Sunday 20 April 2014

A Week of Flyers


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 27th 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.


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