More from Kepmton Park Bike Show

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org 

More from the Southern Classic Bike Show

After the hectic weekend I have a little more time to write and before I lose the details. This year the Museum had 3 bikes on the stand, a beautiful little Tiger cub, a Triton and an AKD. The AKD is very unusual as most were 147cc side valve motors. The one on the stand is reputed to be of 300cc with only a few made. One has been tracked down in Belgium and while at the show there is reported to be one in an Australian museum. 

The owner of the AKD is in the process of writing the history of the company and tells me that the Australian one is a 147cc model. I looked forward to seeing the book. I have an interest in AKD as the initials stand for Abingdon King Dick and many people know of King Dick tools and that is where my interest comes in as the main tool that is used on the Velocette LE is the special 3/16 “ Whitworth cranked spanner. It was the only way you could remove the cylinder barrels at one time. You now have mini socket sets that will do the job.

This year I did not have much time to get to the club stands but as some of the guys from the Velocette Club stand had heard of my presentation to the Norton and AJS clubs they would like to hear that too!

As I went around the stands I kept running into two guys on buggies like the ones in the insurance advert and when at the Speedway stand I asked them when they are going to fit bigger engines to their wheels. They were not sure, but enjoyed the joke about fitting a 500cc single for the vibes! At the same stand I found out there is a bike day at the Speedway Museum in the Paradise Wildlife Park at Broxbourne in mid-February so I need to put that in the diary for next year.

As I was heading back to the LE stand after collecting my exhibitors medal, I was hailed by one of the MV exhibitors about the museum not being able to support their AGM in October. I said that it was true in that Ealing Council will be doing building works in the yard and we could not guarantee access to the function room, let alone any additional parking. It was fine for last year but not this. It is a shame as the MV owners were looking for a venue in the south and the museum would have been ideal.

Another few strides and I met the Italian guy who has a collection of Motum, and Itom 50cc bikes and mopeds that I talked to last year. He has such enthusiasm for these machines and even manufactures bits himself to make them as authentic as possible. These bikes a few and far between and look little treasures. 

I still have not got back to the LE stand when I talk to the book seller on the corner. I saw him last year but lost his card with a view that he could give a talk to the Wey Valley bike club on his experiences of riding a BSA Bantam to India. This has just reminded me that I have promised to send out some e-mails to clubs so they can contact me for a presentation. When I finally get back to the LE stand I meet up with the two guys in their buggies again and another joke about speed pops out. Thre have been a few bits of riendly rivalry between the stands partclarly as the Police bike club also had a Police manikin called Eric and he reclined sufficient to be able to sit on his LE.

 He looked a litle too laid back for me. Our man on the street was made of sterner stuff.

I have a few fliers left for the museum with me at the stand and still manage to hand out a few more from my limited stock. The event is busy up to closing time and it has been hard to cover two stands during the day, but very enjoyable none-the-less.

Kempton Park Bike Show 2013

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Southern Classic Bike Show 2013.

Friday afternoon I pick up George, in the car, on the way to the venue at Kempton Park. George was due to cycle over to me, but as it was pouring with rain I thought it would be best to fetch him. On the way I went into to Tesco to get a few cans of beer that were on offer and to support my local Post Office bought some whitetac there for photos and posters for our display. There were a few hiccups with where we were placed. Most of the stand had no board backing so we improvised on where we could put things. I managed to get some wire to hang the banner from and tried to put up posters on the board with sellotape, but it would not stick to the board. Each time I thought I had someone would open the main doors and the poster would float off the board and down to the ground. The tape just did not stick. Abandon that idea so George enthusiastically whitetaced all the A4 photos we had to the back wall which were shutters for an out of use bar. Below that we taped a big a1 size photo of an LE. It was near 4pm by then and we had done all we could to get the area prepared. The weather promised to be dry for show day so riding the bikes there and back should be fine. 

Saturday morning I am up early and head off on the Valiant to the show. I arrive safely with only a couple of idiots not realising that a little bike was going so fast. I join the queue to check in and see Pete another volunteer from the museum. I tell him where the Museum stand is and say I’ll be over later. Once I am in the hall I may my way to the Velocette LE Club stand. Before I get there I see George and at the stand Paul and Ron are there too. I had planned to get there early enough to greet people as they arrived. There was only Chris to arrive with his trailered LE. The final positioning of bikes could only take place after Chris had got his bike on the stand and assembled the Police manikin. Chris arrived about 9am he had not been able to use my bracket as he had a single seat and the springs were in the way. We had got everything in place with a few minutes to spare just before 10am and opening time. Georges KSS was first in view on the stand as you came in the door, then my Valiant, Paul’s MK3 LE, Ron’s MK3 LE and then Chris’s Police MK3 overseen at the end by a stern looking Policeman keeping the stand in order.

By 10:30 the hall was starting to fill up so I went over to the Museum stand to see how Pete was getting on. He was OK so I went for a little wander to find a bacon roll to keep me going and look for someone who was selling oil. I would buy some later. I dropped in on the LE stand, handed a flier to one of the judges who was looking very hard at the Valiant and then went to get myself another mug of tea as be at the Museum stand for a bit. There was a flood of people now and Pete was getting into the swing of things with no punter passing without receiving a flier.  There was a great deal of interest in the bikes on the stand, a late model Tiger Cub that had a striking paint job, the Triton and the AKD. More on the AKD later. I had lost track of time and it was about 1:45 and there were only a hand full of fliers left. Over 1000 had been handed out. Pete had a break from the stand for comfort and give his nomination for the best stand. The nomination had to be in by 2:00pm. When he returned I went back to the LE stand. Everyone had missed me. I talked to a few more visitors and then went off to get my oil and a few other bits. When I returned there was a rosette stuck to the front of the Valiant. I thought it was for the club stand, but no it was a “Highly Commended” for the bike.

A few pictures were taken to commemorate the occasion and I went off to the Museum stand to find the Tiger Cub also had a “Highly Commended”. Neither stand got any other prize. Around 3:30 we collected our exhibitor’s medals and started packing up the stand. The stand took a couple of hours to set up and about an hour to get everything cleared. Chris took away every bit that we could not carry on the bikes in his car and we would do the returns at the next club night the following Tuesday. For everyone it was a successful day and most enjoyable. It was Ron’s first show event and enjoyed the fun. It was close to 5pm before I was on my way. George followed me home as we took a circuitous route to avoid the traffic on the Staines road. It was a relatively uneventful journey and even had some motorists shadowing us on the dual carriageway wondering what we were riding. Home safe and everything put away I celebrate with a few of the cans of beer I had bought yesterday. What a day!

Pre-show Preparations

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org 

Pre-Show Preparations

Kempton Park and the venue for the Southern Classic Bike Show this Saturday. I have not been out much over the last week as I over did it a little doing major DIY and am suffering for it. Needless to say that it didn’t stop me from going to the local 2CV club meeting on Monday night and during this week I have been constructing a bracket to help hold down an LE on my trailer. The last time the LE was on the trailer was going to and from the Stafford Classic Bike show where the tying down straps did a little damage to the paintwork even though there was padding there to stop that.. The idea of the bracket is to get the straps away from the body work and chafe something else not important. It was constructed with a few bits of angle iron, some strip, a few bits of bar and a bit of felt.  I welded it all together on my portable oxy-acetylene welder. I just don’t do enough of it to be any good.

 It was cleaned up and painted yesterday for one of the LE club members, Chris to borrow said bracket and trailer so he could get his LE to the show on Saturday. He is doing the test run for me. The bracket has a curved strip between the two pieces of angle so that the over the bike retaining strap is kept away from everything. The side bars are for the left and right straps to tie down from. The whole lot sits under the seat wedged onto the body that is protected by the felt. The over the bike strap should hold the bracket in place.

 As you can see I now have my new discounted battery in place and for the LE enthusiast who has converted his LE to 12 volts it is a YB7C-A. This morning I’m getting scissors sellotape and Bluetac together for putting up the pictures and drawings on the stand this afternoon. George is coming with me to help out.

1946 Triumph GP Racer

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org 

A War Horse

Sunday morning up bright and early to enjoy the best of the day. Out to Longacres Garden Centre near Bagshott to get some plants and compost for Gita to help her in her passion for gardening. As we were about to leave and head home a World War Two bomber circled over head. Four engines, two tail fins and gun turrets front and rear I instantly thought it was a Lancaster Bomber and the thought of a Triumph engined generator that kept the batteries charges for the operation of the electrically powered turrets. Other bombers had used hydraulics driven from the engines. Not a good idea when, in a combat situation, a stray bullet could make your whole defence system inoperable. Once home, the car unloaded I went off to the museum on the LE to check in and give some feedback on the weeks’ events. I had thought that it may not have been a Lancaster bomber as so few were serviceable and asked if there were any other four engined, two tail fin bombers from World War Two. Indeed there was and it was a Halifax. In the museum on the Monday our friend from Croydon, who is ex-RAF, and a keen restorer of vintage motorcycles was asked the question “was the bomber a Lancaster or Halifax?” He said there were no flying Halifax so it was probably a Lancaster. His attendance at the museum this week was to do with a little Francis Barnett, the 150 that has a spiders web of tubes laced together to make the frame.

I have done some investigations on the use of Triumph engined generators. There is a whole list of other motorcycle manufacturers that were used by the RAF. The museum does have a couple of these generators with engines and it seems that not only were they used on the Lancaster bomber but also on service trolleys. The service trolleys were for starting the aircraft on the ground and primarily just for charging the batteries.

I have been told by an electrician that generator engines normally run at 3000rpm which gives an output of 50 cycles per second. Does that mean for American electrics you would need to run at 3600rpm to give 60 cycles per second? I contacted the RAF archives and they kindly sent me details of a Triumph engined service trolley. As the manual is dated 1952, I guess that these trolleys were in use for a good many years. So Triumph had a lightweight all alloy engine that was designed to rev at 3000rpm. The cams had very modest lobes so it could not be used for much else in its current form.

At the cessation of hostilities Grand Prix racing resumed and Triumph put together a very interesting racer for 1946. Its heritage was from the generator engine using the head and barrels along with a higher compression and more lift from the cams improved the performance enough for the bike to be quite competitive surprising the opposition with some very good results at the Isle of Man. A number of features on the engines can be seen in many of the later twins particularly the Twenty One and Speed Twin.