More Velocettes

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Velocette Day at Brooklands.

One of our guys from the LE Club contacted me about going to the Velocette Day at Brooklands, I thought about about it for a millisecond and agreed to meet up at Brooklands on the day. His LE is sick with a poorly clutch that needs stripping apart. For this event I had a choice, LE or Valiant. I decide that after my cold and wet experience on the LE I thought something warm would be nice. Checked over and it was at the front of the garage I set out early on this Sunday morning with strict instructions to be back by one! If you have ever been with us at Wey Valley for a “Back by One Run” it never is and back by two is a better description. It was a pleasant run with only a few “silly” drivers on the way. There journey was some 20 miles and took me over an hour from Hayes to Weybridge. 

No sooner I had arrived Paul from the LE club was there too. He had seen me go by as he walked up from the station. My LE was the only one there and as it is a bit special it generated quite a bit of interest. There were some very nice big Velocettes there with KTTs, KSSs, MSSs, MACs and a very special vee twin with a couple of MACs strung together. I did like the green Vee Line with the full fairing. 

I left a whole load of fliers at the reception and handed out loads more as people went by viewing the bikes. Today I had a bottle of water with me and I didn't loose my voice. I also had the foresight to put on sun tan cream to not look like a lobster as I was using an open face helmet. I know I look manic wearing Halcyon goggles! I had to leave by twelve but that went by the board as, meeting up with Denis Frost, club historian and out and out Velocette man, he introduced me to Geoff Dodkin, Velocette dealer for many years and now retired knew of the dealer I had used at Brislington in Bristol. He was interested in what I had done to my LE. 

With a couple more photos taken and my bottle of water refreshed from a tap to top up the LE radiator before setting off for home I said goodbye to Paul and then raced off up the hill to the exit only changing into second gear at the top buzzing the engine quite hard. Another pleasant and even warmer trip home I arrived only 40 minutes late. About right for a “Back By One”

Kempton Park 2016

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Southern Classic Bike Show 2016

When putting on a stand some things never go smoothly. At the beginning when you need to submit bikes and riders and helpers you call on every able bodied person. This year was no exception, but the exception was so many bikes were out of commission and so was one of the riders! To this side of things you have to look around to see what you can do. This time I enlisted the help of the London Motorcycle Museum to help out with the bikes. Manning the stand on the day were Chris, Gita and me. With Gita's help we got the Valiant there on the Friday and set up as best we could. Chris arrived early on the Saturday morning before I did and had his part of the display set up. Unfortunately the large pictures I had put up on Friday night came down by Saturday morning and it was a battle to keep them in place all day as the adhesive I had used was not doing its job. I have to think about something different next year.

On the display this year were my Valiant, Chris's Police LE with Constable Noddy and his Police box along with the LE MK2 cutaway and the Viceroy scooter from the LMM. It was an early start with everything needing to be in place by 08:30and the gates opened at 09:00 sharp! There is an auto-jumble going on as well so some of the punters are scrambling to get in for the bargains of the day.

We were busy all day with much interest in the LE cutaway and the Viceroy. Many mugs of tea were consumed to keep the voice going and we all had a few breaks from the stand taking a wander around to see what was about. There was an LE that would need quite a bit of TLC and a green Valiant Veeline that had Del'Orto carbs fitted and a very nicely turned out Deemster with the Viceroy engine too. 

There were some nice thirties bikes that a 500cc Moto Guzzi and a 250cc version. Later on that day I went around again to take photos and both of these had gone. Someone else had thought these were good too. I have always liked the Aermacchi 250's and 350's and there was a harley badged early model with a blue tank for sale. Perhaps I'll get one one day. I did see a sad one with the head and barrel off showing a very big hole in the piston. Each year there are more foreign bikes on offer some are rare but I think the MV's, Ducati's and Gilera's of the 50's have unique styling with Italian performance that made many of the bigger British bikes look a bit out dated.

By the end of the day we had talked ourselves to a stand still. The stand was very busy with at least three people going away with club application forms and a many more asking questions about the club and technical stuff. Ay 3pm was the prize giving. We didn't win anything again this year but did get a few bottles of wine from the organisers for our troubles. Nice as the wine is my personal preference are the medals that used to be issued to the exhibitors. Something small that you can keep as a memento.

It didn't take quite as long to take the stand down and pack it away as it had taken to put it up. Bikes supplied by the LMM were wheeled away to put on a trailer to be taken back. My big thanks to the LMM for letting me have the bikes on the stand and getting then there. It made our display so different from previous years. Chris's bike was loaded on to my trailer for him to take home and as the last bits were sorted it started to rain. So it was a wet trip home for me on the Valiant with only main beam working and something to sort out later. I got home safely through the Saturday traffic. Gita complained to me that my indicators were not working! I was more concerned why the brake light wasn't. She didn't notice that or my hand signals! The Valiant has not got indicators fitted. The point here is that people expect things to have modern bits fitted to old bikes and that it is worth considering that when restoring or rebuilding one. I think that safety over accuracy is most important if you are out on the roads these days. Never mind the brake lights I'll just have to fit indicators!

Remembering 1916

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Trusty out on show.

What changeable weather we have had over the last week from every season in one day for an MOT to a ride out in glorious sunshine. Last Thursday was exceptional when I went to visit Trusty on show at the Whitgift School exhibition centre. Taking the Buell as it was a blast around the M25 only to thinking that I should have been on the Kawasaki filtering my way through Croydon traffic. Whitgift School is an amazing place and easy enough to find and parking close to the exhibition. The exhibition, on until the end of August and, is “Remembering 1916 – Life on the Western Front”. 

It, on it's own, was well worth the visit but I did wonder why a school would put on something like this. All is revealed as you progress through the stands and displays with cameo sets depicting aspects of life at that time. I found Trusty our 1919 Triumph model H on its own with lots of information about what Dispatch or the term in 1916 was Despatch Riders DR's had to do. They didn't only deliver messages but carried more than 20 pigeons for the return messages! Fine if you are a pigeon fancier! 

Life in the trenches and weapons of destruction along with how the wounded were treated but it was not until the last part did I understand why the school had put on such a good show. It was really about one of their former students who was a pilot during that war. He was flying an FE2B which was made at the Royal Aircraft Factory and was the Farmen Experimental model 2 B. Many were used but were not good as fighters and may be the reason why he was shot down by a certain red Fokker. 

Some flying gear, helmet gloves and boots!

It turns out that the student was Lionel Morris who landed his plane and later died of his wounds was the first kill of the “Red Barron” Von Ritchofen in 1916. His co-pilot Captain Tom Rees was killed in the action. There is a very good painting depicting the action. Such engagements must had been quite slow and nerve racking waiting for the bullets to find a

target. There was no protection and only canvas and wood holding you in the air. These were quite slow aircraft manoeuvring around well below the legal speed limit. I think the Buell is considerably faster than what those early aircraft could do. After talking at some length with the volunteers there about other aspects of World War One I left some fliers and headed on home earlier enough to miss “car park” time on the M25.