Composed by Anna  Charalambous-Green Since the early 1900's Britain had been innovating in motorcycle engineering and design. Starting commercially in 1896, the Coventry based Excelsior Motor Company, began the production of the first publicly available motorcycle. Five years later, in 1901, Royal Enfield produced their first motorcycle – complete with a 239cc engine that drove the rear wheel using a belt. In 1902, Norton would also join the scene, as well as the British Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910. In 1902, again in the Coventry area, Triumph launched its first commercial motorcycle, The Triumph H or 'Trusty Triumph' was the world's first modern motorcycle and the factory started out producing 500 units annually. Three years later, in Redditch - West Midlands area, Royal Enfield produced the Royal Enfield Bullet. The longest lived motorcycle design in history. British motorcycle manufacturers and designers were world leaders, with BSA purchasing Triumph in the 195...

  Herald 250 with Carburettor Problems... The first thing a good mechanic does when faced with a running problem with the machine, is diagnose the problem.  Anna had come to the conclusion that the carburettor needed cleaning due to the fact that the bike stuttered to a halt if the choke wasn't out for at least four miles of riding. Towards the end of the four miles, the engine was running fast and the choke could be pushed back in. So the first thing that Graham did was look for holes or splits in the tubing surrounding the carburettor to see if air was entering the system. Graham started to take the bike apart, looking carefully at the tubing that ran from the engine to the carburettor. This is part of the engine’s emission reduction system. Instead of venting crankcase pressure into the atmosphere, gases escaping from the crankcase are vented into the air filter box when high levels of vacuum open a diaphragm valve. The first thing to notice was the air intake in front of t...

 Piaggio Velofax - A little progress made... After a great deal of online searching, Graham eventually found VE UK selling a throttle slide for the bike's Dellorto SHA 14 12 C Carburettor and was pleased to find that it fitted correctly.  Jess assisted by fitting the top end of the throttle cable into the twist grip.  The bike is fitted with a pump fed two lubrication system.  The throttle cable divides into two near the engine.  One cable goes to the carb to control the throttle.  The other cable goes to the oil pump to control the amount of two stroke oil pumped into the engine, depending on the throttle opening.  Unfortunately the oil pump cable on our bike appears to be seized and the screws that would give access to the pump are not only very hard to get at, but also likely to be heavily corroded.  So a decision has been made to run the bike with a petroil mixture.  In other words mixing a small but carefully calculated amount of two str...

This was one of the first bikes donated to the club by Emma Reardon having sat unloved in a shed for several years.  It had suffered a mechanical failure and having been supeceeded by newer machinery was left to quietly gather dust.  A previous owner had begun the process of chopperising the bike.  This process was continued with whilst the bike was in the Reardon household with work being done on it by a bike builder in Carmarthen.  If we have the right end of the stick, the bike started life as a KZ550 Limited manufactured in the early 1980s.  The model was not imported to the UK, so is likely to have been first sold in America before being bought to the UK.  This made getting some of the Spares needed to rebuild it a little challenging.  Many of the spares that have been used came from a bike that was being broken by DK Motorcycles in the midlands.  This is what our 550 would originally have looked like   (Click on the above image to see s...

  Finally starting on February 10th 2024 after its major rebuild... After 2 years of sometimes head-scratching work, the bike was successfully started. It was an amazing moment for the club, especially for the members who have worked hard alongside AJ and Jack to achieve this.

  A lovely 'do-up' job The exhausts have been taken off the Honda C50 to have a much needed revamp.    Jess used Hammerite kurust and a great deal of elbow grease to give it a new look.   The small holes in the exhaust were plugged using epoxy glue.   A similar approach was used by Jess on the Piaggio Velofax moped exhaust, which also had a number of holes. Again, these had to be filled before it was sprayed up in a coat of heat resistant black paint at Saturday's session. Tin worm can't beat us!! been taken off the Honda c50 to have a much needed revamp. Time for a Black Russian... Dave has been working with Annabelle and on 10th February was helping test out  Phil James's 6 volt system to 12 volt conversion. It looked to be working well - with Dave making some bespoke spanner alterations to ensure everything was put back tightly. Due to the increased heat generated by the increase in power, a zinc plate has been inserted into the adapte...