Wednesday 8 March 2017

Harrry Baughan




The Baughan.

Harry Baughan was an interesting man. He first made a light car 1919 in Pinner in Middlesex then, in 1921 moved to Stroud. In 1923 he gave up making cars and went over to making motorcycles and sidecars using Blackburn engines. The company made over 50 motorcycles and 3 with sidecar wheel driving. As there was no differential the set up had a straight on complex when driving. The shaft drive to the sidecar wheel was engaged via a dog clutch. 





To get around this Harry patented a differential but that never went into production. I know of a few manufacturers who did this, in World War 11 it was BMW and Zundapp, Norton also had a design and more recently the Russian Ural.



You can just see the bulge on on the casing  for the shaft drive to the rear wheel on this BMW.



The Ural has a 30/70 split on the differential to even out the drive for better cornering abilities. out the drive for better cornering abilities. design was very successful in sidecar trials winning many competitions going where no outfit has gone before but also excluded from many others. The company moved to larger premises in 1937 and made aircraft parts during World War 11. Harry kept his interest in motorcycles becoming a prominent trials organiser. The sole surviving example of a Baughan is to be found at the Museum in the Park in Stroud in Gloucestershire. Museum web site www.museuminthepark.org.uk It is a Heritage Museum that shows the history of Stroud from the Jurassic to the present day with lots of interesting bits in it including examples of the first lawn mowers! Cutting the grass was changed forever and we now have the legacy of this most Sundays during the summer months.


Doing my bit to support the NHS to stop more cuts in services I attended a march on Saturday. It was so underplayed by the BBC with only seconds of air time. I was very disappointed with this as I had spent most of the day at this rally and some 200,000 people had kept me company. If you know Shaftsbury Avenue the column of people filled the road as far as the eye could see. I could not see the beginning of the march nor the end. It took more than an hour and a half for the crowd to assemble in front of the Houses of Parliament. The BBC only reported tens of thousands taking part not tens of tens of thousands! 


However I did encounter a very nasty animal in Tavistock square where the march assembled. Spotted here, camouflaged, and tripping everyone up were a complete family of trained orcas ready to catch unsuspecting pedestrians sending them sprawling. Beware of Tavistock square and its’ cycle lane marking!



Back at the Museum more fun on the Monday bringing my Velocette LE out for its’ first spin of 2017 it was a delight to have 27 children from the local Primary School visiting us. They were challenged by looking for the motorcycle that has a dog on the tank. Their final request was to hear a motorcycle running. Nothing noisey was available only the LE. 


My LE didn't look like this originally!





As people may know it was used by the Police and many a person has been caught by the quiet approach. It is one of the quietest motorcycles around. Nothing to scare the kids who kept requesting more as I blipped the throttle. How can you say no to that?


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