Polished to perfection, Karl Barton’s All Chrome Carlton Flyer would have blazed like a comet with its tail on fire around the steep banking of Japan’s Hachioji Velodrome at the Tokyo ’64 Olympic Games.
At 5 ft 4 in (167cm), Barton was a diminutive rider yet a giant of the track. “I watched him race at Butts Stadium in Coventry,” recalls current owner, Dave Marsh, of the Universal Cycle Centre, Rotherham. “He’s a short guy, but very punchy - a dominant force on the UK track in the mid-1960s.”
