The 29th Randos Cyclos at Sars Poteries, 5th June 2022

After a three year gap the Sars Poteries event was back. Most of the English contingent were at the Felleries camp site by the Wednesday with Gordon and Neil arriving a day or so later. Regulars from the Belgian and Netherland’s group were also on site with Markus Kepke again the solitary German member. The English groups numbers were down this year but there were 80 entrants overall, which while not on a par with its best years when 50 more or so bikes appeared, is still a good entry for a moped event.

That said, this year the event experienced its worst weather for a decade or more. The entire period for signing on and displaying the bikes by the bandstand was washed out with participants sheltering under any cover available while a continuous spout of water from the bandstand roof provided a suitable aural accompaniement to the dreary visuals. The 200 metre ride to the Salle de Fête baptised the entire crew. During the excellent meal, however, the rain gradually lessened and by the time of the afternoon ride only occasional spots of rain were falling.

There was only one roller drive auxillary engine powered bicycle on the ride this year. A dutch-owned Mosquito ridden by the gentleman who organises the Strampouy event for powered bicycles in September. He won the accolade of the Netherland’s contingent’s gold cup and a cup from the Rando Cyclos organisers. The fact that there was not a single Velo Solex on this very French event was remarked upon, although Paul, one of the English contingent but a long term resident of France, saved the day by successfully pilotting his Solex Tenor around the 43 kilometre route.

As always the Belgian and Netherlands groups had brought some very interesting machines. Peter had brought a 1921 Gillet made in Heslin. A 350cc 2-stroke it made either the most wonderful cracķling bark or a terrible racket depending on whether the auditor loved old motorcycles. I was in the former camp and was very pleased to see flames emitted from the exhaust when it was turned off. Apparently it was the first type of motorcycle to be produced in Heslin which went on to become a centre of motorcycle production. It wasn’t ridden in the event but the 1929 Automoto was, once it had rather unwillingly started.

There were too many other interesting machines to mention but a German Triumph (TWN in Britain) of 1955 caught my eye. It had unusual forks which pivotted at the crown on a torsion mechanism Markus told me, a patent of Professor Lutz who built engines and complete motorcycles in Markus’ hometown. It was in completely original condition with a lovely aged look.

Markus had once again brought a Victoria but this one was older than his last event’s model in 2019. A 1936, 98cc Sachs two-speed engined model, this bike came to Markus as a frame and engine and was rebuilt with spares collected over a 40 year period. Although he is able to point out things that are not quite correct, to the laymen this is a machine with a superb patina.

Markus also brought his cafe racer Rixe, again a bitza, but in this case assembled for its performance. As a youngster he owned an original Rixe, which he still possesses, and wanting to improve on the bike without destroying it he assembled this second one with modifications. It has a 50cc three speed fan engine which Markus complains is quite fast on the flat but struggles on hills as it lacks torque. Expect further modifications soon!

Markus joined elements of the Dutch and Belgian contingents for strenuous ride outs in the three days before the event which totalled, I am told around 200 kilometres. The British group were more sedate with ride outs each day but to more local venues. I say ‘British’ but in fact Nick Devonport, NACC Chairman, Andrew, Pat and Paul were all on French bikes (MBK, Mobylette, Peugeot and Solex respectively) while just about all of the rest of us were on bikes derived from the Honda Cub. William was on a modern Tomos which made me realize what a pity it was that the company folded. NACC Editor, Dave Beare was on a Skyteam Honda Dax copy, John and Jo were on modern Honda Waves, a C90 derivative, we were on a Yamaha Townmate, a C90 copy (with improvements) and Gordon was on the only original Cub a 1978 C70. To be fair, John did also have a Mobylette bitsa which had been one of his lockdown projects but nevertheless Neil’s ex-Keith Walker Bown 98cc Autocycle was the only British bike presented by the Brits. It won a prize consisting of local produce from the Randos Cyclos organisers.

The route was well sign-posted with placards and road markings and included the usual free drink at a wayside bar. It degenerated nevertheless into the expected glorious mayhem with flying groups suddenly coming to a halt amidst clouds of sweet smelling two-stroke as one of their number broke down. Once a repair was affected the group would restart and come flying past the more sedate peloton only for another of their number to hit a similar problem whence the whole cycle would begin again.

One of the most unusual bikes on the run was part of such a group and arrived a little late at the drinks stop where it attracted a lot of interest and eventually, back at the Salle de Fête, a prize. The Stella was a 1955 model with a three speed La Poulain Comet engine and British autocycle styling (flat sided pressed-steel covers, anyone?). It’s stand out eccentricity, however, was its rubber-handled pull start, like a lawnmower the owner remarked.

The general consensus was it had been great to be back in a world gone mad amongst friends as guests of the good people of Sars Poteries. Next June there will be the thirtieth edition of Randos Cyclos. It’s fancy dress and you need to be there…

The VMCC Wakefield Sections Low Powered and Girder Forks Run – Sunday 22nd May

The Raleigh Rudge and I are friends again after a rather tetchy last outing together when it broke its engine engagement cable. It’s not a quick job to change this cable at the engine end as it is necessary to remove the ‘scissor’ mechanism and split it to fit the new nipple into the two central link arms. You have to also clean this nipple (which usually has a surface covering of lead from the soldering process) so that it will turn in the hole in each arm. As it pulls the engine down the angle of the cable changes slightly so that if the nipple is rigid in the arm the cable is continually wrenched back and forth until the cable strands break one by one. This is what happened to the previous cable and I was cursing myself for not finishing the job properly when I remembered that I had been filing this nipple on the loch shore at Altnahara after the penultimate day’s ride in LEJOG. Understandable then but disappointing as although that was 4 years ago the bike has not done a huge mileage since.

The cable nipple fits between the two parts labelled A106 and the adjuster on the outer cable screws into 491 which is clamped between A110 and A113. Not easy to see how it works in an exploded diagram.

It’s difficult to give the Mini Motor an outing around here as everywhere is either up or down (and mostly both) but having enjoyed the hospitality of the Men of Wakefield at their Scissett Coffee Meets it seemed that the Rudge really ought to show its face at their ‘low-powered’ event. I’d searched for a flatter route but the route planner on my phone suggested ‘a severe gradient’. So it was with a certain trepidation, a bag of tools, and an allowance of 2 hours travelling time for a 12 mile journey that I set out on Sunday morning.

It’s hard to describe, but familiar to everyone who rides a motorcycle for pleasure, how on some days things feel right and how on others there seems to be a hole where the connection between you and the machine should be. The frailty of the powered bicycle makes the outcome of each ride unpredictable but I knew immediately that on this day, whatever the outcome, the Rudge and I were in harmony. Late spring and early summer are my favourite riding season and moving at a sedate pace through the leafy green landscape was a pleasure. I knew that the route to Upper Denaby would be all right as it’s also the Coffee Morning route but I wasn’t sure what the route after crossing the A629 at High Flatts would be like. The landscape up here is farmed but feels more akin to the open moor which is visible on the higher ridge of the Pennines to the west.

A practised Mini Motor rider can extend a hand behind without looking and turn the air control to achieve the required adjustment.

The gradient was continuous but not ‘severe’ and we plodded up the motor purring as I assisted it. As I explained during LEJOG, it’s important to richen the mixture just enough on these climbs to keep the engine on song and to pedal at a rate that keeps the revs in the power band. Too slow a cadence and both engine and legs begin to struggle with the inevitable ignominy of a push to the top of the hill.

The view over the valley of the A616 and Jackson Bridge.

After the inevitable wrong turning which always leads to the bottom of a hill we climbed up to the top of the ridge beneath which runs the A616 road. Our destination, the starting point of the run, lay up the other side of the valley in Scholes. As a student I lived for a year in nearby New Mill and was fully aware that the terrain here was not cyclemotor friendly. The view was great but getting down this steep sided valley would be interesting. Two cyclists were stopped admiring the view. One paused a moment to express his view that riding the Trojan was ‘cheating’. I took the descent gingerly as while the three brakes are just about adequate, to slow down from speed on this kind of drop is beyond them. The cyclists whooshed silently past proving that if I was trying to cheat a 1949 bicycle and a Mini Motor was definitely not the means to do it successfully. Squeezing the brakes until my hands hurt we reached the main road, crossed it and dropped even further into the valley on the other side. To my surprise, and in contradiction of my memories of the area, we climbed up the other side with aplomb and after taking another wrong turn eventually arrived early at Brooklands Nursery, the starting point.

Being a laudably open-minded sort of bunch, the section welcomed, and provided a route for, later machinery but the turn out of inter-war bikes was impressive. The standard of preservation is obvious from the photographs. I particularly liked a small Francis Barnett v-twin in their characteristic bolt-up frame which later went past me making a most satisfactory noise.

The car park was down a hill with the section we parked on being sloped gravel. As a launch pad it’s harder to think of a worse start for a cyclemotor so I elected to wait until everyone else had departed to avoid holding everyone up and my likely embarrassment. After my first fail a familiar voice hailed me. Craig Siddall is a regular on the NACC Coast to Coast which has been revived this year by the local section and is due to take place next month. He was, I am assuming, riding the last vintage bike left in the car park, an original looking BSA.

After a chat and a desperate run down the gravel to gain some momentum to start the engine I just managed to make it up and back on to the road. This was touch and go but once down in New Mill the Rudge made a good fist of the long hill to the Sovereign. My effort to cut off a corner by taking the left fork to Shepley was less successful and resulted in another slow climb up towards the crossroads this time from the Huddersfield direction. Turning left before the crossroads towards the Emley Moor mast it was immediately obvious that I had failed in my attempt to find a road that followed the ridge. A landmark this size can be deceptively far away but it’s hard to kid yourself that there isn’t a whacking great hill between you and it. The ride up to the escarpment started well but a sharp 90° bend half way up turned the road to run up parallel to the ridge. Speed and empathy was lost and long before the top we staggered to a stop. I had started the push up, which to be honest was almost as hard as the pedalling, when I noticed that the HT lead was dangling loose. Even with that re-attached there was no hope of a re-start up the gradient so I continued pushing and panting. Luckily I had left the spare plug top on and was able to quickly replace the lead. Without pliars the top could be only finger tight. The extensive toolkit had failed to include the only item I actually needed. The engine started again easily and within a short while I was at the Emley Moor mast lay-by.

A group of classic bikes on the run were gathered there and I bothered a very kind gentleman on a lovely Triton for a pair of mole-grips to tighten up the spark plug lead. I have discussed this bike with him before but I am very bad at remembering names. The 1936 Morgan three-wheeler arrived and I chatted to the owner who was co-piloted by his grandson. Apparently the grandson’s Dad at the same age used to take the same role in the same car. The engine is a post-war Ford 100E, instead of the original pre-war Ford engine. These cars were also built after the war but with the E93 engine. I was also called over to have a chat with a gentleman in a car. Now in his mid-80s he had happy memories particularly of the Velocette and wanted to know some details of the club.

Finally while all this was going on a young lad on a 1991 Yamaha SR125 had pulled up. Goodness only knows whether there will be a ‘Classic Motorbike Scene’ in half a century when he’s in the current demographic of the Wakefield Section but he was a real enthusiast out for a ride from Halifax. Besides the SR he had a mobylette and a 600 he was working on in the hope of taking it touring.

Taking my leave I set off for home. One final challenge awaited as on a whim I decided to take the shortest route up Litherop Lane to High Hoyland. It’s not much of a climb in a car but on a powered bicycle you steadily realise what put the ‘High’ in Hoyland. Happily the gradient expired before I did but it was a long drag. Around 30 miles were travelled with only a minor breakdown and one ‘refusal’ so a good morning.

The Stafford Classic Bike Show 23rd – 24th April 2022

It’s four years now since I arrived at the Classic Bike show in Stafford en route from Cornwall to Caithness. The Rudge had broken a spoke the day before and snapped its engine engagement cable on the way in, much as it did the other week. I’ve been attending this show for 35 years and its format has become so familiar that sometimes it feels like it’s one long event which closes its doors on the April edition and re-opens them for the weekend in October nothing having been moved in the intervening months, something like Miss Faversham’s wedding feast without the cobwebs.

Normally for me the ride’s the thing, a 75 miles diagonal northeast to southwest across the Peak District up and down some gloriously twisty roads. This year was slightly different as it has been announced that the Randos Cyclos will take place in Sars Poteries after a two year Covid enforced hiatus. There is considerable excitement amongst the cognoscenti at the return of the event and I was looking forward to meeting up with others who might be going. Markus Kepke from Germany had already put a message on the blog.

My bike this spring was our workaday motorhome bike, the 125cc Yamaha N-max. It turned in a very adequate performance. The road-holding on all the Yamaha ‘Max’ scooters from the legendary T-max to the humble N-max is very good and on the roads of the Peak District reassuringly enjoyable. I try to keep as close as I can to the bigger bikes that overtake me to improve my riding skills. A rather over ample curve momentarily crossing the white line at a T junction while trying to keep up with a sports bike was the mistake I shall be attempting not to repeat next time. After so many years the route is very familiar but the area always has something beautiful to show. On this occasion, on the return leg against a cold and gusting wind but in sunshine, the huge clumps of dandelions on the pastures mirrored the afternoon sun at my back.

A Heinkel Perle for sale at the show. Much admired for its superior build qualities it was the quarry of at least one of the NACC cognoscenti.

It was good to catch up with the Sars Poteries suspects, Nick Devonport, Ian McGregor, John Redding and Brenda (whose surname I don’t know). There was pleasure too in meeting up with Derek Langdon who I have not seen for a long time. Derek is a clever engineer showing on this occasion his re-creation of a 1923 cyclemotor from nothing more that an engine without ancillaries. Like all Derek’s projects this one has seen development work to ensure it as practicable as possible. Derek is the source of much of my Mini Motor lore and I had a useful conversation with him about improvements. With John Burgess I had the usual very interesting interchange of information about the Bown marque. John’s restorations are far ahead of anything I could achieve and so a useful source of information. Finally I met up with Buzzing’s editor Dave Beare, whose three volumes on the most popular cyclemotors, other interesting models which found their way to Britain in lesser numbers and the history of the autocycle, have become the standard reference works on subject. Dave’s encyclopaedic knowledge extends far beyond the cyclemotor and we share a broader interest in history. Great 150 mile ride and good conversation, another day enjoyably passed on life’s back roads.

My Aunty Kath, who accompanied my Uncle Bob and the Rudge on its first significant journey. I visited her after the show in 2018.

In the Dog House

On the Naughty Step

When you pull out an old machine after its winter hibernation you are always a little apprehensive. How will it go? Will you get there? And more importantly, will it get back?

Today was the Rudge/ Mini Motor’s first ride of 2022. With the awful news from the attack on Ukraine and still feeling mentally a little post-Covid, optimism was not high. On the other hand the Serveta scooter had performed well the weekend before after a somewhat mixed couple of years of sorting out, why would the tried and tested LEJOG machine be any different?

It was a sunny dry day here and the first couple of miles went well enough although riding the Rudge on busy roads is not a pleasure. After I turned onto a quieter section through Silkstone I could detect that the roller was slipping on the tyre. There was no water on the road so this surprised me. I remembered being impressed by the bike’s hill-climbing ability on the last outing. Perhaps, I reasoned, I’d slackened off the engine cable before putting it away. I pulled over and managed several turns on the rear cable adjuster which was loose. Perhaps it had vibrated itself out of adjustment? There was an instant improvement for the next couple of miles.

Suddenly on a bend climbing a hill at a narrow point in the road the engine revved wildly and all drive was lost. Happily, as in all such situations, there was a large lorry coming up menacingly behind the stationary bike so I hopped off and pushed it to a field gateway. That was one VMCC Wakefield Section Coffee Meet I wasn’t going to make.

This happened a couple of times on the way north four years ago. By undoing the nut at the bottom of the engagement spring it is possible to lower the roller onto the tyre so the bike is in permanent drive. This means the bike can only be manouevred with the engine stopped if the decompressor is on and slowing to a complete stop when the engine is running can also only be accomplished by the same method. It’s surprising how insecure the loss of normal control mechanisms can make you feel even on such an under-powered machine. The re-jigging was accomplished in a couple of minutes with a single spanner. It’s harder to start the bike because you now have to pedal off against the decompressor where normally you lift the engine so the bicycle pedals in the ordinary way and drop the engine as you gather speed. Confidence returned as the engine fired up. I’ve done at least three previous rides in this state and the Mustang Cafe at Scissett was only a couple of miles down the road – Coffee Meet or bust!

Re-starting while crossing a major road in this state was a bit of a challenge and a metallic noise heard vaguely from behind the Rudge just before the cafe did turn out to be the spanner making a getaway from the toolbag. We arrived a little flustered and not the best of friends the Rudge and I.

With Neil’s intelligent use of the weather forecast the last meeting was very popular and this one proved even more so. Neil himself was unfortunately down with Covid which has been very prevalent here again. The usual enjoyable conversations around the mix of bikes were taking place. The Rudge attracted more interest than its sorry performance deserved.

It came back without a problem as I became used to the direct drive technique. That wasn’t enough to save the Rudge from the Naughty Step and it is now in disgrace at the back of the garage waiting until I can be bothered to take the broken cable off as a pattern for a new one. That’ll teach it!

For the sake of completeness…

I haven’t added to the blog for a long time because frankly not much cyclemotoring has taken place. The news is awful with the Russian invasion of Ukraine producing horrible images of the deaths of innocent people, including children. The contrast is often drawn between civilian and military casualties but truthfully if you are the victim of unprovoked aggression, as in this war, all the deaths on the Ukrainian side are innocent. There is a great discomfort and guilt in seeing the images of death and destruction for in truth the Ukrainians are fighting this battle for all of our freedoms against the encroaching darkness of the kind of world that Putin is creating in Russia.

Excuse me please in this gathering gloom for writing about something so frivolous as cyclemotoring but I am sitting here self isolating with Covid which has become once again such a ‘thing’ in the north of the UK that hospitals are having to stop elective surgery. The death rate is lower than earlier in the pandemic but currently around 60 – 80 a day over a weekly average – that’s around 25000 deaths a year, five times the annual road deaths count and a similar multiple of annual suicides. Covid is very far from over yet and the efforts to celebrate its demise are rooted in political chicanery rather than the needs of public health.

If boredom is the origin of this post it is nevertheless true that the freedoms the Ukrainian people are fighting to preserve for us all include frivolity, the undertaking of pointless activities (providing they harm no one else) and the right to eccentricity. All of which, I would suggest to you are more than adequately covered by riding a cyclemotor in 2022.

So to the ‘meat’ of this post (sandwiched between the mouldy bread of Putin’s amoral aggression and the continuing pandemic): I neglected to record that on 11th August 2021 the second Mini Motor (the Monument to the Unknown Cyclemotorist) also made the 20 mile round trip to the VMCC Wakefield Section’s Scissett coffee stop.

Top: The Monument to the Unknown Cyclemotorist on the return. Middle: The DKW which was the pattern for the BSA Bantam. Bottom: A lovely concours 1930s Rudge.

I’ve not a great deal to add to my previous comments on its performance. I’ve always thought an open frame would make a good cyclemotor but certainly with this one the extra weight behind the saddle makes the frame flex. This takes a little getting used to but after a while becomes an accepted facet of the machine. It can’t have been all bad because I was hoping to take it on a much longer run in October but pulled my Achilles tendon (Dad dancing at a wedding🙄 – freedom includes the freedom to be ridiculous, see above).

The present condition of the two Trojan Mini Motors is stacked double decker waiting for a Spring not just in the Seasons but of the Spirit. I fear we may all be waiting a while, if it ever comes at all.

Our 0.15 seconds of…

Out yesterday visiting Longstone Edge on the socially distanced VMCC Sections Waypoint Rally we bumped into Villager Jim and became the subject of one of his Facebook posts:

Such chance encounters were one of the pleasures of bumbling around the Peak District on an old and unglamorous motorcycle and hopefully, if the pandemic is receding, they may become so again. Raise a glass to the fellowship of two wheels and the open road. We certainly did at the Bentley Brook Inn at Fenny Bentley on the way back.

30th June

Today was my Dad’s birth day 93 years ago. The VMCC Wakefield Section have a regular Wednesday coffee meet at the Mustang Cafe in Scissett and I decided to go on his bicycle as a little commemoration. Their Secretary, Neil Lewis, sent me the details by email.

Scissett is only about 7 miles away but the cycling route from the internet warned of a ‘steep hill’ on the journey. Steep hills are not the Mini Motor’s forte and so I opted for a looping itinerary that picked up the Barnsley to Holmfirth A635 and then turned back on the Wakefield Road the A636 running through Denby Dale of Pie fame. Neither of these roads is level and the former includes a considerable climb on the way back but at a manageable gradient. This plan turned a 7 mile journey into one of 10 miles or so I would guess. A guess because, since I put the bike back to a more original state, it has no means of recording either speed or distance. I rather like this aspect of cyclemotoring, that one needs to read and cooperate with the topography. The Mini Motor is never going to get an organic ecological kite mark but its feebleness does offer hints of travel in a simpler age.

Setting off.

The roads were dry, always a bonus with the roller drive, but the sky was overcast and grey. The ride had nothing particular to report (which in cyclemotoring is always a plus). Huddersfield’s road surfaces have been famous (and not in a good way) since I first moved into the area 45 years ago and the A635 after it leaves Barsley and runs into Kirkless is horrible on a bicycle. The top of the carriageway has lost its surfacing stones in longitudinal bands so that one is forced to try and keep one’s tyres in the furrows of smoother tarmac but as these continually run out the wheels jar over the ridges. With no suspension the lighter front wheel is most affected. The weight on the back steadies the rear but as the handlebars are bucking about and the whole machine is shaking this is of limited consolation. The Denby Dale railway viaduct under which you turn back to Scissett on a different road was a welcome sight on the way there.

The gentlemen of the Wakefield Section who were present on a variety of machinery from different epochs were welcoming and the sort of conversations one can hear wherever afficianados of old motorcycles gather probably in any part of the world took place. The oldest machine was Neil’s Raleigh which by a happy coincidence was manufactured in 1927 but registered the year after, the year my Dad was born.

Neil Lewis’s 1927/28 Raleigh

I returned the same way, climbing the horrible road surface rather than descending it, with steady LPA (Light Pedal Assistence). I chose however not to climb the busy hill on the A628 but to take a quieter suburban route through Barugh Green. The old Rudge climbed this steady but extended incline without me turning a pedal and thus earned today’s 💫 gold star.

Proof and puddings

The carburettor leak proved to be the top hollow bolt connection. A very slightly larger diameter band just under the bolt head is intended to fit into the banjo connector and seal the top fibre washer. The hole had narrowed slightly and this ridged section was preventing the bolt going fully home to make the seal. A little filing and resurfacing of the top of the fuel banjo to improve the seal and the steady stream of drips and pungent smell of petrol stopped.

Fitting the rear numberplate and going online to tax the bike settled the legal niceties leaving time before tea for the Big Moment – would it climb the test hill? Looking at the map I think the test hill climbs just over 300ft over a couple of miles. There is a climb coming out of the village which levels off to run into Silkstone Common. At the end of that community the road crosses the TransPennine Trail and after a few bends heads off up to the next ridge just over which it crosses the main A629. This second climb is the hardest, running for about half a mile with two steeper sections joined by a kinder recovery gradient.

On level ground the carburettor’s air lever is pushed a couple of centimetres in the direction marked ‘Weak’ but as the climb is attempted is needs to be pulled back towards the rider to fully ‘Rich’. This has to be done by feel, of course, as the engine is behind the rider’s back.

There should have been no question as to the outcome because the current engine fitted is the spare from LEJOG and I tested it up this hill fitted to Dad’s Rudge before I removed it and packed it in a box to take with us. It has not however run between that test and this week’s fitting to the Royal Enfield. With pedal assistance it did indeed climb the hill with the Sturmey Archer hub in third gear. An improvement, I think, on the Rudge with its own engine pre-LEJOG but marginally less powerful than the Rudge’s engine in rebuilt form. It climbed the hill at the end of May with assistance only near the top of the two steeper sections. This was partly a matter of rider confidence. The Royal Enfield is unfamiliar as yet and steady pedal assistance from the start of the incline is easier to manage than letting the engine’s revs drop until it is necessary to change into a low hub gear and rotate the legs against the stiffest part of the climb with little help from the struggling engine.

The handling of the bikes is quite different. I thought the Rudge felt a little fragile until I rode the Royal Enfield. The Rudge has a pronounced curve in its front forks and this rake seems to improve its stability. The Enfield feels quite unbalanced at slow speeds with all the weight on the back and the lack of a bracing crossbar makes it feel like there is something of a hinge between the front and back wheels as the weight of the engine shifts sideways. Once underway stability increases and the sit up and beg ergonomics give a relaxed ride. That’s probably a relative concept on a Mini Motor.

Over the crest, the Royal Enfield basks in its glory.

So, apart from a little development work, that is it until the bicycle’s own engine is cleaned up and rebuilt. That may take a while.

Father’s Day

I decided to mark Father’s Day by re-wrapping the tape on the handlebars of my Dad’s bicycle. In his day the bars were not taped and he rode it on the bars straight on to the steel with short plastic covers on the drops. I think when these sports touring bikes were in use in the forties and fifties the bars were generally not covered. I can’t pretend I’m proud of the job and think I’ve probably done worse this time than when I first did it for LEJOG.

Riding a cyclemotor with drop handlebar is a challenge. They offer the cyclist at least three positions, on the bars, on the hoods (of the brakes) and on the drops. On the Rudge the engine lowering lever (left) and throttle control are on the hoods with the Sturmey Archer gear lever (just below the mirror). To apply the brakes you have to put your hands on the drops. Riding it is therefore a matter of constant movement around the handlebars often with hands on different sections of the bars each side. If originality was not an issue (steel drop handlebars have a particular shape different from later aluminium bars) I would put straight handlebars on it. It would increase the visual clutter of five controls and seven control cables but make riding it considerably easier. I’ll put up with the untidyness of my wrapping because it is the best compromise making the bike a great deal more comfortable on the hands.

The Rudge had a ride up my test hill last month that suggested that the rebuilt engine is climbing rather better than it did in its unimproved LEJOG state. This is my favourite time of year to ride with the freshness of the early summer air and the flowers and blossom turning the hedgerows into clouds of white.

Having time to spare I moved on to the Royal Enfield Mini Motor I bought during LEJOG. It has been hanging in the garage since the Spring ready to be checked but with no floor space to store it once it was down. It finally came down when I put my motorcycle work bench away. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been adjusting the rod brakes and getting ready to fit the spare engine from LEJOG. The bike’s own engine is taking a great deal of time to clean up as it appears that for the two years he rode the bike the previous owner never cleaned it and then left it in that state for the rest of his life.

The Mini Motors use a greased tube in the front tank clamp which bolts to a swan neck in turn clamped to the saddle tube. For reasons I don’t understand there is a second tube inside the main tube which functions purely as a spacer. This was missing on the Enfield and I had to buy a length of suitable tubing and make a replacement. With this replaced I was able to bolt the tank to the bicycle and put on the two nuts and fibre washers that bolt the crankase studs at the back of the engine to the rear tank support and the top of the scissor action lowering mechanism.

It was then only necessary to make the adjustments to the various clamps to centralise the engine over the back wheel and give it the required space above the tyre when the lever on the handlebars is not pulled down. This completed, attaching the decompressor and throttle cable in theory means that the bike will run. There were the usual problems of filing the soldered nipples on the cables until they would fit in the lever but by teatime the cables were on and roughly attached to the frame with plastic ties.

Would it run? It’s over three years since I prepared it and tested it and it has suffered a little from what must have been a test ride on salty roads. Using the slight downward slope on our cul-de-sac the engine started very easily and appeared to be running well:

The carburettor connections were leaking fuel but this was a problem I’ve had with this engine before and will have to sort but as can be heard on my return the engine was pulling quite reasonably:

Apart from my short test rides on our street this is the first time the bike has turned a wheel and been driven under power since 1953. Quite a bit more work to do on the Enfield but a satisfying day, although why anyone would want two Mini Motor powered bikes is a question I will leave hanging.

Randos Cyclos, Sars Poteries, 2nd June 1996

As I’m writing this in the second half of May 2021 it’s not clear quite what shape our return to ‘normality’ after the Covid pandemic will take. The UK has done well with rolling out a vaccine programme but the import of the ‘Indian’ variant has threatened the long-term fall in the numbers of infections, hospitalisations and deaths which have been experienced over the last couple of months, throwing into doubt the government’s plans. This is the second year that the Randos Cyclos has not taken place and those who love it, like me, will be hoping it will not be a permanent casualty of the pandemic.

I first attended the Sars Poteries gathering in the Avesnes-sur-Helpe area of north-eastern France 25 years ago. By 1996 quite a lot of British enthusiasts had attended previous events encouraged by John Redding’s reports in the NACC magazine, Buzzing. This was before I had a roadworthy cyclemotor so we took on a three bike trailer towed behind the car, a Mobylette AV89, the Bown moped and the Bown autocycle with Watsonian cycle sidecar attached.

From my work I was helping to organise and run a student group exchange with a work-based training college in St Quentin and they had kindly given me an old Automoto moped which their car valetting group had been offered. So coming home the three bike trailer had four bikes attached.

The following account was what I wrote in my Motorcycle Diary after the event and is hopefully wide-eyed and open-mouthed enough to suggest how much I enjoyed the experience and, indeed, every subsequent visit to Sars Poteries:

‘Avesne is in a lovely region. The large open fields of the St Quentin area are replaced by a smaller landscape of woods and flowered meadows with hedgerows.

The Sars Poteries run itself was excellent. The landlady of our gite allowed us to stay two extra days for the cost of electricity only and so we rode from there to the event. I had worked out a route but at one point we entered a forest on a road which felt like the lost domain of Le Grand Meaulnes. The tree lined by-way seemed to go on and on. We had been told that ‘we must be there before 10am to sign on’ so the square was almost deserted when we arrived.

There were many interesting bikes there in different styles. A couple of really ‘slab-sided’ Dutch models, one covered in chrome fins like a late fifties American car, were spotted. A tiny engine decorated the front of a sports-touring bicycle giving it a very sporting air. There were a large number of Velo Solexes and some interesting stalls from which we purchased a new Mobylette badge for the AV89. Two machines, an Itom and a Terrot were very like the Automoto. There were also some lovely little Italian jobs in (of course) red and chrome. There was also a Fantic chopper. After a casual display lasting a couple of hours – with many Dutch registered and a few Belgian bikes – we all went into the salle-des-fêtes where there was a superb buffet laid on with wine or beer. A Mobylette sports was raffled (thankfully not to us as the trailer was already overloaded) and then we set to eating. At 2pm the run began.

There were about 80 bikes on the run, great swarms of mopeds down all the roads. First stop was a cafe where our ticket allowed one free beer. This was over the border in Belgium and gave us a wonderful frisson of having crossed from one country to another by moped. We did the long route, of course, after the bar stop following the ‘RC》’ signs painted on the road.

The prize-giving was back in the hall afterwards. We were surprised to find that we had won a large silver cup which Katy, sidecar passenger extraordinaire, collected from the Mayor’s sister. Quite a lot of photographs were taken of Les Anglais prize-winners. Phillipa Wheeler won the nicest prize, a salt-glazed pottery vase from Sars Poteries itself. It was a really excellent event and we would like to go again.’

The following photos of prints of the bikes at the event are reproduced by my phone camera, hence the quality.

The bike I thought had the styling of an American car

This is a Royal Nord sports model manufactured in the Netherlands and not Italian as I believed at the time.

The ‘sporting look’ of the front wheel roller drive bicycle was the inspiration to motorise my father’s Rudge 15 years later, and so also the origin of this entire blog. I have no idea of its provenance.

Although I had no cyclemotor on the road at this time I had already acquired both the Mini Motor powered Sunbeam and the similarly encumbered Raleigh tandem. Both would take to the road the following year.

The Sunbeam first moved under its own power on 1st February 1997 preserved for posterity in this photograph. Getting the bike to this stage had not been the work of a moment. I recorded in my diary that I had bought the engine more than four and a half years and the bicycle six and a half years before. So this was a work nearing fruition by the time of our first attendance at Sars Poteries.

The Mini Motor powered Raleigh tandem as purchased. This was also undergoing restoration in 1996 and went with us to the 1997 Randos Cyclos.

This photograph was very cleverly taken by Nick Devonport as he passed us on his own bike during the 1997 event

I write this with 🤞(never an easy way to type on a touch screen) that the Randos Cyclos will return post-pandemic and that we shall return to it.

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