December Comment 2023

 

December Comment 2023

 

Heading for Christmas, sending out cards, buying stuff that you think people will like and foraging for food that will be still in date when you cook it and the weather! I feel confined to the house to avoid the incessant rain and dampness. The weather suits the mood with no motorcycling on tele other than Youtube. Even Itchy Boots had to take a break with a Himalayan Adventure. Watching the events unfold in Palestine is so depressing. Powerless against Western support that will not stop this murder. I have no faith that the west will do the right thing and put an end to this. How is the west held to ransom by one small country that is hated by its neighbours? It is so depressing.

To help me towards Christmas with “Good Will to all men”, not that we are dealing with many Christians here, I retired to the garage to amend some charging wiring on the LE. Having had to buy a new charger because my Motobat optimizer failed. Replaced with an Oxford version at more than twice the price. I have one already and for a number of years it has done the job. The rational was to have standard connections and be able to use it on any bike in the garage the Buell, Kawasaki, LE and Valiant to keep all the batteries healthy. I have already mentioned the wiring changes in the last Blog now I have a short video showing the connections on the LE.

In November I had a problem with my Furygan jacket zip. You had to zip it up with care or it would break open. I tried the squeezing the zipper trick but it did not cure the problem so it was time to get a new jacket. I haven’t thrown it away as I will get it repaired on my next trip to Assam. In the mean time Black Friday was around for two weeks and an offer by Infinity attracted me to make an on-line purchase. A Segura jacket with a massive discount was something not to pass up. I see that The Missenden Flyer now has a Segura Jacket too. Ordered and arrived it was too small sent it back and the larger size arrived. Now a good fit one of the pop studs on a cuff slipped off. Annoying but there was a spare but I needed a tool to fit it. Making the tool from a ten millimetre bolt a quick knock with a small hammer pressed it back together and happiness restored. I was going to wear it for the London Classic Bike Show at the beginning of December but changed my mind due to the intense cold that weekend. I ended up wearing my bike jacket all day even inside.

 

London Classic Bike Show December 23

 

London Classic Bike Show December 2023

 

Another show successfully completed. This one was a bit special as celebrities Henry Cole, Guy Willison and engineering maestro Alan Millyard were in attendance filming a show and being a major attraction. The organisation of the Wey Valley stand had the usual hiccups. We had a battery failure and an illness reducing our numbers by two to eight for the display. The weather played its part in making it a very cold day. Everyone kept their jackets on in spite of nearly record numbers there were insufficient punters to raise the temperature in the hall. I had a thermos of chai to keep me warm and I devoured two bacon baps to help. This year all our exhibitors arrived in good time and we were ready for the punters.

It turned out to be a busy day for us talking about the bikes on display and what the club is all about. My LE is always a centre of interest and keeps me talking for ages but this time we had Elspeth Beard and Chris Arthey signing books drawing people in. I did think at the time we should rename the club as the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists Book Club. I did manage one walk out into the cold and met Franc the Frog and Phillipa from the, now closed, London Motorcycle Museum. Nice to see old friends are still around post Covid. On the way back I spotted a Cotton with a Starmaker engine.

 I think it was called the Telstar. I did buy some chain lube for the Kawasaki and headed back to relative warmth. After a circuit on the ground floor and the Rumi stand I headed upstairs to see what was there. I was impressed by the Speedway display with race winning bikes of Barry Briggs and Ivan Maugher and many others that were not from my era. 

There was quite a variety of machines from the beginnings of Speedway to the present day and covered most of one side. Impressive. Opposite it was, by comparison the small Greeves stand, but just as interesting was the unusual twin port 350cc single.

 I understand that only about twenty were made making it a very rare beast. It looks fast and would have been competing against the  Japanese twins of the time. In the 250cc class it would have been the Silverstone. Not far away was the MV stand with the OHC 175. So advanced for 1951. Like all the Italian bikes of the time they were cleanly styled and looked fast. 

Trying to compete with styling was the Puch Split single 125cc powered EMC of 1952.

 Parked in the entrance was an old favourite and loved by Henry Cole a Raleigh Chopper and this one was. 

We had a visit by Henry to our stand posing by the Guzzi Californian. Henry and Louise our Social events organiser.

 All in all a very good day for the club and our book people even though we didn’t win any prizes as we did in May but this was a different event. I made it home in good time on the LE with only a little steam on the faster dual carriageways keeping up with the traffic.