A
Road Trip
(West
Coast 4)
Solvang
Leaving
Morro Bay topped up with a good breakfast at a harbour side cafe it
was a grey misty start to the day. Solvang was a couple of hours
away. Not a long drive but it would be Highway 101with only rolling
countryside to see. We were well away from the dramatic coastline
near Santa Barbara where rains of last year had washed away some of
Route One. Solvang is a quaint town with local breweries and a place
to taste some craft ales. We passed one on the way into town at, of
all places Buellton (Solvang Brewery). It is also the nearest town to
Ronald Reagan’s ranch and has Danish style architecture making it
even less American. Still has a MacDonalds though!
Arriving
early afternoon we had plenty of time to explore the town and enjoy
its style. Two reasons for being at Solvang, one was its quaintness
and the other, the Solvang Motorcycle Museum. This we would visit the
next morning before going on to LA. Passing a restaurant at the end
of the afternoon we stopped for a beer and had a Buellton 805. That
evening we went in search of somewhere to eat and finally sat down at
the Solvang Brewing company restaurant, had a rack of beers and some chicken. I like the idea of being able to try a selection of beers
rather than halves or pints.
Another
hearty breakfast then around the corner to the Museum. It is run by
Jill at the desk taking your money and Virgil. Virgil is more than a
rocket scientist and is a theoretical nuclear physicist. A very
clever man with money and a passion for special motorcycles. We had
some interesting conversations about a up-down flat twin racing two
stoke Jawa that he had got from the factory. There was no information
with it so everything is conjecture.
Virgil believes it to be a
factory prototype that has been put together to get around the
vibration problems of a two stroke single. Thinking about it now the
flat twin two stroke has also been done by Velocette in the Viceroy
scooter. The Viceroy engine has a common crankcase and is balanced as
the four stroke with pistons opposing each other. This two stroke had
two carbs and basically two engines strung together. Set up as being
opposed would give the best balancing but 90 degrees in a vee would
give the better power delivery. My view on this layout was that it
was a student or apprentice project with the simplicity and crudeness
in the construction. Virgil disagreed with this in that as a
prototype it didn’t need to be any better. I think that when
someone designs and builds and engine they want to make it look the
business even if it is not. Virgil went on to sign his books an I
carried on looking around at some of the fantastic bikes in his
collection. He has one of the eight Brittens in existence. I have now seen three, one was at the Britten Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand South Island the second in the Tao Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand North Island and now, this one.
It will
only travel with him and will not get shipped anywhere. It is too
much of a treasure to be shipped anywhere. I took so many photos but
he has an original Mike Hailwood machine, the Vincent that did the
speed record at Bonneville are just a few examples of the
extraordinary collection and there is a lot more.
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