St George

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St Georges Day 2015

It is a nice sunny day. It is a ROG's Run day and my first run with them on the Buell for ages. This is an annual event for the Wey Valley Bike Club as more than 20 bikes head off for a weekend of riding in Cornwall this year. The start is at the Hog's Back Cafe on the A303 at 09:30. I only join in the run so far only there for the ride out and stay up to coffee break which is at Fordingbridge. Some fellas are dressed as Knights and a few ladies join in with period costume and capes. Bikes are adorned with flags. It is a great run to Fordingbridge on some very good biking roads. I did see a green Velocette Valiant going the other way, obviously out for a ride in the sunshine.

Sammy Millers is about 20 miles away so I head over there to hand over some fliers and collect some from them. I take a few pictures and then head on home. The journey back is 90 miles and get home just before 3pm. If I had stayed until the lunch time stop I would not have got home before seven in the evening. A long day. For my first real outing of the year it was some 211 miles.

The week, so far, was very busy with clearing the tea room for decoration and refurbishment. The team cleared the room completely Monday evening and bright and early we started on painting the walls. Gloss would have to wait a day or two until after the new floor is laid. As with all things, it does not always work to a plan. The floor people are able to come in early on the Tuesday morning delaying the much needed coats of paint. The old floor comes up as we work around them to get paint on walls. The first coat is done by early afternoon but the colour is wrong. An executive decision is made and more paint is bought. A good job too as the first 5 litres only covers once and we need more paint anyway. The floor gets sealed with green stuff and we have to wait about an hour for it to dry off before continuing painting. It all gets finished by seven in the evening. The floor is to be completed over the next few days and should be ready for visitors on Saturday.

I have an MOT coming up on the Velocette LE and need to do some work on the front brake as it feels a little spongey. It just needed a good clean out and with a few minor adjustments there is a major improvement. I used it on Saturday morning to go to Hayes and meet up with a guy in the high street who used to ride LEs but sadly is no longer able to ride anything now. He promises to come to the Museum.

This Monday I see the new floor laid. A chequer of black and white against the grey walls. Good progress for the new facility, the Derek Minter cafe opening soon. The hard work so far is paying off but we still have the gloss to do before the next stage.

Things from the Shed

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Bike Shed Bikes

It has crossed my mind that so many people undertake restorations back to original spec building, in many cases, a motorcycle that is better than one that came out of the factory. I have been looking around the Museum to see what we have that is completely original and what has been adapted during the lifetime of the bike. An example of that is the Brooklands Sprinter another is the very nicely done Triumph Custom and what about Bill Bragg’s sprint bikes? I, for one, have a view that each bike is individual and the owner makes it so. If anyone has visited the Museum and seen my “Bike Shed Velocette LE” outside will see that it has been greatly modified for the job I wanted it to do. That was green laning in the 70's when I was able to get along many of the stretches of unpaved Fosse Way

 I didn't get to finish the project before moving away from the West Country but did use a '57 Triumph Twenty-one instead. That was also similarly modified. This brings me on to the question should you restore back to original or refurbish what another enthusiast has done? I have been in situations in the 70's and 80's where I could not get suitable parts for love nor money so had to settle for what I could get and you can see this from the twisted custom side stand on the LE. Not my real choice but one I ended up with to keep the project going. Although I started it in 1974 it took me nearly 20 years to finish it off and it first appeared back on the road in 1994 in time for the Kempton Park Southern Classic bike show that year. The LE is registered in 1963 so would someone take it on to restore it to original or refurbish what I have done? If you take the start of the project in 1975 then it is now 40 years on so is it now a proper classic bike and would need to be kept close to as it is now? I open this up for debate and site the Brooklands Sprinter as an example of a motorcycles evolution during its life. 

It has a 1922 frame and a 1928 engine, home made front forks and ball end levers that means it was used in competition in the 1950's. I think that the Triton is the classic of all bike shed enthusiasts and that is not original front hub from the 1952 Sunbeam S8 is a worthwhile change from the single sided unit to a full width one. 

Do the pedal blocks on the 1913 JES need to be kept as they are required by the owner to use the machine and if on the bike long enough to become part of the restorable history? All views are 
open to debate including leaving it as it is. We have done this with the 1909 Triumph that has many parts missing along with accumulated rust. I am not sure you would want to use it again if restored but it does reflect the history of the machine. Is it better to retain the battle scars of life or to have a pristine example?

Now mentioning battle scars I have been out and about over the week to Warrs at Mottingham to leave more fliers and again at the monthly Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Club. It was a social evening with a talk from the man who started “The Bike Experience”. It is all about getting disabled bikers back on their bikes having received life changing disabilities. Talon, who runs the show, is disabled from the chest down and has managed to get back on a modified bike and even go racing. He has on a few more signing offs to go to get his National Racing Licence. He has a very positive attitude and his mantra is to focus on what you can do and not what you can't. He has a group of very good volunteers and is always looking for more. They help get the disabled bikers launched when they set off and then catch them again when they land. There are no charges for individuals for the experience but they do require quite allot of funding and all this comes from donations as it costs about £400 for each person. So far he has had over 170 people take part in the Experience and the ear to ear smile of people who thought they would never, ever ride a motorcycle again is priceless Talon can be contacted by email at talon@tbex.co.uk or you can visit the website at www.tbex.co.uk.