Son of a gun

Shane Perkins is the current World Keirin Champion, and comes from good stock.

Darryl Perkins, father, mentor and fabricator has more than just a few tales to tell. Some he has recently leaked thanks to Biking Brisane.

Darryl was a beast on the track himself, racing for Australia at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. His event was the Tandem Sprint, an event which was last held at World Cup level in the early nineties.

A lot of these stories I'd heard third hand, or loosely from Daryl. His foray into frame building was born from his fabrication background, and a daring attitude to take Italian frame building techniqies and make the end result better.

Doug Garley who Darryl references was an early track accomplice of my own when I got into racing. Doug would give me tips, share insight and regale the kind of tales that this video captures. He had a soft spot for me because of my addiction to old skool and my ambivalence to the norm which came from courieringering.

Like many Australian marques, his initial 'Peroni' frames where a throwback to Italianissimo as european frames were considered better, perhaps with the same mystique they hold the day, that an old italian guy filing away, espresso in one hand, fag in the other has to be better than an Australian doing it, tea and scone respectively.

Speaking of tea - put the kettle on.