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SEPTEMBER 2018

Prototype! 175cc Royal Enfield

Super stylish 1930s Moto Guzzi The John Bull RallyAriel VB restoration guide : Richard WylerTriumph rebuildTouring in 1949 S U L P Classic TT PreviewCylinder head theory Flywheel Festival1958 Manx GPThe Hitchcocks

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This was always going to be the busiest period of the year, what with events every weekend, and so it has proved. The Flywheel Festival kicked things off, a superb weekend down there, which afforded the opportunity to exercise the KTT too, though I also took the Rex-Acme and gave that a run. It was a lovely do; we sat in the sun enjoying lunch while an air display went on in front of us, then back and a bit of riding, then back to cold drinks… The next weekend was an ‘early birds’ run – a 7am start, lovely 50 mile ride into Suffolk, on the swinging arm MAC, then a hearty breakfast. Our regular contributor Phil Turner joined us for that ride (and that breakfast!) with another good time had by all. A couple of the guys reckoned they were off to do the route again after breakfast. I think they were joking… The following weekend presented a choice for me, and I plumped to do Norfolk pre-31 weekend, rather than the VMCC’s revived Festival of 1000 Bikes. I really enjoyed it too, having my first proper ride on the 1927 Longstroke Sunbeam I acquired last winter, clocking up about 100 miles in all. No problems, once we’d poked something in the little breather hole in the fuel cap which was blocked up and led to a couple of early stoppages. It was Bryan Lingard (also on the run and a number of whose machines we’ve featured) who suggested that fix; thanks Brian! That was on the Saturday then the Sunday I switched to the Rex-Acme, which went better than it has for years (it’s been a long process…) until about two miles from the end I noticed a crack rapidly developing on the handlebars. I gently rode back and put it in the van… Finally, we finished off with the Morini OC track day at Cadwell Park. If we’d started the month with the relaxed pace of the Flywheel Festival, then the Morini day was the polar opposite. You’ll be able to read more about it next month, but suffice to say I managed six track sessions on four different bikes (two Velocette, two Morinis), while a couple of pals (one an old friend, another a new) rode the KTT too. As for so much of this summer, it was a beautiful day – though I was weary come the end of it!

PAGE 24

JAMES ROBINSON Editor

Regular contributors

Tim Britton, Rachael Clegg, Jonathan Hill, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Jerry Thurston, Alan Turner, Phil Turner, Steve Wilson.

Contributors this issue Leslie Bartlett, Bernard Holloway, Colin West.

THE CLASSIC MOTOR CYCLE (USPS:710-470) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd., PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK . USA subscriptions are $63 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. Periodical Postage is paid at Bancroft, WI and additional entries. Postmaster: Send address changes to THE CLASSIC MOTOR CYCLE, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595 chris@classicbikebooks.com

CONTENTS ISSUE | SEPTEMBER 2018 Archive photograph .......................................... 6 News ................................................................... 8 Flywheel Festival ........................................... 14 Dijon................................................................ 18 Letters ............................................................. 20 Subscribe and save ........................................ 24 Royal Enfield 175cc prototype ...................... 26 Moto Guzzi 500S ............................................ 34 Silk 700S .......................................................... 40 Hitchcock (Jock and Don) story.................... 46 Touring in 1949............................................... 52 John Bull Rally................................................ 54 Classic TT preview .......................................... 61 Closer look – 1958 Manx GP .......................... 66 Brian Slark interview ..................................... 72 Men who mattered – Richard Wyler............. 74 Triumph 3TA/5TA rebuild............................. 76 Roy Poynting column .................................... 79 Jerry Thurston column................................... 80 Sketchbook Travels ........................................ 82 You were asking.............................................. 86

Restoration guide – Ariel VB ......................... 90 Technical feature ........................................... 92 Diary..............................................................110 Next month ................................................... 113 Classic camera.............................................. 114

POST: The Classic MotorCycle, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ EMAIL: jrobinson@mortons.co.uk

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Battle of the 250s I

The fascinating British quarter litre scene in the early 1950s.

n the early 1950s the 250cc class was, in many ways, the most interesting. While in the 350 and 500cc categories the prospective competitor could buy a number of ‘off the shelf’ racers – from Manx Nortons, to Velocette KTTs, AJS 7Rs, GP Triumphs, G45 Matchlesses et al – the 250cc class was a different matter altogether. Consequently the fields were made up of what we see in the picture above – cut down larger models, home-brewed specials and imported continental exotica. The picture was taken at Blandford at the start of August 1953, in the Lightweight category. The two leaders have already gone through, with Maurice Cann and Fergus Anderson setting the early pace. Cann was on his own 250cc Moto Guzzi, while Anderson (350cc world champion for Moto Guzzi in 1953 and 1954) was on the works

THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE | SEPTEMBER 2018

machine, complete with a ‘beaked’ fairing. Though Cann held the early advantage, Anderson soon passed him and Cann hit problems... though he kept going to finish runner-up. Behind this leading duo was the battle we see here, with Ray Petty on the faired Norton (number 4), Arthur Fenn on his girder-forked (the two leaders’ machines had telescopic forks) Moto Guzzi (18) and a youthful John Surtees on the REG twin the main protagonists, though Benny Rood and Bill Webster, both on 250cc Velocettes, and Gerry Turner, on his much-modified prewar Rudge, joined the party too. They finished Surtees third, then Rood, Fenn and Webster, with Petty retiring. Ray Petty was to go on to find much fame as a Norton tuner and expert, culminating in building his own Petty frames for Manx

Norton engines. He’d started racing before the Second World War on a New Imperial, and resumed his competition activities post conflict. During the period of hostilities he worked as an engineer at Vickers, with legendary Norton guru Francis Beart overseeing his efforts. Petty, in search of a competitive machine to replace his aged New Imperial, built his Norton special in 1952, with a 247cc engine housed in a scaleddown Featherbed-type frame. It was good too, with Petty eighth in the 1952 Lightweight TT and seventh in 1953. After retiring, Petty built a number of winning Manx Nortons, including Percy May’s 1971 500cc British championship winner. Petty also built his own 500cc Manx Norton powered car, though a 250cc Petty Manx engine was used in a Cooper car to set a number of records. The extravagantly moustached Fenn is

Classic archive a

on a Moto Guzzi, which is a 250cc Albatross (as opposed to Cann’s, which was a Gamblunghino) a model reintroduced after the war (having been made in 1939) and an immediate hit; the last examples were made in 1948. The Albatross was originally supplied with all road equipment but it was a racer first and foremost – in fact, it was basically a works bike, as used by the factory team 1946-48. Fenn was one of a number of British riders who managed to get their hands on an Albatross (Arthur Wheeler, Tommy Wood, Ernie Thomas and Bill Maddrick were among them, while Manliffe Barrington won the 1947 and 1949 Lightweight TT on an Albatross, sandwiching Cann’s 1948 win) and though by 1953 it was becoming a bit long in the tooth, it was still a potent weapon. This Blandford meeting was the debut

of John Surtees on Bob Geeson’s REG. The 250cc twin had been home-built by clever engineer Geeson, who was no mean rider himself; he would have secured a 1950 leader board TT position on debut had an oil pipe not fractured. Geeson continued to ride and develop the twin for the next couple of years, though he struggled with injuries from a much earlier accident. By 1953, although he was still racing himself, he’d realised a fully fit rider was required, and approached youngster John Surtees. It led to Surtees taking the ride; here, he was third then followed it up with a win at Brands Hatch in September. During the 1954 season Surtees and the REG dominated the British 250cc scene, scoring win after win; at season’s end Geeson sold the first REG to an Australian rider, Jack Walters, who took it home. It was followed by a Mk.2 version,

which was ridden, with some success, by riders of the calibre of John Hartle and Derek Minter, among others, while the best REG TT performance was Fred Hardy’s seventh in the 1962 TT. Rood and Webster were aboard their own 250cc Velocettes, based around KTT engines, with Rood’s engine housed in a home-made frame. A clever engineer, Rood was to go on to be one of the prime movers in the successful Cosworth engine business, while Bill Webster used a Doug Beasley frame to house his 250cc KTT-derived engine. Gerry Tuner’s Rudge used lots of Roland Pike bits. The 250cc landscape changed quite soon after, as machines like the NSU Sportsmax (then all the two-strokes) rendered these ingenious specials, largely, obsolete. But for a few years, the British 250cc scene End really was a mixed bag of allsorts.

THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE | SEPTEMBER 2018

Frank Behrend (left), a BMW expert, chats with two charioteers at the stop on the John Bull Saturday ride-out.

photographing various bikes, outfits, and their owners. Numbers seemed about evenly divided between Continentals (including Dutch and Scandinavian) and UK sections. Former BSAOC chairman Jim Seabrook was there on a C15, and Theresa, widow of the late and much-lamented international secretary Pete Twyman, was there cheerfully helping out. Rigo Volkaert’s brother Mario was also now present, and I told him about Len’s misfortune. There was a run-out at 1pm, and in the pack the three of us stuck together. The surrounding countryside was flat and laced with tree-lined lanes, with roots meaning some bumpy surfaces. It was fun to anticipate the twists and turns by watching the line of riders ahead. With more than 100 machines, numbers occasionally impeded progress, but never brought things to a standstill – as Axel noted, the run was well marshalled. We stopped for more than an hour at a museum with a really nice cafeteria, where I ate gooseberry tart and cream, and we had all had Wurst with, yes, mayo. The A10 started well again, and we looped back to base. I noticed the clutch had stiffened a bit with the frequent stop-starting; Axel then realised the thread on its cable handlebar adjuster had stripped, and luckily was able to buy a new one at the rally’s autojumble

THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE | SEPTEMBER 2018

stall. Sorted! At that point Len and Barbara Page turned up in a hire car with many a tale to tell, and handed over my camp bed. Evening fell. Once again the three-course meal was good, and we sat with an interesting guy called Bill, a well-travelled ex-Merchant Navy officer who was there on a 350cc Ariel and said he had a tabard with “OVER-80s MOTORCYCLE CLUB” on the back. There was a raffle, supervised by Theresa Twyman, and then the band. Ah, the band. With an hour’s soundcheck, at first it was irritatingly more rehearsal than performance, and ear-bleedingly loud with it. This was an annoyance for Len (and others) who just wanted to talk with friends. Some people went out to the bonfire outside. We discovered the recessed bar was marginally quieter than the floor, and there was a very droll goatee-ed barman. I started to drink Palm. The girl singer looked nice, but was a poseur, who when they started for real, couldn’t hold a tune. However, a few local folk began properly dancing, the Palm did its work, and before long the guitarists were really getting into it. I’ve had worse evenings. Next morning, Sunday, it was drizzling. With the camp bed belayed in Axel’s sidecar, damp Anneka needed a push to start before we could set off, seeking petrol.

Luxury Tornax Model 29 600, JAP-engined until Hitler forbade foreign engineering imports.

My lights had revived, and in the road spray I watched as Axel finger-wiped his visor, and synchronised with him as I did likewise. The drizzle cleared, and as we approached the German border, the sky ahead lightened theatrically, and a week or more of magnificent weather began. Frank, a patient Tail-End Charlie, at the parting of the ways, accelerated away very briskly, and I followed Axel through the still-flat countryside to his village home north-west of Bonn. Space does not permit me to detail all the kindness and hospitality I experienced from my friend, his wife Ursula and their family in the following wonderful week. It had started with Axel welding the A10’s side-stand mounting back on, with the injunction never from now on to let the A10 be strapped down on

BSA A10 | On tour

1: Anneka the A10 with young fans, Axel’s niece and nephew. 2: 1962 IWL (Independent Werkes Ludwigsfelde) SR 59 scooter, with ‘Campi’ trailer, from the DDR in East Berlin. 3: Axel in his workshop preparing to weld up Steve’s broken side-stand mounting. 4: Period sound system on Matthias Auth’s Guzzi Galleto (‘cockerel’) scooter. The track? ‘O Sole Mio’, of course. 5: Anneka the A10 with Axel’s Norton 650SS on a lively trip into the twisties of the Eiffel mountains. 6: An Imperia, produced pre-war in nearby Bonn, prepares for take-off.

a ferry except on the centre-stand. The next day we attended the nearby 37th Old Timers Club rally at EuskirchenDom-Esch. Frank was there, and kindly talked me through the wide variety of (to me) unfamiliar pre- and post-war German two-wheelers. These included a 1950s Horex 250 cc single, an EMW (Eisenach Motoren Werke), pretty pre-war silver-grey Victoria 350s, and Zundapp ‘Green Elephant’ outfits in 600 or fast 800 form–but, said BMW man Frank, all with terrible brakes! There was a luxury Tornax 600 Model 29, produced locally, with a JAP engine. The gathering was cheerful, and eclectic enough to include a few Brits (a Scott, a Matchless). And it served damned good Wurst. Axel took me to many places, including to a friend, Matthias Auth, with his amazing

collection of Moto Guzzis. And riding his Norton 650SS, Axel led a run for Anneka into the twisting roads of the beautiful Eiffel mountains. All too soon it was time to head for home, in hot sunshine, a 180-mile run into Holland, and up to the ferry at the Hook. It was mostly motorway, but on a Sunday, so no lorries, and aside from one push-start after a rest-stop from a friendly fellow rider (my bad, I’d impatiently tickled the carb), Anneka performed uncomplainingly at a steady 55-60mph. And we got good responses, from right leg kick-outs to fists punching the air, from faster young ‘moderns’ as they passed. By 7am next day, we were starting on a blissfully warm early morning ride along empty roads to friends in Suffolk, and a End leisurely two-day run home. Good trip.

THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE | SEPTEMBER 2018