On A Snowy Day…

I find myself confined to the warmth of my Barge here on the river, so I started looking through eBay at the classic bikes for sale, and came across this…

 “1948 Velocette mac road racer it is up and running and on the road last year original reg with current v5c oily rag original condition mechanically perfect. It has air over oil Dowty forks that hold air fine and work well with double damping 4 speed gear box twin leading shoe front break rear set foot rests and is very fast and reliable. The engine is very special all alloy top end with hairpin valve springs lightend and polished valve gear ported cylinder head TT carb BTH mag special crank conrod/big end and rev counter would be a great sprint or track bike well sorted it is geared up and also has 500 cc chain pitch and sprockets as it will break 350cc pitch chain alloy wheel rims 20” front wheel and 19” rear fitted and in as new condition Avon speed master tyre on the front Dunlop TT 100 tyre on the rear”.

1949 Velocette racer.

Velocette Mac Racer on eBay

 

Doherty Competition Levers

I called round to see my old friend Terry the Vincent today, just for a cup of tea and a chat, always a good way to lose an hour, and whilst there Terry gifted me an original genuine pair of of Doherty alloy levers, you see lots of new and a few original Amal versions being sold as Doherty, but the Amal’s are thicker and straighter in the lever, where the much rarer genuine Doherty version have a slimmer profile, and are flatter where your fingers rest.
These are in great condition with the original Doherty stamped clamps, and cap head screws, although one lever end has a little road rash.

Doherty Levers

Doherty embossed clamps

Doherty Competition

Slim profile

And here is a web shot of the Amal style “Doherty” levers for comparison

Replica Amal style levers

American Iron…

A couple of nice American bikes at Kempton bike jumble today…

Nice Harley in the car park..

Indian

Classic Indian.

Harley WL Sidevalve…

For a long time now, years in fact, I have wanted a Harley “45”  not particularly the WLA or WLC war machines, but a later civilian model. Well this last week I managed to scratch that itch, when I bought this 1951 WL, hand change, foot clutch, 6volt electrics, perfect. This will sit quite nicely along with my other Harley’s, the Shovel, and the Panhead.

51 Harley WL

Side valve flathead

Old School Harley

Playing Catch-Up, Part Two…

It is Sunday morning here, so I shall post the second catch-up while I have my coffee…

A couple of weeks back (where does time go?) I attended the annual Banbury Run over at Gaydon heritage motor museum, in Warwickshire, now this is a must see, if you are ever in the UK at this time of year, a great chance to get up close and personal with all kinds of early vintage motorcycles, that are actualy used out on the road, not just static museum pieces.

As usual I take far too many pictures, so I shall post a couple more here and then put a link to a slideshow of the rest at the bottom of the post.

BSA

Patina

Matchless

Brough

And here is the slideshow link as mentioned above…

http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/p651633/slideshow

Playing Catch-up, Part One…

Velocette Day…

My local branch of the Velo club always put on a good open day, and this year was no exception. It was a perfect English summer day, following on from what was the fiercest thunder storm I can remember overnight. It was like a war zone here in Berkshire, I have truely never heard thunder so loud and for so long, and that was followed by monsoon style rain, amazing stuff.

But today was fine, the air was clear, the humidity had gone, and England was the green and pleasant land we all know and love. So I called up a couple of friends from the Triumph club, and we hit the lanes, crossed the Thames, hit some more lanes, and headed for the Cherry Tree, a lovely little country pub, and today it was playing host to the Thames Valley Velocette Owners club…

I like the Velocette owners club, they are happy to see you turn up, no matter what you ride, they just appreciate the fact that you bother to come and support them. Other clubs could learn from this openess,and hospitality, in these days of diminishing membership numbers.

A great day out. well done all concerned.

Now don’t forget when looking at the pictures that every bike you see, was ridden to the pub, to trailer queens here, no way, no sir. Ride the things, that is what they were built for.

Norton with Brooklands Can

Velocette

Classic Class

Velocette’s in the Garden

If you would like to see some more from the day out, then follow this link to a slideshow of the rest of the pictures I took…

http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/p483915067/slideshow

Collecting Old Parts – 1975 I.S.D.T.

To me part of the fun of owning old bikes is also owning some of the parts, history, and back sories that go along with them. I love reading those old magazines and books, that were written in a different time, and I enjoy looking around for old parts at the many jumbles I attend over here in the UK, or even on the internet for parts from far off places.

Now as it happens, I picked up an old leather tank bag at the Shepton Mallet VMCC do last weekend, it cost no money, just £2.00,  a bargain I feel, and it has cleaned up really well, and should be worth at least £2.50 now!  have a look at the pictures below

Old leather tank bag

Expandabke top section

Rain Cover

It comes in three sections, a base, a clip on leather lower section, and a zip on expandable top section, with removable map pocket, and a rain cover.

So it was while I was looking for information about this, that I came across a very rare 1975 50th Jubilee ISDT, competitors tank bag for sale on US Ebay, it belonged to one of the USA team riders who competed on the IoM,  from that year, although the guy I bought it from could not remember the name of the rider. But what a cool item to own.

1975 ISDT tank bag

ISDTcompetition tank bag

50th ISDT Jubilee insignia

If you would like more information on the history of the ISDT then have a look at this great site here…

http://speedtracktales.com

Going out 2013 – Coming in 2014 & the Cannonball…

December 31st 2013, and so passes another year, and I can tell you this, I will be glad to say good bye!

This has been a horrible year for me, punctuated with just a few good days, and even now it has got no better, as I sit here still unemployed, and no sign of a job on the horizon. Oh well, maybe with a little grace, 2014 will hold better times, and fairer weather. I live in hope.

So the “Cannonball run, 2014”

I have decided to support one of the teams entered in the 2014 Motorcycle Cannonball. Not I may add in any physical way, although I wish I could be more involved, but I am here in the UK, and the Cannonball is over the pond in the USA, so with the best will in the world it is unlikely that I can offer more than moral support to Doug and his team. But there is a way I can help out, even from here. And  that is by buying a team T-shirt for Team 88, and so that is what I have done, and today, the t-shirt arrived in the post from across the pond.

Team 88-2014 Cannonball

If you would like to know more, and see the route and dates, then click on the web link below…

http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/index.php?Itemid=53&id=255&option=com_content&view=article

So all I can do now, is wish you all a safe and happy new year, and thank you all for visiting my site.

Kevin.

More from the dark corners…

A couple more of my older shots from a few years ago…

Bultaco

Jawa

Norton Race Bike

Greeves

Rex-Acme

Vintage RIGITEX BSA Saddlebags…

A couple of years ago I was given a pair of old leather saddle bags, all dried out and dirty, covered in cracks, backed in alloy, and missing the odd buckle, or so I thought. As it happened the missing buckles were inside one of the bags with the original receipt, dated I think, November 1955.

So I have spent the last couple of years rubbing bees wax into the bags, and slowly they have come back to life.

Made by a company called Rigitex, and sold new in Paris, they are embossed with the company logo, and here is the thing, they are also embossed with the BSA logo?

Vintage Saddlebag

Old Leather

It says RIGITEX

RIGITEX

An Earwig? the craftsman’s signature?

Earwig

BSA

BSA

BSA Symbol

Well I can’t find out much about RIGITEX, in France, and there are only a couple of pictures of bags on Google, so they are a bit of a mystery