David Geoffrey Bickers (17 January 1938 – 6 July 2014) was an English professional motocross racer from Coddenham, Suffolk. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1959 to 1969. Bickers won two European motocross championships and was a member of British motocross teams that won two Motocross des Nations events as well as two Trophée des Nations events. Bickers was awarded the Motorcycle News 'Man of the Year' award in 1960.

Motorcycling career In the early 1960s, Bickers was one of the top motorcycle racers in the sport of scrambles, which eventually became more widely known by the European term 'motocross'.Carrick, Peter Motor Cycle Racing Hamlyn Publishing, 1969, p.104 Scrambling. "Britain invented scrambling; the many thousands of scrambling enthusasts abroad have a group of clubmen in Camberley, Surrey, to thank for initiating a sport which they now enjoy. With the sport becoming established on the Continent (known there as moto cross), the Moto Cross des Nations was inaugurated in 1947...". Accessed 2015-01-21 He began competing in motorcycle scrambles at the age of 15 just before the official age which he was eligible to ride, which was sixteen, and he was so successful that he was rewarded with a sponsorship from the Dot motorcycle company.

Bickers' riding talent got him noticed by Greeves factory rider, Brian Stonebridge, who then recommended that Bickers be hired by Greeves in 1958. The middle-1960s saw the start of the move away from traditional large-capacity four-stroke engines to two-strokes.Motorcycle Mechanics, June 1964, p.9 Full Chat by Bruce Cox. "All over Europe there are development engineers furiously overboring and overstroking existing 250 c.c. engines to bring them into the 500 c.c. category. Husqvarna, CZ and Greeves all plan to race two-strokes of about 360 c.c. and Dave Bickers has had a few rides on a 'Pacemaker' Cotton special fitted with a large-capacity two-stroke built by Jack Heath of Coventry. Obviously, all these manufacturers feel that light weight counts for as much as sheer power in moto-cross". Accessed and added 28 June 2016 In the 1960 250cc European Motocross Championship, Bickers rode two-stroke engined Greeves motorcycles to win Grand Prix races in Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and West Germany and clinched the title ahead of Vice-Champion, Jeff Smith. The European championship was considered to be the world championship at the time, as the sport of motocross had yet to develop outside of Europe.

Bickers dominated the 1961 season winning 6 out of 13 Grand Prix races and set a season record with 14 individual race victories. At the inaugural Trophée des Nations event for 250cc machines in 1961, Bickers was the second highest individual points scorer behind Torsten Hallman, helping the British team to victory over the powerful Swedish and Belgian teams.

When the FIM upgraded the European Motocross Championship to World Championship status for the 1962 season, the Greeves factory chose to stay home and compete in the British championships. However, Bickers did compete in the British round of the 1962 250cc motocross World Championship held at Glastonbury, where he took the victory over the eventual World Champion, Torsten Hallman. At the 1962 Trophée des Nations event, Bickers won both heat races as the British team once again triumphed over the Swedish and Belgian teams.

Bickers joined the ČZ factory racing team in 1966 and scored two second-place results to finish the season ranked fifth in the 500cc motocross world championship. He was a member of the victorious British team at the 1966 Motocross des Nations, where Bickers placed in a tie as top points scorers of the event, alongside the Soviet Union's Victor Arbekov and Belgium's Joël Robert, who also rode for the ČZ factory racing team.

In 1967, he won the Swedish and Luxembourg Grand Prix events and improved to third place in the season final classification behind World Champion, Paul Friedrichs and Vice-Champion, Jeff Smith. He also helped the British team win the 1967 Motocross des Nations event over the Swedish and Belgian teams. The 1967 triumph would be the last Motocross des Nations victory for a British team until 1994.

After the 1967 world championships, Bickers joined his ČZ factory teammates Joël Robert and Roger De Coster, along with Husqvarna teammates, Torsten Hallman Åke Jonsson and Arne Kring, in a series of exhibition races in the United States that had been organized by Edison Dye, the American importer for Husqvarna motorcycles. The exhibition races served as a means to introduce the sport of motocross to an American audience, and eventually led to the formation of the Inter-AM and Trans-AMA motocross series that helped to popularize the sport of motocross in the United States.

As one of the first European riders to race in the United States, Bickers helped to introduce Americans to the sport of motocross. He raced in the 1970 Inter-AM Motocross Series and he placed second in the 1971 Inter-AMA motocross series behind ČZ teammate Vlastimil Válek. He also competed in the Trans-AMA motocross series in 1971 and 1972.

Bickers won 38 individual heat races and 18 Grand Prix victories during his world championship racing career. He won two 250cc European Motocross Championships (1960, 1961), five 250cc British Motocross Championships (1960, 1962–1965) and one 500cc British national motocross championship (1966). He was a member of two victorious British Trophée des Nations teams (1961, 1962) and one victorious British Motocross des Nations team (1966). Bickers was the top individual points scorer at the 1962 Trophée des Nations event and the 1966 Motocross des Nations event.

Bickers was the UK importer for the 250 cc and 360 cc CZ scramblers together with a trials bike, followed by CZ roadsters and Jawa models in 1973, selling both marques initially from his premises at Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, followed by a move to Farthing Road Industrial Estate, Ipswich.Motor Cycle, 16 February 1967. pp.206-208 Czechspot – Peter Fraser rides Dave Bickers' CZ Machinery Accessed 2015-01-21Motorcycle Mechanics, November 1973, p.60. Dave Bickers (Imports) Jawa-CZ from Czechoslovakia Sole U.K. Concessionaires Accessed and added 2015-01-31

Film industry career After retiring from competition, Bickers started a company manufacturing stunt equipment used in the film industry. He also appeared as a stunt double for Roger Moore in Octopussy and Escape to Athena among other film work.

Bickers died after a stroke on 6 July 2014.

Motocross Grand Prix Results Points system from 1952 to 1968: Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th  Points 8 6 4 3 2 1

Points system from 1969 to 1980:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

Denotes European motocross championship only.

Year Class Machine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pos Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1959 250cc Greeves AUT- AUT- CH- CH- BEL- BEL- GDR- GDR- CZE- CZE- POL- POL- GER- GER- ITA- ITA- FRA- FRA- NED- NED- UK4 UK4 LUX- LUX3 SWE5 SWE5 10th 9 1960 250cc Greeves CH2 CH3 BEL5 BEL1 FRA3 FRA1 CZE4 CZE4 POL1 POL1 ITA- ITA- GDR5 GDR6 FIN3 FIN8 LUX2 LUX1 UK- UK1 SWE1 SWE2 GER1 GER2 1st 48 1961 250cc Greeves BEL1 BEL1 FRA1 FRA1 NED5 NED2 CZE1 CZE- POL1 POL1 LUX2 LUX1 FIN1 FIN- ITA- ITA- GER2 GER- UK1 UK1 CH- CH1 SWE1 SWE1 GDR- GDR- 1st 51 1962 250cc Greeves ESP- ESP- CH- CH- BEL- BEL- FRA- FRA- CZE- CZE- POL- POL- NED- NED- LUX- LUX- FIN- FIN- USR- USR- GER- GER- ITA- ITA- UK1 UK1 SWE- SWE- GDR- GDR- 10th 8 500cc Greeves AUT- AUT- FRA- FRA- CH- CH- ITA- ITA- CZE- CZE- UK9 UK5 NED- NED- BEL- BEL- LUX- LUX- SWE- SWE- 14th 2 1963 250cc Greeves ESP1 ESP2 ITA- ITA- FRA- FRA- CH- CH- GER3 GER6 LUX5 LUX- NED- NED- UK- UK- SWE- SWE- FIN- FIN- USR- USR- POL- POL- CZE- CZE- GDR- GDR- 7th 12 1964 250cc Greeves ESP3 ESP7 BEL2 BEL- CH8 CH- CZE2 CZE- GER- GER1 LUX1 LUX1 ITA1 ITA- UK1 UK2 SWE8 SWE1 FIN- FIN- USR5 USR5 POL- POL- GDR- GDR- FRA27 FRA20 5th 23 1965 250cc Greeves ESP6 ESP2 ITA3 ITA3 FRA- FRA- BEL1 BEL1 CZE5 CZE2 GER5 GER5 NED- NED- LUX3 LUX3 POL- POL- USR- USR- GDR- GDR- UK1 UK2 SWE4 SWE3 FIN3 FIN3 AUT3 AUT2 3rd 42 1966 500cc ČZ CH- CH32 CH4 AUT3 AUT3 ITA3 ITA- DEN4 DEN5 SWE3 SWE- FIN4 FIN4 GDR10 GDR9 CZE3 CZE3 USR5 USR4 UK5 UK5 NED2 NED2 BEL- BEL- LUX4 LUX8 GER3 GER1 5th 32 1967 500cc ČZ AUT9 AUT6 ITA4 ITA5 SWE2 SWE2 CZE- CZE- USR- USR- FRA- FRA- GER- GER- UK6 UK1 BEL16 BEL2 LUX2 LUX3 CH3 CH- 3rd 26 1968 250cc ČZ ESP6 ESP3 BEL6 BEL8 CZE7 CZE- FRA4 FRA7 NED24 NED- GER8 GER12 LUX2 LUX3 POL- POL- USR4 USR3 YUG5 YUG7 FIN- FIN- SWE7 SWE6 UK3 UK4 AUT7 AUT5 5th 21 500cc ČZ AUT- AUT- ITA- ITA- SWE- SWE- FIN- FIN- GDR- GDR- CZE- CZE- UK4 UK4 GER- GER- FRA- FRA- NED- NED- BEL- BEL- LUX- LUX- CH- CH- 18th 3 1969 250cc ČZ ESP- ESP- CH- CH- YUG- YUG- CZE- CZE- POL- POL- GER- GER- NED- NED- FRA- FRA- UK4 UK1 SWE- SWE- FIN- FIN- USR- USR- 19th 12Sources:

References

External links Bickers Action – Film stunt equipment