EMC
at the LMM
If
you have recently received the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust
newsletter (issue 32) you will have seen their article on the
Museums' EMC the Ehrlich Motorcycle Company. It is an interesting
motorcycle from 1947, being a 350cc split single two stroke.
The
configuration is in a shallow vee twin with a common combustion
chamber. The piston controlled porting for the inlet and exhaust is
on the rear cylinder and the transfer ports are in the front
cylinder. It is a configuration that had been used previously by Puch
in the late twenties and early thirties.
This particular machine
(number 16) was made at Park Royal, local to us. It went to Australia
and was owned by Ken and Jill Honeybun. It was customised as a Cafe
Racer. From the photo someone had fitted some rear suspension and a
very generous seat but not the Vincent front brake. Rear suspension was used on the models from 1948.
It was later restored by the BMCT to its 1947 specification. My
preference would have been for the Cafe Racer style.
Just a little
more about the EMC as it was priced at £191 it was only £12 less
than a Velocette KSS. Both were expensive machines for the 350cc
class and both did not sell in any great numbers. There was a 500cc
version planned but production stopped in 1953 and Dr. Joseph Ehrlich
went to work for de Havilland. He was always interested in two stroke
motorcycles in 1961 he was involved in a 125 on which Mike Hailwood
had some success on. In the eighties he went on to design a very fast
250 that went on to four TT victories in the hands of Graeme
McGregor, Con Law and Eddie Laycock.
As
the weather is not so good for getting about I have read another book
and this was “Adventures of a Despatch Rider” by Captain W.H.L.
Watson. This is in connection with “Trusty” our 1919 Model H
Triumph that is on loan to Whitgift School in South Croydon for the
next few months. The children there are doing a project on 1916 so we
all await the results of their research. To add to this more details
of the Great War and the use of motorcycles is being investigated by
us at the Museum.
I have signed up to the Great War Forum and made
the mistake of using the modern spelling of despatch- dispatch and
received several e-mails putting me straight. The source of the word
is old French and comes from despeechier meaning to set free. There
is much information around and I have just read some of the reports
from “The Motorcycle” of 1915 and what those guys were doing then
would put many an off-roader to shame with some very primitive pieces
of kit. They didn't have off road tyres then! Dodging bullets and
shrapnel over poorly made roads in all weather conditions is what
heroes are made of. There'll be more as interesting details come to
light.
