The Velobanjogent

Since my last post I've been in Europe and the UK visiting Velocette friends Carl Drees, Heinz Limbers, Gert Boll and of course including Ivan Rhodes and have much information to share with you, but not right now as I'm still collating it all.
I've had this catalogue I'm featuring in this post from the former W.F. Omodei's motorcycle accessory store in Sydney, since they closed in the early 1990's, details of which you may have read other posts of mine on Omodei's previously....
It is a 1938 Enots catalogue and this was the trade name of Benton & Stone Ltd, ironically in Bracebridge Street, Birmingham...name sound familiar?
It's the street Norton was in...how convenient as they used their products....
So did Velocette and other motorcycle manufacturers...
This could be a useful aid to those of you auto-jumblers looking for missing petrol taps, petrol caps etc etc...
Read on.....

I've two other pages from another Enots catalogue, but that's all...could be also prewar or immediately postwar....

Readers of my blog will have come across the many posts I had done on Keith Bryen with a vast number of his and wife Gwen's personal photographs from the time the were members of that unique group of traveling racing motorcyclists with wives, partners and friends in their case from 1953-1957, loosely known as the "Continental Circus"...alas now long gone as the modern era of motorcycle racing embracing the MotoGPs with its highly commercialised band of gladiators is a far cry from the era I speak of...
With great sadness I tell of the passing, suddenly, on Tuesday 22nd October, of Keith Bryen, aged 86.

A great photo of a devoted couple, Gwen and Keith.
I realise we don't live forever, but Keith appeared in good health for his age and had just returned from visiting another former "Circus" member...Jack Ahearn....
His memorial service was held on the 28th October with poignant eulogies from his daughter Stephanie and son Mark....
Come share some of his motorcycle racing life again in Keith and Gwen's personal photos....
Many of these can be found in previous posts and a look to the index to the RHS of this webblog will lead you to more...

1946 Speed Twin one of the first bikes Keith used for racing....

Many circuits were dirt...a good way to hone racing skills...

Keith on a 1939 500cc. Gold Star B.S.A. at Bungaribbee.

Bathurst races, Easter 1949 with a 1939 BSA Gold Star...

Bathurst 1950, this time with an AJS 7R production racer.
Pictured with Tommy Han.

Bathurst 1952 now with the ex Frank Mussett 500 SOHC former factory racer of Ted Mellors.

Keiths first IOM TT...weighing in for the 1953 350cc TT with his Manx Norton.

A bunch of "Commonwealth Riders", Keith among them on the promenade, Douglas, IOM.

Keith's first foray to Europe in 1953, pictured in the pit following the running of the 1953 Dutch TT at Assen.
Returning to Australia by ship he met Gwen on the boat home...a shipboard romance.....
One that lasted, though sadly Gwen is in nursing care following a gradual slide into dementia some years back.
Keith returned to Europe in 1954 full of hope but a heavy crash in the Ulster GP saw a badly broken collarbone and shoulder...no plating of such injuries in those days, just a long 4 or 5 month recovery, so he returned to Australia.
He married Gwen in 1955 and they "settled down" in a house they bought, but the racing bug persisted and he raced in local events during the year, co-riding to a class win on a Triumph Thunderbird in the 1955 24 hour motorcycle production race at Mt. Druitt circuit on the outskirts of Sydney.
Selling their house, Gwen and Keith returned to Europe for the 1956 season...

Floreffe, Belgium, May 1956....

Awaiting the start of evening practice, 1956 IOM TT races.

On the grid...1956 Belgium GP

After winning the 1957 350cc race at Norisring ( Nuremberg), with Sweden's Valle Lundberg on the left and Australian Eric Hinton on the right.
A Works Ride........

1957, the Moto Guzzi depot...

Keith tests the 350cc Moto Guzzi at Monza for the Italian GP.

Keith and Gwen with Keith Campbell and his fiancee Jerry Reid.

Retiring in 1957 following the shattering news that now a factory Moto Guzzi rider for 1958, Moto Guzzi with Mondial and Gilera had retired from International GP racing, Keith settled down to family life.
But the bug bites hard and he rode an AJS 7R for John Surtees at Brands Hatch in 1981 and in some of the newly introduced classic races locally from 1978-1994...

Ferry Brouwer, arch Classic Enthusiast and former Arai MD set up the Centenary of Assen meeting in May 1998 and invited many of the older former riders, supplying bikes to ride and most expenses...
Another "works" ride?
Well Keith spent the weekend having a great time and is pictured on a 350 Ducati...
Then Tuesday 22nd October 2013..... with son Mark at a railway station preparing to visit a friend, a sudden fatal heart attack and Keith was gone and motorcycling lost another great ambassador for the sport....
Keith Maxwell Bryen.... RIP.

You know I'm rather ashamed to admit I haven't been back on a visit to Europe since the early 1990's...!!
I had been to the USA since that time yearly sometimes twice yearly where having perhaps read some of my previous posts you would know I regularly rode in the North American Velocette Owners Club's various events on loaned motorcycles, for some 15 years on a Velocette special I owned and left there, which the other year I imported into Sydney and ride locally.
My wife, Judy, The Best Pillion Passenger in the World...a term I unashamedly borrow from that great UK motorcycling journalist BMS..... was going on a European train trip with a group of retired friends from Sydney...a search of the internet and we added a river cruise on the river Rhine which we both went on and then my plans for a Velocette oriented oddessy, albeit short in time...unfolded.
Great Velocette friends with whom I keep up a regular email correspondence, Carl Drees, president of the Netherlands Velocette OC, Heinz Limbers and Gert Boll also members of the Dutch VOC and in retirement living close to each other provided me with a two day visit to the "Velocette Sheds" from Amsterdam where Judy and I were for 4 days...
So come with me, pictorially as we have a brief look at my journey....
The introduction photograph above, taken at Gert Boll's place shows, L to R.. Gert Boll, Carl Drees, The Velocbanjogent and Heinz Limbers with Gert's very rare KTT Mk.6 Velocette, the only surviving one of the three built by Velocette in 1936. Others are nice, but just replicas....
Let's look at some closer pics of the Mk.6....

Gert has a very nice largely unrestored 1925 moel K Velocette...

We'll pop into Gert's workshop and take in his Mk.4 KTT and an interesting cylinder head and DOHC cambox that originally Gert hoped was Velocette but research revealed it was a home made setup, believed for an NSU....

Before we leave Gerts'...he's a windmill he is restoring close by, currently less the sail....

This photo above shows the windmill in winter..the name..?
I'll let Gert explain it to you....
"Called The Velodroom, because it's owned by a Velosoph.
Velodrom with just one "o" is a bicycle racing stadium, droom means dream in Friesish, the local language of Northern Germany.
So it's a Velocette dream."
Returning to Carls house we dropped Heinz to his home and had a brief peek at his Velocette's...
A Mk.2 KSS engine in an RS Velocette spring frame...a Mk.4 KTT and a Mk.8 KTT....

Heinz has built an intriguing test bench to take a variety of Velocette engines and allow him to make running adjustments while the engine is running....

Then we were off back to Carl and Julia's where I spent the night and had a brief tour through his shed and will share a little with you....

Then I left Carl to make some notes for the next edition of the excellent Netherland Velo OC magazine "de Visstaart"....

I must learn to read Dutch.... but the Velocette Clubs throughout the world actively collaborate and it's great to share photographs and articles...

What was next for TheVelobanjogent??

Well I flew to Manchester, UK, caught a train to Derby, and caught up with THE Velocette guru....Ivan Rhodes...

More of this fascinating three days in future posts to this blog....

Little is known of the KDT Velocette.... a variant of the KTT Velocette introduced by Veloce Ltd in late 1928 as a production racer motorcycle for the privateer rider.....
In fact a glance through the Veloce factory records for the time show 20 machines listed of which one appears to be an engine only, during 1929.
Speedway had become all the rage, Vincent's had a flutter, Douglas and Rudge reigned supreme for some years before the Speedway JAP swept all before it until it too succumbed to the JAWA speedway engine.
The details of the specification for the bike is also vague...it was first announced in The MotorCycle, August 1st, 1929 as a new 415cc OHC dirt track model....

Regretably there was no photo at the time and even the capacity of 415cc is in doubt.
The bore is 80mm and the stroke 81mm and this calculates as 407cc...

Volume =πr²h

with pi 3.142, r as 4cm h, the stroke as 8.1cm
Bob Currie, for many years the Midlands editor of The MotorCycle claimed it was 411cc in an article he did in the 1970's, below ...

Speedway Velocette

An article from Motorcycle in late 1970s, by Bob Currie.

Speedway followers of the dim and distant past could buy “ genuine autographed photographers” of their heroes from kiosks at the stadium, just as can today’s aficionados of the shale.

And it is a faded postcard from 1929 that I show you here by courtesy of Vintage MCC photographic registrar, Dick Platt.

The subject as you can see is Bert Clayton from Huddersfield who not only competed at the northern UK speedway tracks but took part also in hill-climbs and other branches of motorcycle sport.

It was on August 4 1928 that Huddersfield Speedway opened up at Quarmby before a 6,000 crowd Bert Clayton a local Velocette agent was one of the many riders who sampled the dirt for the first time that night.

And he certainly seems to have acquired a taste for it because when the “Yorkshire Championships Belt” competition was organised for Quarmby’s second meeting Bert on a 350 cc cammy Velo, finished second to Sheffield’s H W (“Skid”) Skinner.

The Huddersfield track was short-lived and had gone by the time Northern League came into existence in 1929.

Still there were plenty more Leeds (Fullerion Park) Halifax (Thrum Hall) Sheffield (Owlerton) and Barnsley (Lundwood) were all in the Northern League as were their Lancashire counterparts of Salford, Rochdale, Belle Vue, Liverpool, Warrington and Preston; Wombwell ran invitational meetings only.

In fact there were too many tracks – & although Leeds were on top of the Northern League at the end of the 1929 season they had already gone into liquidation.

Their star rider George Greenwood moved south and eventually he was to take over the manufacture of JAP speedway engines but that’s another story.

Nearly every major factory tried to cash in the new craze and the Velocette contribution was the 411 cc Model KDT using an overboard version the 350 cc overhead-camshaft engine.

The standard Velocette gearbox shell was employed but this had no internals and was used as a single-speed countershaft. No separate oil tank was contained in a compartment of the little fuel tank.The Velocette register still exists and from it we know that machine number KDT149 was delivered to H Clayton of Huddersfield on 29^th July 1929.

But Bert was one of painfully few customers. Only 22 model KDTs were made in all and the late Bob Burgess formerly service manager at Hall Green confirmed that some of the batch were returned unsold to the factory to be converted into 350 cc KTT models.

For how long Bert Clayton rode the Velo on the northern tracks is unknown – but KDT149 (or, at least its engine unit) survives today He has too the correct type of KDT rear wheel and a suitable Webb speedway fork. At present the engine powers a reasonable replica of a Velocette speedway frame but that isn’t quite the same thing as having the genuine article.

The poor quality photograph scans as...

The engine, KDT149 ended up in the 1970's in an attempt by the late Jeff Clew to rebuild it as a speedway dirt track Velocette.

I had some photographs from the one KDT that was imported into Sydney,NSW, Australia in 1929, details were 30th Sept.1929, engine KDT151 frame 16. The photos were of Billie Woodman riding what he had told me was a dirt track Velocette at Penrith Speedway in 1936...

The above photo shows Woodman leading Cec Weatherby on a standard KTT Velocette. Note the fork spring on Woodman's machine in this and the previous photo.

At the 2012 National Australian Velocette Rally in Bundanoon, Dai Gibberson was an entrant from the UK and keen to swap Velocette photos and literature, we downloaded to each others computer.
I have not had as much time as I'd like to review his items and it was only the other night when I opened a file "1929 DT Special".
There to my amazement was a large resolution timing side photo of the 1929 DT Velocette and it shows much of the specification we had not been really aware of...

So I've carefully cut various items for closer viewing...

The tyre size appear to be 28 x 2.75" and the rear is a Hutchison. But interestingly, to me anyhow, the rear rim appears to be a beaded edge type while the front a well base type...??

The front forks appear to be an interesting type of Webb fork with a form of bottom slider and the top spring is unusual and if you scroll back to the Woodman bike further above you'll see it has the same spring arrangement.

The transfer on the fuel tank appear to have "The Velocette".....

The petrol tap is unusual in that it is on its side and the knee handle is clearly visible and differs from the Clew Velocette.
The frame also appears to differs from Clews in that the engine and gearbox shell and there is no gear linkage, so the gearbox is "empty" of ratios...both are in front of the seat tube whereas Clews has a more usual Velocette frame of the time.
And finally...while visiting Ivan Rhodes at "Fellside Cottage" in September where I took many photos and the next episode of that oddessy will appear shortly...Ivan showed me two new KDT pistons he had, one fitted to a mid 1930's works machine...in this case the piston was a 1 mm oversize, but its crown shape is clearly visible in the photo following...

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mrs DQ and myself were in Europe in September 2013 and I took in Velocette friends in The Netherlands and Germany.
Traveling home to Sydney I made a "dog leg" via Manchester, UK with a train trip to Derby, set up in a hotel prior to a per-arranged three day visit with Ivan Rhodes for archival and historic exchange on Velocette...

Ivan arrived on the Saturday morning in his 1925 model 20 Rolls Royce which was a surprise and we took a detour to the Rolls Royce Heritage Centre where there was an open day....

Nothing like a Rolls Royce Merlin V-12 aero engine mounted on a trailer and started for the visitors...
Then off to "Fellside Cottage".....
Visitors were expected so Ivan had a quick tour of his garage where the Roller lives...nice early Velocette, possibly 1913ish, then a KTT with a works head in a road frame setup...and a Geoff Duke special....before we moved into his workshop proper...

Note the MAC oil tank used as a test petrol tank to allow access to "the works"...

Works racing "lowboy" frame used for the 1951 IOM TT racers....

Below....The Geoff Duke Velocette with KTT engine and showing the in-frame primary chain oiler.

The extensions at the bottom of the forks, soft soldered on, were done by Eric & Harry (jnr) Hinton when they owned it in 1958 and campaigned it in Europe. Harry came 5th in the West German GP on it and according to Eric thought the older ex works engine it had in it at the time, different to the one in it now, was quicker than their Manx Nortons.
A pic from the Hinton archive of the time...

A glance at the rear garden of "Fellside Cottage", the photo "stitched" together hence the strange light effect...

Then into the workshop, almost clinically clean...

A welcome visitor was Dennis Frost, The UK LE Club Archivist and Historian. He'd driven the 3 hours up from London with the ex Bertie Goodman Mk.1 KTT in his van, then Bob Higgs rode over on his Velocette Vulcan 1000cc V-Twin special with Steib S501 sidecar attached...we were off to a pub nearby, one of Ivan's locals for lunch where John Goodall joined us on his Mk.1 KTT....DQ was ushered into the sidecar and we were off....

The outfit built by Bob who has been involved with Ivan's projects...The Roarer and Wiffling Clara....had completed over 95,000 miles with a replacement big-end at 60,000 and Bob was off to ride to Spain on it the following week.
The engine is so quiet and powerful, I asked Bob the top gear ratio... 4.4:1... a Venom is 4.9:1.!!
The folding gearlinkage to facilitate easy kick starting is very clever Higgs design...

Well that's it for this post......Ivan and the lads are joining me for lunch...!
Why not join me in a later post for more on my time in what has become to many "Hall Green".....

Well I'm back from a nice "pub lunch" at Ivan Rhodes local and back to "Fellside Cottage" in Bob Higgs wonderful creation, the Vulcan 1000cc V-Twin Velocette with Steib 501 sidecar....
A great experience...
For those who wish to know more, short of speaking with Bob at a Velocette function, search for a copy of "Classic Bike Guide", August 1993, No.28...pages 46-50 give a good account with photos of its creation.

So join me for part 2 of my time in Derby in September 2013 with Ivan Rhodes for a photographic glimpse of what many Velocette enthusiasts today call "Hall Green"....
We had much to discuss and I'd brought across with me for Ivan copies of the note books of the late Frank Panes who was a works Velocette race mechanic...much KTT and works engine test information in them...
Like a peak...?

And so it goes on.....perhaps more for a post on another day.....
Back at Ivan's he decided that as Dennis Frost had come up from London with his ex. BJG mk.1 KTT, that we'd go for a ride in the nearby countryside through the lanes he knew....
Firstly he wheeled out the ex Alec Bennett 1928 IOM 350 TT winning Velocette....

And below, the bike with Alec Bennett aboard after winning the Junior TT with Percy Goodman, managing director of Veloce at the time, congratulating him.

As I mentioned earlier, Dennis Frost got his mk.1 KTT out of the van...

Then out came the Model O...the 1939 experimental 600cc pushrod
twin road bike designed by Phil Irving with rear suspension....

So off we went for a 15 mile ride , DQ started on the Alec Bennett KTT and what a responsive and light handling bike it proved to be...but then, as you would expect of a, then, TT winning machine.
Often beside me I could hear the throb of the exhaust from Dennis Frost's nice Mk.1 KTT.....
After some 8 miles we stopped and Ivan swapped onto it with me on the "O"....
Idling, I put my hand on the petrol tank top, the handlebars, but little in the way of vibration could be felt...
Taking off I have to admit I stalled it, but one prod had the engine idling again nicely and snicking into first I was off after Ivan.
Accelerating away after Ivan showed it a nice smooth twin, but the RH sweeper coming up posed a little surprise as after the Bennett KTT the steering was quite heavy and took a little effort on this initial corner... suitably prepared the bike cornered nicely thereafter.
Difficult to comment on the rear suspension as the roads were smooth and the bike braked nicely and I had no need to try the brakes in anger...

Veloce and Phil Irving patented their rear suspension efforts as was used on the Model O and an experimental MSS with rear suspension.

All too soon we turned into "Fellside Cottage" and my special ride on two historic machines was over...

Tony Ainley and a friend, another racer, whose name regrettably I can't recall, called around with the friends racer on a trailer and the hope that we could shed some light on what they felt was a special front brake, perhaps even a works one. However neither Ivan nor I could recognise it and after a chat on Tony's efforts in the Classis 500 TT in the IOM this year during the MGP time...and Tony overcame his bogey and cracked the 90mph lap average...well it was in the 92 region all good stuff.... they left us to our devices..

Bidding goodbye to Bob Higgs a little earlier and Dennis Frost, off on his 3 hour trip down to London, I spent another hour or two in Ivan's workshop between my scanner and digital camera....
Ivan insisted I sign his visitors book...duly done...

Glancing around the wall I spied a pic with Les Archer on "Wiffling Clara..." at Brooklands in 1933.

The real Wiffling Clara lurked nearby.....

In need of a pee I was surprised to see the wooden cistern chamber with lead lining in it....

One of the projects now taking Ivan's time following his almost 9 year effort to restore the burnt racing Velocettes from the National Motorcycle Museum at Coventry was, after failing all efforts to acquire one of the three 1936 IOM TT DOHC Velocette cylinder heads and camboxs...all three have been in Australia since WW2.... he had the tooling made to reproduce a replica of one of these engines.....
We spent time examining the machined camboxes and cylinder heads and the cam train, which incidentally the gears in the cambox are on the same centres as the post war DOHC setups, of which Ivan has several. Well rather the postwar set are the same as the 1936 set!
Lets have a look at the original setup from 1936 from a factory photograph of the time...

Now to Ivan's efforts and Bob Higg's was heavily involved with this project and continues to be so....

So following a rather full day, Velocette wise, I retired to my hotel to review the day, run over my notes and added to a list of some items we felt we needed to discuss.
Ivan arranged to collect me the next morning for a Sunday session at "Fellside Cottage"....
Care to join us...?
See you on the next post.....

I've been a Velocette man since I was 18 and I'm 70 now and always had a Velocette or two in my shed...several years back my collection was finally reduced to two...a Venom converted from a Viper ( done by "others" and exchanged for the last of my Mk.8 KTT parts around 1996)...

And a KSS/ Viper scrambler framed special I acquired in the US and used on the annual North American Velocette OC week long Rally/rides yearly...usually somewhere in the Western side of Canada or the USA....something I enjoyed for the nearly 20 I attended and allowed me to see much of the wonderful countryside....

I brought it back to Sydney some three years ago and the two together with a 1987 Honda XBR500 have been my motorcycling "stable" and what I assumed would "see me out" motorcycling wise.....when the two exhausts on the honda rusted out I had a siamised stainless steel exhaust pipe setup made to suit a Velocette silencer, and yes it does sound like a Velo.....

Until several months ago when a special Velocette friend in Los Angeles, Mick Felder, mentioned that another of our friends in the LA area wanted another KSS/RS MAC framed special to return to Australia from where he purchased it in 2005 following the Centenary of Velocette National Australia Velocette Rally in October that year.
Now I knew the bike and the builder of it, the late Jack Hogan a great engineer, a bachelor and a successful Velocette racer in the 1940's/50's in Australia...in fact he rode the last Velocette to win a title/GP/TT event at Bathurst in 1955...the lightweight NSW TT on his 250 DOHC Velocette that utilised a cambox from one of the 1936 factory Velocette 350cc racers...Jack passed away some years back aged 90....
I'd helped Mike pack the bike for shipment, obtaining a metal crate frame from Honda to do the job....but first Mike rode it south into Victoria to see Velo friends there and to experience riding it through the Australian countryside.
Overcoming the import difficulties in Long Beach Port in California, Mike fettled the bike a little to his liking, removing the indicators Jack had fitted, replacing the electronic ignition with a magneto, the generator was upgraded to a 12v conversion with a special "box" enabling the bike to run without a battery as it still does....
Concerned at the time delay for the oil pressure to build up in the top bevel box of the mk.2 KSS cylinderhead and deliver oil to the cams, he fitted a special hand pump into the lid of the oil tank and before starting the bike some 20 strokes of the pump sees some 12 plus psi pressure in this area where a permanently fitted 15psi oil guage indicates the pressure....
Jack built the bike as a 400cc rather than the 348cc the mk.2 KSS is. He utilised a local tractor piston which resulted in a compression ratio around 7:1.
Mike changed the piston in time and used one from a Ford V8 239cu.in flat head, again the CR is in the region of 7:1.
Well it sure pulls well......
After a months trip by ship across the Pacific it arrived without issue into Botany Bay, the now working port for Sydney....following government clearance issues I collected it and arranged for it to be inspected for historic rego and with plates collected from the RMS and fitted took it for a spin locally...
I then attended to a few small items to suit me...Mike is a tall chap and I altered the footrest position, changed the handlebar bend and rear view mirrors and will change the rear tail light in due course to the later Miller type...more for safety reasons....
come for a photographic stroll with me through some of its history.....

Gordon Harper helps Jack Hogan fettle his Smith framed ( copy of a UK Beasley frame) 250 DOHC Velocette racer in early 1950's..

Jack in action on the bike...

Jacks 250cc DOHC Velocette engine shortly after he'd sold it....

Jack at the 2007 NSW section VOCA, Velocette Display day...

Jack's 400cc KSS special in his shed......

Mike leaves DQs house for his Victorian trip...note the indicators still on the bike...

The KSS prepares to leave Australia....

Occasional pics by DQ of Mike in Los Angeles with the KSS....

The KSS back in Sydney in a customs holding shed prior to my collecting it.....

The KSS as it arrived into DQs shed....

The oil pump arrangement in the oil tank cap....it pumps via pipe visible into the top bezelbox and cams...20 or so strike before starting see 15psi on the guage, illustrated below...it is glycerine filled and this is ideal to stop pointer fluctuations...the reason it is half filled is the air bubble is necessary to stop internal pressure of the glycerine when it heats up affecting the bourdon tube mechanism. Liquids don't compress whereas the air bubble will.

Cylinder barrel specially made by Jack for the 400cc larger bore...

Cylinder holding down studs are of the same principle as the pushrod Velocettes rather than the normal KSS/KTT type.

A beer can "has a thousand uses".....

No battery..its all done from this box...

Nifty aluminium gear lever via Mike and a roller kickstarter cover.

Early tomorrow morning I'm on the 6am flight out of Sydney for Gatwick in the UK.... Gert Boll my good Velocette friend from Germany is meeting my inward flight after driving from Germany and together we've planned a week of special visits to Velocette people, libraries etc on another Velocette history/archival sortie...
A little of this further down the post....
But the major item of interest for the Velobanjogent is the Bonhams auction on the Sunday 18th October 2015 at the Stafford County Showgrounds....
During last year a friend of mine, another amateur historian, but 1920's motorcycle oriented and in particular Brough Superior became ill with pancreatic cancer and passed away in November 2014.
His life's work of a collection of Brough items remained unfinished.....
I was never sure what he had as most had been stored in boxes for many years and he with his wife had lived in the UK and various spots in Australia before returning to Sydney a few years back.
My long time friend John Herrick and I assisted his widow in the sorting of "the stuff"...
We were surprised to find two SS100 Alpine Grand Sports and a 680 OHV "swing arm" form of Brough and neatly made boxes, seven in all, with "V" twin engines in them.... three for the bikes and the others, a 1000cc Swiss MAG/Motosacoche and three 1000cc JAPs...
Additional wheels, Sturmey Archer gearboxes, "V" twin magnetos, a spare Brough Castle set of front forks, four sets of 1930's Norton girder forks pretty complete...the list went on...
Sadly for us the dismantling and careful storage meant a great pile of parts to sort through, but we did so over several months.
Soon after the enormity of this "cache" became obvious we realised it needed specialist auctioning and an email was sent to Bonhams in London...their almost standard reply was they felt sure they could help...have you any photos....?
We found some of the bikes partially assembled which peaked their interest and as we sorted and I sent more pics, Ben Walker their head of the motorcycle division flew out to Sydney for two days to view the lot...
He was surprised even if he didn't jump cartwheels, but commented that in 20 years of auctioning he'd never seen the like of this.
Eventually the stuff was packed, with the help of Merryn Schriver, head of the Bonhams Sydney office- which basically was Fine Arts- although her Dad and I knew each other, he was into Vincents...
Henry from the Sydney office joined John in the packing and in March the lot, some near 2 tonnes, was air freighted to London for further sorting and identification.
Bonhams have over the last seven months expertly presented it to the motorcycling public via adverts, press releases and articles in periodicals...
A great pat on the back to Ben Walker, James Stensel and Andrew Barrett from Bonhams London office....
Interestingly Andy is the grandson of the well known Velocette dealer, Ralph Seymour of Thame, Oxon...now sadly deceased...so we sort of "knew" each other....
Looking forward to seeing you all again very shortly.....
The online catalog is....

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22727/?department=MOT-CYC

The lots we are involved with are 200 to 213....

As well my friend The Vintagent has a post on the forthcoming auction also....

http://www.thevintagent.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/blockbuster-stafford-sale-oct-1718th.html

Brough JAP engine KTR-U 14071

Five of the seven engine storage boxes...they were carefully stored this way for many years....

For red frame 1927,KTOR-1 68248 engine SS100 AGS

MAG engine in cases..... 2C9A 64335

Castle forks for the SS100 Broughs...

Frame showing both sides ...SS100 Alpine Grand Sports....

Two of the four Norton front forks.....

One of the Brough petrol tanks showing two views...

Part of the 680 Brough frame and some dampers....

Some of the Sturmey Archer gearbox cases...all the internals were carefully oiled and packed away...

Some of the magnetos....

During some of the sorting in Sydney....

Years ago in northern NSW, one of the Broughs loosley assembled...

During his "lightning" 2 day visit...Bonham's Ben Walker with John set out some parts of a bike for an impromptu photo session....

At Dijon in France, Bonhams had a stand and featured one of the Alpine Grand Sports, again loosely assembled.... the photo appeared in the French magazine La Vie de a Moto....

Looks to be an exciting week coming up for the Velobanjogent....

Oh...I mentioned there is some Velocette stuff for us to view and research.....
"Spring heeled Jack" was an attempt by Velocette to introduce a rear sprung cantilever rear end, built by Bentley and Draper in May 1928...
It was unsuccesful at the time, not the least because the triangulated "swing arm" grounded on corners badly....

An illustration from the motorcycle press of the time....

Restored as it is today....
One of the interesting Velocettes we will see "close up and personal"...

So thats it for now and some interesting posts coming up in the future from The Velobanjogent......

Aghh DQ you've been a bit slack with your Velobanjogent webblog.....been back from the UK and the 2015 week long Australian National Velocette OC Rally for over a month and no excuses.......
Stafford.....well DQs not been before and newspaper reports don't do it justice for shear size...Stafford County showground is a big place..and interest motorcycle wise.... Run over two days I sure had sore feet on the Saturday night.....
I was with my good Velo mate from Germany, Gert Boll and then joined by two good Dutch Velocette friends, Carl Drees and Sjef van Hooft, who drove over from The Netherlands just for the event....
We had a great time together....
But before we get carried away...my best wishes to you and yours for a great Christmas and a good motorcycling New Year, especially if its a Velocette one.....

DQ, Sjeft and Gert...with Carl behind the camera....Gert proudly wearing his Velocette sweater that I brought over for him...knitted by my 92 year old mum....well a few years back, guess she was 85 then...

Following my arrival at Gatwick airport, met by Gert who had driven over from Germany to spend the time with me in our visits and Velocette research..... we spent several days at Dai Gibbersons...

Dai with Gert and a set of Velocette girder forks in Dai's workshop.

As Dai had a committee meeting at the UK Velo OC at Huncote we went along....Ivan Rhodes came along on an interesting KSS mk.2 outfit with a fair bit of KTT "kit" on it.....we were to visit him and Graham later in the week.

Arranged by Dai we went to see the experimanetal 1929 Bentley and Draper framed "Spring Heeled Jack" as mentioned in the last post...interestingly the current owner got it from his late grandfather who bought it from Velocette in the early 1950s, from Charles Udall actually and despite a few items re-enamelled it appeared to be in the condition it was made in 1929....fascinating....

On the way to Ivan Rhodes in Derby we detoured to Foxton Locks, near Market Harborough, a favourite tourist spot of mine and introduced Gert to it- right up his alley as it turned out....there is a "flight" of 10 locks and the black & white pics were taken by me in 1974...told you they were a favourite spot...note the differences...

Gert and I spent 9 hours in the VMCC library at Burton on Trent and he is pictured with another bound copy of a 1925 "The MotorCycle" and with Ivan Rhodes who called in later in the afternoon. We were researching the first OHC Velocette engine, the model K, announced at the Olympia Show in November 1924 with a total loss oiling system, then when the first production models were sold in July 1925 they had a dry sump lubrication system- we wondered why..all this we found details of in the bound copies of "The Motorcycle" and "MotorCycling" for 1924 and 1925 as well as a look at the original Velocette despatch books for this time at Ivans.
Then we had a morning at Pook Books in Rotherley, Leics...a "must" if you are tracking down "un-obtainium" in motoring/motorcycling books/literature....on the "Fellside Cottage"...

Lunch at Ivan's "local", the nearby "Royal Oak Hotel"...

The "Royal Oak" has been a Rhodes "local" obviously for some time...as pictured, hanging on the wall, a local football team,coached by Ivan's dad, pictured with other family members....

Out with a few bikes at "Fellside Cottage"...Graham and Ivan fettle a 1924 "Big Port" model AJS.....

Gert prepares to take off on the "big Port" AJS..."screw it on" urges Graham as he passes up the drive at Fellside Cottage....

Gert on the 1928 ex Alec Bennett factory IOM TT winning KTT and Graham on the "Big Port"...he's a tall guy...6'7" and makes the AJS look positively small....

Inside Ivan's workshop...Gert looks on as another good friend of Ians, Bob Higgs, attends to a friends KSS/RS framed special...

Bob came along on his MSS Velocette special...a "nice bit of kit"!! A clever engineer, he was responsible for the special V twin 1000cc Velocette "Vulcan" outfit....

Then we were off to Stafford...for a major reason the Velobanjogent was in the UK....the finalisation of my late friend Gary Ross's sale of his life's work with Brough Superiors.....

For this I can't thank the guys at Bonhams enough....they were so helpful and professional over the year and the build up to the auction....

Ben Walker, head of their motorcycle division with James Stensel and Andy Barrett and what a great job their auctioneer did...Malcolm Barber.....thanks again guys....

Lets go into the auction hall first.....

Saturday saw some 100 lots auctioned from an Italian collector of many 1920's Indian and Harley motorcycles....

Then Sundays auction hall in part...

Carl and Gert discuss items over coffee as the auction time approaches...Sjef looks at the Velocettes..was he interested to bid?

The auction underway and items 200-213 come up.....

201 is the 1927 SS100 Alpine Grand Sport Brough Superior in parts....one of the three bikes of Gary's listed as "projects".

DQ nervously makes notes.....

Malcolm takes a bid....

Crikey lot 201, the 1927 SS100 Alpine Grand Sports Brough Superior in pieces as a project makes UK 230,000 pounds. over $500,000 Australian dollars upstaging the lot before the 1926 SS100 Alpine Grand Sports at 210,000 pounds...I'm "gob smacked"...the other items all sell at high prices...I hurry outside to telephone Australia for although it's 2am in the morning Elaine Ross is still up having watched the auction on the internet and I admit to choking up as we discussed the result and her now being able to buy a house in Sydney....

For me it was a great end to a wonderful saga, despite the sadness of Gary's death having to precipitate it....

So out into a few of the halls for a look, including the UK Velocette OC stand.....

UK VOC Club Chairman Roger Franklin with DQ, an honorary Overseas Vice President.

The two "KTT Services".....DQ from "down under" now no longer in business and Kevin Thurston "KTT Services" from the UK still in business and with a stand of very nice Velocette parts he manufactures....

Kevin's stand and pictured above, that of his Dad, Ray's stand of used Velocette parts.....

Lets have a look around the main hall.

And a quick look outside....

Then we were off to see Colin East, James Robinson editor of "The Classic Motorcycle" at Mortons Media and Rob Drury, before DQ caught a plane in Manchester for Sydney.

A quick look in Colin's workshop.....

The original Velocette frame jig set up for the RS swinging arm frame.....

Well that was quite a trip with DQ and Gert...hope you enjoyed it....

We are both still sorting through the data we got on Velocette history....

Some more insights in a later blog....

Its been some months since I did my last post early in December 2015 and the next major one I'm planning on the Velocette VMT is taking some time to assemble, so I decided to do an interim post on the preparation of a new speedometer/tachometer dial face for a motorcycle...similar for a car....using the screen printing process.
But first....I'm happy to answer questions on dials and their printing, BUT I sold on this business to others....Howard Instruments in Melbourne, Victoria.....so can't supply any dials.
Lets look at some motorcycle dial faces that are common to be replaced with reprinted dials......

Chronometric motorcycle speedometer dial...the Smiths logo type indicates it was used in the period 1947-1958.

Four prewar dial faces...in this case illustrated from pre WW2 Vincent motorcycles, but used on other pre WW2 British motorcycles. The Smiths logo is the "shield" logo which was discontinued around 1946. For a concours motorcycle that is made prewar, its Smiths speedometer and tachometer must have this "Shield" logo to be correct.

Triumph Motorcycles use the Smiths "Revolator" dial face on their chronometric instruments from 1939 to about 1960 which had internal coloured bands for use as a tachometer as well as a speedometer. Illustrated are the 650cc type...note the 4th gear ring has a "70" = 7000rpm in the region of 116/118mph. The 500cc Triumph used another Revolator dial with the "70" around 109mph.

Smiths introduced new, replacement instruments for British motorcycles for the 1964 season. 80mm diameter they were not of the chronometric principle of operation that had been the norm from around 1927 to the end of 1963, but used the "eddy current" magnetic principle. Smiths called the speedometer the SSM...Speedometer Shallow Magnetic and the tachometer the RSM, Revcounter Shallow Magnetic.
Both the chronometric and the SSM used different dial blanks....
You can remove paint from existing dial faces and re-paint them with a form of matt or satin black as the background.
Or if you are into quantity as I was, you can have blanks lazer cut from 0.7mm steel.

So lets look at the screen printing of these dial faces.
I don't intend to go into the procedure for getting the images onto the screen for subsequent printing.

Lazer cut dial blanks prepared for grey faced SSM speedometers.....

An original, if a bit used, grey faced RSM dial from a Velocette Venom Thruxton.

A view of the printing screen with the image I'm to print...

The prepared dial blank and the "female" carrier used to locate the dial under the screen in the exact position to print the image.Note the small tabs on the dial face to locate the dial in the carrier.

Use an existing dial with the same image on it ( in this case a dry but slightly damaged image...ok for our purposes) and locate it under the screen so when the screen is closed the image is exactly in line, then tape the carrier in place. When printing multiple numbers of dials the locating tabs on the lazer cut dial blanks locate into the opposite in the carrier and ensure the printed image will always be in the correct position on the dial blank.

To avoid mess all over the screen mesh it is best to cut a paper blanking cover and tape it completely around its cut edge. Then only ink will pass on to the exposed area of the dial image.
Ensure the screen mesh surface is set about 2-3mm above the dial blank to be printed on...this is called the "snap" and ensures the screen will move up off the dial as the squeegee blade delivers the ink on to the dial blank.

Prepare ink onto the edge of the squeegee blade...I use white enamel screen printing ink which gives a deposit on the dial that your eye can detect in a 3 dimensional way, rather than the thin image from other forms of screen printing ink. The screen mesh I use is 140 mesh and of course the ink manufacturers claim enamel ink won't print through it..they say a max. of 90 mesh.
Funny that, I successfully printed tens of thousands of dials in the many years I was doing my printing...The fine mesh ensures fine text can be printed.

Pull a flood pass of ink across the screen image without actually having the squeegee blade touch the screen surface...this leaves a coating of about a mm of ink over the surface.

Then starting on one side of the dial image pull the squeegee blade on the mesh firmly and smoothly across the image, thus ensuring ink is forced through the image on the screen and onto the dial blank below.

Open the screen to removed the printed dial...I use a knife blade located into the odometer slot to pop the dial out of the carrier and down on to a dish for subsequent slow drying. Enamel ink takes several hours to dry the image. Despite this, speed is the essence or some residual ink left in the screen image will start to dry out...so either fit another dial blank into the carrier and repeat the process as many times as you require dial quantities or immediately clean the screen image with mineral turpentine, the solvent for enamel ink. I usually place paper towel under the image and use a turpentine wet paper towel to scrub carefully across the image above until there is no evidence of ink in the screen image.

Place the finished printed dials on their tray into a dust free area to dry for several hours.....
Then of course the dial can be fitted into a restored instrument to make the speedometer look brand new....

A completed instrument I did, including print the special dial face for a customer at the time who rode a HD and liked Ned Kelly the famous Australian bush ranger in the 1800s...
Of interest...how did Smiths print their dial faces?
They used an engraved image on a polished steel block and a gelatine block...the image on the steel block had ink to lightly coat into the engraved image and the gelatine block was pressed onto the image thus picking up the image onto the gelatin and pressed onto the dial blank.
Pictured below is the process scanned from a Smiths house magazine I have...the photo around 1934....

I've done several posts on Bertie Goodman, known to many as BJG and who was the last managing director of Veloce Ltd., manufacturers of Velocette motorcycles from 1905 to 1971.
See..... Bertie Goodman part 1
and... Bertie Goodman part 2
Since then I've come across some more interesting photos of BJG in the photo library of the Vintage Motorcycle Club, Allen House, Wetmore Road, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 1TR to whom I credit the photos I've used which were originally from both "MotorCycling" and "The MotorCycle", the magazines for motorcycling in the UK of the day.
The following photos were taken at the MIRA test facility ....

Changing the gearing on the Venom Clubman with the well known Velocette registration number.... SOX631

They always claimed BJG could really flatten himself to a great aerodynamic shape on a motorcycle...

Bernal Osborne the Midlands editor for "MotorCycling" on the naked Velocette Valiant 200cc twin, with BJG on SOX631 centre and an unknown rider on a Velocette Valiant Veeline model.

BJG, sans helmet on the Valiant Veeline....

Road testing the Velocette viceroy scooter and the LE mk.3 with Bernal Osborne..

BJG with a Velocette mk.3 LE

BJG in the Veloce carpark with a special ISDT Velocette likely in 1968

In the IOM at a VMCC rally with Club president of the time, Eric Thompson, BJG prepares to go for "a canter" on Eric's mk.1 KTT.

BJG in the Ulster GP on a mk.8, engine number KTT911, 1948 he was 3rd place in the event.

BJG in the 1949 Ulster GP, #56, engine number KTT911

Testing the new RS swinging arm frame in the IOM, note KTT engine

A strange photo, well the angle it was taken at....BJG during the unsuccesful 350 record attempt on the 100mph for 24hrs at Montlery, France in 1963.

Bertie with wife Maureen ( left} and likely George and Ethyl Denly (Goodman's) central at a ball.

BJG...Bertie Goodman as many people knew him.

Reynolds Chain Manufacturers, The Reynold and Coventry Chain Company Limited have been manufacturers of drive chains for motorcycles and other uses since before 1931...well that's the earliest catalogue I have.....
So this is a brief perusal of a small booklet published by Reynolds in 1935 and lists of the drive chain sizes for Velocette motorcycles from 1931 to 1970....and Veloce Ltd, manufacturers of Velocette from 1905 who went into liquidation in February 1971 and ceased making Velocette motorcycles at that time.....
The number to the far right in the lists is the number of pitches or complete links, including the connecting link used for that model.

Last December was a sad day for motorcycle racing with the passing of Eric Hinton after a long illness.....The day of his funeral was a cool wet day in early summer in Sydney, but many of his friends, acquaintances and people who respected him for the man and great motorcycle racer that he was joined his family to say their farewells......

This remembrance from me is long overdue so lets follow Eric photographically through some of his motorcycle racing life.....
Many of the photos following are a result of the diligent work by motorcycle journalist Don Cox in the preparation of his "essential reading book"...
"Circus Life" published in 2012 and reviewed by me the other year....
And I thank Don for his permission to use them

Eric was borne into what became the Hinton dynasty of motorcycle racers....his father Harry Hinton, elder brother Harry Hinton Jnr and younger brother Robert Hinton.....
He and Harry Jnr rapidly made a name for themselves in the world of European motorcycle racing in the period 1956 to 1965 over several period during this time. Sadly Harry Jnr died of pneumonia in hospital following a crash at Imola, Italy in April 1958 when the big end of his Norton broke and seized with the bike hitting a fence and cannoned back onto the track hitting Harry in the chest.....

L to R... Eric, Harry snr, Harry jnr.

Eric, #2, pushes off his 350 Norton in the 1956 IOM Junior TT

Eric and fellow Aussie Dick Thomson's Ford V8 van, transport for 1956.
Following a conversation with Keith Campbell, Eric made the decision not to ride in GPs but to enter the lesser international race meetings where start money and prize money was better but the chance of being overlooked for a factory ride was the downside.

Georges Monnerett, factory 350 Gilera-4 harassed by Eric at Villefranche-de-Rouergue in 1956.

#80 Eric, 350 Norton....St Wendel, West Germany.

Eric with a new 350 Manx at St.Wendel, 1956.

Eric #4, full bin streamlined Norton follows #8 Hans Baltisberger likely 1956 in Czechoslovakia.

In the Chemnitz Hotel, Chemnitz Germany August 1956...Eric centre, Keith Bryen by the gramophone, Bob Brown down to Eric's right, Alan Burt to the front of Bob.

Team Hinton 1957, Eric and Harry jnr...

Eric at the IOM TT races, 1957. He finished 5th in the Junior TT.

Eric Hinton, the toast of St.Wendel after he won the 350 and 500 races on Nortons....

Eric wins the 500 class at St.Wendel 1957

The Hinton brothers at St.Wendel 1957

21-7-57 the German 350 GP at Noris-ring, Nuremberg. Keith Bryen 1st, Eric Hinton 2nd and Vally Lunberg 3rd.

Harry jnr, Keith Bryen, Eric , Vally Lundberg German GP 1957.

The Hinton "camp" at the 1958 IOM TT...Harry jnr had acquired the ex Geoff Duke Velocette with an ex works 350 DOHC engine. Later on the continent at the German GP when he entered it in the 350 class he was sniggered at...but the smiles soon vanished when he finished 5th on it....When Eric was in aged care several years ago I asked him why the Velocette and he said Harry jnr felt it was a better all round ride....

Eric with the 350 DOHC Velocette at a friends house in the Birmingham area, 1958.

Eric with Ken Kavanagh at Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1958.

Eric on his 250 NSU Sportsmax at Schleiz, East Germany 1958.

On the road in 1966 during his final tour...Eric with Jack Ahearn.

Eric in later years......

Well this post has been a long time coming.....
Apologies to my followers for this....
But last month DQ joined up with Gert Boll from Germany, my Velocette research friend, in the UK for a 10 day tour of some archives resulting in some more interesting photos and information, particularly Velocette...
Unsure how to present this, I thought I'd select from the 1500 odd photos we collected, a range of interesting stuff...obviously I'll present more in time.
For those of you who follow Facebook group sites, I contribute to "Velocette Motorcycles", "Velocette" and my own site on motorcycle instrumentation..."motorcycles speedos, tachos and other instruments" as well as the "smiths chronometric" site....
Worth a look, perhaps even to follow....
Down to business...
In the VMCC library is a source of interesting photos, including a small collect from Rex McCandless, responsible for the Norton Featherbed frame.....

Rex testing an auto gyro with a VW engine..he made 6 in all with the early version fitted with 650cc Triumph engines.

In 1939 Rex made a "Triton"...utilising a Norton inter frame with one of the newly introduced in 1938, 5T/speedtwin Triumph 500cc engines.

Rex astride an NSU at Neckarsulm with Joe Craig and Ken Kavanagh.

Testing the new Norton Featherbed frame at the circuit Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry near Paris in 1949...Joe Craig holds the indicator board out....124mph...

A visit to Geoff Dodkin, renowned former Velocette agent.... Gert poses by Geoff's front gate....

Geoff now in comfortable retirement....

Perhaps as we remember Geoff more.... the last photo is off the internet at his East sheen shop and I am unable to acknowledge the source...

Its not all "work"....

Time off with Dai Gibberson to visit a flight of canal locks near Devizes...the Caen Hill Locks,on the Kennett & Avon canal, around 29 in all in the area...

Then a day with Ivan Rhodes...

Engine parts for the 595cc replica of the Stuart Waycott prewar ISDT outfit Ivan and Bob Higgs are constructing...

Works bottom bevel gears...3% nickel steel.

Ivan is selling the ex Bob Foster TT winning DOHC 350 from 1949....
Speak to Ivan if you are genuinely interested....

Then we spent several days with James Robinson the editor of "The Classic MotorCycle"at Morton Motorcycle Media identifying photos for them..
The archive has many contact prints prewar in a form of albums with a penned code number...identity long lost, but often on the edge of the negative a comment....
Lets look at the 1938 ISDT which was in Wales....

The 1938 British Trophy Team....

The 1938 British Vase B team...

1938 ISDT,Wales, Crymmych HRMS check....

During the 1938 ISDT in Wales...

Some Velocette items....

1920-22 Ladies Model two stroke...

1928 Junior TT...#39 Harold Willis, #22 Alec Bennett #18 Freddie Hicks...Alec Bennett won, Willis second and Hicks 5th..

1928 Junior TT...#39 Harold Willis, #22 Alec Bennett...

Brooklands....Lamacraft's supercharged 350 KTT Velocette

The Roarer being assembled before the 1939 IOM TT...looks like an OHC special of some sort under the bench.....

After assembly, ready to transport to the IOM....Percy Goodman in white coat...the lady is his sister Ethyl Denly (nee Goodman) and her husband, George Denly with glasses behind.

In the mid 1950's the Roarer was got out to be readied for showing on the Velocette stand at various motorcycle shows as a form of advertising....note the corrosion on the casting of the rear bevel housing from standing since WW2.
All internals were removed to make the bike lighter to move around.

Tommy Mutton the prewar works race mechanic astride the Roarer after the mid 1950's assembly.
The front wheel is from a mk.8 KTT racer as the original Roarer wheel was on loan to Geoff Duke for his KTT special at the time...

Factory staff with a sectioned Velocette destined for an Earles Court or other Motorcycle Show Velocette stand....

Bernal Osborne, the midlands editor of "The MotorCycle" tests a Velocette Valiant around 1957....

And finally for this post...Bruce Main-Smith ( BMS) a favourite ex "MotorCycling" journalist of mine, tests a 1961 Velocette Venom Clubman Veeline near his home at Leatherhead in Surrey....

On ya Bruce...!!!

Merry Christmas to you all...
Been under the pump as they say and my next post isn't yet ready.....soon...

Gary Ross was a lifelong friend of mine, pictured left at the Australian Velo OC "Fagan Park" display day in 2012 who had a passion for motorcycling in the 1920's & 30's, especially JAP engined machines...Brough, Zenith OEC etc...and he sadly passed away in late 2014...his collection of Broughs were auctioned by Bonham's UK at the Stafford Show in October 2015 which I attended and did several posts on...

post 1, post 2..

Gary was an avid motorcycle historian/researcher and collector of early photos and literature....I've many of them from his computer and while he used a computer he wasn't that computer savvy and many are sadly unlabelled....

Lets start on this first of some posts from his archive with some Brough stuff...as said mostly unlabelled and left by me as such with the odd comment...perhaps you can assist...

George Brough waves a client off, perhaps on his new or recently serviced Brough outside the BS works...

Alan Bruce's record breaker Brough Superior from mid 1930's

Bruce's record breaker with Bruce centre and to his left Phil Irving

Broughs at Brooklands...

Perusing one of my small folders in my archive I've come across some interesting photos, varying in quality, but super historic of road racing in Northern Ireland in 1945/1946, as it contains photos taken at races in Northern Ireland in 1945/46. Included are Bangor Castle July 1945 (war still in the Far East) Ulster MCC Ulster 100 Victory Road Race only held once in September 1945 with Artie Bell # 3 winner 500 Class, Rex McCandless 2nd also Cromie McCandless # 14 after finishing he won Novice's Class on Beniel must have been it's debut ! #2 of 1939 KTT Vic Willoughby winner on a 350 Velocette Ulster Road Race Clady 1946 and Ernie Lyons # 14 first outing for that machine retired.

Now these photos are via Dave & Joan Crawford of Northern Ireland, who in 2012 visited a friend Billy Chambers and they are from his photo album.
He's happy for me to post them on my webblog but of course we give full credit to him and as usual I'm not unhappy at folk capturing some...BUT..I'm real cranky when you don't acknowledge Billy Chambers and if you don't take the description of the photo as well...so we all know who the photo refers to...
There...the Velobanjogent has jumped off his soapbox and lets look at some pix....

I'm having trouble with the text into the post...so I'll leave it for a day and come back....please revisit the site again....

These following two pages are what the album looked like....

The following scans are in B&W from the Crawfords...
Below #47, unknown rider in 1945 Ulster 100

September 1945 Ulster 100 programme

Rex McCandless and T.E.Seymour.

Artie Bell, winner, Lisbon 100, Northern Ireland.

1946,N-Irish races, CTS #34 unknown rider, KTT Velo, #35 unknown rider....

Above coming down from the programme.....
Rex McCandless and T.E. Seymour.
Artie Bell, winner of the Lisbon 100
1946 Northern Ireland event riders unknown, #34 and #35
Then...
Ernie Lyons, GP Triumph,#14, 1946 Ulster 100 road race at Clady.
Then below...#2 J.Hayes, Rudge, Clady 1946 Ulster road race.
Then...Vic Willoughby #30 Velocette mk.8 KTT winner of 350 event 1946 Ulster road race, Clady circuit.
Then #34 Rex McCandless on prototype pre-featherbed frame, 1946 Ulster road races.
Well, that's all for this post....another coming in the near future..

This post will feature advertisements from "Motorcycling in Australia", Vol.1 No.11, which is February 1948.....
It will be part of a series from a selection of the many of these Australian motorcycle magazines from 1936 onward...
We'll look at dealer adverts for the various motorcycle brands available at that time...likely of greater interest to my Australian blog followers, but I'm sure the rest of you will get something from them...
Interesting the use cover for the front cover, inner front and inner rear covers illustrated, even if they only used red and green!
Read on...!

This second post features advertisements from "The Australian Motor Cyclist”, Vol.3 No.5, which is September 1938..... a continuing series from a selection of the many of these Australian motorcycle magazines I have from 1936 onward... looking at dealer adverts for the various motorcycle brands available at that time...likely of greater interest to my Australian blog followers, but I'm sure the rest of you will get something from them... Interesting the use cover for the front cover, inner front and inner rear covers illustrated, even if they only used red and blue!

Read on...!

I posed a question on a Facebook group site I run...Motorcycle speedos,tachos and other instruments .... the earliest use of a tachometer on a racing motorcycle...?
I illustrated it with a French Jaeger tacho on Roger Loyer's 1933 KTT Velocette during the IOM Junior TT, but Andrew Rachstraw found a 1922 photo from Brooklands with a 494cc Douglas using what looked like a Smiths governor instrument clipped to the handlebar... well I searched though my 1919-20 and 1924 Smiths catalogues featuring the governor speedo and tacho...the only type Smiths offered at that time as it was not until the late 1920's they acquired the rights to make the chronometric from Jaeger (Paris) by purchasing the newly formed UK, Jaeger E.D. ( and renaming it British Jaeger around 1930). And there was the tacho drive..as illustrated and the tacho, obviously with likely a special dial face made probably to around 6000rpm. Illustrated is a dial from my master catalogue of when I printed dials for a 5000rpm gnvr tacho, My artwork was done from an original dial I had.

Roger Loyer astride his 1933 KTT Velocette at the IOM TT races of that year... the Jaeger tachometer is visible mounted low down near the front of the petrol tank and it is driven by a bronze tacho drive from the bottom magneto chain sprocket...

T.Eve on his 494cc Douglas in 1922 at Brooklands, UK...the tachometer is a Smiths governor principle tacho, unsure of the ratio or dial scale...

The tacho drive from a 1919-20 Smiths catalogue....

The Smiths "domeback" type governor tachometer and clip mounting to a motorcycle handlebar...

Tachometers from the 1919-20 Smiths catalogue...the latter mounting is for a car and attaches to the car dashboard.

Illustration of the internals of the Smiths governor instrument showing the rotor which operates in the same way as a steam governor...the weights swing out as the cable speed increases and the collar at the top of the rotor moves down, and via a rocker arrangement swings the pointer around the dial face.

Above is an original Smiths governor dial face from the 1920's ...and the scale is non linear, which is a characteristic of the Smiths governor instrument. It makes calibration difficult.

A look at a 1938 Enots, Benton & Stone Ltd., motor fittings catalogue with fuel/petrol filler caps,"Best" oil pumps, chain oilers, crankcase relief valves, fuel/petrol taps....

Another sad day for Motorcycling with the passing of Keith Bryen...International racing motorcyclist, "Continenal Circus" member 1953-57, A great ambassador for our sport and "an all round good egg...!"

The Velobanjogent visits Velo friends In The Netherlands and Germany….September 2013

The KDT Velocette....Velocette's attempt to break into the Speedway machine market in 1929....

A visit to "Fellside Cottage", the home of Ivan Rhodes...Mr Velocette to so many people worldwide...part 1

A visit to "Fellside Cottage", the home of Ivan Rhodes...Mr Velocette to so many people worldwide...part 2

The Velobanjogent's recent additional Velocette special......

The Velobanjogents off to the UK for 10 days taking in Velocette friends on an archival/history visit and to visit the Stafford Motorcycle Show and attend the Bonhams auction on the Sunday 18th October 2015...let me explain some...

The Velobanjogents back from the UK, then went to the week long 2015 Australian National Velocette OC Rally in Perth, Western Australia...so DQ how about a report?

Screen printing motorcycle speedometer dial faces-Long retired from his motorcycle instrument business, now sold on, the Velobanjogent demonstrates printing a chronometric or SSM dial face

Velocette....Bertie Goodman...BJG...the managing director who rode & tested his product....part 3

Reynolds....Reynolds Chains Limited.....a look at the drive chains used on motorcycles and details of the sizes used on Velocettes from 1931 to 1970....

Eric Hinton....the Velobanjogent remembers a friend and a great rider from the "Continental Circus" and Australian motorcycle racing.....

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Merry Christmas from the Velobanjogent for 2017..

The Velobanjogents back in 2017 with a post on archival photos from a late friend's collection...Gary Ross. He was always keen to start a blog such as mine but sadly it never eventuated...

The Velobanjogent has many small folders in his archive and this is of Northern Ireland Road Races in 1946....

The Velobanjogent's off on a different tack for this and several posts... I've early copies of Australian Motorcycles magazines from around 1936 through to the later 1950's...so I'm going to feature advertisements from the dealers of the time for new motorcycles and other products....

Another post from early copies of Australian Motorcycle magazines , this from 1938 ... featuring advertisements from the dealers of the time for new motorcycles and other products....

A bit of instrument information from the Velobanjogent...The earliest use of a tachometer on a racing motorcycle?