Friday 1 November 2013

The Wet and Windy Monday




 Wet and Windy


Another Monday at the Museum and this morning the car would not start so I braved the gales on the Valiant. Fortunately at that time of day the wind was not so strong, the rain had stopped, all the trees had fallen and cleared and my only discomfort was being sprayed by the man cleaning the war memorial with a pressure cleaner at the top of Oldfield lane south. James, Geoff and I congregated in the shop and thought that it would not be a very busy day because of the weather. Expecting no one to come. I started reading an article about the REG, a dohc 250cc twin of the early 50s designed and built by RE Geeson. 




It was raced in 1950 2years before the NSU Rennmax of similar design.  Innovative for the time and at the hands of John Surtees won race after race. This engine revved to 12000rpm, a 360 degree twin with shallow angle between the valves giving a small dome combustion chamber. The biggest problem was finding an ignition system that would keep up with the revs. By 1958 the REG was producing 34bhp at 11000 rpm enough to do 137mph at the 1961 Isle of Man TT. 




Pictures and details are from the Classic Racer May/June 2009. Even Mr Honda had come to visit the REG production based at his home in South Croydon. So before I could finish reading the article a gentleman from Sweden arrived and before I had gone 10 paces a gentleman from Japan arrived and the a couple from Queensland, Australia arrived too! Geoff was with the guy from Japan. The Australian couple wandered through and the lady ending up in the tea room as the man headed on to the home of Triumph, closely followed by James. I was left in charge of the till and the phone and then a guy from Canada arrived with only £50 notes so we did a deal that he could pay at the end of his visit, when James would be able to use the credit card reader. I returned for a short time to the man from Sweden and I spotted James heading for the Barn and suggested the Swede should pop on over there as it has something of interest for him. I talked to the Australian lady for a while until James returned and I could finally get a comfort break. When I returned the Australian couple had met up with the man from Sweden and they were on their way to catch a train. The Canadian was still with us and he has a friend who has a Velocette LE and was in desperate need of spares. As most people who own LE’s know belonging to the club is essential. Unfortunately I did not have any paperwork with me I could only pass on the club website information. I managed my lunch quietly and returned to the magazine for a while before a Danish couple arrived. The man was a member of the Danish Triumph Owners club and as you might guess very interested in the specials in the “Home of Triumph” He took many photos, including one of me, as we went around the displays. When we were back in the main hall he was very interested in the BSA Fury as he had recently read about the Triumph Bandit and for him this was an extra bit of information for him to publish in their magazine. This couple were on a tight schedule and their taxi was to come at 4pm. There was not enough time to see everything and he promised to pay us another visit. It had rained heavily during the afternoon and had dried enough for me to make a dash for home. The Valiant would not start! James tried as well to no avail. Then the inspiration hit me so I removed the plug caps and wiped the ceramic part of the plug with my fingers to remove most of the moisture, replaced the caps and with as much effort as I could muster prodded the kick start through its short travel to have the engine burst into life! I felt a bit hot but much relieved that I did not have another engine to fix. Home by 5pm and missed the next rain storm. I shammied the Valiant to get most of the water off before putting it back in the garage. It had been an exceptional day with an international flavour in spite of the weather.

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