Two Strokes and More

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Two Strokes and More.

I have a whole muddle of things I have been thinking about as the snow swirls around and I’m not able to do much about anything. I’m waiting for oil seals from the LE Club as both the Valiant and the Greenford Police LE have started to leak from behind the generator flywheel. It can only be the front oil seal so I wait the delivery of new seals. When I put the heater on I can work in my garage but the space is limited and putting dabs of primer on the leg-shields to smooth them out a bit more is as much as I can do before the top coat is applied and I’m not sure when that will be. It has to be a bit warmer before that can be done

The visit to Sammy’s has made me think about two strokes not only the Villiers four but the little Tandon that was made in Ludgate Hill London and here is a small list of some of the bikes made in my area over the years. My thanks to Pete for supplying me with this information.

Ascot, Pentonville Road

Austen, Lewisham

Banamoto, Acton also made Cyc-Auto that was Park Royal

Bowden, Greys Inn Road

British Anzani, Hampton Hill

Brown, Great Eastern Street

Butler, Dalston

Calvert, Stoke Newington

Casswell, Great Eastern Street

Castell, Kentish Town

Century, Willsden Junction

Chater Lea, Golden Lane and later Banner Street

Clement, Regents Park

Cyclaid, Raynes Park

Dayton, Shoreditch and later North Acton

Duzmo, Enfield Way

EMC, Perry Vale

Featherstone, Bethnall Green

Gamage, Holborn

Grandex, Grays Inn Road

Grigg, Twickenham

Hack, Hendon

Hazel, Forrest Gate

Iris, Brixham

Ixion, Loughborough Junction

JAP, Totenham

JP, Cheapside

Kerry, Shoreditch

Kuhn, Stockwell

Kyma, Peckham Rye

Lagonda, Staines

Lindsay, Clerkenwell

Little Giant, Uxbridge

Mabon, Clerkenwell Road

Mars, Finchley

Neofold, Battersea Rise

Newman, Tabernacle Street

NYE, Leather Lane

Ogston, Acton

Pheonix, Holloway Road

Pride and Clarke, Stockwell Road

Randall, Wanstead

Rayner, Chancery Lane

Reyre-Newson, Stamford Hill

Silva, Conduit Street

Swallow, Park Lane

Trent, Shepherds Bush

Tyler, Gerrard Street

Vindec, Great Eastern Street

Weller, West Norwood

Whippet, Twickenham

Wilkinson, Acton

Wooler, Park Royal

Young, Waltham

Zenith, East Molesey

Not an exhaustive list but quite a number mostly surviving only a few years in the 1900s.

More up to date is the Villiers Four that look like a collection of 9Es in a Vee. There was a common crankcase that was pressurized by using a Shorrocks supercharger to provide the crankcase pressure, the brainchild of Bernard Hines. The following photos should explain it all.