Les Newman Memorial Run 2014

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Dodson

A great day out in the sun was had by all at this year’s Les Newman Memorial Run. The day was organised by ace restorer John Phizacklea and hosted by Rob and Joe Selbourne at Prebendal Farm, Bishopstone. Next year the event may well be opened to other marques but this year at least it was well supported with 13 of Marston’s finest taking a spin around the 40 mile ~~track~~ route.

The event is a tribute to local hero Les Newman who raced his Sunbeams throughout the ’30s and famously used the lanes around the area as “practice” for his races on the Isle Of Man. My own ’30 Model 90 was raced by Newman at the 1934 Manx Grand Prix where he was given a special award following his 69.28mph lap “in recognition of a fine ride on a 4 year old”. After missing last year’s run it was great to finally bring the bike back home and to enjoy the lanes it must have known so well. I’m not sure that Les found time to stop for a pint on the way round his course but if he ever did, I’m sure that he wouldn’t have found this gentleman guarding the entrance to the hostelry where we stopped for a quick one.

With John taking his own 95 for a spin there were indeed some fine bikes enjoying the superb roads and scenery including a JAP twin and Parallel 9 amongst the Model 9s, 90s and side-valves.

As I habitually use a van to transport the bikes I was shamed by the distances that had been ridden to the event by some of the participants. Jez Cator, who had ridden up from Portsmouth and camped over-night at the farm, was rightly presented the furthest distance travelled award by Vic Youel. The day was rounded off back at the world’s tidiest farm with a fine spread of sandwiches and cake. More photos from the day can be viewed here.

However, I was particularly excited to see the ex-Smedley 95 that John has recently acquired and that young Chris let off the leash for a canter around the lanes.

The amazing story and history of the Smedley bikes surely deserves recording and telling in much more detail than I can even begin to attempt here. However, being built for race, sprints and hill-climbing by the Rolls-Royce engineer the bikes represent the absolute pinnacle of engineering excellence. They weigh next-to-nothing but with over 50hp at the rear wheel I am sure you can imagine the result.

Having had Chris blast pass me earlier in a blur of speed, noise and Castrol R, I was keen to take the bike for a short spin. I have to say that it really was a staggering, eye-opening experience. The low gearing obviously helps but the bike just pulls, revs and accelerates like a mad thing and it is easy to believe the 3 sec 0-60mph times are quite possible. Despite the performance on hand, it was surprisingly easy to ride at sensible speeds too with just the occasional pop and bang to let you know it was getting impatient for the taps to be opened. This amazing bike could take on and shock even modern sports bike riders, at least with the right rider on board it could….

Norley there…

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Dodson

Last week Nigel and I had another trip in glorious sunshine across the Welsh hills to check out the latest progress on the Norley framed Buell XB Lightning. And she’s looking good…

Nigel and Paul Brewster of Norley framekits have been developing this individual, unique and one-time only amalgamation of the classic Norton featherbed frame with the engine and running gear from a Buell XB12S Lightning. Norley originally made frame kits to suit Harley engines and their replica featherbed frames are made in-house to exacting standards and quality. These rather special café racers are, in many ways, a Norvin or Ogri bike for the lucky few, if not the masses.

Fitting the XB motor proved more of a challenge than usual as not only is it a stressed member of the original Buell frame but also it was important for Nigel to retain the fat Buell back wheel and tyre. Fortunately, these guys have the experience and technology to address the 1001 issues that are inevitable with any such special build. Their workshop is well kitted with a comprehensive range of lathes, milling machines, jigs, welding and bending equipment. The sort of gear that take a lifetime to amass and an eternity to learn how to use.

Interestingly, Norley also produce frames for other classic recreation companies and are willing to take on, perhaps, even more esoteric frame-engine combinations than Nigel’s own. A featherbed framed JAP anyone? Japton…. Norap… perhaps

Slowly but surely the bike has been taking shape over recent months to the point where it is now ready for exhausts and petrol tank to be manufactured and so, after a cup of tea, the bike was ready to be despatched to the petrol tank guys. The tank will need to be constructed to ensure airflow to the top-mounted airfilter and also provide sufficient clearance for fuel pump, header tank, coils etc. As mentioned before, capacity could well be in pints rather than gallons!

Stafford Classic Motorcycle Show 2014

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dodson

Another year, another great Stafford show and the ’28 Model 90 makes her first appearance in polite society.

It went to the wire but John Phizacklea pulled out all the stops to get the bike ready in time for the 2014 Stafford Classic Motorcycle show. After abandoning the grid-locked M6, John faced a tortuous 3 hour cross-country journey that coincidentally took him right past the Wolverhampton Sunbeamland factory. Perhaps fitting that the first journey of the newly rebuilt bike should include the place where it was first constructed. Finally arriving at 6pm we quickly unloaded the bike and set it up in the private entries area from where, after a final polish, we were shortly ejected.

We are incredibly pleased with the final result and hope that the bike is a fitting testament to the skills of the “holy trinity” who made this possible.

Of course Peter Woodward must take massive credit for the bike and he is responsible for the detail, accuracy and authenticity of the majority of the components and engineering on the bike. Not withstanding the quality of the major elements of the bike Peter’s touches are everywhere that you look from the ’28 only angular profile of the silencers to the double-curvature mudguard washers to the English Lever toolbox lock.

The crank and cases in particular needed serious attention and without Chris Odling’s vast engineering skills and experience we would have been in some serious trouble. Chris must have the patience of a saint to put up with my constant badgering but despite this, he found the time to put together an engine and gearbox package that should last another 80 years.

And finally, John Phizacklea despite suffering my interminable phone calls, perhaps even more than Chris, has pulled it all together. The wheel building alone was a mammoth exercise as the spoke nipples are individually hand turned to match the profile of the original Sunbeam items. Not only does John have the engineering background, experience and capability to do the 1001 jobs needed on a project such as this but the bike is topped off with a coat of John’s trademark, deep black liquid gloss paintwork.

Thanks guys.

Norley Lightning progress

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dodson

Rapid progress has been made by the guys at Norley and the rolling chassis is looking good and actually nearing completion.

One of the next challenges is the petrol tank which needs to accommodate the air filter and leave space for the electrical systems needed for the fuel injected motor. The idea is to have vents at the front of the tank that will force-feed air under pressure to the intake. Fuel tank capacity is likely to be measured in pints rather than gallons!

Quality rear-sets from a 70s Kawasaki have been “adjusted” to fit and certainly are in keeping with the bike whilst an offset rear-sprocket takes care of the chain aligment.

Replica 1920-1930s Pennant Vintage tax disk / tax disc holders

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Dodson

The latest project coming to fruition is a limited edition run of 50 Pennant replica tax disk or tax disc holders. They are UK made from solid brass using a beautiful original Pennant as a pattern and feature the Pennant logo on the rear of the holder. Be warned, they are a seriously weighty item!

As we’re all worried about global warming and the resulting floods, the holder is bang up-to-date with the tax disk sealed from the elements in its own rubber pouch. Available in nickel, chrome or un-plated brass they will come complete with a bracket and stainless fasteners.

Please contact us for prices or visit the shop more information.

The gear masher

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Dodson

Can you tell what’s going on here? Never a Sunbeam’s strongest point, a total of 4 missing teeth from this CT layshaft were located in the bottom of the gearbox housing. So that’s the 1930 M90 off the road until we can find a replacement set of cogs. It’s hard to tell what has gone wrong with this remanufactured set but a backfire whilst bump-starting the bike seems to have been the final straw for this particular old donkey.

Rich beyond the dreams of avarice

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Dodson

What a lash up!!! Just in case anyone was wondering how the carburation was developing on the 1930 M90 I thought I’d post this picture of the steps taken to check and correct the float height on the Amac 10MDY currently fitted to the bike. It’s the wrong carb for the year and I’d like a later Amal 29/001 if anyone can help but “we are where we are” on this one…

The Amal twin floats are most likely 15 degree items that have been machined to operate on the level so to speak. But they were clearly never designed to operate with the Amac. After making up a new, elongated float chamber holding bolt complete with a spigot for some clear plastic pipe it was easy to see that the float level was some 6mm too high. Adding the aluminium spacer drops the level back downwards and this setup should help with fine tuning once back on the bike. I’ll make up a proper brass spacer and new banjo bolt once the correct dimensions are established as the existing one is too short to work with the spacer.

All this is yet another example of how much time can be spent trying to get groups of disparate components from different eras to work together with some degree of harmony.

Norley meets Buell Lightning

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Dodson

To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig “it is better for a good idea to destroy a motorcycle than for an owner’s club to destroy a good idea”. Sometimes a chap has to stand upright in the face of those without clear vision and those who would seek to maintain the “status quo”. Nigel O’Connell is just such a man and, close to the Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth, he found Paul and the guys at Norley frame kits were willing and able to turn his wet dream into cold steel.

Norley have been making Manx Norton frames for 40 years and also produce frames for other high-profile companies involved in the re-creation of iconic motorcycles. The café-racer things has always appealed and whilst everyone wants an Ogri-bike few can afford the Vincent technology to power it. After spotting this gap in the market a few evenings were spent with beer mats in the pub and the Harley/Buell engine’d Norley frame was born. Weighing in at 15.5kg including swinging arm it shares its geometry with the original Manx Norton featherbed design.

Nigel’s project began with a perfectly good Buell XB12 that was a nice, but not quite mint, example. The sort of bike you’d be happy to ride in all weathers and not have to worry about cleaning nano-seconds afterwards. Yet smart enough to impress outside the pub.

Why not drive it down to Wales in the back of the van and completely dismantle it then? I confess to being initially sceptical but after the first visit and talking with Paul I began to see a chink of light. This is the first XB frame kit that Norley have produced and so the first job was to take the bike apart and build a new jig using the original frame. The motor is suspended from the beam frame in the donor bike and this means some lateral thinking when moving the lump across to its new home.

The concept of the new bike is a not-so subtle blend of new and old that retains the essential characteristics of the classic café-racer and the Buell Lightning. To Nigel, this means keeping the original Buell wheels and especially the unique rim-mounted disc brake. A conversion to chain drive is unavoidable and to retain the fat Buell rear wheel caused a number of alignment issues. One rear wheel was sacrificed to the cause and Nigel now has all different varieties of Buell front forks coming from his ears.

The amazing thing is that it all does fit together and looks in proportion to boot! I’m looking forward to our next visit and a chance to see the completed rolling chassis. There’s a lot of work to do yet of course but this will be a massive step forward and I’ll publish some photos as the project develops.

The Search(er) for Needles & Pins

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Dodson

Nothing is as simple as it seems and when working on old stuff without a point of reference life can get pretty complicated quite rapidly indeed. To cut to the chase… the Amac 10MDY needle jet adapter looks good and puts the new Amal 29 jet in the right place within the jet block but what needle should I use? The original idea was to use an Amal 29 needle along with the 29 needle jet. I’m sure this would work and probably work well but is it “correct”? Whatever correct means….

For me it is all about setting a new datum from which to work when fine tuning the carburation. If the different parts and systems of the carburettor are working in approximately the right regions then changes and adjustments on the bike start to make sense. After all, there’s little point fitting a weaker slide to compensate for an oversized or worn needle. Even the enrichment device might finally start to have some effect – there was no way it could have made any difference with the original settings and state of the carb. An obsession with this comes from hours and cash invested on the dyno with racing two-strokes that are hyper-sensitive to these issues. Even my Triumph Bonnie gained a healthy bhp increase after some careful tweaking from its original “standard” settings to compensate for the fuel that is available today.

So, a quick study of needles and tapers revealed that fitting an Amal 29 needle in the 3rd clip would mean that the bike would be running on the tapered section of the needle after the throttle was opened only one or two mm which is where the slide cutaway and pilot jet should be in charge of the charge. Unable to Google anything concrete, the best I came up with was that the parallel straight portion of the needle should be down the needle jet until maybe 1/4 throttle after which it should start to richen up on the taper. I found a D needle from a monobloc carb in the dartboard and this seemed to have a very similar taper to that of the 29 but was conveniently much longer. After a few hours with the Emco mini-lathe making up some collets, bushes and super-slim parting tool we produced the shortened needle shown below. The 5 needle clip positions are now adjusted to put the start of taper in what could be the “correct” position.

Will it work? I have no idea.

Amac 10MDY needle jet adapter

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Dodson

Having recently re-acquired my little Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe I found time over the Xmas holiday period to experiment with a little project that I’ve had in mind for a short while. I had noticed that the ’30 M90 was running rich at running-in speeds and sooting up the plug. Not a major problem, but closer investigation revealed a home-made needle jet in the Amac 10MDY carb.

Although, conveniently, this needle jet was made to accept the later small Amal main jets it was badly worn and the likely cause of rich running low-down. I asked around but was unable to locate any replacement needle jets or needles for that matter. So, following a chat with the ever helpful (and patient) Martin Bratby I decided to look into producing an adapter that would allow 29 series needle jets and needles to be used with the earlier Amac carb.

After a few false starts I came up with a design that could be produce on the little Emco. It was tight as there isn’t much wall-thickness to play with if everything is going to line up correctly but I was pleased with the result. The photo above shows the Amac jet-block with an original needle/main jet assembly next to a 29 needle/main jet screwed into one of the new adapters.

The next job is of course to try one on the bike to see how well it works. The plan is to start off with a 106 needle jet and the middle-clip of a 29 needle. I’ll probably adjust the position of the needle jet up/down in the adapter to fine-tune rather than move the needle clip itself as the “correct” relationship between slide-needle-needle jet is of course difficult to establish when mixing and matching the 29 and 10MDY elements.

To help with this, I have use of a decidedly un-1930s Innovate LM-2 AFR data logger that uses a Bosch car-type Lambda sensor rammed up the exhaust pipe to monitor the exhaust gases. Once lashed up on the bike, it is relatively easy to record the air-fuel-ratio at different throttle openings, engine speed and load. This makes fine-tuning of carburation using the modern fuels a lot less hit-and-miss for someone with my lack of sensitivity in such matters.