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Joe Thompson
I did not know Joe that well but he built me a back wheel which lasted for several years and usually saw him at York Cycle Show before he headed up to Scotland for his Summer holidays, one year even help take down the Rough-Stuff Fellowship Stand at the show, I know many cyclists in the North West of England will miss his wheel building skills and think its only right to honour him has a Off-road cycling hero on this web site.
Simeon Orme
Joe Thompson died aged 76 on June 18th in St. Catherine’s Hospice, Preston. He was one of four sons growing up on a farm in the Broughton area, near Preston, Lancashire. Most of his working life was spent driving a lorry. He was a member of Preston CTC , and joined the Fellowship in 1956, and remained a member until the end of his life.
Along with fellow RSF members he traversed Striding Edge, with bike, to celebrate the YHA’s Silver Jubilee in 1956.
For many years he rode up to Scotland for summer, where he camped and stayed in bothies, returning home around October. He was well known for the high quality wheels he built for friends and various cycle shops. A man of many talents he produced his own waterproof jackets, shorts and cycling trousers on an old sewing machine. Joe enjoyed a simple life: a bike for pleasure and transport, no television, only owning a mobile phone late in life (for emergency use only). Joe was a person who called a spade a spade and held strong views on many things but had s softer side and underneath was very kind hearted.
September / October 2008 issue of ‘The Rough-Stuff Journal’.
As a friend of Joe Thompson since about 1970 - and an erstwhile member of the RSF although not for a long time - I was heartened to read your article reproduced on the web from "The Rough Stuff Journal", as I felt it was it a moving tribute that captured the essence of his character. Based as I am in Newcastle I was a regular stopover for Joe on his way to Scotland, usually direct from the York Rally. I knew that he was ill of course from a couple of rare conversations when he had his mobile switched on and from his Christmas card last year. Indeed I had been trying to contact him to see if he was fit enough to attend this year's rally and maybe come to stay one more time. It was only some time after the rally that I found out from a mutual friend the bald fact that Joe had died. Since then I have wondered about the circumstances of his death and, whilst it was not in a remote bothy as he perhaps would have chosen, it is good to know that he was cared for at the end.
Keith Aungiers
It was quite a shock to read of Joe’s demise, he seemed immortal; as did his kit. I expect that everyone has a favourite memory. Mine is of the time on the Forest of Bowland. Joe was leading across the bare peat of Salter Fell when he said “It seems to be firm enough to ride on, I’ll give it a go.” I was sinking half-an-inch at each step! On he got and pedalled away, to make six inches into the peat for twenty feet forward. Off he got, “That’s no good, must’t cause trouble for the next time; worth trying though.” He could do a good job of straightening a wheel on the bike by the roadside. Joe was one of those few who make everything look so easy and relaxed.
Bill Houlder
Joe Thompson was a catalyst to the Tyneside RSF group during the 1970’s and 80’s and did much to encourage membership during this period. His wheel building was renowned for I was in the trade at the time. He was truly a character and there are not many of his type left, mores the pity.
Derek Houghton
When I was a teenager in Preston in the mid-'70's, I used to work during the long Summer holidays at the egg-packing works near the M55/M6 junction in Preston. I used to cycle there from my home in Barton. There, I met Joe Thompson, who used to drive the egg-collecting lorry around the local farms. He used to trundle into work on an ancient sit-up-and-beg bike on Mondays-Thursdays, and then on Friday he would turn up on what seemed to me a very fancy machine with front and rear panniers, and a Primus stove mounted on his frame. At 14, I was already keen to buy a decent bike myself, and in fact, I saved my first wage-packets from the egg-packing job to this end.
Eventually, I joined Joe on some of his weekend jaunts to the Northern Lakes and even, on Summer weekends, the Scottish Borders. Joe regarded Youth Hostels and the like as luxury accommodation, far beyond his aspirations, and the occupants as a bunch of city sissies. So we slept in bothies and hedgerows. I remember one June night by the roadside in the mid-Lakes, when my sleep was disturbed by a convulsive shudder and yell from Joe. But not for long - I was too bone-weary to ask what was wrong. Next morning, I asked Joe if he'd had a bad dream. 'No', he replied, 'I just woke up wi' a bloody great slug crawling past me nose!'. And sure enough, there was the trail, terminating in the middle of his face.
His other speciality, cooked on that fierce Primus, was an enormous cooked breakfast, culminating in the deep-frying of bread in the residual bacon-and sausage fat - delicious and very calorific for a hard day's trails.
I recently began cycling again after a break of over 25 years while I tried to be a runner. Now the knees are creaking, I decided cycling might be more impact-free. Thinking about cycling in my youth, I was curious if Joe had any internet presence, so I just Googled 'Joe Thompson wheel builder', and this turned up the RSF site, and eventually this site, where I learned the sad news that he had died. I felt I had to write something about Joe.
I can certainly testify, as one of your other correspondents mentioned, that Joe was a kind man under his eccentricities. He also had a great liking for my Mother's home-made jam, and she had a real soft spot for him too.
RIP Joe.
Simon Higgins
Liverpool