Around Hull there was a legend of a beautiful blonde on a big Harley. But, as her friend Mike Cartlidge, tells us, that was no myth – that was Anita Manley.
This is a tribute to a lovely lady who, in her younger days, did not need Bill Ivy or Fred Warr in a blonde wig pretend to be her riding a Harley-Davidson. On the subject of the film. Girl On A Motorcycle, Anita Manley said; “If I had bought my Harley from Fred Warr’s earlier, I could have been the stand-in rider in the film.”
Anita Manley grew up in a village called Wawne on the outskirts of Hull and was the stepdaughter of a local motorcycle mechanic, so it was no surprise that Anita showed a great interest in motorcycles in her teens and began her motorcycling days on a Triumph Tiger Cub.
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At the time her stepfather Reg Nichols had a lock-up yard in Brazil Street in Hull doing motorcycle repairs and he was the man to see if you needed a motorcycle wheel rebuilding.
I know at this time Anita had been to the cinema and watched films like Easy Rider and Girl On A Motorcycle (which featured Fred Warr in tight white leathers and a long blonde wig substituting for Marianne Faithfull) as, after passing her test on the Triumph Tiger Cub, she began to hanker after a 1200cc Harley. She kept on about it to her stepfather who, in the end, made the phone call to Fred Warr’s in London, who was that time the only official Harley dealer in Great Britain.
A trip to Fred Warr’s
One thing about that time was there were not as many lady riders of large capacity motorcycles on our roads as there are today. Fred Warr himself voiced concerns about Anita having previously only ridden a Triumph Tiger Cub, but he did say that he had a 1954 Harley-Davidson Hydra Glide in stock in standard trim. This machine had a rigid frame with telescopic front forks and was powered by a 1200cc Panhead motor, a very special machine to own even today.
The trip to London was made and Fred Warr had Anita riding the Harley up and down his yard until he had to admit, that, yes, she could ride it and so he sold her the bike.
This was the start of something that made Anita a kind of local legend in the Hull area with many a young male rider claiming to have spotted this lovely blonde-haired lady riding a Harley. But Anita was not really given to posing around town as her main love was long distance riding. She would often attend rallies up and down the country as well as events held at Fred Warr’s shop in London, the journey from Hull being broken by meeting up with a couple in Bradford that Anita knew who also owned a Harley and they would ride to London and back together.
The Harley is stolen
Many years of happy riding passed and eventually Anita got married and had a family, but the Harley remained, all be it in a laid up state. Then sadly, while the Harley was off the road, it was stolen out of Anita’s garage one winter’s night in the early 1980s, leaving only tyre tracks in the snow where it has been pushed away, maybe to a waiting vehicle.
It was at this point I got to know Anita, who was heartbroken as her Harley had disappeared without trace, despite the best efforts of many of us trying to track down the bike and whoever had stolen it.
Time passed and Anita and I became good friends and thus a project began to build her a Hydra Glide lookalike using reproduction modern parts, the only genuine part being the seat off her old bike, which was not fitted when the bike was stolen.
Back on the road on a Hydra Glide replica
After a few years of gathering parts and countless hours spent in my workshop, the Hydra copy, powered by a modern 1340cc Harley V2 motor, was finally finished, giving Anita the chance to enjoy riding a big twin again and, for a while, enjoy the freedom of the open road, long blonde hair blowing in the wind once more, the road unfolding before her.
As can happen to many people in later years, the bike eventually became a little too heavy for Anita and so was sold and for a time she retired from riding. But thoughts turned to travel of a different kind as she booked a flight to Kenya for a holiday, as she had always wanted to go there and it was while she was in Kenya she met her husband Pascal.
More years passed without a motorcycle until the chance of a used Yamaha 535 Virago came along. It was quite a climb down from what Anita had been used to riding but after a test ride she had to admit it was light to ride and did everything she wanted.
So the deal with the Yamaha was struck, giving her back the enjoyment of riding once more, she even rode it to work where she was as a cashier at a local petrol station and where one night she was held at knife point during a robbery. Even though she was shaken by this event, she was a strong lady and continued working at the filling station until retirement.
Many years later ill health finally forced Anita to retire from riding altogether and she became house bound, but memories of riding her bikes and thoughts of old friends she knew still brought a smile to her face.
Born with poor health that caused Anita problems her whole life, she would battle on doing the things she loved. Anita lost the fight for life on November 23, 2024, leaving behind a loving husband, son, daughter, sister and family.
Memories of Anita will live on in the minds of many of a certain age in Hull’s two-wheeled fraternity. That in itself speaks volumes, a lovely lady who truly was the Girl On A Motorcycle.
