Back with a Bang

Great isn’t it? You spend a bit of time fixing a few niggles on a bike, start really enjoying riding it and then disaster…

Well, if I thought the authorities have been scaremongering over this last year I soon learned just how dangerous it really is to venture out during lockdown – even a genuine shopping trip on my bike ended me up in hospital!

Yes, it’s always worth remembering the unexpected. I had already noticed – and mentioned in Classic bike – that one of the biggest risks I’d found during the Pandemic was that reduced traffic had left car drivers even more unobservant than usual and to prove my point I got flattened by a car turning across my path into a side road. I saw the drama unfold but was too close to do anything about it other than watch for the point where he finally saw me and stopped. Past experience tells me they always see you,  it’s just a matter of whether they stop in time for you to scrape by, heart pounding, or too late so that you hit the car and fly over the top. This time I was horrified to find the car didn’t stop at all but drove into me, breaking my shinbones on impact and hurling me bodily off my course into the side turning where I landed heavily, breaking and dislocating my right arm.

Great, I was only supposed to be going up the road for a pint of milk!

Six weeks later I am able to walk short distances on a stick and got away from cabin fever thanks to my mate Nev who offered me a lift to the first Ardingly autojumble of 2021 last Sunday. It was great to be back; I really enjoy the Ardingly events, the rural setting makes a lovely leafy ride there for anyone living in the south east and makes it one of those – rare nowadays – events where there can be as much interesting stuff in the car park as inside. It’s been hard work for Elk promotions proprietor Julie Diplock and husband Rick Bailey to keep the events coming during this crazy time, complying with the Covid rules and regulations and making sure everything goes smoothly and safely for staff and visitors has been demanding. Autojumbles are permitted because they are ‘markets’  – shows are different – but even so few promoters have risked putting their necks on the line and holding their events and I think Julie, Rick and the team have done a real service to the old bike world. I was pleased to see a good turn out both here and at the Jumble in Ashford the previous Bank Holiday Monday. I won’t say ‘ I have no connection with the organisers’ – of course I do, they are good friends of mine – but so what? I choose good, hard working people for my friends and the Elk team definitely deserve the credit for a difficult job done very well!

I guess the most attention grabbing bike there was this decidedly unrestored Triumph CTT. The CTT is the 500cc ohv version of the CSD (550cc side valve) one of which I rebuilt a few years ago in CB.  The cycle parts are pretty much the same across the range but the ohv engine makes the CTT the star performer. These late vintage Triumphs make a pretty user friendly entry to vintage (pre 1930) riding, they have decent brakes and handling and aren’t too quirky. This one had the Triumph ‘clean’ handlebar that was a fashion around this time – most 1920s handlebars bristle with levers but the Triumph has straight pull twistgrips left and right (the cables go up the inside of the bar) controlling throttle and ignition advance and then integral brackets for clutch and brake levers and also for the two banjo levers for choke and decompressor.I particularly liked the ‘Lucas Diffusa’ decal in lamp glass. I haven’t seen this before in an H52 headlamp so whether it is original or not I don’t know but it’s a nice touch. The CTT was priced at £5000 – more than I would want to pay…but thinking about it, probably what I would want if I was selling it.

As with all patinated bikes you have to look past the bewitching condition and consider what would need to be replaced just to get it working. Rust tends not to restrict itself to the outside and it’s also important to remember that bikes get laid up for a reason – probably something went wrong enough that it got pushed into a shed and forgotten. Also there was no registration number meaning it has either been sold or simply lost, either way it’s a pity when an unrestored bike ends up having a random DVLA number.

This Triumph Thunderbird also caught my eye, it reminded me of the kind of bikes you used to see in the 1980s, when they’d had a few lives and a few crashes and ended up a bit of a mixture but still recognisably Triumph. This one being a duplex frame is post 1960 and would have had a bathtub originally – probably the first thing to go! Thing is back when I started bikes like this were affordable because the bathtub was missing along with the big front guard and these bits were too hard to find for the bike to appeal to a restorer. It also has the wrong front wheel – the big twin leading shoe instead of the original weedy 7″ brake which suited us junior cafe racers just fine!

It looks like its doing seventy when it’s standing still… Better factor a speedometer rebuild into the deal – and I have never seen an old speedo dial turn cobalt blue before!

Actually, while I am in ‘old codger’ mode, I  really struggle to grasp the idea that an oil-in-frame Bonnneville tank can look this old, surely it was only a couple of years ago I was drooling at a new black and red T140 through a dealer’s window…!

Nice cutaway Raleigh (I think – or Sturmey Archer anyway) engine on the Yeomans stand. It looked particularly professional on a proper cast dais. There’s something appealing about these; I was very lucky to get my sectioned 1928 ohv BSA 350 engine – especially since I own a bike the same and was able to pinch all the good bits out of it and replace them with worn out ones…. Makes no odds to the sectioned engine after all and got a bike on the road!

Inevitably these two caught my eye. Luckily I didn’t catch the eye of Greg the stallholder or I might have been lured in. I didn’t even ask what they were. The inlet over exhaust valve configuration suggests Lea Francis although Nev – who gave me the lift  – said he heard it was a Chater Lea. The other one had Minerva on the crankcase which could be the make of the bike or just the motor which were sold as proprietary units.

Thing is bikes like this are do-able but you have to be keen. If one of these was a Blackburne twin I’d be right in there because I know my passion/obsession would carry me through the problems but when you already have plenty to do, taking on projects just because they come along is a bad idea in my view and is precisely why there are so many loosely-assembled, lead-oxide coated basket cases like this coming out of the woodwork nowadays. Obsession not optimism is what it takes!

Here’s a likeable little fella. This is the Mk2 version of the New Hudson autocycle. New Hudson had an illustrious history, tied in at one point with superfast five-hundreds breathed on by the great Bert LeVack – but they also made pedal cycles and that’s probably what led BSA to buy the ailing company and present these autocycles after the War. The original NH Auto was more conventional – having the typical autocycle outline of a cross between a flat tanker and a ladies bicycle. This one dating from later in the 1950s aimed to be a little more ‘au courant’. A bit like kipper ties and Jason King moustaches were later on. To  be fair you can see they tipped a nod toward some of the 1950s continental lightweights with this styling but by the time it came out the autocycle’s time was fast fading.

The heyday was the War years and just after when people needed to  look further for work than their feet, or a pair of pedals,  would take them. A sort of more elegant precursor to the moped, Autocycles used 98cc single speed Villiers engines capable of around 30mph (and about 200mpg if you kept out of the power band). They became colloquially known as Wilfreds (after the popular Pip, Squeak and Wilfred cartoons) and were made by most small manufacturers. Not BSA, of course, which is perhaps why they brought out the New Hudson – keeping up with the times but under an assumed name. After all the autocycle relied on Villiers engines and BSA wouldn’t want to be seen buying in engines especially since they produced the ‘Winged Wheel’, an engine attachment fitted inside a pushbike rear wheel so you could turn your harmless bicycle into a death trap.

Or worse…this is Ian Hatton from Verralls – a long established company with an excellent reputation for honourable trading and responsible attitude to customers – so how do we explain this double-engined brute? I can only assume this project was one man’s way of dealing with the psychological  trauma of lockdown; but surely drink or drugs would be safer? I think these are Cyclemasters rather than Winged Wheels but I don’t really want to know. I seem to recall the Cyclemaster came in 23cc and 32 cc capacity – I hope Ian got the same size front and rear or he may have a bike that overtakes itself!

I must admit I was itching for a go…but then I remembered my healing bones. Maybe another time. Just to add to it all Ian was also displaying this barmy thing on his stand…

It started life as an early/mid 20s lightweight Zenith but for reasons unknown someone fitted it with an Edwardian DeDion engine to make it slower and less reliable – adding the complexity of needing a radiator for the water cooled cylinder head – which at least dates it to the correct century. Looking at the excellent De Dion Car Club website, I see that the water cooled head was sensation of 1900. I have asked Ian about this oddity before but I can never remember exactly how he explains it – rather like when you wake up after a dream and it all seems to make sense until you think about it.

The next day my pals Pete Scopes and Will Coleman kindly came round to drag the poor Sunbeam out into the daylight for assessment. On the face of it, like me, it’s pretty badly bashed up but not beyond repair and I wanted to have a closer look so I can start working out what’s needed in my mind. I will be covering this in a future Classic bike and since Will is looking for material for his ‘Coleman Customs’ youtube video channel while undergoing a workshop restructure I thought he could maybe film it at the same time so keep an eye on his channel if you want to see the gory details!

I must say, sitting watching helplessly while my mates risked putting their backs out trying to drag a Sunbeam that used to roll beautifully brought home how dramatically a moment’s carelessness can affect the lives of others. We all make mistakes – it’s not that long ago that I got caught out on a blind bend – but I can’t help feeling that it’s usually the motorcyclist who gets hurt when he makes a mistake – cars are responsible for far more third-party injury and yet it’s bikes that are considered ‘dangerous’. My surgeon was not a bike fan. “Now you see what happens to people who ride motorcycles.” he said. “Well I see what happens when car drivers don’t look where they are going.” I replied.

 

My accident was the bad side of riding bikes;  Ardingly – looking at old bikes, buying old crap, catching up with like-minded friends I haven’t seen for a while is just one of the overwhelmingly good sides. Disparaging of bikes as he was, the surgeon was impressed with my efforts in physio and I couldn’t resist pointing out that the desire to get back on a bike is what pushes me to try harder…

Cheers Rick