Horex Regina

This nicely atmospheric snap features a Horex Regina, a motorcycle rarely seen outside of its native Germany. Obviously the subject of this picture has travelled at least a few kilometers, there not being many Cycles de la Gare in Deutschland. Always an exclusive brand and with limited sales Horex was taken over by Daimler Benz in 1960 who promptly dropped motorcycle production. The brand has considerable loyalty in Germany and was briefly revived by Friedl Munch (he of Mammut fame) in the seventies. In the late eighties / early nineties a Japanese / German collaboration saw a Honda single powered machine, the Osca, appear - an attractive machine very similar to the Gilera Saturno of the same period. Horex has of course recently come back to life again with a narrow angle V6 machine.

Gallic Horex Regina.

I met my girl by the gasworks wall

Evocative 50's snap of some motorcycling chums meeting up. From the gear it looks like winter.  Proper headwear for the chaps on big bikes, seems like a beret will suffice if you are on a BSA Bantam and if you are the lass on pillion then you have to make do with a scarf.

Woodhead Monroe Shock Absorbers

The brochure for Woodhead Monroe shock absorbers. Woodhead Monroe units were fitted as standard to Velocettes up to 1962 and as far as I know Velo were the only manufacturer to fit them as OEM.

Woodhead Monroes are a quality unit but they cannot have got much volume of sales through Velocette alone so must have had to rely on aftermarket fitments.

Edwardian roadster

A great old photo of a gent with his roadster cycle. As with most vintage snaps of bicycles it is very hard, if not impossible, to establish the marque of the cycle. Looking at the bike all we can say for sure is that the front mudguard finishes at the forks rather than extending forward. Most manufacturers dropped this feature and extended the mudguard forwards around 1906. This particular postcard has been sent and carries an Edward VII stamp. Given the two knowns the best we can do is to date the cycle to 1906 or earlier and the photo having been taken between 1901 and 1910 (the reign of Edward VII).

 

Isolated mini-adventure

Only a month ago I posted that things seemed to be getting back to some state of normalcy with old bike meets. How wrong I was....

A small band of us meet up every year for a moto camping trip, preferably to continental Europe and with an event as the destination. Despite optimism that a late season excursion might be on the cards it became evident that this was not to be. Rather than give in we determined to meet up somewhere quiet and enjoy a couple of nights away from reality. After all it's ultimately about the ride and the company so all else is insignificant.

As it happens Dan is of good Wiltshire agricultural stock and has family connections with land and barns: so it was that we ended up camping in a field close by the Cotswolds. Not only this but the luxury of a barn to shelter from the rain, for rain it did in spades. 

Given that the journey from home to destination
was only 75 miles I had contemplated taking the
Beesa Bantam to turn it into a bit more of an
adventure. However a rare day without rain found me
re-cementing the patio whilst I could and then needing
something a bit quicker to get there. Having just MOT'd
the Buell and fitted a rack to boot it seemed like a good
chance to check out its touring capabilities. Spoiler -
they are very slight.

 

Arrival refreshments.

The Buell alongside Matt's Beesa A10 combo and
Dan's faithful Bullet.

A trip out to Kemble Airfield for a very modern
spectacle.

At this point Dan decides to check out
Matt's carpentry skills with a stress test.

Restoration project discovered. A
genuine 'hedge find'.

And ready to go home two days later. That barn
really was a life saver for the rain was certainly
more on than off for the duration of our trip.

Having a mate with a sidecar is a valuable
thing. Not only can they bring the necessaries
they can remove them when it is all over.

Africa Bullet Resurrection Part II

 After posting up Part I of the Africa Bullet 'restoration' I had imagined that the next post on the subject would follow a few weeks later and detail some minor step forward with the project. Instead I spent a few weeks labouring in my mind over what colour to do the bike (should I go for the red it was before or make it easy with black) and then when I got the frame back from the powder coaters went in to a frenzy of re-assembly and here we are on Part II with the bike looking fairly up together. Don't worry though there's still a lot to do....

Here's the offside view as it stands at the moment.
The keen Bulleteer will spot a very unorthodox spec
for a 1955 model. In fact if I am honest only really
the frame, swinging arm, engine and gearbox are
original to the bike.

Indian Enfield quick release rear wheel. I fitted this
for the Africa trip as it makes taking the wheel out
so much more easy. The original Redditch non-qd
wheel means you have to split the chain and
disconnect the brake to take out the wheel. The drive
side axle on the Indian wheel is slightly larger diameter
so to get it to fit in the Redditch swinging arm the slot
had to be filed out slightly.

I had slowly collected a few nice stainless bits and
pieces for the bike as I saw them and to spread the
cost. The idea of this bike is as a year round whatever
the weather rider. The more stainless the better. These
lower engine mounts came from a guy trading as JT
Classic Stainless on eBay. Highly recommended.

I had some stainless gearbox mounts from my last
Indian Enfield kicking around that I had never gotten
round to fitting. They are of a different size to the
Redditch ones (same spacing on the gearbox but the Indian
one is a lot taller) - they had to be re-drilled to suit
and cut down to size.

The stainless theme continues with the
front engine mount. Not so the bolts
though. I've used whatever came off the
bike as long as it was in decent condition
and correct size - you've got the reign in
the spend somewhere and having travelled
so far with the bike and taken it apart and
re-assembled it so many times these nuts and
bolts are rather like old friends to me....

Off-side view. The side stand is an Indian one - it
was lying around and besides they are pretty good.

Previously the bike was fitted with a casquette from
an early sixties model. It didn't look quite right and
I like the appearance of the separate headlight. I scored
this Hitchcocks top yoke fairly cheap so on it went.

Point of 'interest' for Bullet nerds...
The '55 model frames were current for
that year only - both the 350 and 500
ones have a casting rather than plate for
the swinging arm mount and the 500 models
have a detachable subframe that bolts up
with heavy castings just behind the saddle.

For riding around Africa I fitted a disc
front end from an Electra model. I've
got the original front wheel but decided
to stick with the disc - I hope to do some
heavy duty touring with the bike once more
sometime. Rather than the Electra fork I
switched to one from an UCE model - the
fork is a bit beefier plus you can keep the
traditional fork shrouds and mudguard
mounts - it just looks better. Trying to fit
different eras of parts together was a bit of an
experiment. Thankfully the thread on the
stanchions to the top yoke was the same.
The differences are that a longer axle is required
plus new shrouds as the diameter of the UCE
forks is slightly greater.

To get the UCE shrouds to match to the
earlier headlight ears I had to machine a
small aluminium adaptor.

In for a penny in for a pound on mixing up the parts.
I fitted a bottom yoke from an early sixties bike
as they are slightly stronger than the earlier
ones. Plus it has a steering damper. Not necessary
but it just appealed to me.

Next instalment coming up soon. The petrol tank, toolboxes and other sundries are going off to the powder coaters in the next few days. Soon as the petrol tank goes on hopefully we can start the beast up.