JUNE Update

Its June already and recently we have been busy signing off pages of the new website. The new Fenland Classic Motorcycles.co.uk site will be the place to visit for Bikes, Parts, News and information. We are even building a virtual museum where you can discover Images and information about pre-war bikes. In addition we will introduce “The Shed” where you can get hints and tips on that hard to finish restoration, as well as keeping up with the Street Custom scene. Clearly, such a venture is quite time-consuming, so we will be rolling it out over the next 12 months. Watch this space or follow us on twitter @fenlandclassics

Draft of the new Landing Page

Southern Classic Bike Show Diary

The May Bank Holiday was a busy Motorcycle weekend with the Bike Shed Event, and Pendine. However, EP Enterprises Show and Auto-jumble at Kempton Park was a must do event. On Friday afternoon I caught up with organiser Eric Patterson for a quick chat as Exhibitors, and Stallholders were arriving. The ever youthful Eric was proudly sharing his experiences of Elvington Airfield the week before when he achieved a record breaking 132.494 MPH over a mile on his 1000cc Vincent. Eric has built the event from humble beginnings in a Village Hall, before moving to Ascot and then to its current location at Kempton Park. Eric has retained a very hands on approach, which many feel is what gives the Jumble and two annual shows a unique atmosphere. One knock on effect is that Eric does not have long to chat as he is called away. I also had to make way for other vehicles so with the help of one of the Brooklands Volunteers we unloaded the Museum’s Francis Barnett and set up the stand.

Zoë Cano with her Bonneville

On the Day of the show I just managed to slip in the back door as the main gates were opening. Understandably most people wanted to grab a bargain over in the Jumble, so there was time for a quick chat with Zoë Cano about her trip across America on a Triumph Bonneville. She was soon swamped with customers  keen to grab a signed copy of her book so I moved on to the Marston Sunbeam and London Motorcycle Museum stands to try and grab a few more WW1 vintage bikes for the Brooklands Great War 100 Event on 27 Sept. 

An early visitor learns more about Brooklands Museum 

Once back at the Brooklands Stand, people were keen to know about the Tommy Meeten Record Breaking bike, and one Guy from the Two-stroke Club even brought over a picture of Meeten at Brooklands on what we believe was an earlier bike of the same type.

I met Classic Bike Editor Gary Pinchin, fresh back from the London Bike Shed Event the night before. He was busy gathering bikes for a photo shoot and it was time for me to make my excuses and sneak off to grab some brake cleaner and a few bits from the Jumble.

Brooklands Volunteers study picture provided by the 2-stroke Club

All too soon it was time to pack up. I had missed the lunchtime engine run and the prize giving! If I was covering this for a magazine I would have been sacked. However, I did a lot of networking and had a great day out. If you have never been to a Kempton Show I recommend you pay a visit to the Southern Off Road Show on 5 December 2015. If you can’t wait that long the next Kempton Park Jumbles are on 25 July, 19 Sept and 24 Oct. More details at: egp-enerprises.co.uk

Zoë Cano’s book ‘Bonneville or Bust’ is available on Amazon and details of signings and future events can be found at: http://www.bonnevilleadventure.blogspot.co.uk/ 

If you have a 1910-1920 motorcycle and would like to be part of the 1915 Service Events commemorations please email: warbike@fenlandclassics.co.uk and we will send you details. Bikes manufactured during the above period will be free to register.

Triumph volunteer reports for duty in 1912

The Ethanol Debate

I meet a lot of Classic/Vintage bike owners and read a lot of magazines. Over the last few years there has been a growing an obsession with ethanol. I can’t seem to have a conversation without the “E” word popping into the discussion somewhere along the line. Magazines and Club Newsletters are filled with the latest thoughts on the dreaded ethanol. At least one publication even refuses to print letters, preferring to summarise the continuing deliberations at the end of each year. One thing is for sure; whilst there are some very real issues, there are also a lot of urban myths out there.  

Over the last few weeks I have heard various stories about the level of ethanol in various branded pump fuel and one DIY ethanol removal method doing the rounds. However, so far I have seen one cracked fibre glass tank, several leaking taps and two ruined paint-jobs caused by petrol.

Over the next few months we will be doing a bid of digging to see if we can discover more about the real issues and find out if there are any solutions. For once we don’t want to hear your stories, as we have a mountain of magazines filled with horror stories and solutions to keep us very busy.

Fenland ClassicsTV

Our monthly trawl of the web Including Bike World Series 9 Episode 4 & 5:

Old Timer

JANUARY Update

A very cold start to the New Year, but there are still some brave classic bikers braving the salt for some good riding in the crisp winter sunshine. In December we caught up with two more classic motorcycle record breakers that have been braving the salt.

WarBike Project

The book is beginning to look like a finished work, but there are still some editing and images to work on. During the research we discovered more about the part played by Brooklands Race Track during WW1. This included testing motorcycles for the War Office, and a previously un-discovered scratch meeting held in September 1914 by a group of workers from the Royal Aircraft Factory. This has resulted in a spin off publication for Brooklands Museum, part one of which has just been published in the Museum Trust’s Magazine with a further piece planned for later in the year.

A summary of the early history of military motorcycling has already been published in the October edition of the Classic Motorcycle and we hope to be commemorating the three 1915 Brooklands motorcycle events later in the year in conjunction with the Brooklands Museum. At this stage I would also like to thank the Manx Aviation & Military Museum for providing some stunning images of Dispatch Riders which are to be included in the book.

Southern Classic Off Road Show

WW1 BSA Bicycle

Period WW1 Combination

Kempton Park Race Course was the location of EGP Enterprises second show of the year and crowds flocked to the ever-popular event which was bolted on to the December motorcycle jumble. Organiser Eric Patterson took time out from his busy schedule of Record Breaking and events management to explain that the Jumble is one of the few that is organised by bikers for bikers. He recalled the first events in a Village Hall which had to be closed down because of overcrowding. He then moved to Ascot Racecourse before arriving at the current venue. If you have never been, you need to get down there as it is a unique experience. There are some who say that a Jumble is a Jumble, but somehow Eric manages to retain that Village Hall vibe on a large scale. In the relaxed atmosphere it seems that you will always run into old mates for a chat; and twice a year there is the bonus of a bike show for an extra quid on the ticket price.

On a 15 minute look round the December Jumble we found a very original (Knackered!) WW1 vintage combination, a restored BSA WW1 military Bicycle, a twin engined French Barn find and custom Cafe Racer seats.

This neat Norton won Best in Show & Sounded great too!

It was back to the Grandstand for a bit of an impromptu Engine run by some of the Bikes. We had transported the Brooklands Museum Exhibits and rather ironicly spent what seemed like hours the night before draining the tank of The Tommy Meeten Francis Barnett, there was no way we were going to go through that again, so it stayed on the stand. A beast of a grass track combination finally roared into life together with a selection of other track and field machines.

Back in the hall the Brooklands Tommy Meeten Francis Barnett had a visit from Sam Lovegrove, builder of the 2013 Alan Cathcart/Henry Cole record Breaking Brough Superior featured on The Travel Channel’s Greatest Motorcycle Journeys . 

Sam Lovegrove Chats about the Francis Barnett

Sam took time out to chat with the volunteers about the rebuild of the Francis Barnett which itself holds an endurance record. In 1927 this plucky little 172 cc 2-stroke was able to fend off the big boys by staying out on the track with its three petrol tanks averaging  50 MPH over a six hour period. 

Tommy Meeten on the 172cc Fanny B

The Rebuilt 1927 EW Douglas

Meanwhile, other visitors to the stand were learning about how a Cement Mixer engine, an old frame and collection of bits were born again as the 1927 EW Douglas featured in April 2014’s Classic Bike Guide. Incidentally the Brooklands Volunteers are currently working on a re-creation of an outer circuit racer which should be ready later in 2015.

It was soon time for prize giving and Peter Allan won the prize for the best Record-Breaker with his bike “Epsom Salt” built by Baron’s Speed Shop. 

Prize-winner Peter Allan with "Epsom Salt"

The prize was a small consolation for a challenging year. Peter explained that he was all set to do some more runs at Bonneville in August but was thwarted by appalling weather after which the lake bed returned to being a Lake! The event was called off and he returned empty handed.

The next Kempton Jumble is on 24 January 2015 and the next show at Kempton is the Southern Classic (Road) bike Show on 23 May 2015.  See the EGP Enterprises website for more about the Motorcycle Jumbles and Eric Patterson’s Record breaking machines.

Tax Discs

The excitement regarding tax discs has died down a bit, but don’t forget that you still need to SORN or “Tax” your classic even if there is no fee to pay. It seems a bit daft but the DVLA still need to record “Tax” or SORN against the vehicle for it to remain legal.  It seems to us that it is better to “Tax” than SORN as this provides the greatest flexibility for bikes that are nil rate tax.

For those who miss the experience of a soaked ink run disc on the bike Greg Powell can provide you with a reproduction disc for your empty holder from 1921 to 1986. You can even get the date stamp of your choice. See more at poplargreg.com. 

Old Timer

DECEMBER Update

Richard "Dick" Standing

Dick's Silver TT Replica from 1967 complete with entry pack

Late October brought sad news of the death of Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteer Richard Standing. “Dick” was a wonderful character who always had a tale to tell about his career as an engineer at Hawker Sidley and British Airways, flying model Aircraft, sailing and bike racing. He was very modest about his own achievements on the track and it was not until his funeral on 17 November that many of us knew of the two Bronze and one Silver TT replicas that he had won on the island. The Silver was won in the Diamond Jubilee year of 1967, in a race that featured the period greats of Agostini and Hailwood. Over 87mph not bad for a part-timer! Many members of the VMCC Brooklands Section, where he served as a Committee Member, accompanied him on his last ride out, and 150 family and friends squeezed into the chapel to hear tributes from his close family and friends. You can read a full tribute to Dick on the Old Bike Mart website.

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Warbike Project

The book is (still) nearing completion and it seems that the last bit is never ending. The pictures are looking great and it should not be long until we can get the first full draft off the press. Meanwhile this is an ongoing project; so if you have any WW1 military motorcycle information to contribute please write to warbike@fenlandclassics.co.uk or check out the warbike project facebook page.  We are still looking for a 1914-20 Phelon and Moore bike to photograph at the Brooklands circuit to commemorate the many bikes tested at the Weybridge track before and during WW1. If you have or know of a P&M bike please contact us at warbike@fenlandclassics.co.uk  

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The Southern Off Road and Racing Show

Brooklands Stand at Last years Kempton Show

The Southern Off Road and Racing Show will be held at Kempton park Race course on 6 December 2014. The ever popular Bike jumble will be supplemented by the show all for the price of just £6 with reductions for pensioners. The Brooklands Volunteers will be promoting the Museum with two bikes from the collection. 

Sammy Miller Prepares for a ride at his museum in 2013

The first is a 1927 Tommy Meeten Francis Barnett. This is the Record Breaking minnow that went up against the big boys in 1927 winning the 6 hour endurance race at an average speed of 50 mph. The high average speed was maintained with the addition of two auxiliary tanks mounted to the rear on each side. The pocket rocket was fully restored a few years ago by the volunteers and still runs regularly.



At present the bike is at present being prepared for a trip to the Montlhéry vintage meeting in May 2015. 

Ian Prepares for a run during the 2014 photo shoot

The second bike on the stand will be a 600cc EW Douglas which was built from a collection of bits that were donated to the museum. Volunteers Ian and Carl spent many hours converting the diverse collection into this this stunning bike. The Douglas that was featured in The April 2014 edition of The Classic Bike Guide Magazine is also regularly run on the test track at Brooklands.   

The dangerously low ground clearance is a challenge

The motorcycle makes its second appearance at the Kempton Venue having previously featured at the Southern Classic Bike Show. A full review of the December show will appear in the January Blog.

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Brooklands Military Vehicle Day

Whilst on the subject of Brooklands there was the usual big turn out for the Brooklands Museum Military Vehicles Day on 16 November. Bikes were represented by a WW2 RAF BSA and a GI Indian. 

These solos were heavily outnumbered by several Zundapp and BMW combinations. They relished the challenges of the Mercedes World 4x4 test track in the morning and most were out again for a rumble up Test Hill. 

Barnes Wallis was turning in his grave, but Churchill and Monty were also on hand to save the editorial balance of this piece.

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Road Improvement Programme

The PM visits a single carriageway section of the A1. Without any Traffic!

Transport Secretary Patrick Mcloughlin announced today (1/12) what he called “the biggest, boldest and most far reaching roads programme for decades” We don’t want to get into politics in this space other than to say that governments come and governments go. Every few years they propose a tunnel under Stonehenge and other major projects before retreating again. For bikers the priority must be repairing what is already there, particularly on the twisty B roads and country lanes we love so much. To be fair there has been improvement in some areas since a recent injection of cash, but the poor weather over the winter is bound to compound many roads already in dire need of a make-over.  

For those interested the key improvements announced are A1 to become a dual carriageway from end to end, A303 & A358 to be improved including a Stonehenge Tunnel! Meaning dual carriageway from London to within 15 mile of Lands End. (I hope the car-park is being increased) Improvements in the midlands include the M62 becoming a “smart” motorway and further work on the M42 so that in years to come we can get to the NEC Motorcycle Live more easily.  

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Fenland Classics TV

Another collection of our favorite motorcycle films from the web including Series 8 Episode 2 of Bike World. Select Playlist to skip a film.

by
Old Timer

JANUARY 2014 Update

Cambridge: 1 Jan 2014. On the Water in any Weather!

As you can see from the photo it is rather a wet New Years Day in Cambridge and as I write this introduction I hear that lots of people are arriving at Brooklands Museum to enjoy the annual New Years Day Meet which is growing every year. This is particularly good news following the news that parts of the Museum were flooded on Christmas Day. Thanks to the dedication of the Museum Staff and Volunteers all the exhibits were kept from harms way and work is already well underway to get the worst affected areas ready for today. I gather that the ground floor of the club house may still be closed for a few days but other areas are open.

Southern Classic Off Road Show

December turned out to be quite busy. We were supporting the Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers at the Southern Classic Off Road Show at Kempton Park. Stars of the show were the Record Breaking Brough Superiors which were run at this years Bonneville speed week by Riders Eric Patterson, Alan Cathcart and Henry Cole.



The Eric Patterson Record Breaking Brough

Also on the Brough Stand was The new Brough Superior SS100 on one of its first outings. We try not to do press lines in this blog, so it was great to have a chat with Brough Superior CEO Mark Upham about his own personal views of the project. This is a man who is passionate about delivering a modern state of the art machine which earns it's place beside the George Brough Marque. In a parallel to developments in the aerospace industry this motorcycle is a European engineered machine and a lot of time and care has been taken to develop what is a beautiful motorcycle.

The New SS100 Photo: Fenland Classic Motorcycles

I have to admit that I was not sure about the bike when I first saw the pictures and Mark explained that despite taking a lot of time which the publicity shots he was not sure that they captured the full essence of the bike. Surrounded by others prior to the show as the bike was placed on its stand it was clear that others were also sharing my view that it looks so much better in the flesh, and therefore my final verdict is that it is worthy of the name and could easily be the sort of machine produced if there had been continuity of production over the last 80 or so years. It is details like the retention of a state of the art girder fork suspension as well as the positioning of the cylinders and radiator that I found were not so evident in the photos.

Mark Upham and the new SS100

You too can get to own and ride one. However, this is not something that you just go down to your local bike shop for. No; you will get the Mclaren style service in keeping with its state of the art engineering heritage. Mark says that the bikes are essentially bespoke and buyers will be measured for their machine, then taken through a range of options including a number of performance packages as well as bike part options. All I will say is the price seems competitive when viewed against other specials and limited editions. And as they say if you have to ask you can't afford it! More Information at http://www.broughsuperiormotorcycles.com


It would be unfair to do a stand by stand report, because I am sure that I would miss something, particularly as my viewing time was limited. It was good to see the Pendine Landspeed Record Club guys and they won a few awards. The Frends of Speedway stand made a big effort and were rewarded with best stand, and we should also mention The London Motorcycle Museum which I need to pay a visit soon.

As for the Brooklands Stand we had a lot of interest and gave away thousands of leaflets and New Years Day promo flyers. As always, the Motorcycle Volunteers and events can be found on their facebook page.

Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers Christmas Lunch

It was great to attend the Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers Christmas lunch. Good to see so many people from the world of motorcycling present. This was their end of term bash and turned out to be an end of an era event as Team Leader John Bottomley announced that he would be leaving. You can read a statement from John on the facebook page and we which him all the best in 2014.

John "Brooklands" Bottomley at Brooklands Ton-up Day

Warbike Project

The Warbike Project continues to be the main focus at present and once again I would like to say thanks for the information I have received so far, but we are still on the look out for stories of individuals and details such as maintenance of machines in the field (World War One). Email us with any information warbike@fenlandclassics.co.uk

Plans for 2014

We will continue to support the Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers and also look forward to expanding the site which will also include a sales area later in 2014.

This year we will be promoting Sense, who provide support for Deafblind people. Find out more about Sense on their website and how you can support Deafblind People By Clicking Here

Old Timer

DECEMBER 2013 Update

November was an interesting month. We were supporting the Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers with a trip to the Sammy Miller Museum and spent some time at the National Archives working on the War Bike Project.

War Bike Project

THE CANADIAN ARMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR© IWM (Q 53568)

 

The research continues and last month we were looking specifically at the work that went into setting up military motorcycles for use supporting the Army. There was initially some debate about the role of motorcycles and it seems to be the Royal Flying Corps that did the most planning for the use of motorcycles in the field, both as methods of transporting intelligence and possibly transporting pilots and mechanics. The documents we have reviewed relate to the organisation of the Special Reserve just prior to World War One and we are still on target to publish volume one of Warbike in July next year.

 

Brooklands Motorcycle Volunteers

The motorcycle volunteers continue to make history at Brooklands by maintaining the Museums interesting collection of Bikes and promoting the Museum at outreach events such as the VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes and the forthcoming Southern Classic Off Road Motorcycle Show at Kempton Park on 7 December 2013.



Bowser Pump after Restoration

The volunteers are nearing the end of refurbishing the BP Petrol Pagoda which included a fine restoration of a BP Bowser hand cranked petrol pump seen here after restoration.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Last month also saw the start of the restoration of the Earle Cotton Jap.

The Brooklands Earle Cotton Jap Pictured before the start of the Restoration



The Earle Cotton Jap Frame

 

This bike was built as a recreation of an outer circuit racer created in later life by Doug Earle who raced at Brooklands in 1938.  The bike has a Cotton Frame powered by a 498cc Jap engine. It is thought that the bike may have been used as a grass track racer before being created in its current form. It remains a controversial bike as it is a later and somewhat eccentric build. However, it helps tell the story of racers like Earle and continues to provide a relatively smooth ride.

The Volunteers also took a visit to The Sammy Miller Museum with Tommy Meeten’s record breaking Francis Barnett for a photo opportunity. Sammy could not resist a ride on the little 2 stroke and was surprised to learn that it averaged 50mph in its record breaking endurance race. The bike benefits from three separate fuel tanks which extended the range well beyond some of the larger and faster bikes that had to stop to take on fuel. Mr Miller also fired up his V4 AJS for a couple of circuits of the courtyard.

Sammy Miller on the Tommy Meeten Brooklands Special



Keep up to date with the volunteer's their Facebook Page.

Caterham Bikes  

Whist we remain committed to keeping old bikes running, regular readers will know that we also have an eye on the future and are always on the look out for sustainable solutions which will help save precious fuel for older bikes. So we did not hesitate in contacting the newly formed Caterham bikes to find out more about their e-bikes launched last month. The Classic e-bike is modelled on a 1920s racing motorcycle and Caterham tell us that it will be ready next year so keep an eye on our twitter feed @fenlandclassics for more information. For more information on the Classic e-bike and other bikes in the range see our news page and Caterhambikes.com.  




The Caterham Classic E-Bike

F1 Fantasy Team

News hot off the press is that the Fenland Classics Fantasy F1 team finished 9,560 places higher than our starting position back in March but sadly still finished in 1,427^th place.

Old Timer