Work
on the Ormonde
Unusually
I am at the Museum on a Sunday because everyone is away at the
Beezumph Rally and are not due back until later in the day. Not much
is happening and I take the opportunity to see what was going on with
the Ormonde. It is not on display but languishing in the little barn
with the engine out.
The Antoine engine is in pieces and the owner is
sitting on one of the benches in the sun patiently removing the
remains of red hermatite from the threads in the crankcase. The
barrel is screwed into it. It all looks so flimsy. Each part of the
engine is being worked on in turn and nothing is disassembled until
then. The crankcase walls seem paper thin and most of the metal is
around the crankcase bolt bosses. There is a string seal that is
compressed into a recess in each of the crankcase halves.
This will
be replaced on assembly. Holes have been patched where threads have
stripped but for 113 years old it is still hanging in there. The
crankshaft looks a fairly substantial item and the piston has 3 solid
6mm rings. There is a little burning past the rings. One ring is
missing and the other has been removed to use as a pattern for a
replacement.
There has been some conjecture about the actual capacity
of the engine and now, having measured the bore and stroke it comes
out to 402cc. While this patient work was in progress I wondered how
many they would have had to make to turn a profit? At that time
(1902) the Ormonde and depending on model was selling for £42 to £45
and a good wage that would give you a very comfortable life style was
£1 a week. Bicycles were selling for about £5. I estimated that the
motorcycle would have about £20 of parts. Premises would probably
have been £1 a week with other overheads similarly. So for a year
the overheads would have been £100, wages for 3 people, at 3 on £1
each per week each £150 that equates to 10 motorcycles per year! It
is no wonder that everyone seemed to be building motorcycles.
Consider how rich they would have been if they sold 100? Much of what
is known about the Ormonde is lost but if you want to spend a little
time on a visit reading its history it is surprising it has survived
so long. This is not the only Ormonde around with 8 more survivors
ranging in years of 1900 to 1904. We do not know how many were built.
After 1904 Johanas Guttman went off to make bicycles. I wonder what
happened to the other two?
Later
that day the bike return in the van and I have a chance to have a
good look around them before they go back on display, they are all
triples, the P1, Egli framed OHC racer and Gary's bike that he raced.
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