Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i The Classic MotorCycle

This issue, we’ve quite a number of features on motorcycle travelling. I can never fail to be impressed by people like Angus and Margaret Innes, who, in 1956, as a young married couple, set off on their two-year-old Tiger 110 Triumph to travel the commonwealth – a sense of wanderlust and desire for information and experiences fuelling their desires. Then there’s the Anglo-Dutch Rally, still held, but it’s the pioneers who first took part in the event that capture the imagination most. In pre First World War times, they travelled from the Netherlands to visit the UK, quite some undertaking. The people who take part now do so to acknowledge the efforts made all that time ago. Have motorcycle, will travel, that was the spirit then, and long may it…

GOING LIVE Motorcyclists across the country are gearing-up for Motorcycle Live at the NEC, which this year takes place from November 16-24. As usual it will offer a huge spectrum of two-wheel based entertainment for motorcycle fans. There will be the latest new bikes, an impressive classic display (which will include the Royal Ruby we featured last month), 10 free opportunities to ride, non-stop live entertainment, while tickets also give visitors access to see the spectacular live stunt show in the Moto-Cirque Arena. For details take a look at www.motorcyclelive.co.uk MUSEUM SHOP SIGN The National Motorcycle Museum has updated its Museum Legends online retail shop in time for Christmas. The shop boasts thousands of classic motorcycling related items as well as museum branded clothing. Museum director James Hewing explained: “We…

Automobiles, Cycles and Motor Cycles Author: Peter Miller Designed and published by: FWtoC Publishing Available only from Peter Miller, who will supply signed copies if requested. Email: corgiking@aol.com Hardback, 215 x 285mm, 280 pages, with over 350 photographs and illustrations ISBN 978-0-85101-644-3 £30 plus p&p The origins of Royal Enfield date to 1851 and the decision made by George Townsend to set up a needle manufacturing works at Hunt End, near Redditch. By 1885, the company had commenced manufacture of cycles and cycle components to exploit the new bicycling craze. The expansion of the business created financial difficulties and provided an opportunity in 1891 for the factory to be taken over by Albert Eadie and Robert Walker Smith. Eadie was claimed to be the country’s finest salesman and Walker Smith…

This handsome Sunbeam S8 was a pleasure to look at and to ride – and when it broke down on test, the owner could fix it at the roadside. That’s practical. Andrew Chapman is a tall, calm, good-humoured man. At his workshop outside Farnham, Foxwood Motorcycle R & R, he fettles, repairs and restores postwar Sunbeam S7/S8s, as well as Ariel singles and twins. As a one-man band, I imagine the calmness comes in handy. With an engineering background that began with his work as an aerodynamic designer with Hawker Aircraft, he’s been running Foxwood for five-and-a-half years. One of his clients is long-distance, high-mileage Ariel rider Steve Carter, whose FH 650 ‘Black Fly’ featured in TCM, February 2019. And five years ago it was Steve who sold Andrew this…

“On saving up his wages, he bought a sprung-hub Triumph, which he rode like a lunatic” Born on August 27, 1942, William David Ivy lived with his a parents, Bill and Nell Ivy, in Maidstone, Kent, in company with his two sisters, one older, one younger. With no family involvement in motorcycling, Bill senior (an engineer, whose name was actually Maurice) encouraged his son in the boxing ring, which the diminutive but feisty offspring didn’t particularly enjoy, but excelled at. Young Bill was, however, keener on riding his bicycle, which progressed to a motorcycle when he was 14. This he’d ride at the home farm of his school friend and future racer, Roy Francis. Leaving school at 15, Ivy was accepted as an apprentice with AMC in Plumstead, which meant…

“It wasn’t a pretty sight – the top of the piston looked like the surface of the moon, definitely a replacement needed here. Costly, yes, but easy enough.” On the workbench the other week was the top end of a modified 9E Villiers engine, used in vintage karting. Belonging to one of my pals, he’d pulled the head off for a precautionary check to find that something, later found to be the needle clip, had obviously been through the motor, bounced around on the top of the piston, then exited via the exhaust. It wasn’t a pretty sight – the top of the piston looked like the surface of the moon, definitely a replacement needed here. Costly, yes, but easy enough. Fortunately, and almost miraculously, the barrel had survived without…

Helping out a friend who can’t ride at present means I’ve been lucky enough to ride these five motorcycles recently: 1960 BSA A10 outfit, 1954 Norton ES2, 1958 Norton Dominator 99, 1930 Sunbeam Model 1 (350cc) and 1938 BSA Empire Star. Giving each a run, covering an enjoyable 15 miles on each, it put me in the right frame of mind to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and many great motorcycling experiences in 2020. That this is the December issue, which will be with most of you during November, is confusion beyond my ken……

Winner of the two-lap solo handicap at Brooklands in early June 1922, Lt. R T Grogan was a circuit regular, normally on Nortons, during the 1920s. His race-winning speed, on his 490cc side-valve, was an impressive 67.52mph. In the five-lap 500cc solo handicap he placed third; winner Jack Emerson, on his Douglas, recorded a winning speed of 81.39mph. That compares well with winner of the fastest race of the day, S E Wood, chauffeur to the Duke of York (later King George VI) and riding HRH’s Trump-Anzani, whose winning speed was 86.12mph. Lt. R T Grogan would seem to be Robert Terence Grogan, known as Terry, born September 20, 1899, in Ireland. He attended Haileybury School in Hertfordshire from 1913 to 1915, and joined the Royal Navy in 1917 as…

Writing in the July 18, 1957 issue of The Motor Cycle, American Vaughn M Greene extolled the virtues of ‘one man’s ideal mount’ as he put pen to paper to explain all about his Vincent special, which, frankly, must have caused something of a stir when the pictures were published in the UK press, as it was most unlike anything seen on contemporary British roads. Greene started: “Of course it’s a Vincent! But call it a Series E Model if you like, for nothing like this ever left Stevenage.” He went on to explain the story of the special motorcycle, as well as making the point, near the beginning, that it’d come to him at some cost – a standard Vincent Black Shadow, a 1955 AJS (model unspecified) and a…

1919 Lessons from and observations made at the Olympia Show by The Motor Cycle staff included that despite novel engine designs and improvements to two-stroke units, further work was needed, while four-stroke development had stagnated, with many makers just offering minor updates to pre-First World War designs. The writers encouraged makers to improve valve gear protection, silencing and cooling, but congratulated designers of new flat twin engines, many who had adopted duplex frames and some rear suspension. Automatic carburettors and automatic oiling were gaining a foothold and the advances in electrical lighting were making this a possibility. Many riders wanting to control fuel/ air mix and engine oiling regarded these advances as unwanted novelties. Touring the show, it was noticeable how many makers considered passengers; on pillion seats, in sidecars…

The idea of an English-Dutch Trial (as it was originally billed) started to take shape when 10 Dutchmen rode their motorcycles to the Isle of Man to watch the TT in 1911. Paul Goossens knows all about it because one of those men was his great-grandfather. “His name was Jacobus Bergmans, but everyone called him Ko,” says Paul. “In July 1909 Ko bought his first motorcycle, a Magnet Selbstfahrer – a contraption where you could steer and control the motorcycle from the sidecar – but by 1911 he had switched to a 500cc V-Twin Simplex that was built in Amsterdam.” Around that time Ko met Abraham Citroen, secretary of the Nederlandsche Motorwielrijders Vereniging. There were about 3000 motorcyclists in Holland and 400 were members of the Dutch Motor Cyclist Association.…

Ernst Degner Ernst Eugen Wotzlawek, born Gleiwitz, East Germany (now Poland) in 1931, died in 1983. Ernst trained as a motor mechanic and started racing circa1952 – first victories in 1953. Runner-up in the East German Championship in 1955 racing a ZPH-powered 125 (engine by Daniel Zimmermann) he was head hunted by Walter Kaaden for the MZ team as rider/engineer in early 1956. He won the East German 125cc championship in 1957 and his first GP, the ‘Nations’ at Monza, Italy, in 1959. At the Swedish GP he stopped with a ‘faulty engine’ (some doubt this claim), costing him the chance of winning the year’s 125cc world title. He swiftly hopped in a waiting car and drove, via ferries, to the west. Ernst was victorious in the 1962 50cc World…

In many respects, it is a lucky thing I’m not a slave to originality in the things I tackle, at least where rebuilding motorcycles are concerned. Don’t misread such a statement into thinking I’m haphazardly throwing bits together with no concern for the look of the thing – nothing could be further from the truth – as there is generally a plan or an inspiration for the direction of a project. It’s just most of the bikes I have are not exactly rare and I enjoy riding them and it doesn’t matter to me if the under-seat washers are incorrect, or even if the components are from different years, as long as the bike can be ridden. In fact, as I wrote that little statement I checked what is classed…

This month's sketches come from the glorious Kop Hill Climb. During this event, the town of Princess Risborough is over taken by both cars and motorcycles, veteran, vintage, classic and modern. The locals line the main road leading to the event in order to see the participants return to the paddock via the town centre, while thousands of people spend time between the grandstand, paddock and the various other displays for a great family day out. In 2019, the event celebrated its 10th anniversary and, as ever, the turnout of people and machinery was fantastic. 193() Vincent-HRD Sports There is less than a small handful of these early single cylinder Vincent-HRD machines in existence - and this is a fabulous example. HRD was founded by Howard Raymond Davis in 1924…

■ Craft knife, penknife or sharpened stainless steel strip to scrape terminals clean. ■ Fine emery cloth, also to clean terminals. ■ Multimeter (other small tester will serve). ■ Bulb holder with leads or testing screwdriver (contains a bulb) to serve as a test light. ■ Battery charger. ■ Side cutters. ■ Selection of pliers. ■ Circlip pliers. ■ Range of screwdrivers including electrical and short chubby. ■ Plug spanners to serve 10, 12, 14 & 18mm hexagons. ■ Small range of spanners appropriate to machines owned/used. ■ Ignition spanners (BA and metric). ■ Small flat files (dressing points, soldered joints etc). ■ Feeler gauges. ■ Allen keys (ours contains imperial and metric but you may only need one or the other). ■ Jump leads (automotive electrical cable with crocodile…

Charterhouse signs-up for Classic TT sale The Isle of Man Government’s Department of Enterprise has signed an agreement with Charterhouse Auctioneers in Dorset to be an official partner of the Classic TT Races. The partnership includes Charterhouse running an auction of historic, vintage and classic motorcycles at the Classic TT races from 2020. The first auction is scheduled to take place during the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2020. “We are thrilled to have signed this agreement with the Isle of Man Government’s Department for Enterprise” commented Matthew Whitney, head of classic vehicles at Charterhouse. “The Classic TT will be a fantastic place to sell you motorbike, and we are expecting some great results.” Several motorcycles have already been consigned, including Mick Grant’s Kawasaki KR750. Mick rode this KR750 in…

By now a well-established event in the vintage and classic car and motorcycle calendar, 2019 was the 10th anniversary year of the rejuvenated event, an event first run in 1910. The now revived and revered Kop Hill Climb has taken place over a long, and usually sunny weekend in September, raising much needed funds for charities local to Kop Hill’s beautiful Chilterns location near Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. Though there were some showers on the Sunday, the crowds came out over the weekend, and Saturday’s blazing hot day drew the largest day attendance ever. The selection of motorcycles going up the hill (strictly in a non-competitive manner!) and on display was particularly eclectic this year, ranging from fine early vintage machines such as the 1919 Dart-JAP V-twin, to a rare and…

Visitors to Sammy Miller’s museum will be well aware it’s packed with rare and interesting motorcycles, so it’s somewhat surprising to find Sammy excited by yet another being consigned to the museum workshops for restoration. When one particular machine arrived last year, though, he couldn’t wait to tell long-time friend and associate Ken Blake all about it. Now, regular readers will remember that several of Ken’s restorations have featured in these pages before finding a permanent home in Sammy’s museum, and knowing how they almost invariably fell into the ‘rare and interesting’ category may wonder why Ken should be so interested in this one. The answer is that as a teenager on his father’s farm he came across an AER just like this – presumably abandoned during the war –…

An advertisement for Belstaff Weatherwear, printed on the inside cover of The Motor Cycle dated August 2, 1956, features two suitably-attired riders on a Triumph sidecar outfit. The couple are named as Mr and Mrs Innes of Bristol who, we are told, left England on June 21, 1956, for a tour of Commonwealth countries. Their voyage turned out to be quite a test, not only of the garments in question but also of a marriage, since Angus and Margaret Innes were not destined to return from their travels until two-and-a-half years later. During this time, they made a complete circumnavigation of the globe, visiting 26 countries while travelling more than 50,000 miles, half of which was undertaken aboard the Triumph’s dual seat. Who were they, this intrepid couple?... Seasoned adventurers…

Scrambling in the 1950s meant big bikes being used on open tracks, and the riders who used them to their full potential going down in history as their exploits filled the weekly press. One such a rider is Dave Curtis, whose name is synonymous with the Matchless make, not that he started on the Plumstead machine and nor did his early scrambling successes come on one either – those honours go to machines from Selly Oak’s Ariel concern. The Matchless connection came after Hugh Viney had taken on the role of AMC’s competition manager. Viney was a top off-road rider, winner of the SSDT and ISDT team man, who knew a good thing when he saw it. The good thing at the time was Dave doing well on an HS…

We could (and can) make significant changes to our classics, usually without greatly degrading their performance, legality or appearance. While loitering in my local dealership, ogling modern bikes I had no intention of buying, I noticed a lad buying some decals (that’s stick-on badges to you and me) for his plastic rocket. Initially I suspected he was restoring his bike, or perhaps repairing it after an accident; except that eavesdropping on the conversation between him and the counter-hand revealed he just wanted the ones which would make his 12-month-old machine look like this year’s race-replica. The intriguing thing was that the stickers in question had nothing to do with the bike’s maker, but with the sponsors on the racetrack. It just shows how naked commercialism has led to the phenomenon…

Speeding up the running-in process The thought of taking it steady for 1000 or more miles after rebuilding an engine abhors me. I don’t do this with my modern car and bikes, so why with an oldie? Dan Sylvester, email, UK. A number of factors are at play here, Dan. From your email details of your modern vehicles, I know both your car and motorcycles are all water-cooled, therefore run at under half the temperature of your air-cooled, iron-barrelled Triumph twin. Therefore, the modern vehicles’ engines suffer far less expansion issues than the mid-1950s Triumph. Materials employed and machining tolerances/ techniques have progressed by light years from the 1950s and when we rebuild an older engine with period or replica pistons, bored and honed to original tolerances and the same…

THE SPECIALIST Gutsibits is an independent parts supplier for any model supplied by the Mandello del Lario factory after 1968. Tracking down NOS items and a good selection of second-hand items gets customers’ bikes up and running as economically as possible. For this guide, Ed Wolstenholme of Gutsibits recalled good times when he owned a Nuovo Falcone. ■ Gutsibits: 01484 841395; www.gutsibits.co.uk MODEL HISTORY By the mid-1960s, Moto Guzzi was ready to draw a line under its half-litre, single-cylinder production. There had been numerous updates, but the signature horizontal ohv engine layout still clearly had much in common with the first incarnation in 1921. Even the bore and stroke dimensions remained unchanged. A significant customer base was not convinced by the new V-twins. Eventually, the factory caved in and the…