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

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