Autowheeling to Brighton

There's been a slight shed re-alignment of late. My Wall Autowheel / Raleigh x-frame combo found a new home with fellow Sunbeam MCC member John Joseph. The Wall had an entry in the Pioneer Run but work dictated that I was unable to ride. I was genuinely chuffed that I was able to pass stewardship of the machine on to John in time for the run. John now has a pair of Autowheels and lent his new one to a friend who successfully piloted it all the way down to Brighton. That's four Pioneers completed in as many attempts, never fully without issue but not a bad record for a tiny atmospheric inlet motor that is over one hundred years old.

A wonderful facet of our hobby is the folks you get to meet. The vintage world is inhabited by a range of interesting and individualistic characters: you have after all got to be of a different cut to the norm to take pleasure in riding and fettling obsolete machinery. John is an artist and vintage enthusiast. It is well worth taking a look at his website for a sample of his work - http://jnjart.co.uk/  

John on the right with his Humber / Autowheel
combo and the Raleigh / Autowheel is on the
left with pilot for the day, Sam.

Bikes and bits for sale

I've decided it's time to have a bit of a change around in the shed. There's couple of machines I know of for sale at the moment I'm interested in and a decided lack of money in the pocket so here we go. If you are interested in anything just get in touch and send me a mail or Facebook message.

1914 Wall Autowheel - SOLD

It's a genuine 1914 machine, not a restamped later BSA made engine! Comes with a Pioneer Certificate and an entry in to this year's Pioneer Run. I was planning on selling it after the Run but annoyingly I'm now going to miss it because of work so it seems like a good idea to let someone else have a go.

This is frankly a terrible picture of it but it is all I have at the moment as I am away from home. The bike will come prepared and ready to use. It is, depending on how you look at it, either a very cheap pioneer machine or a very expensive cyclemotor. The bicycle is a rather desirable Raleigh Cross Frame. I've also got a Royal Enfield Girder Frame that the Wall would go on nicely should you so choose or you could take it with a BSA Ladies All Weather that needs a little work for a discount on the price. 

The Wall is unrestored but all original, it has done three successful Pioneers in recent years. I've had it around ten years and it is on an age related plate.

1914 Wall Autowheel for sale. Wheel now solidly attached!

1904 Quadrant Forecar engine
Not many of these out there. Needs a little work and there are a few missing parts. I bought a similar engine for my '04 Quadrant motorcycle for £750 so that seems like a fair price for the forecar motor.

Meddings Pillar Drill - SOLD
I've recently replaced the Meddings with a Kerry, not so sure why, I just liked the Kerry a little bit more.

BSA B31 / B33 / A7 / A10 / Gold Star swinging arm gearbox
Came out of a running bike, worked fine but is not inspected. Very clean. Standard ratios. £250

Sturmey Archer CS gearbox - no longer available
Currently in pieces for inspection but complete and in sound condition. Cases matching. Earlier fine gear type a la Triumph H.

Elswick Hopper Lincoln Imp bicycle
Original paint, frame 23 inch size. Fitted with Sturmey Archer Steelite hub brakes and three speed. Ready to ride. Nice. £375

Elswick Hopper Lincoln Imp for sale.

Norton Dominator 99SS 1961 - no longer available. Decided to keep it!
I've owned this bike six or seven years and it's had plenty of use. A first kick starter and so far faultlessly reliable. Quite honestly the best British bike I've ever had. A very good example of a fine motorycle. The 600 Norton represents British motorcycle engineering at its peak. Plenty of power, not overstretched and vibratory, really sweet and well mannered with superb handling. Very original condition and rather rare. The 99SS was a one year model built when Norton realised that they needed a sports model but before they had developed the 650ss. Differs from the standard Dommie in having twin carbs (currently running on single but I have the twin set up to go with the bike), a siamese exhaust, sports cam and rev counter. This example has featured in The Classic Motorcycle Magazine 'Authentic and Unrestored' series.
I've taken it on many long runs with no bother at all, most memorably to the Vintage Revival at Montlhery, a day return trip to Founders Day (nearly 400 miles in one day) and on the Moto Piston Picos tour in Spain a couple of years ago. It can potter along on a Sunday run or cruise 75 to 80 in comfort.
The bike is fitted with a high output alternator, halogen bulbs, a stainless exhaust down pipe, a Bob Newby belt drive and clutch, Doherty alloy racing levers and throttle.
Now I write it all down, not too sure why I am selling it or even if I want to! The money I am asking is high end for a Dominator but it is less than for a 650SS for a rarer bike and it really is good. You could spend a grand less and get something not half as good. You pays your money you takes your choice....

Norton Dominator 99SS.

Royal Enfield J2 1940
I originally imported this J2 from India a bit over 10 years ago. It went to a friend shortly after coming in to the country and then around five years ago I bought it back. It was originally sold via a dealer in Liverpool and as far as I know went straight to India. It must have been one of the last civilian bikes sold during the war. It is a bit of a scruff but solid and on the road. I've been slowly improving it in my ownership and it is now fairly sorted. Could probably do with new valve guides as folks following have reported a slight haze. It had a new piston quite recently. A set of new rims would tart it up considerably. I've fitted the J2 with an Esway prop stand which is a boon as this is a very heavy beast. In fact it is a large bike overall, the experience isn't disimilar from riding a v-twin of the era. The handle bars are original but it could do with pulled back ones to make it a little bit less of a stretch. I've just recently put sealant in the petrol tank and new ethanol proof petrol taps in. It is ready to use though can be treated as a rolling project. I suspect the upswept exhausts are not right as they interfere with the toolboxes, look great though! Not absolutely sure of what it is worth, in a dealers in better condition it would be an £8,000 bike but I am not a dealer and this J2 is no show machine. £Offers.

1940 Royal Enfield J2.

Pioneer Run preps for the mighty Wall Autowheel

I've got my entry in for the Pioneer Run so it seemed like a good idea to check over the Autowheel and make sure all works as well as it should.

The first job was to fit a 'new' wheel with Sturmey Archer three speed that I found for the bike a while back. It may be a light machine but pushing a tall gear up a slight incline to start the contraption was leading to my knees feeling like they would pop from their sockets. Problem is, you need a reasonably tall gear to maintain momentum to attack the hills. With no advance and retard on the Wall, once you drop below a certain speed on a hill you are doomed to a long and arduous walk so keeping a minimum speed is imperative. Having high and low ratios should overcome both issues.

Sturmey three speed fitted to the Raleigh X Frame/
Wall Autowheel. You can just make out how the
Wall frame bolts in to the cycle drop outs in front
of the axle.

The new wheel was a very lucky match for the front both in rim profile and patina. Taking the old off however reminded me of one of the great frustrations of working on the Wall - its incredible unwieldiness. To remove the rear wheel you also have to remove the engine unit at the same time. One of the engine subframe mounts attaches to the rear wheel axle and thus requires a long axle. With a Sturmey Archer hub there's no playing around with axle length so it seemed like a good idea to see if I couldn't come up with a slightly better mounting solution.

With a lot of fiddling around and minor adjustments I've managed to fit the Autowheel separate from the wheel axle by moving it just in front. It doesn't leave a lot of adjustment on the bicycle chain but given that average annual mileage over the last decade has been about thirty miles per annum I don't think that a stretched chain running to the limit of adjustment will be a problem any time soon.

A quick check over and a couple of other improvements and all that remains now is for a test run. It was a pity I didn't get to ride the Pioneer last year on the Wall's hundredth birthday - work got in the way. I'm hoping nothing changes and my ride for 2016 remains open.

118cc of raw power!

Sturmey gear changer.

Found this veteran lever in my parts bin and it's a bit more
appropriate than the fifties choke lever that was fitted.
Originally the Autowheel had a dual cable lever that operated
both decompressor and throttle. This can be filed under unobtanium.

More Autowheel oddities....

If you look at this blog regularly you will know that I have a love / hate relationship with the Wall Autowheel and a fascination for all its weird and wonderful variants.

I've just come across a nice book in Dutch - 'De Motorfiets in Nederland 1895-1940' (ISBN 9061208661). It's a collection of period photos published to commemorate 35 years of the Veteraan Motoren Club. The book is out of print but if you come across a copy snap it up, the images are great.

These two images are borrowed from the book and show firstly an act of great moto-cruelty: a Briggs and Stratton scooter hitched up with a trailer. How you were ever expected to start the device with no clutch, no gears and no pedals or for that matter stop it I do not know! Secondly a Dayton Motor Wheel from around about 1915. Essentially a Wall Autowheel unit but in the front wheel. Removing the problem of having a hideous greatly weighted appendage hanging off the side of your bicycle but in turn moving the vast weight on to the front wheel...

Briggs and Stratton Scooter with trailer.

Dayton Motor Wheel.

Briggs and Stratton Scooter 1919

This rare as hens teeth 1919 Briggs and Stratton scooter has just come in to stock at Dutch Lion Motorcycles over in the Netherlands. I've never seen one in the flesh before and it seems that there are only a few left worldwide. The scooter is in beautifully original condition and it would be absolutely criminal for whoever buys it to even consider doing anything more than a mechanical restoration.

The Briggs and Stratton Motor Wheel attachment was a development of the British Wall Autowheel. The design was first brought to the States by the A O Smith company and marketed as the Smith Autowheel. Some improvements were made on the original design including a disc wheel and more importantly doing away with the drive chain by running the wheel directly from the camshaft. The Smith Motor Wheel ran from 1914 to 1918 and in 1919 the rights to manufacture were sold to Briggs and Stratton. Briggs and Stratton made a couple more changes with a slight raise in capacity and a move over to a flywheel magneto.

As with the Wall Autowheel in the UK the American engines were used for an ingenious number of applications, from water pumps through to buckboard four wheelers. It is hard to say if the scooter sold in any numbers, presumably it rode the wave of the post first world war scooter fashion, ie sold strongly for a year or two and then died a quick death. The design concept is very similar to the ABC Scootermotor from Britain. Probably awful to ride but a great display piece, the Briggs and Stratton scooter is likely something that you will not see offered again for a long time.

More info on the Smith Motor Wheel and Briggs and Stratton Motor Wheel on these sites: 

Andrew Pattle's NACC moped archive.

The Online Bicycle Museum.

The Briggs and Stratton Scooter is available from:

Dutch Lion Motorcycles.

Briggs and Stratton Scooter advert taken from:

The Smithsonian Institution America on the Move exhibition site.

1919 Briggs and Stratton Scooter.

1919 Briggs and Stratton scooter.

Briggs and Stratton scooter petrol tank detail.

Briggs and Stratton scooter advert.

Wall Autowheel with Dursley Pedersen bicycle

If you look at this blog on a semi-regular basis you may know that I'm in a love / hate relationship with a 1914 Wall Autowheel. I love the fact that it's completed three Pioneer Runs in the last few years, it cost little and doesn't owe me anything and it has a wonky utilitarian heath robinson splendour that is unique. On the other hand, though I don't mind pedalling, I do begrudge the fact that it reaches a tipping point of feeble power to heavy weight on hills of a certain gradient when the engine simply becomes a massive encumbrance to forward progress. Plus, despite its light weight, it is the greatest pig of a contraption to wheel around in the garage.

So, for reasons best known to me alone, for the last thing I want or need is another one, I scan ebay every so often for Autowheels. Yesterday I saw this one, an early 'wheel hitched up to a Dursley Pedersen cycle, something like the holy grail of Autowheel combos.

Wall Autowheel with Dursley Pedersen cycle.

The early 1913 Autowheel is fairly rare, the main difference from the later models being the swoopy exhaust pipe rather than the later models which drops into a silencer box in front of the engine. The cycle looks fairly correct with a few components different from catalogue spec, but, hey, it's a bicycle and folks changed stuff around all the time back in the day just as we do now with our new treaders. What I'm personally slightly more dubious of is the glitzy colour scheme with silver cycle, reversed bars and nickeled tank on the Autowheel. All easy enough to change though if it was yours and you cared to. And the price? £8500. Suffice to say that's the most I've seen someone asking for an Autowheel by a long shot. Irrelevant to me as I really don't want another one, sometimes I feel I barely want the one I've got. Who knows in five years it may look like a bargain. But if anyone wants to pay near that much for mine you know where I am and the answer is yes!

Oh, and if you want to buy it click here!

Getting the Wall Autowheel ready for the Pioneer Run

Work is underway on resurrecting the mighty Wall Autowheel for the Pioneer Run coming up at the end of the month.

Unused since it's last Pioneer Run outing two years ago when the engine cried enough and made a bid for freedom from cycle and rider in the middle of Brighton the Autowheel is now prepped to show its mettle once more. A repaired and strengthened mounting bracket has been fitted along with a cycle carrier. According to an experienced Autowheelist a carrier is a necessity in event of breakdown as the wheel and engine can be tied up off the ground by the carrier and the cycle used as an unencumbered pushbike.

On the last Pioneer Run I ran the 'wheel on straight 50 oil. This proved to be a mistake as, in the cold, the oil was too thick to get past the regulator. So much so that on the entire run no oil at all was used. This could have been disasterous but for the fact that I always run it on two stroke pre-mix as back up. Oil has been drained and 40 grade substituted.

This year there are nine Autowheel mounted entrants. A thunderous gang of Autowheel mounted renegades would be an awe-inspiring sight! Here's hoping that mine will make it a fourth successful run and other fellows of the 'wheel will have an equally fine run.

The Wall Autowheel. Cigar is optional, the
debonair countenance comes with the machine
as does the admiration of bearded bystanders.

Wall Autowheel carburettor



Post World War One Wall advert.

I'm well aware that my blog is at the best of times one of very narrow interest. In this post however I seek to narrow it down yet further to a level of obscurantism beneath which it would be hard to sink...

The Wall Autowheel has an interesting story involving backing by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and mechanical insporation from the wonderful FN four. However ladies and gentlemen I shall brush over all of this and go straight on to the fascinating subject of the Wall Autowheel's carburettor.

I will start with the let down that I don't even know who made the carb. This posting is just some technical info for a fellow Wall owner. As I was going to write it down anyway I thought I might as well post it online on the narrow offchance that it may help someone else at some distant point in the future.

Wall Autowheel carburettor.

The carb is of extremely simple design. There is no slide needle and air adjustment must be set in advance with a clip set on the top of the carb body just beneath the top bezel. So far I've run mine with the air fully open and not experimented with other settings but as mine does run hot perhaps on the next outing I'll close the air a little and enrichen the mixture (mine runs on a very weak two stroke mix for extra lubrication).

Wall Autowheel float needle.

Firstly, my measurements are relatively accurate (from a limit gauge) but not absolute. Bear in mind too that the parts are nearly 100 years old and have already had a full life so are perhaps not quite to the designer's blueprint, if any components fitted indeed ever were in the first place.

The float needle is 2 11/32" long. A spring clip holds the needle in place. The needle has 13 notches acting as positions for the clip to adjust the height of the float. The notches begin 11/16" from the top of the needle and are spread over 5/16". I run mine with the bottom of the clip on the top notch. This gives roughly 1/4" of movement on the float between fully closed and fully open.

Wall Autowheel float needle clip. 

Wall Autowheel carb dismantled.

Wall Autowheel carb front side view.

The above view of the carb clearly shows the air adjustment clip.

Right, now I can sit back and see my page hits go through the roof!

The Pioneer Run 2011

Ariel at start line

The mighty Wall Autowheel had its entry secured into the 2011 London to Brighton many months ago and last Sunday the big day came. Preparations had been thorough and exacting and consisted of a two mile ride to the local MOT station.

An early morning rise and the long drive up to Epsom downs beckoned. This was my second Pioneer Run, the Wall and I had completed the 2010 event and with mixed emotions. Being my first Run I hadn't really expected to be piloting a machine with a twenty miles per hour top speed along dual carriageways on the fringes of London and under the Gatwick runway. But halfway along suddenly all was beautiful Sussex countryside, minor roads and cheerful crowds lining the roads. Great, until we approached Brighton, took a dual carrigaeway over the downs and then had to negotiate busy city traffic. Added to it all the performance of the Wall was erratic as usual with occassional periods of splendid tune and bouts of miserable overheating.

Beautiful De Dion trike at tea stop

Knowing what to expect this time I snuck in a little before my allotted time at the start line, well, you've got to take every chance you have when piloting such a feeble steed. I sailed away and cruised merrily along as folks on more powerful contraptions gently wafted by.

Somehow this time even the dual carriageway was far more enjoyable. Perhaps knowing what to expect helped and staved off disappointment. The tea stop was marvellous and the bike was threatening enough power to make a rice pudding skin worry. Suitably refreshed before setting off it seemed prudent to check oil. Remarkably the total loss system had by this point used absolutely no oil at all. Luckily I had put some two stroke oil in the petrol and clearances in the well used motor are such that seizure is quite unlikely. Last year I had consumed a tankful by this point. Thinking that this was down to using too thin 30 grade oil I had swapped to 50 this year. Obviously it was proving too gloopy to drop through the oil regulator at all.

oops!

As I approached Brighton I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself. Sure a little overheating and consequent power loss was evident, when you are dealing in fractions of horsepower a little difference counts for a lot, but progress had been good and the end was in sight. But coming in to the city outskirts I noticed the brackets supporting the Wall to the bicycle had fractured. A couple of miles to go and with smooth roads I made the decision to press gently on. A mistake. In sight of the Pavilion the Wall decided to break from its partner bicycle and make its own way in life.

Disaster! The motor unit clanked down the road behind the bicycle dragged on by the bowden decompressor and throttle cables. I came to a rapid halt in the middle of a busy junction and made my way to the pavement, cursing the blank-faced car drivers too gormless to stop and let me across.


1913 TT Douglas at finishing line. Wonderful patina

So close to the end and on busy roads there was little to do but detach the cables, pick the Wall up, and cycle on. I placed the unit on top of the handlebars and, though a bit hairy going through city traffic so top heavily laden, we pedalled across the finishing line to a mini cheer.

Thankfully the Wall sustained only minor flesh wounds and will soon be re-attached to the Raleigh Cross-Frame, perhaps to return next year.....