More Fun with the oldies!

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

After the show

It was a busy week with the LE club meeting on the Tuesday then off to Newby Hall in Yorkshire for a couple of days then to Bristol for a wedding and home for Monday and a day at the Museum. Pete has just had a star letter published in the MCN 25^th May and in the distant past when 750cc fours ruled and Ducati with their twin was allowed to have a larger capacity engine Honda claimed that Ducati won because they had a bigger sized engine! However the main part of Pete's letter was about engines running backwards to compensate for the gyroscopic effect of the wheels running forward making the handling of the bike easier by having less momentum to work against when changing direction and that a 90 degree V4 with firing each bank together gave a better delivery of power that was more manageable and would help to keep the front wheel on the ground. Well done to Pete and his new Tee shirt. In the same issue there was a photo of the Imme as a bike to look out for. Interesting how things come around at the same time.

I have been running through the photos again from the show and I remembered a few years ago at Croxley green the appearance of not one but two Neeracars. There was a collection at the show this year and when I mentioned about Croxley green it was father and son who had turned up. What a machine with beam frame forward controls and hub-centre steering. Croxley Green is where the Watford Car Club have their annual show with all welcome either to show or just visit. It is on the first Wednesday of August. This year the 5^th.

A little piece of nostalgia in that a few weeks ago there was a re-run of the Great Escape and I tuned into it just as Steve was on the run and getting ready for his bike ride. I put forward a challenge in how many Triumph motorcycles were in the film? I did notice a left side chair on one of them and in the scene at the station there was a 250 BMW single and a much later DKW. Is there more to see? Just to give you an idea of how old most of the Volunteers are we watched it the first time around in a cinema!

Kempton Park 2015

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Southern Classic Bike show 2015

For a change the weather promised to be better for this years' show and I was up early to get the Valiant to the show by about 8am. The run to the show was quiet and I made good progress to get there in time. It didn't take long to get the bikes in position with Mr Plod giving Georges' bike a good talking to.

The LMM had its stand just across from us and Pete and Brian did sterling work in promoting the Museum. So much so that they had run out of fliers and Pete took nearly all I had to finish off the afternoon. After the usual walk around the stands to buy oil for the LE and Valiant some new Halcyon goggles and a book. The book was being sold from the stand next to the door by a charming young lady, Zoe Cano. Zoe had done a road trip around America on a Bonneville some 7500km on her own. The book is called “Go or Bust” ISBN 978-1-890623-43-2 from Road Dog Publications. Zoe 's blog is www.bonnevilleadventure.blogspot.com. I have yet to read the book along with lots of other stuff so once read I'll report back. Now back to the show with great stands from everyone participating and as usual there are things that pop up of interest, The first of these was the Imme, a German moped that ha single sided from and rear with a very neat and polished egg shaped engine and on the same stand was the show prize winner a Horex single.

Just down the way were the British two stroke club that had a TWN on display that had a very unconventional engine being twin cylinder with a single combustion chamber with twin carbs and twin exhausts. Looks like a twin but is really a split single

On the Dot stand was another bit of kit that caught my eye, once again a twin and quite unique have an RCA engine fitted. It is a bit more conventional but has the exhaust that exit on the side and the pipes go backwards. Very few of these were made and were always special.

It was a good day although this time around no-one received any prizes. With the stand dismantled and packed in the car and on the way the trip home for us the bikes was uneventful other than George needing a push start to get going and fighting our way through Saturday afternoon traffic with miles of filtering to get home. Now that is fun on an old bike!