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A monthly publication of The Vintage Motorcycle Club Johannesburg, South Africa.
Volume 31. No 11. November 2016
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE: Motorcycling is a pastime full of variation. Since the inception of a motorised two wheeler, anyone wanting to be part of a world in which you aren’t cossetted in a cocoon of steel and glass opted for the open road on a motorcycle. This gave rise to various interesting characters that frequent the annals of motorcycle history. From the Tourer, to the Sportster, Stunt rider and more recently the Adventure rider (read Martin Davis) our brothers and sisters take to the roads, tracks and countryside on all forms of two or three wheeled moped. Our own society and movement has a very specific bond with motorcycling and the older, the better. However as we age, we need to inject newer blood into our movement to keep it going. This predicament isn’t unique to VMC as all hobbies and pastimes are struggling to keep their “induction ports” above water these days. It is essential to bring younger enthusiasts to our gatherings, both to introduce new blood and get the generation who inherited their parent’s motorcycles to bring them into the fold. Your ideas on how we can do this will be most welcome; also getting together from a social perspective and riding more as a club can make our movement more visible. In this regard, the committee will plan regular club rides, over and above the main Regularity and Commemorative events, while encouraging all members to get out there and “exercise the steeds”. I sincerely hope that over the summer months, VMC becomes visible (without being TOO controversial) and upholds our dictate to keep the machines of the past rolling for all to see. I wish you all a wonderful run up to Christmas and the festive season. Keep the shiny side upward and the rubber on the road. Ken.
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Upcoming Events
Please send any event info or comments to the Chairman, the Editor or any committee member. Contact details are available on the last page of Kickstart.
Calendar for 2016
November 2016 December 2016
5 November Ford Heritage Day VVC Club 4 December
Ride in Memory. Cullinan. The Lemon Tree?? 08:00 am Founders Hill. 10:00 am Bapsfontein. VVC Club
6 November CMC Club Meeting CMC Germiston 12 December
VMC Chairman’s Christmas Party. Last VMC Club Night for the year. VVC Club
21 & 22 Nov Fairest Cape Tour Goudini Spa
27 November
Annual VVC year-end Bash. Ride / Drive to Kenjara Lodge – Cradle of Humankind. VVC Club
28 November VMC Club Meeting VVC Club
January 2017
From the Treasury Subscription increase Unfortunately, due to the sliding value of our currency, it is necessary to review subscriptions from time to time. While we would like to retain our subscriptions at a constant level for as long as possible, it is now necessary for an increase. In view of this and due to the pressures experienced by many pensioners, we have included a discount. The new fee structure, applicable from 1st July 2017 is as follows: Joining Fee R50 Full membership R300 Country membership R220 Discount for over 70’s 50% Discount for over 80’s 100% Family membership (no discount applicable) R20 Discounts only apply to members with at least 5 years of continuous membership. If you qualify now for a discount or will shortly qualify, please send me your ID number or birth date. This can be done by email to [email protected] or via SMS to 082-650-9880.
Logger Purchase We have a new batch of loggers in stock for sale to members. Due to an unfavourable exchange rate, the price has increased. These will be sold to members either at a subsidised price for first time buyers or at our cost price if this is a second logger purchase. Prices are: First time buyers R500.00 Normal price R750.00 Please refer any queries to me at [email protected] Peter Vlietstra
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The 2016 Velocette Owners Club of SA Re-union The first weekend in October saw 24 members gather in Fouriesburg for the 24th annual re-union of the Club. While past re-unions, especially those in Fouriesburg, have seen many more members with up to 30 Velos attending, this year only 15 Velos made it, together with members and friends riding a BSA, several BMW’s, a couple of Kawasakis and a Yamaha or two. No doubt the current economic squeeze had an impact….. The club was first mooted at the 1972 Buffalo rally in the Eastern Cape town of Bathurst, when 9 Velo riders at the rally decided to get together on an annual basis. This led to informal gatherings at several different venues before the club was officially structured and the first formal re-union took place at the PK le Roux dam in November 1989, with 12 founding members attending. The twelve were Darryl-Moresby-White, Gordon Keith, Alan Harris, Paddy Mahaffey, Jan Minnaar, Ralph Nugent, Bill Averre, Des Truter, Sholto Rothbart, Stuart Fergusson, Chris Dean and Jack Cuyler. Castrol sponsored the gathering. Regular re-unions took place thereafter at various venues including Tom’s Place, Verwoerd dam, Zastron, Aliwal North, Tweespruit, Clarens and for the past 14 years at the Fouriesburg Country Inn. In 2005, the centenary of Veloce, (the manufacturers of Velocettes), some 60 members with 38 Velos attended a memorable event at Fouriesburg. It took the town several days to recover! Fouriesburg is an ideal location, being reasonably central to the core of Velo owners who hail from the Eastern Cape, Natal, the Free State and Gauteng. In addition, one of the best biking rides in the country is from Fouriesburg to Clarens, with a burn on to Golden Gate and to Kestell thrown in. The ride on the R26 to Bethlehem and also down to Ficksburg are both very scenic and fairly quiet, so from a riding point of view, there is little to beat Fouriesburg. Add in the friendly atmosphere and reasonable rates at the Fouriesburg Country Inn and the scene is set for a super social biking gathering. Of course, if you are riding a Velo, so much the better! This year we had two Saturday rides, a 15 km coffee run down the R26 to the Shumba Valley caravan park, a 16km loop down to Caledon’s poort and then back to the Inn for breakfast. Later in the morning we rode the 45 km up to Bethlehem for a good lunch at the historical Park hotel and back again in time to watch the South Africa – Australia rugby before our traditional spit -braai at the Inn’s lapa. A good Sunday morning breakfast and we all headed for home, another great weekend for the memory bank. If you felt a bit sad at not being part of this re-union, why don’t you join us next year? You need not be a Velo owner (although this is recommended!), but if you enjoy the cameradie of social biking in ideal surroundings and on great roads, this is an ideal gathering. Book 29,30 Sept and 1 October in your 2017 diary and contact Kevin Robertson, [email protected] or 0833213234 nearer the time.
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BURT MUNRO Continued…. Part 2:
For this year, I have made the new cylinders and pistons to the largest bore ever; it is now 3.192” x 96mm giving 60.54ci. For eight years I have carved out new rods, cylinders and pistons and cams, and worked full time on either my 1936 Velo or the Indian. For ten years I worked 16 hours a day in the shed and was told to slow up a few years and now work seven days and about 70 hours per week. The flywheels I have made from 5” axle hammered out under steam hamner. I have just finished the pistons. I had these eight heat-treated for the first time. Crank in 1928 Scout turned down to 3/4” and then sleeved. I made this from oil hardening steel and squeeze on and pull up with standard nuts. I leave the taper on one end and then make another taper with 3/4” hole in it to fit drive side flywheel. The rods of course now have bigger eye and smaller rollers. The main shafts right up to about three years ago were standard, about 13/16” with four sets of caged genuine Indian rollers 1/4 x 5/16” running on the shafts. Well, as speed mounted up over the years I got visions of them breaking and in 1957 I had a new pin, crank-pin that is, given to me in Springfield on a visit to Indian factory. This I fitted to the timing side with big-end bearings. Then the drive side looked so thin. I looked around and had a spare gearbox mainshaft. So I ground the four outside splines off it and made up two drive shafts from it, then had them re-hardened and ground locally. I bored out the taper in flywheel in my 3 ½ “ Myford lathe. By the way I completely made my new cylinder heads on the same lathe. The only change is to cut about 1 ¼” off gap in bed for flywheels. This probably weakens it a bit, but I still work it every day and since it was new 22 years ago. I am on my second set of back gears, worn out about 12 years ago and my third lead screw is now badly worn. Cams I have made my file and saw since 1926, but now have built a cam grinder and make them in pairs. I spent 800 hours in 1963 making the engine into a four cam set-up. After I time them I pin them to the 1/4” hole in the standard cam-wheels on the Scout. Cam followers are filed from axle steel and I make a fork to take 3/4" x 1/4” rollers running on needles and an oiler to keep a good flow from the 1933 Indian oil pump I had given to me in 1956. This I modified to pump oil to the big end, and was when I made my steel flywheels. The 1920 Scout frame and my third streamliner shell are still in USA. The first full shell I built took me five years to hammer out of sheet aluminium. I could only work at it when I had my bike ready for testing, then if it blew up I would work on the engine until running again, and then hammer away again, or suddenly think of some new scheme to get more speed. Of course these brainwaves often made it slower or just more blown parts. By the way, I have read of E Fernihough’s death and perhaps I can offer a reason for him running
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off the road that day. I have several times had similar experiences caused by a side wind of only two to three mph. If one is travelling at over 180 as on most occasions with me, the bike steers over to one side but I start to steer it back at once. But I have had it go 12 feet over the outside of the black line before getting it back to centre of track. This I have known to take about a mile from start of swerve to be back on centre of track. If this were on a road of course there is no chance of survival. The first shell I took to Bonneville in 1962 was the second built. The first one of aluminium was too hard to ride, too neat a fit and I had great difficulty getting the gears. So I modified it and used it as a mould for number two of fiberglass. I had my first run at Bonneville in 1962 and was ordered to have a test run with officials following in a car. It veered from side to side at all speeds. I said to myself I may as well ship it back home they will never let me run a thing like this. When they came up and said “Handles ok”. I said what! They repeated handled good!! For the next five or six years I had some of the worst out of control rides on record. The worst was for five miles late in 1962, when in an effort to stop wheel-spin at 160mph, I built a 60lb lead brick and bolted it in front of rear wheel. By the time I got to the three mile marker the top of the shell was swerving five feet and wheel marks were five inches wide and snaking 30 inches every 200 yards, measured and lined-up later. Well, when you figure you can only die next skid you try anything, so wound it all on for another one and a half miles and when I found out it would go on that way forever I rolled it back and stopped. When the gang arrived and found me laughing they wanted to share the joke. I said I was happy to still be alive. The clue is to sit up and let the body strike the air. This shifts centre of pressure back behind centre of gravity. I learned this the hard way. Lead brick should have been in front of the front wheel and shell higher off the ground. At rear, air packed until tail and lifted weight off rear wheel, thus causing wheel spin. More specs. I have mods in clutch, the standard Raybestos plates are long gone and I have 17 standard steel plates, hardened and ground. I fit 24 standard clutch springs giving a pressure of 1360 pounds on the pressure plates, and the standard thrust race and withdrawal screw haul this free for freeing and gear changing. I have a left hand lever and wire to operating arm and a small foot assist lever on the clutch worm shaft. I only use this for low gear engagement during test runs without shell. Over the years I made four chain drives having finally ground helical teeth off clutch body and filed out 46 half inch pitch teeth by hand and now run a three row chain on a 22 engine sprocket and still the 46 clutch sprocket. Renolds in London told me 15 years ago this would be impossible and would never work but it has run in there for the last 35 years or so in 10 SAE oil. The gearbox is original but I was unable to get new sliding dog and was visiting an old acquaintance in Sydney in 1948 who had bought out Mr Biden’s stock of Indian parts. I bought a set of 1916 Power plus Indian gears, lay shaft cluster and sliding dog. The cluster I shortened 3/8” and have run on them this past 22 years. Cylinders I usually make from very old city gasworks pipe, cast-iron condemned because of very large pits. I manage to get short lengths without too deep marks and because of the thickness about 1/2 to 5/8”, I can have enough thickness for a base. The barrels are old pistons melted in a small pot on the two gallon can furnace I use for melting down for making pistons. The muff casting I turndown in the Myford, bore undersize then heat up with a blow lamp and drop onto liners. Pistons I redesign every year and make about half a dozen or so and take them with me to USA for spares. Some years I have used every one and even welded up burned-out there. When Jim Enz and his wife wanted to help me with fuel I said I would like to try alcohol and they brought me five gallons of best brand Mickey
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Thompson alcohol. Boy it sure was the best piston burner! I guess it had Nitro or TNT in it. Every run the pistons vaporized. No alloy heads on my heap. Carburetor is 1942 Indian Chief. I have sawn a cut full length on top of it, bent it out and welded a piece of brass in gap and run it in normal position with a T shape manifold made from 1 3/8” steel rubbing. I have tuned five carbs for my bike since 1927 when I swapped the Schebler H for a Schebler De Luxe, and all the others I have tuned and modified have been De Luxe Scheblers as fitted to the Indians made later than mine. This year since arriving home from USA five months ago, I have put in 560 hours on the Munro Special. The main jobs were two new alloy rods – two weeks, two new cylinders and barrels – one week, eight new pistons and much work on old dies for same – three weeks. I am making two new sets of cams for this year. Making a 180 degree Bosch mag into a 42 degree by making new brass cam ring. From old ball race the two cams were made, filed and timed accurately then quenched in oil. As this 20 year old magneto rotated backwards I had to make up a drive different from standard. This I finally got working by taking out the two idler pinions, and fitting a big cam wheel from a late model Indian. This has four teeth more than my engine and by cutting 1/8” off base of mag and cutting into cases a little and jamming it back and boring new holes and tapping out in same. I finally got the drive fixed. I also made a moveable shaft to run the large pinion and thus get a close tooth adjustment. Since finishing the work describing above I had been testing at the beach and been out 17 times and had 11 blow ups. These consisted mostly of broken pistons of older designs. I was testing out a steel rod and a new carb I had made these last two or three years. I ran it on 20 to 1 to test the rod, then built better pistons and ran three in it, one after the other, until I had one that should stand up to 13 to 1. As soon as I lowered the compression to 13, the rod which had stood up to all the broken pistons finally shattered tope end when I was accelerating hard in top at 5,500. I took it down, the new piston was in many pieces, pin broken in half, cylinder scored and split at skirt and hammered out wedge shape and locked in cases. One rocker arm broken, one twisted, one push rod broken, one buckled. Other breaks were the cam follower I had made from magnesium four or five years ago, another rocker and pushrods bent and both valves bent. Development goes on all the time and has been full time these last 22 years. I would like to make another dohc set up. I still have the one I made and ran in quarter-mile grass track races about 1951. This fitted on front cylinder and rear was blanked-off. It was just an exercise as everyone was talking double knockers at the time. It is only lately I have had ideas to try to fit-up one for the rear as well but have so far failed to get time. I pulled the head off this morning and am starting two new rods from DC6 propeller. I hope to find it strong enough. It was sent to me from Auckland as I cannot get the 70-70 or 20-24 alloys in NZ. I like to improve design every year in the cams, carbs, (just finished a new one yesterday), conrods, pistons and sometimes valves and guides when they were a little and cylinders. Many of my photographs were destroyed when my house burnt down, so much of the work on my machine was not recorded. (The preceding paragraph is not in the original Beaded Wheels copy but cam from another source and is interesting). It is almost impossible to give a true picture of the time I have spent on my cycles. The last 22 years have been full time and for one stretch of 10 years I put in 16 years every day but Christmas. I have booked a berth on the SS P & O Oriana for USA on June 15 but will not go if I cannot pass the doctor.
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Burt Munro.
Burt never again competed at Bonneville due to declining health but to this day his Indian is the fastest the world has seen, 190,07mph at Utah in 1967. Reference: Burt Monro. (No 283. December 2006/January 2007). Beaded Wheels.
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Library Corner While looking for some books to purchase for the library, I was surprised to find that over the past few years the number of books that dealt with WW1 and WW2 motorcycle involvement in the conflicts, has grown enormously. A few years ago one of our members (before his demise), Roy Reaney was very much into things military and also was an “expert” on the Boer War but It seems that today there is not the interest (well, at least from our members) in this area. It is unfortunate, as reading some reviews of books on the subject it would appear to be very interesting and enlightening on the exploits of both motorcyclists and the motorcycle manufacturers. If we do have anybody interested in this area of motorcycling please let me know so that I can keep a look out for suitable books with this theme. At the Club’s Saturday social meeting, I had a request for information which, no matter how hard or where I looked, I could find no answer. The question referred to the method of using the “tickler” on a 1960 - 62 Norton 99 de Luxe as with the bathtub on the bike you no access to the carburettor. Apparently there was a cut out in the bathtub that could be used for a device for operating a tickler but no parts were found for the aforementioned device. All the Amal parts lists that I had in the library did not show anything remotely suitable and the same happened when I looked in the parts book for the Norton 99 de Luxe although as with all parts books from AMC there is a distinct lack of pictures or part numbers for various items. I am sure they used the same parts list from the early 1950’s up until their demise in 1968 as all the pictures of parts remained the same even though the actual part changed significantly over that period. After asking around on various motorcycle related forums I was informed that there was a specific part for this purpose and was shown in the Jubilee parts list (although none of the Jubilee parts lists in the library show it) and on the Amal parts list on the Burtons web site which also had a picture of it. True to form that particular part, Amal part #363/055 and 056 are no longer available – Sorry Colin.
Another puzzle came up during the month while trying to get one of Mr Turner’s motorcycles running correctly. How is it that previous owners or repairers can make so many mistakes on one machine? Perhaps I have now found out how!! While trying to make head or tails out the MonoBloc carburettor it was found that there are so many variables with identical looking Amal parts that anybody trying to use various spare parts, knocking around in the spares boxes, could end up with a totally inoperative and leaky carburettor. Fortunately having a decent, illustrated parts list for the various MonoBloc carbs made accumulating the correct parts (for this particular carb) possible and so the eventually rebuilt carb was fuel tight and functional.
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Remember the library has a vast stock of these parts lists so there is no excuse for any member to be without the proper instructions and parts lists. For once I managed to get time to sit in the library and have a look at some of the older magazines that we have and quite a revelation it was. The magazines in question was the 1970’s editions of Motor Cycle Sport, a magazine that I had not bought or borrowed during my youth – I really missed out as it seems to be a very good and well written magazine. What caught my attention was the quality and talent of the contributors which in no particular order were Titch Allen, Bruce Main-Smith, Phil Vincent and many other well-known journalists. In the particular magazines I look at on this occasion were the January to June 1970 editions and amongst the pages were articles on Velocette, especially the LE (more of which anon), the bikes used by the hacks at the various motorcycle journals in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and various, sometimes contentious, articles by Phil Vincent. I think that I have espoused previously regarding the Velo LE and to me what a waste of effort it was and the Titch Allen article began to put it into perspective. At first I thought that his opinion was a glorification of Bertie Goodman but as the article progressed his tone changed to something similar to my feeling regarding the machine. Apparently the fundamentals of the “Everyman” motorcycle was laid down by “Ixion” in 1929 and while recovering from an appendix operation during the war, Bertie Goodman managed to design the Velocette version of the “Everyman” motorcycle. This was then taken a few steps nearer to fruition during the latter period of the war but as with any 15 year old design philosophy it was doomed to rapidly retreat into obscurity. To cut a long story short, although the initial premise was correct, the world had moved on and what was required by the post WW2 motorcycle public was not what Velocette or “Ixion” had envisioned. With an engine that although was cutting edge at the time, it was unable to be significantly enlarged to give a power level that would give the user a feeling of safety and reliability amongst the post war vehicles on the road, a large portion of its potential customer base was lost. Obviously in one short paragraph I have not been able to clearly state the case but I would suggest that anybody interested should have a look at the particular copy of “Motor Cycle Sport “of January 1970. An interesting article by Bruce Main-Smith at approximately the same period was an expose of the bikes used by the hacks of the various Motorcycle magazines during the post war to late 1960’s. Apparently many of the bikes, used by the journalists, were of such bad quality that they were frequently back at the manufacturers for some form of remedial action and usually not only once. Bikes that were reliable were greatly sought after and once in possession of certain journalists were kept until it was time for a change. As we now know none of these “problems” were actually reported on in the various magazines. Again a read of these articles from MCS would be very informative for anybody interested in the life and times of motorcycle riders post war.
Regards
Bob Harpin
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Book Review - PRIVATE OWNER by L.R Higgins This would have to be on the “Must Get” list of Velo people interested in the racing efforts of the Velocette factory and riders of KTTs amongst other things.
It is the insight into the racing career of a private owner, a rider who really never quite made the top ranks in the sport, but who in essence are the “backbone” of the sport, for without them filling the grids at the myriad of meetings around the world, there would be no motorcycle racing. Apart from his own experiences, Higgins writes about the other riders of the major race meetings of his time with details of each race meeting, with lap times, some photos and who won what. It certainly compliments the few other books written of the era, results wise. Les Higgins wrote the book and it was published in 1948 by G.T.Foulis & Co. Ltd, of London, UK. As he relates….”This is not the story of the successes of a works rider but that of a private owner, who went a racing for the sheer joy of it.” He was a schoolboy in 1924 and first saw motor racing along the promenade during the Herne Bay speed trials- bitten by the bug, he purchased, in 1929, a new OHC Velo to ride on the road and plan his entry into racing. He purchased used racers during the 1930s ...a KTT Mk.4 and then a Mk.5, supporting his “habit” from his weekly pay packet of 57 shillings and finally bought a new Mk.7 KTT in 1938, although this meant he had to enter the IOM TT to gain delivery of the bike, something he hadn’t planned and he was dubious over it.
He raced, largely without major success but eventually obtained some support from a motorcycle dealer in 1947, one George Bryant known as “the Rider Agent”.
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What happened to Les? I wrote enquiring of him in 1972 and his son replied to the effect that he was killed in a car accident around this time, returning from one of his several trips to northern Scotland to study bird life, another of his passions. He also wrote several other motorcycle oriented books, and "Britain’s Racing Motorcycles" is one of them, also published by Foulis in 1952. Quite hard to obtain and expect to pay around £25 for a copy and it probably won't have the dust cover as illustrated. Occasionally I see them offered on EBay. Les is pictured on his Mk.7 KTT, although this is at the 1939 IOM TT races in which he finished 29th in the Junior TT at 73.39mph average speed, with a fastest lap of 30m 12s. Glancing through the ACU Stewards report of the race reveals he won a bronze replica and £20.... to get this the report says.... "To the entrant of every motorcycle other than the first six to be placed, that completes the course outside 9-8ths but within 6-5ths of the winner’s time: A Bronze Replica of the Tourist Trophy and £20" The print is an S.R.Keig print code.1939/A9.... I believe Bill Snelling in the IOM, trading as Amuree publications, email [email protected]. Has the rights to S.R.Keig's photographic archives. Talking of these archives...when in the IOM for the TT in 1974, I haunted S.R.Keig's shop in Circular Road, Douglas...they let me look at all their glass plate negatives, using these up to about 1939. They were well organised, but little known, although they had a catalogue of their negatives from which I had copies made of all the Velocettes up to about 1951..... Gold dust now.....
The other shows Les , again in 1939 from a small sepia print I acquired years back and judging by his leather coat blown open, it was quite windy...
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The post-war Sunbeams - an alternative history by Peter Bird One so very often one reads something to the effect that "BSA's post-war Sunbeam was Earling Poppe's re-design of the BMW R75" - Robert Cordon Champ. The same author writes in his renowned (and often regarded as authoritative) 'The Sunbeam Motorcycle' (Haynes Publishing) "Although the machine (the S7) that Poppe produced for the Directors was emphatically not a copy of the R75 it was certainly strongly based on the BMW and included that machine's telescopic forks, wheel, tyre and brake design and sizes, frame and running gear layout, pancake dynamo, shaft drive, clean handlebars and inverted levers." Personally, I am not convinced by that. Undoubtedly the BMW has some brilliant, if very complex design engineering but before we accept that the Sunbeam S7 was a rip-off of the German BMW, let us look closer to home and to other influences, and again put things in context. The first Sunbeam S7s, now commonly referred to as the early bikes, were introduced at the end of 1946. This was a period of extreme post-war austerity and national debt. Britain and the Empire was all-but bankrupt and the government directive to industry was to 'export or die'. Petrol was to be rationed for four more years yet and what was available was of poor quality, which necessitated low compression ratios. The first post-war London Earls Court 'cycle show' was not to be until October 1948. The mighty BSA group had owned the 'Sunbeam Cycles' name (including the motorcycles) since November 1943, having acquired it from AMC (Associated Motorcycles) ostensibly because they (BSA) wanted the prestigious Sunbeam bicycle brand name to compete with Raleigh bicycles. Back in 1937, AMC had bought the rights to Sunbeam from Noble Industries (later known as ICI chemicals), which in turn had acquired the interests of a consortium of investors, who had bought John Marston’s Ltd in 1920. Some say that ICI bought Sunbeam just to learn the secrets of their first-class enamel finishing. Aside from supplying BSA rifles and machine guns, along with thousands of tons of munitions throughout the war, BSA also supplied over 60,000 folding bicycles, a similar number of military bicycles and over 125,000 BSA girder-forked (mainly) M20, 500cc motorcycles to the war department. That was more than any other supplier to any war department in the world. They justifiably claimed that “one in four was a BSA”. However, these motorcycles were not a favourite with the men. Although of an almost identical specification to the Norton, critics said that the M20s were heavy and slow and had poor ground clearance. Others said that it was less than reliable. None of these are endearing features if you are a despatch rider on debris strewn roads, under fire. The Norton model 16 of 490cc felt a little more powerful, possibly because it was taller and just a little lighter. Norton were a preferred supplier to each of the services before the war and so their bikes were much better proven in the field. Norton's Big 4 of 630cc was more powerful for sidecar work, while the Matchless 350cc G3L (especially in its later war-time version with telescopic forks) was an altogether better bike than BSA could offer. D-Day, on June 6th 1944, had seen the Allied armies regroup and push back into Europe, along with the Americans, in the European theatre. They, had of course, been in the Pacific* and in North Africa** working their way up via Sicily to Italy, taking Rome, also in June 1944. Very soon thereafter, the course of the war showed every sign that it had turned. The hostilities would, possibly very soon, end. And then, almost overnight, any outstanding order for munitions, weapons or vehicles would be cancelled. [* Pearl Harbour Dec 7th 1941. ** from 11th May 1942] On the back of lucrative war-office orders, Birmingham Small Arms had gone from being a band of gunsmiths (working together to mechanise production and to compete against cheaper imports) to an industrial world power in 80 years. In the 1880s BSA began to manufacture bicycles. In 1903 the company's first experimental motor-cycle was tested. Their first prototype automobile was produced in 1907 and in 1910 BSA purchased the British Daimler Company for its automobile engines. By the Second World War, the BSA
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group already had sixty-seven factories and employed tens of thousands of workers, either directly or indirectly. These captains of industry were both savvy and pushy (enough at least to have earned their chairman, Bernard Docker, a knighthood). [Extraordinary modern history that most of us are unaware of: Timeline of the British Army] BSA may have been the world's biggest bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer but, as a munitions company of old, they had frequent experience of post-war situations. They would be left with numerous factories with tens of thousands workers and a dire civilian market economy. So, in the midst of this turbulent war, with their cities being bombed, the Group's management had to anticipate and plan for survival. After the Great War, the world and the United Kingdom too, crashed head-first into the great depression. Each country was struggling with this, even before incurring the even greater debt of the 2nd-world-war. This time around, how would the country recover and its industry survive? Certainly BSA would have anticipated the market's need for cheap everyday transport, bicycles by the million and tens of thousands of motorcycles, both with and without side-cars. Yet the harsh reality was that their motorcycles had no edge over their competitions. In fact, they were already dated. Tied in to their War Office specification, their 500cc M20 was too big for a (1940's) commuter bike and too small to pull a family sized chair. Conversely, Triumph already had their Edward Turner designed 500cc Speed Twin (since 1938) which was a sweet little vertical twin that showed a lot of potential and looked great. AMC had their more advanced Matchless G3 and Norton had the 16H and Big 4 which were ready and well proven for pulling heavily laden sidecars. Ariel had recently been bought* by BSA, along with Hudson and Sunbeam, but other companies like Panther, Royal Enfield, and James were all going to be vying for these same markets. BMW and the other German and Italian brands were equally successful in top level competitions before the war and so it wouldn't be long before they would be back and nipping away the market. In short, BSA were in danger of being caught with their pants down. [* BSA bought-out numerous engineering supply companies, as part of their financial control over supplies and technology. The fact that they bought three cycle or motorcycle companies during the Second World War reflects their never having lost sight of what happens when a war ends.] They needed to buy time to develop something to dissuade the buying public (the soldier with accumulated war-pay) from spending with the competition until they (BSA) had something as good to offer, which (underwritten by corporate wealth) they might offer cheaper. Although founded on their model range offerings, these speculations are further supported by the wording in their 1944 advertisement 1st Announcement "… to spur interest … to keep the ball rolling … Sunbeam inaugurates a Forum on Design” In what might be regarded as an inspired pre-launch publicity campaign through The Motor Cycle magazine, BSA succeeded in keeping their name in the motorcycling press (when they had no new bikes to show) and built up an unprecedented level of anticipation and intrigue for their stunning all-new post-war machine. They kept this up for two years and, in fact, the new model Sunbeam appears to have been (possibly deliberately) postponed, as the first bike wasn't released until Dec 1946. [Frame and engine number : S7-101 (21.12.1946)] Clearly, this 'forum' was aimed at having motor cycling enthusiasts all talking and sharing design ideas, with the Sunbeam name as a backdrop to every conversation. Excellent marketing. It is noteworthy that, at the start of this forum in November 1944, the preamble states “the masterpiece is under lock & key. Behind closed doors. Replete with a crop of big surprises. Waiting for the ceasefire to sound and production to begin ", which sounds to me like the design and pre-production development was well under way, if not all but done. But it was radically different so BSA felt the need to re-educate the public into thinking about design rather than tradition. BSA group's flamboyant chairman Sir Bernard Docker * (knighted in 1939) liked big news and was justifiably proud to furnish the silky silent Daimler limousines for Royal processions (the BSA group still owned Daimler motor cars. Daimler also made the 'Scout' armoured-
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car). From a company supplying limousines to a niche market, it is a very small step indeed to speculate that to escort the Daimlers, BSA may have flag-shipped the prestigious Sunbeam brand, and specifically the extraordinary S7 for such a stately role. Look again at the Sunbeam S7 and consider how it might so easily have been conceived for a role as escort to State processions. [* Sir Bernard and Lady Norah Docker (her 3rd marriage in 1949) were avid socialites and, aside from their yacht and other lavish lifestyle appendages, especially commissioned a series of Daimler limousines. These limousines were also supplied to Royal families around the world. The first of half a dozen or more 'Docker Daimlers ' was a DE-36 Hooper-bodied convertible which dominated Daimler's stand at the 1948 Earls Court British Motor Show. The massive convertible was dubbed 'the Green Goddess' by the motoring press, in tribute to its special jade green paintwork, a remarkably similar colour to the s7-deluxe introduced just months later. Following its début showing, the car was put into the service of Sir Bernard and Lady Docker. 'Green Goddess'] As it transpired, things did not go to plan. Apparently the police escort bikes for the South Africa Royal Tour “vibrated so badly as to be un-rideable”* BSA had hoped to cap their brilliant marketing campaign with providing not only Daimlers but also the police escort motorcycles for King George VI's 1947 Royal tour of South Africa (17th Feb - 25th April 1947 ). And of course, the hoped-for spin-off would be to supply Police forces, Embassies & top ranking dignitaries and Royal families around the world. King George and Queen Elizabeth (later of course to be most affectionately known as the Queen Mum) were extremely popular with the people, having resolutely stayed for most of the war at Buckingham Palace, whose grounds had been bombed nine times. Together, the Royal couple had visited severely bombed areas in London's East End and other sites in the country. In 1940, the King instituted the George Cross & the George Medal, which unlike the Victoria Cross was to be awarded for acts of bravery by citizens. And then, having served in the Navy during the Great War, including the Battle of Jutland, he was keen to visit servicemen and women in the field. In 1939, he went to France to inspect the British Expeditionary Force and, in 1943, to North Africa, after the victory of El Alamein. Just 10 days after D-Day, in June 1944, the King visited his Army on the Normandy beaches. Later that same year he was in Italy and then the Low Countries, meeting and encouraging the troops and the wounded. Unsurprisingly, Buckingham Palace was a focal point for VE (Victory in Europe) Day celebrations, on 8th May 1945. The Royal family were also great Ambassadors for Britain and the Empire. Even before the war, King George VI paid state visits to France (in 1938), and to Canada and the United States in 1939 (just three years after the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII in 1936). And, as such, he was the first British monarch to enter the United States. And so, the first post war overseas visit in 1947 to South Africa, accompanied by the Queen and their daughters, Princess's Elizabeth and Margaret (the first time a monarch had undertaken a tour with his family), was very BIG news, not only to the British public but to the Empire, the allies, and to the watching world at large. [* “vibrated so badly as to be un-rideable”? At the time the details were lost in amongst other news. Many authors attribute the later bike's rubber mounted engine to have been a quick-fix cure to the problem. But perhaps that is just another one of those stories that get passed around, because some people believe that the rubber mountings had been designed from the outset by Erling Poppe, but was dropped for production. C.1927-30 Erling Poppe worked with John Wooler, who long previously (1911) had patented an 'anti-vibratory' frame. Why would any 25hp, short stroke 500cc twin, with just 6:1 compression, that had taken two years to develop and an important enough bike to specially prepare and then ship all the way to South Africa, should have “vibrated so badly as to be un-rideable”? After all, Triumph's 500cc twin didn't, nor did any production big-single, nor even did the long-stroke 1000cc v-twins that needed a valve lifter to start. In fact the contrary was reported by
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Graham Walker in the Motor-Cycling 1946 road-test. He made a point to emphasise just how easily one might ride the Sunbeam at walking pace - slow enough for a precession? But then, some time ago I'd spoken to the son of a very early S7 owner, who reported of his father's bike, which did suffer quite a bit of vibration until a rear mudguard stay came adrift. Then the bike was transformed to being a nice smooth bike, despite its still solidly mounted engine. I'd suggest that the early S7 engine (which has a more aggressive cam-profile than the later engine) had a vibration frequency in harmonic sympathy with cycle parts and in particular with the rear mudguard. This might have been perfectly acceptable or even quite good for a civilian bike at normal road speeds, in the context of other bikes of the day. For the South African Royal tour, it is possible that police equipment was fitted onto that mudguard in place of a pillion seat. It is perfectly plausible that the resonance amplified what was only a slight vibration into something awful. Possibly like having a heavy jelly wobbling out-of-control on top of the mudguard. The local police, with no experience of even having ridden the new Sunbeam, experienced an extreme case of 'the tail wagging the dog'. So it might have been impossible for them to ride a dignified straight line, in State Procession, at speeds of 5 to 15 mph. If I am correct then the problem was not with the Sunbeam S7 itself but with the mounting of that equipment.]
Sunbeam s7-deluxe fitted with radio equipment c.1951 Still, the somewhat ingenious marketing gambit to produce a motorcycle especially for the role of escort to State Processions was lost and with it the publicity that would have been worth millions. However, my own '53 Sunbeam S8 (also with straight sided mudguard valances) has a pillion seat mounted to the rear mudguard. This seat sits on 4 coil springs, which I can confirm does (somewhat annoyingly) resonate in sympathy with the engine vibration. The bike feels notably nicer with a pillion rider. Start your own bike up, ease her off the centre stand and note the wobbling tail light. Many British bikes (of any engine configuration) have the same problem. Interestingly, around this same time, the S7's rear mudguard design was changed before the 1947 catalogue (see below), from having a valance to not having one. Whereas, in that same catalogue, the engine remained solidly mounted. Because model years ran from April
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to March, this catalogue would most likely have been used from April 1947. The mudguard stays were redesigned with more substantial brackets for the S7-deluxe. P.S. to be there in time for the Royal Tour, the 25 or so 'escort Sunbeams' must have been shipped to South Africa some weeks before the very first S7 was officially despatched from the factory. However, they don't appear to be listed in the company's despatch records, which probably indicates that they were works bikes. This in turn lends weight to the theory that they were especially built for that specific task. But of course, with their having not been used, some, if not all, were subsequently sold on.
1947 UK brochure And that next big media publicity stunt was: The Opening Ceremony of the first post-war London Earls Court Cycle Show 1948, when Sir Bernard Docker (Chairman of Birmingham Small Arms) presented National war hero, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Commander of the Allied Forces in Operation Overlord) with BSA group's flagship motorcycle : a Sunbeam S7. Although as it was just a few weeks before Monty's 61st birthday, he would probably have preferred a Daimler. And so, finally the Sunbeam S7 was properly launched Badged under the Sunbeam name, the S7 was deliberately targeted at the connoisseur of fine motorcycles, a limousine of the motorcycle world, and a Gentleman's motorcycle, when the word 'gentleman' still meant upper class and very exclusive, when riding a motorcycle was next best thing to being a fighter pilot. It was never expected to sell in huge numbers but by association it was an ace up the sleeve of any BSA salesman. It brought many an inquisitive motorcyclist into BSA's showrooms when their main model range lacked lustre or innovation. Undoubtedly, many who saw the Sunbeam for the first time remembered it as being something very special indeed. Anything so exclusive is intriguing so an aspiration to own one would stick with many of them, to the benefit of BSA's showrooms, for a very long time indeed. Even today (in 2014) it amazes me as I ride one or other post-war Sunbeam model and meet people, just how many know the Sunbeam to be a 500cc in-line shaft-drive twin. The Sunbeam S7 was, if nothing else, a brilliant marketing coup. The design of the post-war Sunbeam S7 was attributed to Erling Poppe. "Who was he?" you might ask. In motorcycle design, the big names of the era were Bert Hopwood, Val Page, Freddie Clarke, and Edward Turner. But they were busy. Erling was the eldest of three sons and one daughter of Peter August Poppe (1870-1933) from Norway. In 1897, Peter Poppe, backed by a wealthy gentleman, Mr Alfred White, moved to Coventry, England as co-founder of White and Poppe Ltd., an engine and motor-car manufacture. By-the-way, Alfred White's father was a Director of Singer bicycles. Peter, an engineer by training, had been with Norway's government munitions department. As fortune was to have
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it, when the (second) Boer war (1899-1902) broke out, the company switched to supplying munitions. This was very lucrative, which fuelled development and expansion.
Within a short time, White and Poppe was supplying some 22 different motor manufacturers, including William Morris and Ariel motor-cars, which included their hugely powerful racer. Twelve years later they were back to supplying munitions for the Great War. In 1914, White and Poppe was recorded as employing 350 but by 1918 employed some 12,000 people, due to the large contracts in supplying munitions. At the end of 1919, the Dennis Brothers (Commercial vehicle builder - perhaps later best known for their fire engines) purchased White and Poppe, via an exchange of shares to the value of £204,365. In 1919 that was a huge amount of money. All but a very few shares were held by Alfred White and his family. Peter Poppe stayed on until 1922 when he joined Rover Motor Cars as Chief Engineer. During the Great War Erling Poppe attended Birmingham University and it is probable that is where he first met a Mr Gilmour Packman. Not only did they share a common interest in engineering but their focus largely revolved around motor cycles. Preferably fast but luxurious ones. These youthful Gentlemen were privileged and liked the best. Erling, at the age of 24 (in 1922), and Gilmour Packman, started their own business, Packman and Poppe, to build rather special motorcycles. Although they built their first engine, they soon bought-in proprietary engines from the likes of JAP and Barr & Stroud. Their Silent Three model first appeared with a sleeve-valve Barr & Stroud engine. A sleeve-valve motor is already mechanically quiet but P & P went to great lengths to make the exhausts exceptionally quiet and offered (optional) acoustic shrouding for the engine, along with purpose designed leg shields & foot boards. Furthermore, their frame design was also very special, sloping directly from the headstock to the rear wheel. It was an advanced duplex cradle design with the down-tubes sweeping back along either side of the motor. Their early models also had a rather interesting centre-cum-side-stand and a quick release withdrawable rear wheel spindle. These were both most innovative features in an age of drop-down rear mudguard stay stands and bicycle-type fixed axles. Inverted handlebar levers were commonly regarded as being safer for racing circuit bikes, which also left clear handlebar space for the decompression valve-lifter and advance-retard levers. The engine sat low and well forward, for the best possible weight and balance. The
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exhaust silencer swept upwards for improved ground clearance when corning hard. Clearly some of these features were derivatives of ideas picked up around the racing circuit rather than from other production bikes. P & P bikes, or at least their frames, were probably built under contract by W. Montgomery & Co., Coventry, who also supplied George Brough. The Silent Three was advertised as “a demonstration of the Perfect in Principle machine”, while even the press reports made claims for it to be the quietest. One might speculate that these were among the notable features recalled by BSA's Directors some years later. Within just three years (in 1925) P & P had three entries into the T.T. Two in the lightweight class & one with the sidecar. Their best placing was 5th in the lightweight class with D G Prentice riding. This by anyone's standard was outstanding. The TT is a long and treacherous circuit, and the engines & cycle parts of the day were prone to failure, on top of which the tyres would tend to shred or to blow without notice. For a small and new company, being run by young men without the pull to attract top riders, against the best major manufacturers from Britain and abroad, just to finish would have been a success on their first T.T. outing. Sadly, the event was bitter sweet in the extreme. Gilmour Packman, on his way to the T.T. had briefly to stop in at their workshop, had a heated argument with a salesman and shelves were knocked. Items fell, including an exhaust silencer, and Gilmour was killed. Despite a serious factory fire that same year, Erling fought to keep the business alive for another five years. Most probably the 'Wall Street Crash' (October 1929) brought things to a final conclusion. He and his wife had two of their three children during these years. Even the casual observer might take note of Erling's underlying pursuit of motorcycling excellence. Clearly, there were strong aspirations for P & P machines to be up there with the very best. Not only did the marketing: 'The Silent-three' for example, aim to catch the attentions of the most discerning clientele, but the 500cc - 1000cc engine sizes were aiming at the Vincent and George Brough end of the market. The latter in particular appears to have been a great inspiration. Of course, any young company with limited capital also needed to make sales at the lower capacity end of the market but even then, the smaller engines were the very best available. The Blackburne engines in 1924 were advertised as "the first 350cc engines to do 100mph" (at Brooklands). C. 1927, P & P became linked with Wooler Engineering Co., who were clearly facing difficulty. John Wooler (Chief Designer) was a most inventive Engineer who was noticed (in 1911) when he created a two-stroke engine using a double-ended piston. The bike, which he also built, featured a final drive with gearing by belt riding on a variable pulley. It also had both front and rear plunger springing and a patented 'anti-vibratory' frame. Most unusual features in an age of solid rear frames and girder forks. The frame was made almost entirely of straight tubes and, aside from its advanced suspension, it also had 'withdrawable road wheel spindles'. In 1929, P & P introduced an option of plunger rear-suspension for all road-models of their bike. These were available with either JAP or Blackburne engines. The two Blackburne-engined bikes were also used for Dirt Track competition. 1930 records only four models of P & P motorcycle in production. These were the 500 Silent, the '90' with ohv, the '80' with ohv JAP, and the '60' with a two-stroke engine. It was the company's final year. Erling, at the age of 32, then most likely offered his services as a freelance Design-Engineering Consultant. Almost certainly he worked with Dennis, the company that had bought the rights to the White & Poppe engines. It seems that he also worked with a coach manufacturer in Bristol but neither role implies any loss of interest in either motorcycles or racing. He did in fact design a motor scooter for another manufacturer. His third child, Julie, was born in 1937.
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In 1942, reportedly after a blazing row with Jack Sangster (Triumph's Managing Director), Edward Turner moved to BSA as Chief Designer, where he worked on a military specification side-valve 500cc vertical twin. In the meantime, Bert Hopwood had taken over as Chief Designer at Triumph and was working on an in-line four-cylinder 700cc engine. In late October, Turner was enticed back to Triumph and Hopwood's work was dropped. Coincidently, Turner built an in-line four-cylinder engine in the early 1960's. Erling Poppe was, in the years preceding and during the war, a successful design engineering consultant, having numerous top level West Midlands motor & motorcycle industry connections. Certainly his occupation was exempt or his work must have been important enough to avoid being drafted into the armed services. It seems that he was a man who had never let go of the dream to build the very best motorcycle. As a successful Design Engineer and a man of worthy reputation, through his own P & P motorcycles and noteworthy success in the TT, we might recognise that Erling Poppe brought something very worthwhile to BSA's boardroom table. P & P motorcycles aspired not only to be high-performance but also super quiet, with refined design detailing. At that time (five years into a war - 1944), BSA happened to be in the market for a capable designer to lead the design of a new flagship model. BSA's Directors knew that the new model must be something that the post-war, lucrative US market would want. They wouldn't want to compete head-on with Harley Davison or Indian, but they might slip in with something attractive and 'very British'. Something more along the lines of a Brough. Something that would intrigue and tease the American buying public. Something easy to start and ride and yet long legged enough to cover distances. Certainly their motorcycle styles and their cruising comfort must be factored in and US dealerships would probably have been involved. The American market was of course very different to BSA's home corner-of-the-street dealers. That market, with the projected costing of such a new motor-cycle, would benefit from being badged as a Sunbeam rather than BSA. US servicemen may have associated the BSA brand with their battlefield experiences of the military-spec M20 single cylinder model. It might also profit from having an independent and respected name tag. With the resources of the BSA group, Erling brought everything he'd ever worked on, read, discussed or seen into play. It is likely that most of what was to become the Sunbeam S7 was already floating around in his head or perhaps in numerous sketches and press-cuttings. As a freelance designer with this 'dream of a bike' growing and evolving since 1930, he may even have approached someone influential within BSA at the opportune moment with a draft proposal. His 1924 P & P duplex frame worked exceedingly well with racing 1000cc motors. The claims that the “Perfect in Principle” Silent Three was the quietest, set the tone. George Brough had been there in 1932 with the in-line Austin 7 engine (modified with a light-alloy cylinder head) and an in-line gearbox with shaft drive but possibly got it wrong by fitting two rear wheels for a solo bike. Still, the mind's eye picture was probably there - the balance of the bike, the duplex frame, the curves of the tank, and even the under-saddle electrical box with ammeter and ignition / lighting switch. More recently was the Indian 841 shaft-drive transverse v-twin, whose pressed-pan saddle hangs out in space, whose front forks look telescopic until one notices the central spring in front of the steering head with rear plunger suspension and foot gear-change. The Indian was designed to a US military specification for use in desert conditions, where as much as possible was to be encased to keep the abrasive sand out of moving parts. It was shown at the World Fair in New York in 1939 but the US Military chose to run with Harley Davison. The Harleys used by the Americans in the North Africa campaigns needed the big fat tyres to prevent sinking into the sand. All these features and a thousand other details were
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already in the public domain long before 1944 and before a wartime R75 was ever brought into the BSA works.
1940 Harley-Davidson(s) offer 500 x 16" tires as an option on all models) - for the World's Smoothest Motorcycle Ride ... Claims that the Sunbeam S7 was “a redesign of a BMW”, taken as a part of reparations against Germany after the war is, in my opinion, largely unfounded. There may have been elements of BMW, not least because that company successfully campaigned at the TT just before the war. The R75's frame is sectional (it's bolted together for ease of field repair). The central spine of the R75 and its brace before the rear wheel are pressed-steel-fabrications, not tube. Its front forks are hydraulic, not unlike the Matchless G3's of the era, whereas the early Sunbeam had no hydraulics. The BMW has a horizontally opposed engine, driving a rear bevel-gear differential, which through complex reducer gears drives the sidecars wheel. It has a hand gear change, along with numerous other cables and linkages, a transverse kick start mechanism, an under-slung exhaust, no electrical boxes, springs under the saddle, external mudguard stays (to allow clearance for snow chains). Under close examination the list of differences just goes on and on. The style of the front fork gaiters appear to have been inspired by the BMW. Then again, are they that different from those on the Sunbeam badged sidecar (AMC built in 1941)? In its own right the BMW has many innovative and often brilliant design features but the BMW is not an elegant bike, particularly when you see one in real life. In comparison, the Sunbeam is a much cleaner design and refined in detail, which leans more towards the 1924 P & P, the Indian 841, the Harley Davidson, and the Brough Superior but it is not a copy of any of them.
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1951 Sunbeam - the World’s Smoothest Motorcycling
.. You recall the wording of the Harley-Davidson advert above? and. “Perfection” an often repeated theme in post-war Sunbeam Advertising c.1956 .. You recall the wording of the 1924 P & P advert? The views expressed on this website are my own personal views. Nothing on this website is an instruction, nor an owners’ handbook, workshop manual, buyers guide or restoration guide. Stewart Engineering has the expertise for Sunbeam owners and they publish their own Sunbeam Owners’ Workshop Manual (The Bedside Book). Similarly, Draganfly Motorcycles has the expertise for Ariel owners.
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The tragic tale of the abandoned and the most stunning motorcycle graveyard in Upstate New York
This story starts with a motorcycle enthusiast named David Cuff who came across someone’s Flickr account that contained a collection of mystifying photographs showing a forgotten army of motorcycles abandoned in an unknown warehouse. Cuff set out on a mission to find the motorcycle graveyard and thanks to a random information about the location on a sport bike forum, David and his friends discovered the exact location of the rusty graveyard – 71 Gooding Street, the City of Lockport, Niagara County, New York. He was determined to visit the motorcycle graveyard, if it was indeed still there, take pictures, hopefully even purchase an old bike. He organised a trip with his friends and they hit the road heading nine hours north to the town of Lockport, New York, to find out if the place was truly the rusty vintage bike heaven the message boards had made it out to be. The place was known as the Motorcycle Graveyard of Lockport. From the early 1970’s, the building on Gooding Street became the headquarters for this growing business. The company was established by Kohls Cycle Sales after collecting over 50 years worth of motorcycles and related parts. Around 1997 Kohl sold the building and motorcycles to a man named Frank Murrell, and Frank operated the business as Kohl’s Cycle Salvage which sold parts off of the hundreds of motorcycles.
“The building with the alleged motorcycles is within eye sight of the canal lock,” describes David of the moment he first eyed the warehouse. “We hung out by the lock for a little while watching boats being raised and lowered. I was getting a feel for the area and casing the building like a bank robber.”
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“The buildings were trashed, stuff everywhere … There were small hints that there were motorcycles in there with a gas tank here and a beat up motorcycle frame there. The door to the building that had the motorcycles was open a few inches and I could see a motorcycle leaning against the wall… The basement was full of old rusty bikes that nearly rusted away from the moisture in the air…There was a set up stairs that looked like they were just days from crumbling. I lightly walked upstairs and opened the door and that’s where my jaw dropped. The room was full of motorcycles. There were holes on the main floor with motorcycles falling into the basement and there were motorcycles on the third floor falling onto the main floor. Half of the main floor was concrete and very stable so we wondered around and tried to process what we were seeing while trying to be quiet and be aware what was around us.”
The building was condemned and owned by the City of Lockport due to unpaid property taxes. A lengthy process to acquire accident insurance would be needed for Frank to enter the building. David began to call Frank regularly, gaining his trust in the hopes of helping him save some of the forgotten bikes. “The process was slow and I would call Frank every three to four days and inquire about the status of entry. I probably got on Frank’s nerves but I knew it would be worth it in the end. Frank was very patient with me and always gave me an update when I called.“
The city finally gave Frank a deadline to get whatever he wanted out by mid-November 2010 and David began planning his second visit, this time with a bike trailer in tow ready to take home some motorcycle history. Cuff and his friends wasted no time swooping in to grab up every frame, tank, part, and piece they could, knowing Frank planned to just scrap anything left over. They made multiple trips back and forth with little to no sleep until finally they’d picked the 4-story building through and through. The rest was put in dumpsters and scrapped.
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“We were able to save some bikes and parts. It was also nice to see the memories come back to Frank. He has a great memory and told us details from back when the business was booming including such as [that time] he scrapped 600 or so motorcycles years ago. I shed a tear hearing that. These weren’t ugly late 1970s or 1980s bikes. These were 1960s and early 1970s bikes.”
On July 30th, 2013, the building burned down in a fire and the remains of the graveyard were lost forever.
“I’m afraid there will never be another scrap yard like this one,” David says woefully. “These days it’s much different. Motorcycles are much more expensive and not just tossed aside. With things like ebay and craigslist there are just too many avenues to sell bikes and parts. These finds are what we dream of as kids. We all hear the rumors but assume they don’t exist or don’t make the effort to explore the possibility or to track down the facts. This is one time where the outcome made it all worth it.” Source : www.thevintagenews.com
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IMPORTANT NOTICE Dear Valued Client We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued support. The SAVVA scheme has grown rapidly over the past year and we thank you for your support and referrals received. In dealing with more cover requests, we have established one area causing some confusion amongst our Clients, i.e. the definition of Club Use. We have therefore taken the time to review our policy wording to rectify this uncertainty. We hereby give 30 days notice to amend the Club use as set out below. The amended wording will be effective 1 August 2016 for existing clients and immediately for new clients. CLUB USE / USE 1
· Any activity by a recognized club affiliated to SAVVA or not affiliated, including displays, rallies, fun runs, processions, club meetings and journeys to and from such events, hire for weddings/matric dances and the like, but excluding: speed trails, circuit racing, off road events and hire for reward. Display beyond the immediate supervision and control of the Insured.
· Being taken for repair, restoration or maintenance under own power or by trailer provided this is not done in peak traffic time.
· Occasional journeys of a purely social and pleasure nature but excluding to and from a place of business, employment or education institution and business use.
We thank you for your kind co-operation in utilizing your Vehicles within the new perimeters, reflected above. Kind regards FNB INSURANCE BROKERS
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Classifieds NB! only remain in for 3 months then must be renewed
FOR SALE: 1946 Harley 5/7 with side car – registered and licenced – R130k negotiable 1956 BSA B31 – Savva dated – R30k negotiable 1978 KZ 650 – fully reconditioned, registered and licenced – R35k negotiable 1978 KZ 650 – only 10 000kms – R25 negotiable 1978 KZ 750 Twin – (rare) – R30k negotiable 2002 Derbi Senda trail 50cc as new 50kms - R12 negotiable 2002 Derdi Senda trail 80cc as new 50kms – R14 negotiable 1992 KMS 200 trail registered but needs new main bearing – R6k negotiable Please contact Roy on 082 373 4716
Lathe with thread cutting gears, chucks, dial gauge with magnetic stand and cutting/turning tools etc. Chuck diameter +- 20cm, Bed length between centers - +- 45cm Price – R 9,500.00 Please contact Mike Lang – 082-8211826 Restoring your bike? Classic Restorer offers VAPOUR BLASTING SERVICES. We clean aluminium, brass, and copper parts using VAPOUR BLASTING method. It’s a gentle, water based, non-destructive process for aluminium cylinder heads, engine blocks, gearbox casings, carburettors, etc. Professional, British made equipment is used. There is no excessive metal removing, no blasting material embedded on metal surface. Just a smooth satin finish. Call Janus Gruska from Classic Restorer for details: 081 065 8275 (Benoni) or email [email protected]
Eddie Kirkwood has a selection of spares for mainly British bikes which he needs to dispose of. Go to "Spares for Sale" on Blogger website: http://britbikecapetown.blogspot.co.za/ 082 568 4913
WANTED: BMW R26 or R27 to purchase and/ or spare parts. 083 326 4911 Gawie Norton racing type oil tank to fit slimline frame Rod Thomas 031-762 1509 / 073 365 6494 Alternator type primary chaincase for pre-unit swinging arm Triumph. I need two inners and one outer. Will buy or have parts to swap. Tony Dodsworth. 082 742 1742 or 011 453 2688 To fit BMW R50 : 2 x Bing 1/24 Carbs complete pair or 2 x 1/24 Bing Housings (blocks) OR 2x AMAL Carbs (pair), same size as above Contact Trevor Jones – (082) 416-4650
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Triumph Tiger Cub T20 engine and any spares Contact Pierre Cronje 072 513 94532
British Bike Spares, Specialising in classic British bike spares supplying parts from Wassell, the biggest new classic bike part wholesalers in the UK, has been purchased by Gavin Walton from Mike Lang. All the stock has been moved from Benoni to Springs on the East Rand. Gavin’s intentions include enhancing and growing the business, web basing it to provide on-line browsing and ordering and shortening the time between import orders and delivery at a competitive rate. Gavin’s details are: 74 Phoenix road Selcourt Springs 1559 Home 011 818 4055 Mobile 083 408 4296 Email [email protected] (this will change in the near future to [email protected] ) Please call to enquire or make an appointment to see him.
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PARASKY
“The Skylight Professionals” Established 1981
TEL: 011-626-2970 FAX: 011-626-1420 [email protected] www.parasky.co.za
SKYLIGHTS: COMMERCIAL & DOMESTIC
+ Staircases + Patio & Balcony Enclosures
+ Balustrades + Walk-ons
+ Gazebos & Architectural Features For us – the sky is the limit!
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RESTORATION and other SERVICES Full restorations. Pierre Cronje does these as well as wheel lacing and building. Call him on 072 513 9432. Ultrasonic cleaning call Henry Watermeyer on 084 800 8862. Raw honey for sale. Remember Caroline is the honey queen – you can buy her various types of honey at the club meeting for the bargain price of R50 per jar or [email protected] Petrol taps Enots flat-slide type, made in brass to your order. In sizes 1/8”, 1/4” and 3/8” BSP as well as Rally boxes made to your order with handlebar mounting brackets plus mountings for the rally plate and three watches. Trevor Fraser on 013 656 3063 or 076 591 5560. BMW Speedometers Ben Vandenberg has a large stock of old and parts. He is willing to pass them on to anyone running a speedo repair service or is planning to start one. His contact number is 021 712 2661. Restoration and other services. Gravel Man Services offers full service of all BMW boxer twins (old and new). Accident damage repairs and restorations. Please contact Markus Watson on 083 602 3503.
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THE VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE CLUB P O Box 782835 SANDTON 2146 South Africa www.vintagemotorcycleclub.co.za COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Ken Wiggins Chairman [email protected] 011 793 7138 083 256 1949
Ian Holmes Vice Chairman [email protected] 011 793 7304 083 646 3089
Pieter Vlietstra Treasurer [email protected] 011 793 4841 082 650 9880
Ian Storer Secretary [email protected] 072 727 7382
Kevin Walton Club Dating Officer [email protected] 082 891 8399
Rob Pattison-Emms
Committee Member / Events
[email protected] 011 849 5180 082 891 2869
Dave Watson Committee Member [email protected] 082 551 5147
Chantal Madgwick
Committee Member / Editor
083 708 3522
Brandon Jarvis Committee Member / Assistant Editor
[email protected] 011 907 3000 082 410 8828
FEES PAYABLE (up to 30th June 2017) Joining Fee R50.00 Annual Subscription R260.00 (R130.00 if joining after 1st of January) Country Member R190.00 (R90.00 if joining after 1st of January) Family Member R20.00 (i.e. spouse and minor children) Fees will increase for the year starting 1st July 2017 CLUB ACCOUNT DETAILS Account Number 1970259841 Nedbank Sandton Branch 197-005 Please use your name and surname as your reference when making a payment CLUB MEETINGS Meetings are held every 4th Monday of the month (except December) at The Vintage and Veteran Club (VVC), 3 Athol Oaklands Road, Oaklands Johannesburg, at 20:00. The opinions expressed in KICKSTART are not necessarily those of the Committee or the Editor.
