Getting ready for the Pioneer Run

1914 Sun. 10 miles is possibly the furthest journey this bike
has undertaken for some fifty years.

A lot of icy and snowy weather of late but it has warmed up the last few days and a few heavy downpours of rain have washed the salt away from the roads. Today it seemed like a good idea to take the 1914 Sun out for a quick shake down ride.

At the moment the device is a bit of a pig to start and won't do much without some easystart (ether spray) and a plug clean. Once warm though it only takes a short paddle off to get it going, which is just as well when there is no clutch.

The good news on the short ten mile run was that the bike was basically sound, no problems at all from the motor just a few things to tighten up - a saddle that moved when you hit a sharp bump, loose head bearings and a carb that blew off its flange when the bike backfired. Easy fixes and nothing to stress about.

Lever for the two speed crash gearbox is on the tank. The bike
runs on pre-mix two stroke oil but there is the option to give a
squirt of oil direct to the bore from the separate oil tank if under
heavy load. With modern two stroke oils this seems to be a
redundant feature.

When warmed up the little Sun purrs along nicely. It takes a while to get used to the clutchless crash gearbox but the ratios are ideal, at a guess cruising speed is somewhere around 25mph, the motor is nice and flexible and takes inclines in its stride. Brakes are predictably feeble but overall it is a very simple bike to ride. Once the air and mag levers are set up pretty much all you need to do is to operate the throttle. The skill comes in timing junctions so that you don't have to come to a stop and then re-start the engine.

So now, some fettling to be done, more test rides and then Epsom Downs here we come...

The Sun is Brighton bound.

Need more power - D1 Bantam gains 25cc

Bantam in oily rag / barn find / cosmetically challenged /
disgraceful / knackered (take your pick) condition.

The nostalgia trip that is my D1 Bantam (passed my test on it when I was 17 and still have it nearly 30 years later..) went out for a test ride today to showcase a few improvements.

I've finally gotten around to properly re-wiring it following the fitment of the Electrexworld alternator and CDI ignition system. All seems good there and the bike holds charge on full beam so no problem. I changed to LED bulbs on the brake light whilst I was in the fettling mood as it regularly blew the old style ones that were there before. I decided to keep it on 6 volts though as I am too mean to fork out for a new battery and bulbs!

Having started to use the bike I again I proved the old adage of 'nostalgia, it's not what it used to be' as I discovered the Bantam to be somewhat tedious to ride with little power and gear ratios way too widely spaced. I'm sure the extra pounds I carry now over 17 year old me are not helping either.

Back when I was using the bike first time around I tried out a 'big bore kit' - ie I fitted the barrel and piston from a 150cc D3 model. Alas inexperienced 17 year old me did not change the jetting at the same time and I soon seized it up. Just recently I dug the barrel out of the spares box, sourced a new piston and a suitable D3 carb. The barrel was treated to a quick hone and on it all went.

The results are very satisfactory, the little bit extra power is enough to overcome the wring the neck out of it in second, try third, get bogged down, back to second, wring it again and repeat nature of the 125cc experience when it hit a slight incline.

So, workshop time well spent though obviously it is still no road burner. And despite the extra thirty years of experience I still managed to nip it up again on a long hill as I got carried away with the mighty power of those extra 25 ceecees. It might just be that the Tod head fitted makes it run a bit hotter so perhaps I should revert to standard for a little while. Must now remember to run it in carefully....

Extra power means I can now haul luggage so I fitted a Craven
rack. The copper pipe fixing is just temporary - I ran out of
suitable tubing.

Extra power means that I now have bragging
rights to display a cock of brass.

Aforementioned cockerel was picked up at a flea market a
 few years back but I never got round to fitting it until now.

Hills like this now hold no fear. At least they won't when
properly run in...

A NUT or not?

Here a photo of a vintage combo on a very evocative cobbled street of terraced houses.

The definition on the picture is poor but if I was pushed to give an identification I would go for a NUT (Newcastle Upon Tyne) from the early twenties. If anyone out there can give a positive id please do get in touch.

High end twenties combination with a
very sporty zeppelin sidecar. Possibly
a NUT v twin?

Bultaco memories from Caracas

When I started up this blog I had the hope that folks from all around might send in pictures of their bikes from times past and today and the stories to go with them. Just recently it has actually started to pick up and I am getting a steady stream of images arrive in the inbox to publish. I'm totally stoked about it, it's just way more interesting when there is a personal connection to an image rather than just some bike or some guy on a bike. So, big thanks people, keep 'em coming.

After publishing Michael Silvius' picture of himself with Bultaco in Caracas back in the seventies a couple of weeks back he has sent in more pictures and the story behind the bike, as below in his own words...

 

"Here are a few blurry photos of the old Bultaco. Yea that's me, the skinny awkward looking kid with the goofy looking overalls. A couple with my friend Pol Frendin with his Jack Piner Penton KTM 175 in our back yard. As well as a trailer I built with an axle salvaged from a stolen/abandoned Hilman Arrow, to transport the bikes. A few of us playing in the dirt. One of mom posing with my bike. I might have just been fifteen or sixteen then so that would have been about 1977 or 78?

I had pestered my dad for a couple years to allow me to buy a motorbike. He finally relented provided I earn the money  myself. I guess he figured he might as well make a lesson out of it. I bought the Bultaco from a shop that had raced it and it was all beat to snot. Rode hard and put away wet. I patched the holes in the tank where the triple clamp fork bolts had punched through from having shortened the steering stops and repainted it.  Taught myself how to do body work on it and painted a dozen other bikes and a couple cars for others in the neighborhood. Its probably all the Imron paint I sucked up back then that's slowly doing me in today. Got in a lot of trouble with the bike too. I can say I rode in the country with the highest motorcycle mortality rate in the world and survived not without a few scrapes. Wound up under a Jeep CJ5 looking up at the bumper from underneath with my long hair pinched under the left front tire and the bike seat on the right front tire. When the dust settled the ashen young driver came to look at what he had run over and was shocked to find me alive. Had ABS brakes existed back then I'd have become worm food long ago. Also had a demented taxi driver in a Dodge Dart run me off the road in to a seven strand barbed wire fence once. We were immortal back then."

Thanks Michael.

1925 Wooler factory machine

Thanks to David Kenny for forwarding these images taken at the Wooler premises (either Alperton or Wembley) circa 1925. The images were given to David by a former Wooler employee and the ladies on the bike were apparently also Wooler employees.

Please note that I have put a blog logo on the images in order to limit reproduction of them and track. This does not imply any ownership of the images which remains with David and I am grateful for his permission to post.

Miss Fell astride a Wooler which I believe to
be a 1925 ohv model and would have
presumably been a factory hack.

Miss Self on the the same Wooler machine.

George Cohen's website available to view once more

Sheldon's EMU has posted the archive of George Cohen's Norton pages for all to see once more.

A glorious mess of a website, buried within the jumble there is a great resource of vintage Norton info and wandering through the fluff to get there is entertaining in itself. Access the site here.

Whilst I certainly didn't know George well I always used to enjoy a chat with him whenever I bumped in to him at events, usually the VMCC Somerset autojumble or on the ferry en-route to Montlhery. I would find out about his latest completed projects and he would lament the glacial progress I had made on my Model 19 project... Much missed.

George back in 2014. Picture taken from photographer Amy
Shore's website. View her wonderful images of George and
his Somerset workshop here.

Great War Douglas advertising

This postcard was published by Douglas to publicise the reliability of their bikes as demonstrated in the theatre of war. This particular postcard has actually been posted and the postmark is from 1922.

The caption on the card reads, 'Artificer Corp. J. Aked, Signals, Cavalry Corps, B. E. F.-"All the Douglas machines under my care have done good work" '

Personally I had to do some quick research to find out what that all means, so for others also unfamiliar with World War One military parlance here is a quick explanation... An artificer is a skilled mechanic in the armed forces. So Mr J Aked was a Corporal in the Signals Squadron of the Cavalry Corps with a responsibility for mechanics (ie the Signals Squadron was the home of the Despatch Riders and Mr Aked was more than likely responsible for maintaining their bikes). The B E F was the British Expeditionary Force and refers to the British Army sent to fight on the Western Front.

The man who looked after the Don R's
bikes was happy to recommend Douglas
machines!