Saturday 6 July 2019

Brooklands Motorcycle Show 2019




Brooklands Motorcycle Show

A classic bike show requires a “Classic” flyer and this time around Brooklands used an Art Deco design. Minimalistic but effective I thought this years effort was exceptional conveying speed and competition in a backdrop of the race track. The advert got me to go.



I did the thirty mile trip on my Velocette LE staying on the minor roads it was a good pace (for 200cc) and managed the journey with no mishaps. It was a good day out in very hot sunshine I did my bit for the Museum, handing out flyers and talking to people about the financial situation encouraging them to come sooner rather than later. I took only a few photos as I did a number of videos that filled up my phones memory. Some good old machines running around the arena on the old start/finish straight. The test hill was in use and many people blasted their way up the hill including a few lightweights. There was one enthusiastic pilot that accelerated so fast on his thirties racer that it pulled a wheelie that surprised him more than the audience. More people could have signed up for riding around the display area and could have taken part on the test hill. All of it ended too soon. Here are a few videos of the action.







Going around the club displays I came across some interesting bikes, on was the RVS a unique machine made from spare parts by a dealer who assembled the bike. He was also an engineer who created a set of Excelsior brakes to match the style of the machine. I had not heard of RVS before but it stands for Recovered Vintage Spares.






In one line was a Brough. Not the usual one but a fore and aft flat twin. There was a spare crankcase around too.

Lastly in the cafe there is this Zenith Gradua. A small one, gear lever on the right, one that I had seen before but not really inspected it that closely. This is worth a close look as the engine is a Bradshaw, not really surprising as their respective factories are only a few miles apart, but the engine was unusual being one of Bradshaw’s “oil boilers” I thought Bradshaw only had a design for singles but this is not so. Oil boilers were as the name suggests what happened in practice. Bradshaw used oil to cool the engine by having it splash around in a big jacket that enclosed the cylinder. The hot oil would steam away and in doing so cooled the engine. It required a sizeable volume of oil to do this but was reasonably effective. Now I have a mission to look at ABC motorcycles that are Bradshaw’s designs to see if his transverse flat twins were also oil boilers. These engines have an air cooled finned head and no barrel finning only a nice cast aluminium jacket that blends into the crankcase. Easy to miss.

I met up with Zoe Cano, intrepid lone motorcyclist whose recent book on her trip around New Zealand “Hellbent for Paradise” has just been published. I have visited most of the places she did so I want to compare notes.



A busy day at the Museum on Monday with another international flavour with visitors from Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. I fitted the Lucas light switch knob after much cleaning and that required a 4BA screw to do it with. I get this and other BA nuts and bolts for the LE from the BA Nut and Bolt Shop on-line. It looks almost new.




After many years of overheating on my LE I decided that, as I can do little about the amount of cooling from the radiator that I would fit an oil cooler. I found a suitable one that fits a Chinese 150 OHC single and made suitable brackets to mount it above the oil filter on the LE. My next problem is to plumb it in.





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