More
at Kempton Park 2016
It
was a busy day at the LE Club stand and so was the London Motorcycle
Museum stand near the entrance. Pete was his usual enthusiastic self
tackling anyone in arms reach with fliers and extracting the much
needed cash to pay the rent. There were some interesting people too
with Our man who owns the Ormonde supporting us and meting up with
someone who had a suitable spark plug. Wandering around too was Des
Heckle who has many records to his name in the sprinting world. We
have one of his bikes at the LMM. It is the 50cc Moto Minarelli that
Des managed 51.3 mph at the end of a standing quarter and 82.9 mph at
a flying one. Better than the average family car would go in 1973!
Pictures from the Off Road Bike Show December 2015
He
said he would pay the Museum a visit and when he does I would like to
take a photo of him on his sprinter. We have some of him from 1973
and very special to have one of him now. The sprinter is so small it
is amazing that he fitted on it at all. The riding position is for
maximum streamlining so he basically draped himself around the bike.
The clip-ons are so narrow that to control the machine he had to
wedge his elbows into his knees. Locked in he was able to keep it in
line. Brough Superior man himself, Mark Upham was there promoting his
bikes and I believe that Eric Patterson has just received a new one
which he was showing off that the show. I spotted that on Facebook.
There was such a crowd around that I missed everything other than a
Triumph triple that was a bit difficult to start.
Going
around the stalls I saw a little clip-on engine that was fitted into
a bicycle frame. There were no makers marks on the engine cases and
only a riveted plate that said “Powerscooter” I know nothing
about these so a bit of research being required.
Not too difficult if
you look up motorised bicycles on the internet. It turns out to be an
80 cc American Clip-on from Demon Cycles. A nice little two stroke.
Single speed with chain drive to the rear wheel. Not sure how legal
80cc is is in the UK but I suppose it would be fine if it has a 15mph
speed restriction on it. I thought the version with a “Jack shaft”
that allows you to use the bicycle chainwheel and sprockets for extra
gears with of course a freewheel on the chainwheel an interesting
option. Look at it on Youtube:
Around
the show was this nice Ariel for sale and for some reason this year
Tiger Cub trials bikes were everywhere there was even a racing
version with clip-ons for good measure.
Most of the 50's singles were
around at not too expensive prices with BSA, Royal Enfield, AJS and
Matchless well represented giving lots of choice. The number of older
Japanese bikes is increasing with one, a bit special, original 125cc
Bridgestone two stroke twin for sale.
No comments:
Post a Comment