Classic
Off Road Bike Show
Kempton
Park 2015
After
being at the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Club Christmas diner it
was hard to get moving first thing but as the show opened at 09:30 I
just had to get going. In the last few weeks I had been as far afield
as Birmingham and Falmouth. At both places I took the opportunity to
leave some fliers. I had heard that the Coventry Transport Museum had
revamped their displays and I plan to pay them a visit in the new
year.
This year the Off Road Bike show seemed very busy with lots of
interest from visitors about the Museum stand with our exhibits being
the Brooklands Sprinter, Doug Heckle's 50cc Moto Minarelli's drag
bike, the Cotton Telstar, the Triumph 500T and our very own 500 cc
1970 Barcelona 24 hour racer and to complete the line up we had the 5
stud JAP
engined speedway bike.
The carburettor is missing and Bill has it
somewhere. From information gleaned, courtesy of the Speedway club
who also had a stand, it was a mono-bloc as there was the manifold
left to confirm the fitting. There was much discussion about the
frame and the fact that it had suspension fitted. I spoke to Bill
about the bike the Monday after the show and he said he had made 5
frames of differing sizes for Jim Tebby. Differing lengths and weight
distributions to give better traction for different tracks. You can
see where the engine plates have been re-drilled. There was much
conjecture about rear suspension being fitted to the bike and that it
could be a grass track conversion. More was clarified by Bill as the
bike was campaigned in France and won 3 consecutive championships in
the 1960's. Bill was not sure which years and so far I have not been
able to verify this. Rear suspension was fitted because the French
tracks have very rough surfaces and life would have been difficult
without it. It was allowed within the French regulations. On the home
front Jim Tebby raced for Wimbledon from 1959 to 1972. Many thanks to
the Speedway Club for their input.
Back
at the show there were some interesting bikes as always with a DMW
engined Dot, a couple of Greeves Racers and trials version and a well
turned out BSA Bantam. It reminds me that I should get out there and
get muddy!
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