Save the Children

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Christmas Jumper Day 2016

Have you heard of this? I've not seen anything advertised on the telly that this was happening. I posed for pictures in 2015 with a Christmas Jumper on and now it gets to part of this years collage on Facebook for Save the Children. I pictured myself riding through London and seeing myself portrayed on the back of a bus in glorious technicolor larger than life. That didn't happen so I must be content with what was published.

Not normally passive with things I had an e-mail from Guildford Harley's that they were doing Christmas Jumpers for two days, 16^th and 17^th December. I thought I would go on the 17^th using 16^th to head off to Jack Lilleys to try some Jumper promotion. They were already doing it with everyone in festive pullovers. Very colourful. I did leave a collection box for the odd coin and squeezed a few coppers from the Police Bike Safe Team who were doing training sessions out of Jack Lilleys 16^th and 17^th. The guys at Jack Lilleys had organised their collection to go to the local pub who had organised everything. Friday was a nice day and I had a pleasant ride out to Ashford. Saturday was a whole lot different with fog in grades of density and getting clearer all the way to Guildford. 

I met a few of these guys at Jack's Fish and Chips in Bagshott a couple of weeks ago.

I had a great time talking to staff and customers about Christmas Jumper day along with a bit of promotion for the Museum. I took a few photos of those in Christmas gear and after a couple of hours headed back to Ashford to pick up the collection box before returning home with the fog getting thicker all the time. The problem with this fog is that the droplets of water are so fine that you go from seeing to not seeing in seconds and I have to continually wipe my visor consciously leaving plenty of distance in traffic for this exercise and allow for the sillies in cars who don't have clear side windows and don't know you are there. I trust we will all survive for Christmas.

With Christmas Jumper Day behind us and everyone wishing they had another opportunity to wear those jumpers again don't wish just do it! When you get to Christmas you'll be as warm as toast and ready for your stocking filler!!! What is your dream? Something curvaceous? Could it be a Ducati?

A Triumph? A Moto Guzzi? A Honda? Yamaha? Suzuki? Kawasaki? Or something exotic? 

Grindley Peerless? Velocette? Francis Barnett? Gilera? Aermacchi? Beardmore Precision? 

The list could go on all the way to Christmas! 

Wishing everyone the best of riding and prayers from the Royal Enfield Shrine to keep you safe.

Merry Christmas!

After 2016 Off Road Bike Show

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

After the Off Road Bike Show

As usual there is always some interesting stuff at the show and this one was no exception. There were all manner of scrambles and trials machines including this brace of Ariels that Sammy Miller could well have ridden. There was this EMC with a Puch split single two stroke engine, these Cottons, the scrambler in front of one of the three production racers.Remember the Cotton racer we have at the Museum. It appears to have closer finning than the Villiers Starmaker scrambler engine seen here. There was a DOT with an RCA engine and an array of Italian racing machines. I just love those Guzzi big singles.

 
 

It was a bit frost on the Saturday so I went off to Kempton in the car. It was cold at the show so when I got home I needed a good mug of strong Assam tea fortified with a slug of brandy. I have this feeling that I'm getting a bit more like Guy Martin with his need for tea. Now Sunday was just as frosty as I ventured out on the Kawasaki for the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Observed Sessions.

    My turn to be on the shop. We were and still are clearing old stock as freebies with a request for donations to this years charity. The excess muffs, old biros (some work), key fobs, lanyards and side stand plates or mud buddies need to be shifted. I did take some away to be passed on at the Museum.

More fun this Monday with part three being filmed by the Missenden Flyer about the other things in the Museum.

Part one.

https://youtu.be/tpevwGG-s8c

Part two.

https://youtu.be/q9kZk305Ygo

Part three.

https://youtu.be/2EmdWxNM7e0

Some cracking vlogs to watch.

2016 Off Road Bike show

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Off Road Bike Show

2016

December already and I still managed to get out for a ride on the Buell the last Thursday in November. It was an interesting ride out skirting towns with an amazing zig-zag route making a good day out of some 220 miles and it stayed dry! I was testing out my new Garmin Zumo, recording the route but when I needed some fuel and a direction to Cranleigh. It refused to allow me just to get to the town centre and I gave up on it. It relies on you knowing the address to enter and if you are out on a run and not knowing where you are or any of the local street names Tomtom has that advantage of being able to get you at least somewhere you know of. The other problem was that it didn't recognise where home was by the most direct route so it was trying to send me off in the wrong direction. I guess I will need to work out what to do from using it.

Brian on Display.

Still cold on Saturday morning as I was up at the crack of dawn to get to Kempton park for the Off Road Bike Show to be on the Museum stand. Another good day handing out fliers and talking to people about bikes and on my wanders I went to a stand that had a Seeley with the tank off so you could see the cross over top tubes and now more information about the design of the frames to try to clarify what had been made. The mark 1 frame has a full cradle that runs under the engine and beyond the pivot fork mounting, not much different to the mark 2 that has an incomplete cradle. The mark 3 may or may not have a cradle but could have front down tube supports depending on the engine used with the crossover behind the headstock having the top tubes on the outside and a cross frame support under the seat. The mark 4 has the top tubes on the inside to make it easier to manufacture. Frames made for Suzuki and Yamaha engines did not have a crossover behind the headstock. It may all be a little clearer from this photo I took.

I took more photos on interesting bikes and this 1927 172cc Francis Barnett Brooklands Track Special recently restored by Brooklands is a gem with additional pannier fuel tanks so it could keep going for at least six hours and in doing so collected many of the small capacity records in the late twenties. The Villiers engine has some interesting features in that it has plain main bearings lubricated by an auxiliary hand pump that is not easy to operate being just in front of the saddle.

Our Museum bikes created quite a bit of interest with Des Heckle's 50cc Moto Minarelli engined sprint bike, the 1927 Sheffield-Henderson Brooklands sprinter, Jim Tebby's speedway bike and rounded off with an unusual Police Rickman Mitesse. Next stand to us were “Reflections and Rust” two ladies who do original oil paintings and prints. One of whom used to ride an ex-police Rickman Mitesse. How about that for co-incidences? The art work is excellent and not to expensive to have you steed captured and preserved on canvas. www.facebook.com/TalanaGamahArtwork

Last but not least Zoe Cano has another book on sale Southern Escapades and her adventures around Florida. I'll report when I have read it. I was in Florida at Daytona for the October Bike Fest in 2003 and it is a place that is just a fantastic Bikerama! I visited the racetrack and had a test ride on a Harley dresser FLT. I had a 1340 shovel 5 speed FLT at the time that I think I should have traded it being that I had it from 1981 from new. It was heavy at 330kg but that is a lightweight compared to the modern dressers at 430kg!!!! Not good for filtering on London's roads. My 1981 FLT.