The Shuttleworth Collection

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

The Shuttleworth Collection.

Another week gone by and I was at this months Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists Club night and this month we had the fire brigade in to give us a talk on fire safety. Friendly bunch and all motorcyclists so I handed out my last remaining flyer for the Museum. Reprints will be coming soon when we knew if we are moving premises. Did you know that when firefighters are in a smoke filled room they hold hands!! Scary stuff!! It was an entertaining evening and only marred by the homeward journey on the Buell in high winds and lashing rain. No running problems this time. Perhaps it was the side stand switch after all.

I've not done much on the Museum LE as I’ve been a bit busy doing car stuff but I did get out to Old Warden Aerodrome for an afternoon at this museum. That was because I got up too late to go on a ROG’s run and I still wanted to have a bike ride on a dry day. 

It is mainly aircraft on display with lots of oldies like a Sopwith triplane, Westland Lysander and just for fun a Scot!! It looks like a pram with wings and doesn’t look as if it would fly anywhere. What does amaze me is the number of motorcycle manufacturers that had their engine mounted in aircraft. Names like Douglas, JAP and ABC (Granville even designed bigger radial engines). 

All the displays were well laid out and eay to see other than the motorcycles that were packed in except an ABC. I had a really close look at this one and I was impressed by how complicated the rear suspension springs were. A spring for each direction of travel and more sophisticated than you would expect for 1919. The Stafford Mobile Pup was there and I’d seen that one a few weeks ago at Kop Hill. Another surprise was the pressed aluminium frame come body on this Villiers engined special being worked on to get it running again. 

All the exhibits at this museum run and a tribute to the enthusiasts that work there. It is well worth a visit as they do special event days where the aircraft are wheeled out and flown around. I had a great time talking to staff and visitors. I met two guys from New Zealand and one had known John Britten the New Zealander that had designed his own motorcycle and beat the Ducati’s of the day in 1994 and 95. It was a motorcycle of incredible technical innovations including carbon fibre front forks something now only coming into vogue in Moto GP. I have seen the V1000, first in 2007 in the John Britten Museum in Christchurch and again in 2011 where I saw it in Te Papa museum in Wellington. It has to be one of the world’s great motorcycles.

Paul Fynn Rally

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

BEN Charity Run 2017

While waiting for a brew I thought that I might give an update on the Greenford Police LE. It takes time to get things together and so does getting around to writing about it. The engine had seized standing so I had to remove the barrels and get the valves and guides replaced along with the water pipe stubs. I have cleaned the carb and repaired the exhaust box that had become holed on the top. It now gleams with a new coat of paint. One of the rear suspension unit bolts had seized in its sleeve and was a real naughty to extract requiring heating up the bolt head with my oxy-acetylene torch to free it off. It all takes time.

I have been preparing the Valiant for this charity run through Windsor Great Park that I have done on previous years. This year it decides that it will not rev much above 4,000rpm and has decided to become incontinent and pee oil from around the back of the engine adding to the weeps and seeps from the rocker oil return pipe that refuses to stay soldered. It looks as though most of the oil is coming from the clutch housing. A two oil seal area at the back of the engine and requires an engine out job. Not too difficult as I had to do one on the car while in Portugal earlier this year. I’ll do the seals when I get a spare day or two sometime. In between I’ll just have to keep an eye on the engine oil level. As for the revving, I’ve changed the condenser which has made it a bit better but not a complete cure. More investigations to take place.

I went on the ride and with deteriorating performance I arrived at the start point. I received the welcome pack with the route on a two sided map that you would have difficult reading going along and a tulip route book. I have used them before and require an accurate speedo that reads down to 0.1 of a mile. Neither of which I have. This compounded by the fact I need to use reading glasses it was great that the group of bikes were lead around by a vintage car that kept us all together, most of the time. Very much appreciated. Only a few bikes but among them was an ex-dispatch riders 1916 Douglas. Two speed gearbox and no clutch! It has an after market exhaust system that is supposed to give more power. No different that today!

Interesting riding but as the bike had such a low compression engine it was easy to start and only needed to be moving slowly to engage gear and be away. I am told, with a little practice, it is easy to do even up hill! Rain forecast during the day black clouds came and went leaving a few spits of rain to dodge. Dry this year but my minicams’ battery only recorded about ten minutes of the run so nothing for Youtube. I did take some pictures though and as the LMM is the home of Triumph there was an interesting Triumph Dolomite that was one of the last produced before car production stopped. 

Even with the poor running I completed the run and even got home again 84 miles later and about three and a half hours of riding. As you might expect the 1916 Douglas won concours. I am surprised that so many dispatch riders survived. Perhaps it was the fact that the German soldiers couldn’t aim straight because they were laughing so much seeing the guys antics struggling through the mud. This leads me on to James who has now embarked upon an epic journey around the country of 2500 miles on his Tiger Cub. We expect him back sometime this year. He plans to return in two weeks.