Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i The Classic MotorCycle

When putting together this issue, I couldn’t stop enjoying the lovely juxtaposition it threw up between two wildly contrasting BSA/Watsonian sidecar outfits – the Chris Vincent 1962 TT winning job (see page 66) and Peter Rosenthal’s Nutley Blue and black example, featured on page 30. That both have what is effectively the same engine is quite hard to get one’s head around, the imagined roles of each sidecar outfit being just about as far from one another as it is possible to be. This minor sidecar focus in this issue has led to me thinking a bit more about them, largely in the context of you don’t really see them about anymore, or at least not in anything like the numbers there were a few years ago. When my brother…

SAMMY’S ALL SET The Sammy Miller Museum will reopen its doors on May 17. Details from www. sammymiller.co.uk CCM TURNS 50 It’s been 50 years since Bolton-based CCM was founded, initially making BSA-powered machines. LE VACK’S LEGACY Look out for a forthcoming book on Bert Le Vack’s double overhead cam engine work for JAP, by author Brian Thorby. VMCC AT CADWELL This year, the VMCC celebrates 75 years. Among the celebrations is an event at Cadwell Park on August 14/15. MUSEUM LIVE! This year’s big free event at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham takes place over two days, October 30/31.…

1921 The bespoke motorcycle maker AJS of Wolverhampton has rewrote the record books at the IoM TT races. Despite being confined to bed on the Sunday preceding the Junior race, 27-year-old Eric Williams (348cc AJS), victor of the 1914 Junior IoM TT, won Monday’s Junior race at a record race speed of 52.11mph, while second place finisher Howard Davies (348cc AJS) posted a new Junior record lap of 55.15mph. The factory completed the Junior hat trick with Manxman Tommy Sheard bringing home his 348cc AJS in third place. All rode ohv models. In the Senior race, Howard Davies pitted his tiny factory 348cc AJS against the full 500cc works Sunbeams, Triumphs, Indians and Nortons, running initially second to Freddie Dixon’s Indian and then FG Edmund’s Triumph, who set a new…

Once upon a time, the motorcycle and sidecar was a common sight on our roads but, as the years have passed, so they have become less and less frequently spotted. Now, the only reason a child of 10 knows what a sidecar is, is because of Wallace and Gromit, and not that they go on holiday in one. Think about it? When did you actually last see a sidecar out on the road? “The combination and all its fittings are untouched and its mileage is genuine.” Even when I was a child 35-odd years ago and we’d go places by sidecar, there would often be other ones there, too. If we went on a motorbike club run, there’d be at least three or four other outfits, ranging from vintage V-twins…

While this feature quite rightly focuses on the seat being done for the TCM  project, Bespoke Auto Works also covers a much wider variety of restoration processes than upholstery. Having more than 40 years of experience in the field, the fact they’re a company that can undertake just about anything ridden, driven or pushed their way is ably represented by the number and variety of project vehicles on display throughout the premises – of which many are vintage and veteran cars. While the business is situated in the glorious Worcestershire countryside between Kidderminster and Bromsgrove, it is also close to the historic centre of British motorcycling, with the West Midlands not only once being home to so many iconic British brands, but also being an engineering hub that can supply…

It is the dream of many young motorcycle enthusiasts to be involved in the motorcycle world, but opportunities are few. Graham Forsdyke was one such lad, a good sporting competitor in his own right with more than enough skill to win an event or three; but his niche in our world was to be in the pages of Motor Cycling – The Green ’Un. “In those days, the mid-1950s, Motor Cycling was one of the top three money earners for Temple Press, the other two being The Motor and a photography publication. We were treated like royalty at the time, [given a] key to the executive washroom and dining room,” Graham recalls with humour, before adding: “It couldn’t and didn’t last.” Eventually the lunching experience became much more mundane at…

The advent of electronic ignition has to be the single most important development in old motorcycle electrics. It is fit and forget and in my personal experience of trials and scrambles bikes – which often become covered in mud, baked hot and then are immersed in water or soaked in bogs, occasionally this happens all in the space of a few yards and has the added excitement of being upside down at the time – once electronic ignition is on there, the bike will start, be it hot, cold, wet or dry. There will be a system out there for your bike – go fit it and save the original for when the time comes to lay the bike up.…

“Murray Walker Scrapbook” Authors: Murray Walker OBE and Philip Porter Published by: Porter Press International, PO Box 2, Tenbury Wells, WR15 8XX Tel.: 01584 781588 Email: sales@porterpress.co.uk www.porterpress.co.uk Hardback, 248mm x 300mm (landscape): 195 pages, with over 500 black and white and colour photographs. ISBN 978-0-9556564-5-3: £34.95 standard edition. ISBN 978-0-9556564-6-0: £75 de-luxe limited edition, leather-bound, signed copy. The Murray Walker Scrapbook delivers a personal, touching and colourful look at this multi-faceted personality and his extraordinary career, which ranged from holding a top job in advertising to the motor sports commentary for which he was best known. The fact that Murray was regarded as one of the premier authorities on motor sport, both two and four-wheeled, comes as no surprise when reading his background. Murray’s father, Graham, was a TT winner and…

The recent passing of the great Peter Williams has justly highlighted Peter’s well-earned place in the pantheon of rider-engineers — men who proved the validity of their own innovative designs by racing them to victory against more conventionally-mounted rivals. Pee Jay’s legendary win in the 1973 Isle of Man TT on the JPN Monocoque he had personally created epitomised his ability to successfully think outside the box — an ability which led to top design jobs at Cosworth and Lotus after injury sadly cut short his racing career in 1974. But 60 years earlier another such man had achieved comparable success, when youthful London-born Cyril Pullin, aged 22, won the 1914 Senior TT on his own modified Rudge Multi — a single-speed design whose variable belt drive transmission, giving an…

The later type timing case should work with the welding blocking up the oil holes which aren’t needed. On the distributor type the big ends are fed through the crank boss inside the mains bush and the case has no oil drillings. For the ball-type mains the crank is fed from the end and the drillings are crucial to the lubrication. Not being an engineer, I can’t for certain say the newer case will work. To my non-engineering eye it seems like it should but has anyone had any experience of such a mod? Does it work? Can it work?…

A simple Villiers 147cc motor. It should have been so easy. Find a spark, add fuel, spin-over and bingo… All you need after that is to abandon the garage and let the smoke clear. It is not like I haven’t done one before. Aside from one engine with a completely dead coil, five of the six with Villiers ignition I have worked on have burst happily into life after little more than a points buff-up and a precautionary clean of the carburettor. Even the most recalcitrant of them ran after a few spins, albeit very badly. It then responded beautifully to a tweak of the ignition timing and, ironically, now starts the best of them all. Why is this particular example proving to be the exception? Frankly, I don’t know.…

Elk Promotions events restart in May, with the first three events being autojumble only. The following dates are booked for 2021, which will take place subject to Covid-19 restrictions. More details and online booking is available at www.elk-promotions.co.uk ■ May Bank Holiday Monday, May 3: Ashford Classic Motorcycle Autojumble at Ashford Livestock Market, Ashford, Kent, TN24 0HB. ■ Sunday, May 9: South of England Classic Motorcycle Autojumble at the South of England Showground, Ardingly, West Sussex, RH17 6TL. ■ Sunday, May 23: Romney Marsh Jumble, Hamstreet, nr Ashford, Kent, TN26 2JD. ■ Saturday and Sunday, June 26/27: Romney Marsh jumble and show, Hamstreet. ■ Sunday, July 25: South of England Classic Motorcycle Show & Autojumble at Ardingly, RH17 6TL. Always check Elk’s website for the latest information before travelling.…

ENGINE: Air-cooled two-valve OHV horizontal single-cylinder dry sump four-stroke with pushrod valve gear and twin-port exhaust DIMENSIONS: Bore x stroke: 82x94mm CAPACITY: 496cc POWER: 16bhp at 5500 rpm (at rear wheel) COMPRESSION RATIO: 6:1 CARBURETTOR: 1⅛in Amal with remote float chamber IGNITION: Gear-driven BTH magdyno TRANSMISSION: Three-speed hand with gear primary and chain final drive CLUTCH: Multiplate dry CHASSIS: Pressed-steel monocoque, no suspension SUSPENSION: Pressed-steel girder fork with central enclosed spring WHEELBASE: 56in/1422mm BRAKES: Two interconnected 8in/203 mm Pullin single leading shoe drums front and rear, hydraulically operated jointly via foot pedal, with front brake also independently cable-operated by handlebar lever WHEELS/TYRES: Front 3.25/Rear 3.50 x 19 Avon Speedmaster Mk. II on wire-laced steel rim mounted on Pullin patented quick-release hub WEIGHT: 330lb/150kg dry (claimed) SEAT HEIGHT: 27in/685mm FUEL CAPACITY:…

The biggest bugbear for most enthusiasts is the electrical system of a motorcycle. It’s bad enough when dealing with a standard system but when wanting a specialist system for an off-road bike which will occasionally have lights fitted and there is a need to use as many bits already in the shed as possible, things become frustrating. Nor does it help when the person doing the work has little idea what he’s doing and even less special equipment. This subject has been revisited quite a lot in these pages, and one of the additional issues is the lack of investment available to spend on the project… This bit has been the biggest holdup on the project if I’m honest, and having it pointed out that if I had fewer bikes,…

“Now, I don’t claim to be a world’s expert, but the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind...” Just for a change, I’ve recently been working on a motorbike belonging to somebody else. It’s a Greeves single, which had been off the road for ages, and – a mutual friend having rashly said I was the ‘go-to chap’ for Villiers problems – I’d occasionally been asked to give it the once-over. Now, I don’t claim to be the world’s expert on these engines, but ‘the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind’ according to the old saying, and I do belong to a sadly diminishing cohort with a lifetime’s experience of the Wolverhampton wonders’ abilities and shortcomings. So I agreed to each request, suspecting…

The Bridge Can you date this motorcycle made by The Bridge Cycle Company of Chelsea? And would you have any information about this or its sister company The Stanley Bridge Cycle Company? The Bridge Cycle Company was founded in the 1880s or 1890s by the eldest daughter of the Godfrey family, from my mother’s side. She had returned home from nursing at St Thomas’s Hospital, central London, after her mother died. Family history informs they taught Victorian ladies to cycle in the 1890s on a track in Battersea Park, on the south side of the River Thames to their Chelsea premises. Another sideline was storing cycles, for a small fee, when Chelsea football club were playing home matches at their nearby ground. In the photograph, my great-grandfather, wearing a flat…

The Motor Cycle of April 20, 1961, describes this picture thus: “At the Royal Enfield owners’ club concours d’elegance, held at the Redditch factory, the awards were presented by joint managing director Major Victor Mountford. In this group are E J Clark (third best machine), Major Mountford, R G Unsworth (the club’s general secretary), D Baxter (runner-up) and C D Pemberton, whose 1956 Super Meteor gained top marks.” Mr Pemberton’s sparkling 692cc Super Meteor is from the first year when the Meteor became ‘Super’ – before that, from its launch for 1953, it had simply been named Meteor. With its upgraded name it also gained a new frame, as well as being fitted with an alternator. It lost its place as Royal Enfield’s ‘top of the range’ job when in…