CLASSIC RACER MACHINES THEPOPE SPECIAL Smallbut perfectlyformed

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,at wthsport of cc their hi hper cma from te rcuit. raci irinte , temselves an uropeanmachine lled Thefirst eSpe ls emm bu n’ always so. In the grids.Therewere afew excepti , 49cc ‘Dik two-strokesportsike.It s, the egg-cup suchasbrothers Dave and Mike as c-handpurchase by John lass feat rceprogrammes Simswho rode bikfromToh rTonyand offered ested ACU after hf e performa conapar win rd i emanufacturer.His trav ai overthe counteratthe rl ai si oerientasa lilotw time. ,a mpany,also uderso rtl apre cess rit ive- h na e erh muese ere ks uzu lsses s. .i o-stro rant to the , x pnee r. li ti re Dep nr n, dcin lnna ga as lou idi e r . .kr h he fr m.

RayPalmer and the Pope Special CLASSIC RACER MACHINES

TEAM BONDING

In the earlydays,Ray Palmerwas involved Smith(achainstoreselling household goods). modestly with basic preparation to standard as atest rider.Likemanyaspiring tuners, he In common withmanyretail businesses then, specification. An earlylessonwas learned had spent hours studying Phil Irving’s‘Tuning Mence Smith closed early on Wednesdays. after aSnettertonretirement following a forSpeed’.After applying this perceived This enabledRay to get to Brands Hatchfor con-rodfracture. knowledge and combining it with some the openpracticethat took placeonthat day At onerace meeting,the works entries exuberant riding on hisBSA 250 C12road almostevery week.The precursor of track from Motom frightened everyone with their bike the engine suffered asnapped con-rod, days,riderssimply turned up and, provided superior speed, until theyall retired. The the sheared end of whichprotruded from theyhad basicridingkit and the modesttrack eventual victor wasriding an Itomprepared the bike’scrankcase.Asanimpecunious fee, theywere allowedfree runofthe circuit by Chisholm Brothers, agricultural engineers trainee, it looked likethe end of motorcycling in aseries of 20-minutesessions. from Maidstone, Kent. John recallsnoticing forawhile –until he wasintroducedtoJohn Soon, Raywas adevelopment rider on the the cylinder of the leading bike wasglowing Pope. John worked forwell-known dealers Pope Special. Alan Dawson wasbusy as a dullred towards the end of the race, which and formerracers SchweisoBrothers, with welder/fabricator on lucrativecivil engineering led to the thought that water-cooling wouldbe premisesatDartford in Kent. John brought work.OnWednesdays,while Alan earned an aid to consistencyand reliability. abroad range of engineering skills he had money,Ray waslapping Brands Hatch, learned withprevious employers. evaluating the latest changes John had made As Raycould not afford pukka labour rates, to the bike. If Ray’stimes improved, then it John agreed to repair the bikefor himasa wasmore or lessgiven that Alanwould also moonlight job. Raywas impressed with the improve his timesinracing conditions.Soon To pleft: Home-brewed brakeconversion skills involved,whichevenextended to gas- both rider and bike were becomingmore wassoftened with twotrailing shoe welding repairs to the aluminium crankcases. effective, and Alan wasstarting racescloser operation Above all, Ray’sambition wastoget to thefront of the grid. involved withracing motorcycles, buthis At sevenstones, Alan Dawson was Above left: Even the handlebar levers were financesfell farshort of his ambitions. acompetitively sized rider.Itwas John lightened! Nevertheless, he wassokeenthat he gave up Pope’s mission to provide him withamore asteady five-dayweekjob to work forMence competitivebike. Development started

78 ClassicRacer UPPING THEPACE

Thenights got busier in John Pope’s shed, work!Asthe policemancould not believe what the surprise gain in speedand took atumble where all the work took place –drawing, he wasseeing,Tonywas let go withacaution. at Clearways at Brands Hatch. machining,fabrication and assembly.Alan Taking advantageofthe improvedthermal Alan Dawson recalls riding the bikeas‘a Dawson,Ray Palmerand BobWhite were stability conferred by water-cooling,the ports novelexperience’.Tuckedaway down the main often there untilthe small hoursofthe were widened,but the timings remainedthe straight at Brands Hatch, the bike wasrelatively morning.There were other jobs forother same as thoseproventowork by Demm. slow, but he could carry plentyofcorner speed people. Shortcircuit ace, and Schweiso work John recallsthe increase in inlet port size and in open practice sessions wouldoften colleague,Syd Mizen would call and getJohn encouraged them to find abiggercarburettor; overtakeManx Nortons on the way round to help preparehis bikes,with machining jobs an Amalofaround one-inch bore. Paddock Hill Bend! At one memorable race suchasfacing newbrakelinings. To reducechurning losses with an oil-bath meeting,the dry50ccrace wasfasterthan Rather than compromise the standard transmission, the gearboxlubrication was thelater,wet 350race –afeat that merited air-cooled Demm cylinder, anew one was changedfor an oil spraywith an external tank. headlines in the weeklymotorcycle press. fabricated from acombination of tube, plate An oil pump from aTiger Cub wasdriven TheDemm’sdownfallwas thegearbox and sheet steel. After the portswere filed into by the final drive sprocket and the supply mainshaft. This brokeataCastle Combe race. the barrel, it wasbronze-welded together and side sprayedoil overthe gears, while the With little hope of securing areplacement, the bore and gasket faces finish-machined. scavenge side pickedupfrom thebottom of it wasthe Simmondsbrothers’father who Water wasdirected tothe area roundthe the gearbox and returned the oil to the tank. came to the rescue. On aBOAC flight to exhaustport andreturnedfrom thecylinder Unfortunately,ifthe bikewas standing still Milan, he managedtosource areplacement. head to the radiator (half an LE Velocette unit) with the engine running,the gears received by thermo-siphon. no lubrication. It wassometimesnecessary to Above:The bikeatRay Palmer’s Maidstone Thenow surplusair-cooledDemmcylinder lift the backwheel andmakeitrevolveifthe premises and Dell’Orto carburettor were fitted to an bike washeld on astartinggrid fortoo long. NSUQuickly moped thatTony Pope used for Thebikealso acquired afairing. Its addition commuting. With the standardQuickly exhaust gave John seriousmisgivings, although and the two-speed gearbox, Tony still managed testing provedotherwise. Still fitted withthe to get stopped forspeeding on hisway to megaphoneexhaust, Alan hadnot allowedfor

ClassicRacer 79 CLASSIC RACER MACHINES

NEXT ITOM

Eventually,with no realistic long-term solution, it used on the Demm appeared to be of minimal wasdecided to abandon the Demmengine and benefit,soitwas not used.Instead, the gears find anew wayforward with an Itom engine. A raninspecial, low-viscositytransmission standard modelwas located.There wasnospark oil. Apositivestop,foot-change mechanism and John, by feigning mechanical ignorance, replaced the scooter-styletwist-grip change. secured the bikeatanextremely reasonable There wasabatterypowered ignitionsystem, price.John wasimpressedwith Itom build usingahigh output coil. quality. Themoped engine used the same robust Next stage wastouse the Demm bottom end as the Itomsports bikes; the only megaphoneasthe start of afull resonant difference wasthe barrel and piston. exhaustsystem. Alarge diameter tube Theengine wasfitted into the Demm frame. waswelded to it, withanadjustableexit. As BobWhite, who alsorodethe bike,was Calculations by John’s brotherCharles were taller than Alan, the opportunitywas takento combined withtrack testing.Charles useda extend the frame by four inches.Theforks are slide rule to establish what appeared to be an ‘upside down’style and the tank had aneat optimum system.The bikewas certainly giving Monza filler,angled at 90 degrees. more powerthan rival Itoms.Therear hubwas John also developed amethod forbig-end modified to take arange of readilyavailable assembly. One of the shed visitors, John sprockets, enabling the overall gearing to be Tompkins, worked forVerdict,acompany optimisedfor eachcircuit. specialisinginmeasuring equipment, and he Therewas no provision forarev-counter. provided asuitable gauge forJohn to grade John fitted one and, after all these years,still the 1/4x3/16in rollers used in the crowded row has the fixture thatenabledhim to alignthe big-end bearing to extremely close tolerances. mountingboss beforeweldingittothe moped This system worked very well and enabled him engine’s outer cover. to create an optimum assembly.The engine Newhand levers were made and thefront wastopped with anew cylinder, using thesame brakewas changedtoatwin-leading shoe Above:Thecylinder head skull and squish system ofwater-cooling.AnItom race kit piston set-up withanew back plate and wider shoes. band could be changed without disturbing incorporated profilesfor the inlet and transfer Thenew arrangementwas rathersavage and the waterjacket passages. Sparks were courtesyofa10mm plug RayPalmerfell offatPaddockHill Bend after it in amachined squish cavity. TheAmal carburettor locked up after whichthe brakewas changedto Below: Early days, location unknown and Demmexhaustwere used again. asofterand more predictable twin-trailing shoe Thepumped gearboxlubricationsystem set-up.

80 ClassicRacer LONG WAYROUND ISLANDOFDREAMS John’sLegacy Alan recallsthat althoughhewas usually a Then there wasthe Isle of ManTT,whichwas front-runner,hecould neverpin down the another rather wildambition.For this, John As Raybecame moreinvolved in flying Dave Simmonds. Most races at that had thinned the clutchplates, to get afurther bikepreparation on hisown account, time were overthe full GrandPrix circuit twointothe pack. Areworked exhaustshould John’s influence wasthere to see. at Brands and the 2.65-milelap length have provided morepower. However, the While underseat exhaustsmay appear rather extendedthe bikes. “One race, on punishment of the Mountain circuit resulted to be arecent vogue, an MV grass the last lap, we were at Stirling’swhen in abroken weld to an exhaustmount, when track bikepreparedin1964 used a Dave missed agear, the engine dropped Alan wasinabout seventh place, among the flattened megaphone exhaustasthe right offthe pipe and he evenwavedme privateers.Theonly consolation waswhenthey rear mudguard.Two yearslater, an Ariel past,Ishould have got the win, but we were spectatingatthe soaking 350 race to Arrow grass trackbike(still in Ray’s were lapping backmarkers on the way watchtheir friendSyd Mizen score afine third possession) had the exhausts as part of round Clearwaystothe flag. Igot baulked on an AJS 7R. the rear subframe. “Everything wasstill and Dave camepast me.Ineverwon at Next stage in developmentwas another being done on ashoestring,”Ray recalls. Brandsonthe Pope Special, but Igot alot cylinder; this one hadarear-facingexhaust “Wefound asource of tubing off-cuts of second places.” port. Astandard Itom piston wasused as up in London and we could go andbuy John recalls the bikeasbeing very easy experiments were made with the combustion shortlengths of aircraft-spec material.” to start, and mainly trouble free, except for chamber.This part of the cylinder head was Rayeventually made acareer out the occasional whiskered plug.Herecalls deliberately ‘dry’,separate from the water of repairingbikes,settingupshopas aSnetterton racewhen Alan pursued circulation; so that various squishprofiles could Maidstone Motoliner,where he has since Dave Simmonds down the main straight in be exchanged quickly,withoutdisturbingany beenjoined by his son,Tommy. pouring rain, theyhad pulled out ahuge other part of the engine. Further,less successful leadoverthe rest of the field–then the experiments involved aflat slide carburettor and Pope’s spark went out. aWal Phillips-style injector. two-speed, chain driven multiplier,thiswould Thebikeenjoyedsome success at a In hindsight, John regrets not sorting out have provided asix-speed transmission. Alan CadwellPark International. Hugh Anderson, the gearbox first. “Wedefinitely had the Dawson eventually sourced afour-speed gear on the works Suzuki, got apoorstart, power, but we lost out on circuits where we cluster, but it wasneverfitted to the bike. As while Alan got ascorcher.Eventually, couldnot get the gearing right.” Whilethe well as the lengthenedframe,further chassis the three-speed‘boxonthe undulating Japanese works bikes were fitted with eight tuning involved fittinggas-filled shocks at the Cadwellcourse wasjust toomuchofa or nine gears, the standard, three wide ratios rear.What the effort lackedfinancially,itmade handicap. Andersoncame past and so did providedbyItom eventually provedthe single up forininnovation. Dave Simmonds, but third place wasstill a biggestdrawback.While there would have Watching arace oneday,Frank Sheene tremendous effort. been considerable work involved in creating a asked John Pope if he wouldmind if Alan had agoonone of his bikes. John knewthat if Alan wastofurther hiscareer,thenhehad to move on. Alan progressed to race Derbi and Bultaco machines forFrank. Alan sums up the period philosophically: “It wasamixture of drama and success–butthat’sracing.”Bob White became the third rider of the Pope Specialand he notched up further successes. By 1964 John had no time forfurther development work. He wasengagedtobe married and he and hisbrother had started up in business.Their father died suddenly and long nights down the shed were incompatible with the newpressures of life. He withdrew from the race scene and eventually movedtoLowestoftin1972to pursue his business interests. As the race effort wound down it is easy to think of what might have been. John had started on acouple of other projects. Notfar from his home wasthe busy industrialarea at the side of theThames, where there wasa huge range of engineering facilities. One of the shed regulars wasapattern maker.Heprovided John with castings that were to be the basis of arotaryvalvesingle.Thelayout wasinspired by the design of Vespa’sGS150 scooter engine. Furtherinthe future wasthe possibility of a50cc twin, aformat that wasthe secret of success forthe Simmonds’Tohatsu. It would have used Cyclemaster pistons, from the 32cc rather than the 25cc version, in ashort stroke motor.The projectwas neverfinished and unfortunately, the parts seem to have vanished, as has the Mk II water-cooledbarrel.

Left: Demm engine, air-cooled cylinder and pumped gearboxlubrication on final drivesprocket.

ClassicRacer 81 CLASSIC RACER MACHINES

RESURRECTION

ThePope Specialwas passed on,but waslooking forward to being reunited with and coil.John Pope approves, as he points the next owner did nothing with it and it thebike, butanignitionfault meant that he out: “These things simply weren’t available languishedinagarage formanyyears. Ray didnot get an outing and achance to relive at the time we were racing.” Palmer knewofits whereabouts and when past glories. John Pope regrets not keeping RayPalmer had hisswansongroad race he wasinaposition to devote the time to thebikebut admires theefforts Rayhas made outing on the bike at the Belgian Classic restore it, he bought it back. Theaim was in bringing it backtolife. TT,where he recorded athird place before to prepare it forone of the well-supported Concessions were made in the restoration, hanging up hisleathers forgood. Thebike Bill IvyMemorial meetings. Alan Dawson with some moderninternals to the engine. A makesoccasional appearances at classic Motoplatunit replaced the total-loss battery events, where Rayishappytolisten to people say: “I rememberseeing that.”

Early days with the air-cooled Demm, no pumped gearbox oil and undamped suspension units. Believed to be taken at Brands Hatch, at BottomBend

Rayonthe brothers threw the parts straightinto the scrap bin. for asystem six feet, six incheslong. It He made the rider acompletely new,fully looked an impossibletasktolose such RayPalmer hasgreat admirationfor John functioning, selector assembly. athing on arace bike, but cutting and Pope’s skillsasanengineer.Herecalls John’s brothers, Charlie andTony,were welding tuckedthe exhaust neatly away, being at close quartersinepisodes other involved in the race effort, althoughto wrappingitaround the engine.Theresult than the achievements withthe Demm/ alesser degree. Rayhad taken to riding wassosuccessful that Rayeven beat a Itom. On one occasion, arider approached moto-cross, on aGreeves Challenger with works square-barrel Greeves. John with the gearselection mechanism an earlier roundbarrel engine. Charlie Pope “Wewere also using aTTcarburettor fromaGreeves Silverstone. Amissed gear had studied two-strokeexhaustsystems and running on methanol,”Ray chuckles. too often had resulted in atripdownthe and came up with the dimensions for an Next outing,the factory machines featured road andhewanted John’s opinion. John expansion chamber.His calculations called asimilarexhaustsystem!

82 ClassicRacer