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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment