More on the Ormonde

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Work on the Ormonde

Unusually I am at the Museum on a Sunday because everyone is away at the Beezumph Rally and are not due back until later in the day. Not much is happening and I take the opportunity to see what was going on with the Ormonde. It is not on display but languishing in the little barn with the engine out. 

The Antoine engine is in pieces and the owner is sitting on one of the benches in the sun patiently removing the remains of red hermatite from the threads in the crankcase. The barrel is screwed into it. It all looks so flimsy. Each part of the engine is being worked on in turn and nothing is disassembled until then. The crankcase walls seem paper thin and most of the metal is around the crankcase bolt bosses. There is a string seal that is compressed into a recess in each of the crankcase halves.

This will be replaced on assembly. Holes have been patched where threads have stripped but for 113 years old it is still hanging in there. The crankshaft looks a fairly substantial item and the piston has 3 solid 6mm rings. There is a little burning past the rings. One ring is missing and the other has been removed to use as a pattern for a replacement.

 There has been some conjecture about the actual capacity of the engine and now, having measured the bore and stroke it comes out to 402cc. While this patient work was in progress I wondered how many they would have had to make to turn a profit? At that time (1902) the Ormonde and depending on model was selling for £42 to £45 and a good wage that would give you a very comfortable life style was £1 a week. Bicycles were selling for about £5. I estimated that the motorcycle would have about £20 of parts. Premises would probably have been £1 a week with other overheads similarly. So for a year the overheads would have been £100, wages for 3 people, at 3 on £1 each per week each £150 that equates to 10 motorcycles per year! It is no wonder that everyone seemed to be building motorcycles. Consider how rich they would have been if they sold 100? Much of what is known about the Ormonde is lost but if you want to spend a little time on a visit reading its history it is surprising it has survived so long. This is not the only Ormonde around with 8 more survivors ranging in years of 1900 to 1904. We do not know how many were built. After 1904 Johanas Guttman went off to make bicycles. I wonder what happened to the other two?

Later that day the bike return in the van and I have a chance to have a good look around them before they go back on display, they are all triples, the P1, Egli framed OHC racer and Gary's bike that he raced. 

A Closer look

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Ducati Close up.

Peter who does “Tales from the Tarmac”, a long term Ducati fan, rider and racer has added his knowledge about the Ducati's I photoed at the bike shop in Winnipeg as follows:

“…..... from the picture I could identify only 2 with any certainty.

Nearest the camera is a Mach 1 250cc. It is the model my cousin rode to success in the T.T. I raced one myself and collected a few trophies.

The next one seems to be a bit of a mongrel. The engine is Ducati (possibly 350cc.) It has an early GT tank held on with bungees and Ceriani style front forks and off road tyres.

The third is a Diana Mark 3 250cc. similar to the Mach 1 but with a black frame and fork shrouds.

These were made for American export but are not that common. In the 60s American Ducati imports were being handled by The Berliner Corp. They also sold Norton motorcycles.

Norton wanted to sell the new Commando to the Americans but Berliner had a consignment of Ducati Mark 3s coming from Italy and hadn’t room for the Commandos. Bill Hanna a dealer in Liverpool was persuaded by Norton to accept the Berliner Mark 3s so that Commandos could be bought by Berliner.

So a consignment of Ducatis' went from Italy to the U.S.A. where they were stuck in the docks for about a year and then sent to Liverpool.

Hanna distributed his consignment among several dealers with no pre sale checks or instructions. Many of the bikes were run with insufficient oil in the sump which produced a number of big end and camshaft failures.

Vic Camp the Ducati concessionaire in London was really mad. Not only had they damaged the reliable reputation of the Ducatis he was responsible for but he had to find the resources to do the repairs.

Next on the shelf looks like it may be an early 150cc. Monza Junior. I always thought the Junior would make a nice pre-65 trials bike.

The last one seems to have a black GT style tank. From there on your guess is as good as mine.( The label says its a scrambler).

So, Ducatis from the 60s. By 1968 a new range of singles with wider crankcases were introduced and they became the Desmo’s.

Picture shows cousin Mike on my Mach 1, his own having crashed at Brands Hatch 2 weeks earlier.”

Latest Ducati Scrambler

Sadly I didn't get to Croxley Green this year on account of the rain however the Sunday of the16^th August waste Brackley Festival of Bikes with thousands turning out to fill the town. Geoff was there to see what it was like with representatives from the main manufacturers, bike clubs and trade stands and stunt bikes for entertainment. I will have to put that on the calendar for next year. Up and coming event that the Museum will be at is Kop Hill. We will have something to show and perhaps something taking part. It should be a good event to attend.

Back to Toronto

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Back to Toronto

After leaving the Yamaha at the hire shop we were collected and taken back to our friends house out on the south side of Winnipeg and on the way along Pembina highway I spotted another motorcycle shop that was a multi dealership. I thought it would be a place not to miss, but as it was late in the day I thought I could fit in a visit in the morning. This was arranged and we did. It turned out to be an exceptional place.

Wildwood is a Triumph, Ducati, Honda, Yamaha and any thing else you can think of type of dealer. Just in the door there was a well restored Triumph T120 in pride of place on a plinth and as I walked around more gems met the eye.

There were half a dozen Ducati 250 pre-desmos on a shelf. It would have been a real treat for Pete (of Tales from the Tarmac) to see them but he will have to make do with just the photos.

I was privileged to be able to see a BSA Rocket Gold Star just restored in the workshop. It looked magnificent! It turned that the boss of the place liked old British bikes in particular BSAs and he was not there to talk to as he was out racing his Gold Star!

I spent a long time there, not only looking at the bikes, I do like the new Ducati Scrambler, and trying on some different bike gear. I have a Joe Rocket Phantom 4 jacket that is mainly mesh and I was looking for a replacement I also have the Apollo pants that have a zip out air vent. I found a jacket replacement in the Olympia Airflow 4. They have an Airflow pants too but not with a short leg. Olympia is an American company that don't do short legs! What a shame because other than that it would have been a great summer riding set up. I know I should have bought them but I didn't. Looks like I'll have the Rocket gear for a bit longer. Another time perhaps, we flew out of Winnipeg that afternoon and back to Toronto arriving late that night. The next day was fun as I sampled more Canadian beer and found a brewery not far where we were staying. I did enjoy the product of the Steam Whistle Brewery! There are 18 micro breweries around Toronto making a variety of ales, pilsners and ciders. Something for everyone!

Back at the Museum on Monday and we had some 23 visitors from Canada, Finland, France and the Surrey AJS and Matchless Owners club to help fill the day.

Winnipeg

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It Rains here too!

I have arrived in Winnipeg and staying with friends. Winnipeg is so much quieter than Toronto. Much more laid back and I have no rush to do things. I am taking the opportunity to lay in bed and do some reading. I have finished Zoe Cano’s book “Bonneville-Go or Bust”. It is an enjoyable book to read, well written and Zoe is honest with her feelings. It is a book to inspire. I am now reading Graham Field’s “In Search of Greener Grass” and it is a different style of writing altogether. I’ll tell you more when I have finished it. Looking through the Winnipeg Free Press, the local paper, to see what was on there is a report on a motorcycle race meeting at Gimli. It is a small 1.3km track with a drag strip and events take place there about every month. It is one of the few places for people to race outside Ontario. I had missed the event by a week.

 I tend to do that. I don’t seem to get the timings right. Have acquired a few maps to do some exploring in the countryside around Winnipeg and now I’d discovering that most of the roads are so straight a cruiser suits that well. I track down a motorcycle hire shop River City Motorcycles 286 King Street and organise to collect a bike on the Tuesday evening after the thunder storms have passed.

On the Tuesday day time there are reports of tornados in the e nearby town of Branston. The bike that is ready for me is a 650 Yamaha  V Star a little cruiser with a big screen( to keep the bugs off) and the rain too!.Not used to the rake of the forks I wobble off with Gita on the back to return to our friends for an early start in the morning. We just managed to get there in the dry before the rain set in. Our early start was a failure but by about 10:30 the rain had cleared and we were left with cloud. The roads were dry and we had an ambient temperature of 20C.

 The previous few days had been in the mid 30’s and it fried your brains. Canada was in the middle of a heat wave with near record temperatures and with that come mossies that exanguinate you. Cool was better. I had a plan to go east to the Whiteshell Provincial Park and some bendy roads then north to Victoria beach. The late start would curtail that and we just went for the park. As we entered the park it started to drizzle. Bendy roads in the wet were fun and after exiting the park it stopped raining some 40 miles later.

Me and the Highway.

 We had covered some 120 miles and still had to get back to return the bike by 5pm. It was nearly 3pm and we still had over 80 miles to go. Going west we avoided some big black rain clouds by going a southern route and we were back in the sun but it was windy they said gusts of over 50 mph were recorded in that area. We know the wind was strong as Gita had to hold on to her shades to stop them being blown away. We got back just on 5 and clocked 218 miles for the day. In spite of the rain it was a great day out on that little  cruiser. I had some nice conservations with people at the bike shop, one guy has been to Northampton. I left fliers behind that were welcome. I didn’t manage to get to a local bike club meeting that was a few miles away at a Tim Horton’s’ coffee shop on Main street but never mind perhaps another time.

Gone West

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Canada

            At the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle club night the other Thursday we had a presentation by Graham Field on his travels with an elderly Kawasaki KLR. He is an entertaining speaker and prompted me to buy two of his books which he kindly signed for me. One was “In Search of Greener Grass” and the other “Different Natures”. He had come on his KTM which was well loaded with books and his load was considerably lighter when he went on his way. 

            It was a night to remember being warm and pleasant when I left home on my return lightening was flashing over where I was going and it looked as though it was going to rain. My journey around the M25 was dry to start with and as a got closer to home the road changed from dry to flooded. It was not raining but the amount of water around was considerable. I pull off onto a slip road and put my oversuit on to try to keep dry. I still got home soaked and I had missed the heavy rain falling on me. The books in the top box of the Buell remained dry and will be my reading while on holiday. On Saturday I rode to Nottingham and back on the Buell and now I am committed to doing a presentation on my visit to the Enfield Shrine. On Monday I arrive in Toronto and pick up a hire car for a few days. Gita and I are staying with friends and we are close enough to have a visit to Niagara Falls. During the stay I search out the only Triumph dealer in the area and that is at Whitby about 20 miles north of Toronto. 

             I pay a visit but choose the wrong time of the day when everyone is very busy but I still get a excellent reception and a mug of tea, would you believe it, Yorkshire tea!
         
            
            

           



            
            It is a mega bike shop called GP bikes and he manager has promised to promote the museum and welcomed the fliers.  I see close up the new Ducati scrambler and that looks a mean machine. They have a very nicely restored T100 on display.

            Back in Toronto on a walk about I spot another Meriden Triumph looking sporty parked up. There is allot of bikes in and around the city and a prevalence of electric scooters and policing it all are guys on some very nicely turned out Harleys two of which were parked up in the afternoon sun.

After the BEN ride.

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Chinnor Byke Dayz 2015

After winning a concours cup at the Paul Fynn Rally it was time to celebrate so after a quick change I was chauffeured out to the event. We arrived about 7:30 in plenty of time to have a walk around and hand out even more fliers to the unsuspecting. I even managed to hand one to the MAG Political correspondent, Lembit Opik and a feature is promised in the Road magazine at some point. 

Lots of traditional beer and enough rock music to keep everyone happy. Once again this year Shambollick entertained us with high wire gymnastics and some interesting juggling with fire and even more fire breathing to singe us all. This year it was warm enough without any pyrotechnics. My thanks goes to Wycombe MAG who put on the event and the proceeds have gone to supporting MAG and the local Air Ambulance Service.

I had too many things to do on the Sunday with the Observed Sunday on the first of every month and the Heathrow Classic Vehicle Show. Neither of which I managed to get to. I needed to be at the Wey Valley Club meeting point by 09:30 but as I didn't wake up until 10 so I figured it was best to stay where I was. The day ended up being filled with family stuff making any escape impossible.

Monday at the Museum was not busy with only a few visitors but the couple from Austin in Texas made the day worthwhile, talking bikes and history all afternoon. The next day I received an e-mail with photo from the couple they were very complimentary about the Museum and us Volunteers. This just makes what we do as Volunteers even more worthwhile.

After coming back from Luxembourg and discovering that the Valiant had been incontinent I had replaced the right tap insert and now discovered that the left one was not sealing either so I replaced the cork on the tap. Thursday was a blisteringly warm day and great for a run out with the Bike club with a trip around Surrey and Hampshire covering some 240 miles by the time I had got home. Saturday was another warm day and Gita and I had been invited by the organisers for the local 2CV club to take part in the Burnham Carnival near Slough. Another venue to hand out fliers and talk cars and bikes and have a pleasant afternoon in the sun.

Back at the Museum on Monday and a very wet start. It dried as the day went on and for this Monday we had a visitor from Toronto, Canada. The relevance of this will become evident in the future.

BEN Charity through Windsor Great Park 2015

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Paul Fynn Rally 2015

I try to do this rally each year, last year it was rain, rain and more rain, this year it was glorious sunshine and soaring temperatures. Even in the morning I set off on the Valiant taking a route through Uxbridge, Iver, Langley Datchet, Old Windsor, Virginia Water and on to the meeting point at the carpark by the miniature railway at Ascot Race course. Almost there and as it was so warm the Valiant did the trick of overheating and stalling at a junction near Saville Gardens. After a few minutes it took a push start to get going again and did the same again at my arrival. I had a little walk around at the start and took a few photos of bikes and cars. There are always some interesting things to see. 

We were given route cards and a briefing. For the first time motorcycles were being lead through the park as there had been a prevalence of accidents on these roads due to there being no right of way, no road markings and no one really understanding that. We set off just before 11am lead by a very nice late 30's MG Roadster. Somehow I was at the back of our group so I had to do catch up with the bigger bikes. Not a problem unless overheating happens again. I have a little cam corder, mounted on the handlebars, running to record the event. 
You can find this on You Tube   
  https://youtu.be/mHQSy7JZLOE. 
Last years event  in the rain
 https://youtu.be/7rI9iSaXeGI

1911 Singer, before they focussed on car production.

The run was uneventful and the Valiant kept going all the way to the end at Sunningdale Parish Council Recreation ground just down from BEN Nursing home Lynnwood House. This Rally is invitation only and is run to raise money for BEN, the Motor Trade Charity. This year there were fewer bikes and Eamonn Galligan, the organiser of this event is keen to get more bikes on show for the afternoon as it is a major part of the Sunningdale Village Fete. If you are interested in having a run through Windsor Great Park and having your bike on show or having your bike club there too then contact Eamonn on 01344 298100. 

While I am at the Fete I hand out fliers for the Museum and have a general chat to people. I can fill the day nicely until prize giving. Over the last few years I have thirds and second prizes, this year was an exception I was awarded first prize for the post war category and along with the Bully Cup to which I have to add my name and year to it. 

Another success for the little bike and it got me home covering 68 miles for the day and only one overheating and stalling episode at Iver where I was caught in traffic as they too were having their village fete.