting its power output to an impressive 13.6 horsepower at a remarkable 20,000rpm!
The famous Rhodesian-born Honda mechanic Derek “Nobby” Clark worked on the development of the 50cc race bikes and described how the engine cylinders were the size of eggcups and how “..you had to use tweezers on a lot of parts, like valve collets – because the parts kept getting smaller, but your fingers stayed the same size.”
At just 49.9 kgs the RC115 was a lightweight machine and every part of the design was aimed at keeping weight down. Heavy brake assemblies made from cast metal were set aside in favour of substantially lighter cable-actuated stirrup rim-brakes (from a bicycle) with rubber blocks directly acting on the aluminium wheel rims.
Aboard the 9-speed RC115 with a top speed of 154 kph (96 mph) he achieved victories in Germany, France and Holland, secured second places in Spain and Japan and earned a fifth place in Belgium, leading to his crowning as the 1965 World 50cc lightweight Champion. To round off his racing season, he also secured an eighth-place finish in the 125cc World Championship.
Bryans continued his success by winning the Isle of Man 50cc TT in 1966 with a record average speed of 87.70 mph, aboard his Honda RC116 which generated 16 bhp at 21,500 rpm, equivalent to an astonishing 320 bhp per litre! Despite this being his sole win in 1966, he achieved second place in the 50cc World Championship. 1966 was a great year for the Honda works teams achieving constructors’ titles in the 50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc classes.
In 1967, Bryans made the shift to racing 250cc works Hondas. He achieved victories in Germany and Japan, concluding the year with a notable fourth-place finish in the World Championship.
Bryans retired from professional racing in 1970 a career racing 50cc, 125cc, 250cc and 350cc bikes achieving a career tally of ten wins, forty podium finishes in sixty GPs, seven fastest laps and clinching the 1965 50cc World Championship.
Ralph Bryans, Ireland’s only Grand Prix motorcycling World Champion, remained active in motorcycle events. He showcased an ex-Mike Hailwood Honda RC166 at Brands Hatch in 1989, frequently rode his high-revving Hondas at the Brands Hatch and in August 2012 took part in a Parade Lap of the Dundrod circuit, celebrating 90 years of the Ulster Grand Prix
Sources of Information and Photo Credits:
Associated Press
Belfast Telegraph
Classic Bike Racing Ireland
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
DPPedia
Hayden Williams / mikethebike70 2021
Honda Italia
Honda’s Four Stroke Race History 1954-1981 Paperback – Joep Kortekaas
IOMTT
Media Storehouse
mikethebike70 – Michael Williams
Motor Sport Magazine
otocollectie Anefo
rc51forums
Rowland White
SubSailor
The Herald Scotland
TT Race Pics
Ulster Grand Prix – Facebook page
Ulster Grand Prix Tributes – Ralph Bryans
YouTube – BART
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