Magical Mallory

I suppose a weekend in Paris is a more traditional way to fall in love than a few circuits of Mallory Park but you’ll just have to forgive my clumsy ways…

 

The flat tank Model 9 Sunbeam I bought last year was an extravagance. It cost quite a lot of money and for those of us that are not exactly rolling in the stuff, that can be hard to justify; but tearing it round the charming Mallory circuit, dragging the footrests on the bends it all made perfect sense and I came off the track completely besotted with it. Throughout the 1920s Sunbeams were at their peak, fast and sure footed and hammering round the circuit I completely bonded with the bike; so, dammit, that’s another keeper…

But it was great to be back at Mallory. You could say that the Festival of 1000 Bikes there became the VMCC’s ‘Wounded Knee’, this fabulous event with its ‘galaxy of stars’, brought in by then-CEO James Hewing, was definitely one of my summer favourites but unfortunately it turned out that the club couldn’t really afford it. The famous riders – especially those from across the pond(s) – came at a price which was unsustainable. I didn’t go there for the big names myself but two overheard conversations stuck in my mind; one from a group of guys my age saying how fantastic it had been to see Wayne Gardner on the track and the other a group of older members muttering about  ‘why pay to get some foreign bloke over when Geoff Duke would have been much cheaper?’ Absolutely no disrespect to the late, great G.E.D O.B.E but I felt these opposing views were particularly pertinent, given the Club’s declared ambition to attract younger members…

Still, plainly too little attention had been paid to the budget and the ramifications of this extravagance continue to this day within the VMCC. Consequently I suspect there’s a feeling that the 1000 Bikes is a potentially loose cannon, perhaps especially among those who have not been there to see the positive side; I don’t know how many VMCC management were there, other than organiser Ian Botham I didn’t see any myself. For me it was an event that really brought classic and modern bike enthusiasts together – and that has to be good for the future of the Club and old bikes in general.

The VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes originated at Mallory but its most celebrated years were at Brands Hatch. For those of us resident in the South East it was the event of the year and it gradually outgrew its name. By the early 90s entries were pushing 2000 with probably another 1000 interesting classics in the car park. With its long ‘avenue of clubs’, trials section going on in the woods, a grasstrack display (celebrating the Kent circuit’s original purpose) and an enormous autojumble, all in addition to the continuous track parades it was probably the best all-round old bike event in the country.

But Brands’ ownership changed; ambitions to provide a base for corporate events made the circuit too expensive and the Festival ceased to exist. Its reincarnation at Mallory was very welcome but with no disrespect to the Leicestershire circuit, Brands was a very tough act to follow and although the same features were included, lack of space and facilities made it a poor second. However, it was still a cracking weekend – and in my opinion Mallory is a nicer track than Brands both for riders and spectators, being smaller and prettier.

The lake in the middle is certainly a nice touch and you can get great views from both inside and out of the circuit; the beer tent (the marquee visible in the top right hand corner of the photo) being a popular spot – selling a nice line in real ale too.

Over the years the VMCC staged the relaunched 1000 Bikes at Mallory, we noticed people gradually stopped making comparisons with Brands and accepted it as a great event in its own right. One of the things that particularly struck me was the mix of people. I admit a few years ago there I was annoyed to find myself sitting in scrutineering behind a three year-old Suzuki. Knowing somebody who had been told there was no room for his 1929 Norton entry I felt it was wrong that VMCC-eligible bikes were getting elbowed out by modern riders looking for a cheap track day. Taking this up with the management, though, I was reminded that the Festival was always a ‘social’ event – open to members of any club, with all ages of machine welcome. This ‘ebony and ivory’ approach gave me cause for thought and as I scratched around the circuit on my 1927 Rex Acme that year I realised that I wasn’t simply preaching to the converted, many of the spectators were not classic folk – they were modern bike riders and maybe my efforts helped make the point that ‘vintage motorcycle’ doesn’t mean a comedy boneshaker that can’t out drag a milk-float. It’s not unusual to see modern bikers at shows but a living event like the Festival is a far better way to reveal what old bikes are really all about. Especially since in the evening everybody gets together in the beer tent, swapping yarns.

 However 2018 has been a bit of a trial year. With the VMCC currently immersed in ‘blame culture’, every expenditure is open to harsh criticism and the Festival had to prove it can now pay its way or it’s unlikely to survive. I haven’t heard whether it made it or not but I sincerely hope so. Realistically, re-launching a formerly successful event is always a risky venture; it takes a bit of ‘you missed a great event…’ to get people to come back next time so I’d say you have to accept a loss on the first year – but then I’m not footing the bill…

There were a couple of improvements I’d like to see, though. I rarely rode at Brands, it was such a good spectator do that I found participating in track sessions took up too much of the day but I think Mallory is currently a better day for riders than spectators and that needs to be addressed; you need gate money to survive. It isn’t cheap to get in and ultimately people want to see as many bikes as possible. At present, although you have club stands and the race paddock inside the circuit to wander around as a spectator, there’s nowhere for Saturday track riders (road bikes) to park after sessions except back on the campsite, which is not great for day-visitors who want a closer look at the bikes they’ve seen on the track. Dunno about you but I feel a bit creepy walking around a camp site if I’m not camping, so it would be good if space could be found to display the bikes. Site space is limited, of course, but on Sunday when the road bikes aren’t on the track, the road paddock area is unused except as a car and camper park. I noticed that many Saturday entrants put their bikes back in the van on Sunday morning but if that paddock area were reserved for display, maybe they would stay for the Sunday too, which would be much fairer on Sunday visitors who having paid for a programme will find that many of the entries inside are not on display. With this in mind, we parked our bikes down by the track on Sunday morning and after that whenever we passed there were people looking at them so I’m sure it’s worth doing.

 The other issue is the off-road displays which were not at all easy to find, especially the grass track, which ended up on a very bumpy field that was unsuitable for some of the earlier bikes. This is harder to resolve I guess but it would certainly be better is the grasstrack could be closer to the autojumble (or vice versa) so that spectators are led toward it in some way.

Grasstrack is fun to watch and I’m sure most people just didn’t know it was there. Dunno, it’s easy to criticise when you’re not doing the organisation yourself; but anyway here’s some pictures from the day, if you didn’t make it this year keep an eye out for next year – assuming the VMCC back it a second time!

No, not a project in the autojumble; this old Suzuki was one of the trials bikes. CB Editor Gary Pinchin enjoyed watching the trials, being a Saturday visitor; I was too busy with track parades – and fiddling with the bikes in between.

Unfortunately Judy and I both thought we turned the oil off on her 1928 Scott which meant that one of us turned it back on…I only discovered it had been dripping into the engine all night when we were getting ready for our first outing…Remarkably, it fired up easily with less smoke than I expected but…it conked out on the first lap. I pulled over and tried to get her going (much to the consternation of the trackside marshall, sorry about that!) but it wouldn’t even cough. Judy said it had been running on one pot most of the time and then packed up completely so unable to do more I carried on and she came in on the breakdown wagon (courtesy of the helpful classic dealers ‘Vintage and Veteran’). Back at the van there was no spark and a change of plugs made no difference. I take the view that if you have no spark, the first thing to disconnect is the kill switch, which on the Scott is connected to an earth strip on the points cover. Ha! Ignition restored. As well as oiling up a plug, the ignition cutout, which is wired into the decompressor, had vibrated apart and earthed out. A sweaty hour in leathers got it running again for the second outing although Judy reported it was still ‘missing’ a bit – having never before had plug trouble with the Scott (no, honestly!) the spare plugs I’d taken were nothing special; back home new ones cured it straightaway.

So, the Sunbeam; in previous years I’ve taken the Rex Acme because it seems the perfect bike for Mallory. You can ride flat out just about the whole way round, it steers beautifully (as befits a TT winner of its day) and my favourite trick was to squeeze as much as possible out of it down the straight and then, keeping on the inside line, pitch into the lovely sweeping Gerrards without backing off full bore; it would beetle all the way round at 60mph without a twitch, sneaking up the inside of everyone else (including one of the marshals who gave me a ‘slow down’ hand signal on the next lap! I didn’t take it personally; unless you’ve ridden one you’d never believe a bike like the Rex was so capable at speed). Anyway, I assumed this was a purely Rex Acme ability but I was wrong, the Sunbeam will also hold the inside line but being probably 10mph faster, I was a bit more gentle with the throttle, unfortunately it was also easy to run out of footrest clearance, I need to up them a notch for track work.

There it is, my favourite bend of the circuit, aaahhh, it’s great to be back… Now, if I’m honest this beating-moderns-on-a-flat-tanker thing is a bit of a cheat because rigid framed bikes really come into their own on a smooth surface. Suspension inevitably brings flexibility making a rigid superior to many classic designs on corners – but surface is the key; on a bumpy corner a rigid hops about and won’t hold a line so while spring frames are better on the road, rigids love the track.

I set off pacing another, 1929, Sunbeam (which was well-ridden and hard to catch) before getting involved in a fantastic tear up with a tidy rider on a tracked-up MZ that went very well. Any flat tanker’s handicap is hand change; coming out of the hairpin a foot-change bike will leave you cold and worse than that the Sunbeam 3 speed gearbox is ‘crash’ type, the label on the tank explains how speed should be reduced as low as possible before engaging a lower gear. Flying into the hairpin, hard on the brakes this proved hard to achieve and I was grateful for the sound-deadening properties of my race-approved Davida helmet although I have to admit, a tendency to jump out of the intermediate gear since Mallory suggests I should have listened to my gearbox more carefully…

Otherwise the performance of the two bikes was pretty well matched I’d say, with the MZ having the edge on acceleration and my Sunbeam being slightly faster; if we were level at the start of the straight I could just about creep ahead but if I was further back it was hard to gain enough ground along the straight and I had to hope my inside line technique round Gerrards would put me back in front for the back straight. I wonder whether any of the spectators realised what a battle was  going on! Who cares? We pulled into the exit lane exchanging huge grins and cocked thumbs and I’m only sorry we didn’t meet for a beer later.

This is my kind of day out, I’d never have made a racer, I’m not competitive enough to make the commitment to riding flat out every time – I like putting the bike through its paces but I don’t like thrashing it just to get ahead; for me the best thing is to find someone like my MZ mate who seems a fair match and have a scrap where whoever is in the lead at the finish is immaterial, it’s all about being first round one bit and accepting being second on another. Nobody has to overdo it and if you think the bikes getting too hot, back off and give it a rest for a lap, picking it up again when he laps you. The 1000 Bikes is perfect for that, you get enough laps per session to really get into it and I’ve generally found a sparring partner every time – if I don’t, I cruise for a bit until a likely-lad comes past and then off we go! .

The bike grouping works well for ’20s stuff. Being few in number we’re in the ‘slow’ (hmmph!) group along with Japanese and European lightweights so there’s plenty to have a tussle with and (my past incident aside) generally you can go flat out without incurring the wrath of the marshals – who, I have to say, do an excellent job of chaperoning less confident or low-powered riders. That’s good because although for me an outing on the track is a rare treat I have heard some riders grumbling about people ‘treating it like a race track’!  Erm… well anyway, the marshals did a great job keeping an eye out for anyone who wasn’t comfortable and seeing that they were okay while leaving the rest of us to play.

Our friend Alex Curtis had initially expressed some doubts about how best to negotiate the hairpin on her 1930 550cc CSD Triumph; I paternally advised her to take it steady for a few laps until she found the right line…

Yeh, well, evidently she got the hang of it soon enough…bloomin’ maniac!

And talking of ancient Triumphs, here’s our mate Nick Cleaver…

 Thanks to Nick’s wife Claire who was kind enough to forsake riding on the track herself to take on the role of official photographer – cheers Claire! Nick is famous for his ‘kid gloves’ treatment of his 1930 Triumph NSD… I mean, I can only conclude  he is hunched up here the better to listen to his engine as he graciously moves aside to make room for an MZ rider…

As it happens, this lust for speed led to a minor derangement on Nick’s bike…

The primary chaincase vibrated loose and a bolt and vital spacer went missing on the track.

I too suffered a loss; I had screwed a lovely old brass ‘Vintage Motor Cycle Club’ badge to my mudguard which and was sorry to see it had dropped off during the day. So en route to the beer tent we decided to join others walking the circuit; yes, I know – no chance – but it was a lovely evening and anything that kept us from the bar for a bit longer would be appreciated the next morning! I pretty much knew that I wouldn’t find my badge, anyone who saw that on track would, not unreasonably, pick it up and Nick’s spacer was so small…

But you know what? As we walked along the grass Nick suddenly cried out, “I’ve found it!”

It’s not a very large part is it? We had spread across the track two on the infield, two on the tarmac, Nick and I on the grass of the outfield. And it happened to be lying directly in Nick’s path. Now, there’s your Mallory Magic. Let’s hope the VMCC supports it again in 2019!

Cheers Rick