For those who like old Motorcycles.

[alastairq]

41 minutes ago, spikey said:

Horrible things they were.  Heavy as hell too. 

The weight of a fairing was something I had an issue with as well.  It could quite adversely affect the handling of a bike.

However, when riding through a wintry snow storm, my old Avon fairing did make quite a difference to my comfort ! {??}

 

I recall one journey, when returning home in the middle of the night after my shift, on a narrow country lane, fairly high up on the local wolds....in the middle of winter. Snow was prevalent, the nearest 'main' road being blocked/closed at various points due to errant car drivers.... Progress was, quite advisably, slow. Mainly due to my having my feet skating along the ground either side. The road surface had become 'rutted' ice, but home I needed to go!  All was going well, I wasn't suffering really [it's a northern thing], when, all of  a sudden, my headlamp bulb blew!

It really is amazing how disorientating suddenly not having a working headlamp can be...Especially when riding on sheets of rutted ice!

 

Needless to say, I stopped pretty much immediately, in the dark, putting my feet down either side, one of my feet hit the outward sloping side of an icy rut, and shot out sideways. Very slowly, the whole plot...bike and myself, keeled over.

It was quite a struggled, as I recall, trying to pick up the whole bike, whilst standing on uneven ice....

Lots of swearing as well.

Passing traffic [in either diretion] being non-existant as the time was well past midnight.

Needless to say, the engine was still running [bless Kawasaki]....and I did manage to re-mount.

Visor up, for the better to see the actual road], I managed to continue minus headlight, until I got to the next village, where I lived.

It really was amazing how well one could actually see at night [the snow helped, being white]....without a headlight....As I was to find out many years later, when I worked with military, and driving around the countryside without lights  at night,  was a part of the training I helped deliver.

 

Arriving home, but taking a while to get off the bike [it was a bit cold]...to find wife no.2 had the presence of mind to have  the hot water on, for a bath...was nice!

Annoying was the following morning, finding that half the fairing had to be removed just to sort the headlamp bulb out! Or finding that the fibreglass repairs of the repairs of the repairs needed doing once more!

The mounting bolts were starting to acquire ever larger diameter washers!

Eventually, as I recall, I took the fairing off....

Immediately noticed the disadvantage for a tall person, of riding without a fairing, that being , one's body tended to develop an inward arc, rearwards, around one's torso, at speeds above 50 mph...as one's arms grew ever longer clinging to the handlebars. For a tall rider, the effect was a bit like being a kite, or a spinnaker!

Getting down, so to speak, wasn't an option for a tall rider......Neither was the back pain!

 

I suppose , had I been a motorcyclist back in the 1950's, doing the same regular cross country journeys, I might have been riding a Fanny B, or a James?

 

 The Kwackah was what I could afford, simples!  Not ''what I'd have liked''......In those days of the 1980's [and earlier] working folk knew about inflation, shoyte wages, and scratting around for beer money. Heck, when I got married again [2nd time] I even gave up smoking, since we hadn't much money coming in [redundancy was also a big threat]...and I couldn't justify my 20-odd a day habit, when the wife went without on so many things.

 

It was a few years before things got better, financially..and work became more stable [instability was trait of working  in a predominantly rural area in those days.]

My long journeys cross country, to work [sorted out by yet more redundancy, courtesy of M Thatcher!]....got slightly more warmer when my family blackmailed me into floggin' my motorcycle, to get a car [wife no.2 already had a car...several, in fact, over that time]....so I bought a 2nd hand Renault 4 TL, by way of revenge upon the motoring world.

Ruddy good motorcar it was, too....a bit like a 4 wheeled wheelbarrow...able to literally be taken anywhere..often grass verges...or loaded up with anything.

 

Often used to take  No 1 son on trips across the Pee nines to the Manchester area [M62....I recall it being closed due to weather on more than one occasion]...on model railway business....I was a member of the NMRA [UK] and the original northern modular meets had just started up....so the Renault 4 would be loaded up [used to take the back seats right out altogether]....and orff we'd go. 45 mpgs regular, and a top speed of somewhere like 70 mph, but mainly on the western, downward side of the M62...

 

An undreamt of feat had I still had the motorcycle...

 

But I wish I had a similar car now, though.   

I keep looking longingly at Reliants!

 

As soon as I've sold the Mustang,.

[polybear]

I found this video interesting - has anyone tried it?  (The method could be useful for other items too).  Some of his other videos could be worth a look as well:

https://www.rideapart.com/features/583821/how-to-remove-rust-electrolysis/

[MrWolf]

I assume that you're talking about the Zundapp Bella @spikey?

 

 

I rather liked them, far better engineered than the Vespa.

 

The nearest thing that we made was the Dayton Albatross.

Possibly the worst bike name since the Dunelt Vulture two decades earlier!

 

 

As for dustbin fairings, this belonged to someone I know and is still in the same paint it was when raced on the Isle of Man.

 

 

 

My other half fell in love with it,, but didn't have a license at the time.

Besides, I pointed out she couldn't do a Wallace and Gromit, amongst other things she has hair and the wrong accent and if we put a dog in the sidecar she'd sneeze herself off the road into a field of sprouts...

 

 

 

[rockershovel]

Just had the offer of a last-minute entry for a track day at Leicester, yes please! 

 

I wasn't actually much impressed with speedway when my dad took me, it was for old codgers with macs, roll-ups and copies of the Hackney Gazette... the cool kids went to football... but now it's our turn to be the old codgers...

 

Can't remember the last time I saw a Cole on track. A controversial JAP conversion with 4 valves, alloy head and barrel and a reputation for being oversize...

 

 

 Beautiful Jawa 890 and pushrod Weslake 

 

 

I built this Jawa 890 from assorted spares and cast-offs, long ago. Time it had a bit of a spruce up, I think 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockershovel]

There was another pushrod Weslake, looked a corker but came to grief mechanically during the day...

 

Another Jawa, this time a 90s upright 

 

 

Another 890, in grass track trim this time. We encountered this bike at Tallington a couple of weeks ago

 

 

A few more I didn't get pics of included a modern upright Jawa conversion, probably originally built for grasstrack but now in a speedway frame, and an ancient Honda 125 which was probably built as a junior or training bike in the 1980s

 

Last but not least, a quite tremendous Hagon JAP on open pipe. I can't upload the video for some reason, it really had that SNAP that nothing else quite has...

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by rockershovel

[New Haven Neil]

I LURVE Speedway, but there's none here.

 

When I was at Kollege in Liverpool in the mid-70's we used to to go Ellesmere Port to see the Gunners - Phil Collins (not that drummer one) rode for them at the time, he was really something.  Newcastle Diamonds never had the same appeal when I was at home for some reason.

 

I'd never have the guts to give that blip to get the back wheel out.....no way, I like my wheels in line!

[polybear]

Bear used to go to Rye House Speedway many, many moons ago (the 1970's);  the one thing I wasn't keen on was the short races (4 laps - or is it 6?) with what seemed to be very long gaps in between.  Having just checked it seems the track was ripped up in late 2020 and is to become a footie pitch, gym and dance studios - like we're really short of those......

[rockershovel]

Ah, Rye House... a track with a long and chequered history, as speedway tracks often do.

 

It was closed for a while, then revived by a combination of enthusiastic fans and the assistance of Len Silver, sometime promoter there. Eventually it passed from Silver's control and led a fitful life, it was a common (if not popular, most riders hated its short, tight curves and bumpy surface) for the amateur speedway clubs which flourished in the 2000s. It was rebuilt a few years ago to give a better shape and enjoyed a reputation with the amateur flat track which had largely supplanted amateur speedway.

 

A couple of years ago it passed through one spat to many with the Speedway Control Board and abruptly closed, so it goes. There are persistent rumours of its forthcoming reopening but I certainly wouldn't put any money on it....

 

 

[spikey]

22 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I assume that you're talking about the Zundapp Bella @spikey?

 

 

 

 

OMG.  Picture that with a thick coat of maroon Hammerite brushed over it (including parts of the dualseat and the back tyre) and an L plate on the front mudguard, and you have the very thing I mentioned.  I must admit though that it did do me a big favour by jettisoning the owner when it did.   In return for my helpfully pointing out that she came off when she did simply because the road was wet, she was too fast for the corner and she hadn't spotted the manhole cover, she gave me the elbow forthwith. 

 

And I lived happier ever after.  Well, pretty much ...

[polybear]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

A couple of years ago it passed through one spat to many with the Speedway Control Board and abruptly closed, so it goes. There are persistent rumours of its forthcoming reopening but I certainly wouldn't put any money on it....

 

 

 

It'd need someone with very deep pockets to do it - the place has been trashed and planning permissions submitted to the Council.....

I wonder how many Speedway Tracks are left in the UK now?  I recall a time when it used to be televised - the big races (at Wembley?) being shown.

[rockershovel]

8 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It'd need someone with very deep pockets to do it - the place has been trashed and planning permissions submitted to the Council.....

I wonder how many Speedway Tracks are left in the UK now?  I recall a time when it used to be televised - the big races (at Wembley?) being shown.

I greatly doubt the likelihood, but never rule anything out in the topsy-turvy world of speedway... there are about 20 tracks in operation at present. Oxford have just reopened after a hiatus of some years and Workington seem to be on the point of revival. Birmingham and Leicester reappeared after lengthy absences, Leicester at their old Beaumont Park venue which, being literally in a park had been protected from the attentions of developers. Isle of Wight appear to be thriving and Plymouth have returned in recent years, although Peterborough are passing ever further into the shadow of encroaching development. 

 

Wembley hasn't hosted speedway since the early 80s, when the last World Championship held there pulled an 80,000 crowd. The Grand Prix pulls 30,000 or so at Cardiff Millenium Stadium. 

 

Hey-ho......

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by rockershovel

[MrWolf]

I remember going to this one at Leicester pretty regularly when I was very young. When it was built about 1929, it stood in fields beside the old GCR line to Nottingham. 

Eventually surrounded by housing developments, whose residents then began complaining, the whole lot was flattened about 1986 to make room for more houses.

 

 

C.1980.

 

 

C.1930.

 

[N15class]

An ex Reading racers fan here, got into when they moved to the new track, in the 70's, alas no more as the land became to valuable to use for anything but development. Pretty sad money comes above all these days.

[rockershovel]

Two names which come to mind for me, regarding Leicester are Park Road and Blackbird Road? I have no recollection of visiting either. 

 

The present Beaumont Leys venue was built in 2011, as a home for the displaced Long Eaton team, but I'm pretty sure it uses the site of an earlier sports venue built by the local authority. 

 

Long Eaton was quite awful, literally next to a scrapyard off the motorway. Nice track surface but shameful presentation, really looked as though it was on its last legs... Wolverhampton's Monmore Green was pretty abysmal too. In its last season it was subject to an arson attack, prompting the obvious question about "how could they tell?" but it really was no advert for anyone involved. 

 

Norwich's Firs Road is now a Premier Inn, although the pub (The Firs) was still there last time I looked 

Edited May 9, 2022 by rockershovel

[polybear]

I still have my Rye House Rockets Autograph Album in the loft somewhere - including the autograph of the World Champ one year who visited as a Spectator.  I recall one of the Truck Drivers at work was a big Speedway fan - and was more than a bit happy to be staying overnight in a Hotel (in Denmark) on one of his runs; Ole Olsen's 1971 World Championship Speedway Bike had been gold plated and was in a display case in the Foyer.  He was a very Happy Bunny, apparently (the Driver - though I guess Ole was pretty happy too).

[MrWolf]

The pictures I put up were of Leicester Blackbird Road. It sat right at the junction between that and Abbey Lane, which is the one going under the railway bridge on the aerial view and gave it's name to Abbey Lane Sidings, top left.

 

I could be wrong, but I think that the Beaumont Leys ground is built on the site of the old LCWW sewage pumping station, one of those grand Victorian affairs with beam engines, which was demolished in the late sixties.

[MrWolf]

More pictures of Leicester Lions circuit before demolition. I don't think that anything had changed since the 'fifties.

 

 

 

[polybear]

It looks like there's the obligatory dog track around the outside too.

[MrWolf]

It was opened as a dog track in 1928, but within about a week there were dirt track races being held.

 

https://national-speedway-museum.co.uk/leicester blackbird road.html

 

 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

It was opened as a dog track in 1928, but within about a week there were dirt track races being held.

 

https://national-speedway-museum.co.uk/leicester blackbird road.html

 

 

Dog racing and speedway have a long and not always particularly amicable association. Dog racing is worth a lot of money because of the gambling which is its whole purpose. 

 

Exeter's fearsome County Ground had its long, narrow track outside the (grass) Dog track, which was in turn outside the rugby pitch

 

Wembley was primarily a Dog venue. The speedway track actually cut across the corners of the football pitch; as a sign of the changing times, the pitch was lifted at the corners after the FA Cup Final .....

 

Newport's notorious Somerton Road track was a "square" shape around a football pitch. I think Berwick is like that too? 

[rockershovel]

A beautiful warm Sunday and JAP power..

 

The other Weslake..

 

 

Jawas ....

 

 

 

Sometimes it's just fun being old codgers out in the sunshine.. credit to Scipspics and AMSA 

Edited May 10, 2022 by rockershovel

[MrWolf]

Received this photo from the bro in law, the 1964 Heinkel Tourist is now British registered and on the road. The battery connectors had been monkeyed at some point when it was in Ireland, damaging the charging regulator on the Siba Dynastart system. A little knowledge is dangerous and all that.

As all those Villiers powered AC Invacars which used the same system (and more importantly, the spare parts) were destroyed on a contract basis, it's a case of shell out  £400+ for a NOS item, (almost like owning a new vehicle!) or send it off to a very nice chap in Germany, who rebuilt it like new, including the finish, for £150. (Not like owning a new vehicle.) The two 6V batteries have been replaced via the owners club, as have the correct terminal clamps.

200 miles, so far, sehr gut...

 

 

[KeithMacdonald]

Has this been mentioned already?

 

The wonderfully eccentric Solex , introduced by the wonderfully eccentric Professor Simon Holland.

 

Quote

I own a Velo Solex, the classic french 2 stroke light motorbike. Built from 1945 till the mid 1970s. My Solex is a mystery machine. It was sold to me as one of the last models built from 1989. Turns out it's not a French Solex and was totally broken when I purchased it....now it runs great but the 'SAGA' of repairing it ....amuses me.....hope you enjoy this weird mystery about a classic old motorbike.

 

 

[polybear]

23 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Has this been mentioned already?

 

The wonderfully eccentric Solex , introduced by the wonderfully eccentric Professor Simon Holland.

 

 

 

 

I owned one in the 1980's......

I actually had a "PLI Solex", which was a rare version with folding frame; there was a shop in London (Old Kent Road?) called "Motavation" that used to deal in them.  Fast?  Nope.  200+ mpg though....

I used it a few times in the winter snow to go to college on (it was that or the CX500 - and I didn't fancy chuckin' that down the road).  Front wheel drive - and I had a BMX tyre on the front (the drive is via an abrasive wheel rubbing against the top of the tyre - so I figured the deep tread on the BMX tyre would last a while).  You can lift the engine away from the front wheel and pedal it like a push bike.  There is a guy in a certain town that's fitted one of the engines to his pushbike - no registration, horn, lights etc. etc. and he doesn't wear a helmet either; I spoke to him once and he said he was going to fit a basket on the front to disguise the engine.  If he sees a plod car he winds the throttle off a bit and starts pedalling....

 

edit:  The French race them - they really make them fly apparently - bl00dy great Dellorto Carbs n' all that.  Mad.

 

edit:  I started restoring it (stripped the frame into bits - it bolts together), got it blasted then re-enamelled and cleaned up all the other bits, plus some new ones.  I lost interest (all I needed to do with put it back together really) and sold it to Motavation; I've just looked and it hasn't been taxed since 1983, so I've no idea what became of it :(

Edited May 19, 2022 by polybear

[MrWolf]

I do like ridiculous motorcycles, having once owned a Cymota.

 

"Cymota Cycle Motor - YouTube"

 

Having also briefly owned a CX500 and tried riding it uphill on a very rainy day on "budget tyres", (it tried to swap ends if you touched throttle or gear lever) I think that the Velosolex was a safer bet!