A BSA or Two

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

BSA Rockets

I didn't get out to the ROG's Run the other Thursday as I spent most of the day getting the car ready for Sunday with trying to get the car radio working however I did get out on the Saturday afternoon up to Redpath Studios to pick up some family portraits. It was a relatively quick trip around the M25 and off at junction 18 towards Ammersham and to the Chennies. I left some fliers there for customers and friends who are also keen motorcyclists.

I was out last Sunday with the 2CV car club for Drive It Day. We all drove off from Denby's vineyard along the A25 east to Ightham Mote. A very old and historic house in pleasant grounds. Good for a visit and even better if you belong to the National Trust. There was an impressive line up of Citroens with a couple of cabriolets to add even more style to the day with Gita taking a shine to a three wheeler.

In the evening Trusty made another appearance in the “Crimson Field” but more to what is going on at the Museum. I have found another article from the Classic Motorcycle magazine from December 1998 about the line up of the Rocket series.

In the Museum we have a Road Rocket and a Super Rocket. The Super Rocket is under going restoration and can be seen in the little barn. In amongst the Triumphs' is the Rocket 3 ohc model to add to the line up. What we don't have is the Rocket Gold Star, but we are ever hopeful that one may land on us soon to boost the collection.

The Rocket series of 650s was much loved by many people with excellent power and handling gave the Bonneville a run for its money. In the Museum we also have the unit construction Spitfire in road going and racing forms. It is interesting to see how compact the bikes become when they are of unit construction.

Matchless Owners Club Visit

A Flying M Visit

If you have been following the “Crimson Field” Nursey has got Trusty back again and I wait to see what adventures there will be in coming episodes. I do hope the bike stays out of the wraps. A few Mondays' ago the Thames Ditton group of the AJS and Matchless owners club paid us a visit and it was good to see some of the old faces again. They turned up on Matchlesses! (no mention of the classic BMW here). Velocette MSS man also an AJS and Matchless man had the Museum team get his bike out and we all had the joy a seeing and hearing the MSS running at the back of the Museum. Once again, when the experts who know their bike, I end up with lots of information about how the model was developed. The Museum is always the place where information flows free.

Coming more up to date I was at the monthly club night of the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Club for a presentation from Lembit Opik the Public Relations Representative for MAG and he gave a very informative lecture about the successes and failures of MAG along with how the public image is changing also if you need to influence your MP as most constituences have at least 7500 motorcyclists and when this is pointed out to an MP they tend to start listening! There are campaigns going on all over the country to try to make motorcycling as enjoyable as possible. He pointed out that when MAG has been successful no one seems to notice. If you want to be more proactive about your biking have a look at the MAG website.

After the meeting I was talking to some guys who are members of the PanEuropean club and they are always looking for events to go to, they already know about the Museum, but not about the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust so I gave them loads of application forms for their members and told them about the benefits of joining the trust. There are a number of machines loaned to the London Motorcycle Museum by them, among them is the 1937 B24S Sunbeam and we have a new one just arrived this week a 1911 BSA that you can also see it on the LMM Facebook page.

A Week of Flyers

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Flyer Week

Last Thursday I had a trip out with the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Club, for me it was a 268 mile day out on the Buell seeing different roads down to the New Forrest for lunch and back. The start was at Ryka's where I left a bundle of fliers for display before we headed off into to deepest Surrey and beyond. 

On Saturday I headed to Birmingham for an overnight stop at the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport. It was for the Assam New Year celebrations called Bihu where there was much eating and drinking and dancing albeit, from me, Boris style of light bulb, lightbulb, motorbike, motorbike. This Holiday Inn has an international flavour and they were happy to have a goodly number of flyers for their things to do leaflet display. On leaving the Holiday Inn Gita and I went on to the National Motorcycle Museum. It was somewhere I have been wanting to go to for ages. Not only to see what they do but how they do it. It was an impressive display of several hundred motorcycles. I was on a mission to get engine plate measurements for a 1927 Cotton Blackburne. 

Bill has one of these in bits but not the engine/gearbox mounting plates. If anyone has one can we have the dimensions so we can get some made please. There was not one of that year in their display. I had some interesting conversations with the volunteers there and left a wad of flyers for them to display and took some of theirs away to advertise for them “in the south” at the Museum. Back at the Museum for my Monday stint, Bill arrived later in the day to have a meeting with Ealing Council about what surface would be best for the car park at the front of the Museum. I was on my way home before the meeting ended so I don't know the outcome. More to report later.

Tuesday I headed for Bristol for a family visit and was invited along to the Chipping Sodbury Tractor Club. This is a serious club that takes their tractors to shows and events and will be out on the 27^th April for “Drive It Day! The presentation that evening was of the history of Parnells of Fishponds Bristol and peaked my interest with their associations with aviation and the Parnell Pixie that used a 700cc Douglas bike engine in 1923 rated at some 6hp but with about 25bhp on tap and more than enough power to put the plane in the air. Parnell and son did many things that included shop fronts and fittings and used at Selfridges in 1908. They also scales that were later to become known as Avery. During World War 11 the company made gun turrets that were fitted to Wellington and Lancaster bombers. I guessed that some of these were electrically powered and the connection with Triumph and the generator was instantly made. I gave a presentation of a couple of minutes at the beginning to the group of about 40 members telling them a little about the Museum and opening times and location but also mentioning that we had a 1914 Triumph model H on display. 

During World War One these was affectionately known as Trusty Triumphs and just to add a bit more, if you are watching the new BBC Nursey series the “Crimson Field” one of the nurses turns up on one late in the first program. More interest was generated in the Museum and another wad of flyers disappeared.