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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