At the very least he proved that he has got sufficient inner drive to keep at it to the bitter end - and not everybody, knowing they were likely to be very much 'in the spotlight' would have the guts to persevere and have the record of coming last, having dropped 39 marks more than the nearest other rider.........
I could name several well-known old works riders who would quietly retire if they dropped a few silly marks, rather than appear in the results off the top spot.........
There is of course a potentially apt old adage - you can't teach an old dog new tricks!
One thing Guy Martin could well have achieved - it may at least prove that riding an old bike is not quite as simple as it may seem at the outset.............
You certainly found a very large bag of bits! The frame looks like a standard Jampot version, the AJS & Matchless Owners Club (UK) could probably confirm the year of manufacture from the 7125 frame number, but the motor is a 1954 standard road model.
There are comprehensive photographs, virtually year by year, of all the AJS and Matchless competition models in the History of the AMC Competition Models featured in the back issues of our digital magazine, ORRe, and if you take out an annual subscription you get instant free access to all the back issues.
I am including a couple of images for you, the 1958 AJS and the 1955 Matchless (with the Jampot rear suspension as your bike has) just as an appetiser for you!
I've just had an interesting 'phone call from an old friend who sold new Greeves in his shop. His input was: "You had to be careful how you displayed the new models, because the colour on the frames could vary noticeably - the tales were that they were painted straight out of the paint can and if the paint came from several batches you might even end up with visible colour shades on different bits of a new bike."
His advice? "Pick a shade you like - and paint it that colour............."
The early Greeves models had their tubework painted with a 'Hammerite' finish which I feel was known as Moorland Blue. Does anyone know a modern equivalent?
Coming up from Bedfordshire, as I did many times, your likely route will be to Crianlarich then head over Rannoch Moor towards Fort William, traffic is likely to be heavy on the Saturday ('cos that is the changeover day for many of the thousands of self catering cottages in the highlands) so be ready for that.
As you approach the area of the trial, not long past the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, watch out for the turning right off the main road signposted 'Kinlochleven' and in about three miles is the group of sections at 'Caolasnacoan' on the hillside on the right hand side of the road.
I wouldn't risk going into Kinlochleven first on the Saturday afternoon - as I would hope for the organisers' sakes that all the programmes have been sold by then.......
Looking forward to that, Deryk. You're spoiling us!
Perhaps selections from the great classic trials: Perce Simon, Bemrose, Victory, Colmore etc?
Hi,
Not really spoiling you - 'cos if you really would like to see those images - email to the address in ORRe - I'm totally happy to 'spoil' friends who have taken the ORRe plunge (twelve whole pounds for over two thousand pages of information but mainly images - and not a single page wasted on adverts.........)
Of specific interest to enthusiasts of the classic side of our sport are two NEW features in our digital magazine, ORRe, in direct response to readers requests. Firstly came a request for a selection of Greeves machinery in historic action, so in issue 41 there is a new occasional feature - a Photoserendipity selection of Greeves trials and scrambles riders from our archives, no less than twenty-one examples of the marque in action.
Then came another request, have we any pictures of historic action from the Diamond Lane section of the old 'West of England Trial' - we certainly have, so there is another NEW feature, a selection of action images from that very section in issue 41.
Would YOU be interested in any particular make or model of classic trials or scrambles machines - or any riders you would be interested in - just take out a subscription and drop an email to the address on the first page of every issue - if we have the images, then they WILL be published.
Weight was also a consideration - the sprocket Roger made for my Ariel clutch basket was in alloy!
Interestingly Sammy needed a dished rear sprocket for GOV 132 and made one out of, I believe a Hiduminium billet, whereas his 'practice' machine, GON, had a heavier steel unit, which obviously supports the weight reduction theory.
Hi Deryk an interesting comparison, do you recall the sprockt sizes please.
Are we talking sizes that are used for trials with maybe a six or eight tooth size difference which would be simiar to possibly two at the gearbox or a much greater difference.
Trials only, my road machines very early on meant putting a sidecar on, our eldest child was five days old when she went for her first ride in a sidecar. Prior to that we had done many thousands of miles on the solo Matchless G80CS, put together for me by Hugh Viney's team in Plumstead and supplied by Stan Hailwood through his Oxford shop.
I do remember we were aiming for a rear sprocket reduction of ten teeth on the Cub - but remember there were not many genuine Trials Cubs supplied, a lot were sort of cobbled-up Sports Cubs, I suspect because the Triumph ordering system for dealers was not the simplest maybe?
Sorry I never owned a Cub so I can't recall the sprocket sizes used on our test - but I do remember having sprockets made for my Ariel by Roger Maughfling at Knighton to enable a smaller rear sprocket - but we cheated because I had fitted an AMC mainshaft and clutch, so we were able to make a new sprocket with an extra couple of teeth to fit the clutch basket which helped to keep the overall gearing right......
Ok thanks. If larger sprockets are acting as torque multipliers then, it sounds like a good mod for low powered, low torque bikes, like the smaller two strokes ?
Sorry, Dave, I feel that the traction break effect applies to all bikes - I feel that what you describe as the torque multiplier effect would more accurately describe being in too low a gear. I was riding Ariels at the same time as Sammy Miller was on GOV, and I particularly noted that he often selected second to enter a slithery uphill where most would automatically have selected bottom.........
I remember this being discussed before ( quote below), was this the same experiment or a different one ? I notice the one involved 2 bikes and the other lots of spannering..
No,
That was a second session as a follow on when someone realised that a further reduction in sprocket diameter could be achieved by using the smaller chain sizes but wanted to check the theory.
On a comparative test way back when, which involved an ex-works Triumph rider, we proved that using combinations of crankshaft, gearbox and rear wheel sprockets that gave very similar final overall gear ratios, it was much easier to break traction on slippery going with a larger rear wheel sprocket - in every gear.
It took a lot of doing, a lot of rapid spanner work to keep the comparison valid, in case the surface conditions were changing - but we had received a challenging question from an engineering student who felt, as a result of purely mathematical calculations, that the radius at which the driving effort to the wheel was applied had a significant effect. And our test supported his maths, the bigger the rear wheel sprocket, the more difficult to find grip.
So the answer must be fit the smallest crank and gearbox sprockets, that will give you the smaller rear wheel sprocket and you should find grip better............unless you can prove different.
The Eboracum Motor Club three day charity trial scheduled for Friday evening, Saturday at Sunday (April 15/16/17) at Louise and Simon Gill’s Moor Farm at Ouseburn has been cancelled this afternoon due to prevailing land conditions.
The areas where vehicles park is too soft and with an adverse weather forecast for the next few days in West and North Yorkshire the decision to cancel was not made lightly.
Simon and his son Tom are regular trials competitors and usually avoid cancelling events.
Give me your Dads name and they years that you think it may have been ridden in the Scottish and I will check in my records of entry lists - if you prefer to do it privately, email me direct at offroadrevue@gmail.com
Well, one instant response - an excited email asking for earlier OSSA detail persuaded me to look through the archive and here is the answer, Mick on the Houseley OSSA in 1967.
Anyone interested in seeing plenty of photographs of historic Ossa in action in their heyday has only to take our digital magazine, ORRe, and what is more, if you would like a copy of any of the photographs for your own collection, copies are free to ORRe subscribers, naturally the copies supplied are free of the watermark.
Here is an early shot of Mick Andrews who started his Ossa career on a UK-import model supplied by Eric Houseley from Chesterfield, which was soon after switched to this factory bike, complete with Spanish registration.
Kenny The Rooster - Contains Adult Humour
in Anything goes
Posted
A Muslim bloke I work with was bragging he had the entire Koran on DVD.
Being interested, I asked him to burn me a copy.
Well, that’s when it all kicked off!