February 2012 North Birmingham News NEWSLETTER

Review of 2011 taking in some of the runs we have enjoyed visiting

Josie’s Jaunt sheltering from the rain Start of the Girder fork run

Start of the Trent Valley Run

A glorious day for the Severn Valley run

Some of the wonderful scenery on the Trent Valley Run

Page 2 North Birmingham News

Velocette’s two-stroke

Until the end of the 1929 season, all the 1929 Motor Cycle Show, two-strokes shared one not only the engine but virtu- common feature – an engine of the ally every other part being overhung crank type. Although Ve- changed, too. The Model GTP loce Ltd were not unique in this re- had arrived. spect there were few others, with the Following more conventional notable exception of Scott, who per- practice, the GTP engine had a sisted with his layout for so long. crankcase that split vertically, It has the advantage of simplicity, containing a bob-weight as- always a major consideration when sembly with an interference-fit working to a tight budget. Further- crankpin and an uncaged roller more, it makes possible ease of as- -bearing big-end. The right- sembly without having to align a set hand end of the crankshaft of flywheels or bob-weights, thereby drove a fully enclosed but ad- effecting further economies. And be- justable oil pump and the left- cause the Velocette design was of hand end carried a large- particularly robust construction, with diameter external flywheel, on a long, plain-bush main bearing, the the back of which was cast a usual disadvantage of placing a heavy pulley to transmit drive to a the Model USS. The piston was simi- load on the area close to the crankpin belt-driven dynamo. The cast- lar, too, being of the deflector type, cast could be disregarded. iron cylinder barrel and detach- in alumini9um alloy. Both main bear- ings were phosphor-bronze bushes, oil- Exactly why Veloce chose the 1930 able cast-iron cylinder head grooved to improve lubrication. season to break away from this de- were virtually identical with sign completely is not known. It those of the predecessor, would have seemed more logical to do so when the line of two-strokes was temporarily discon- tinued during 1927, for when they were reintroduced a year later, the basic en- gine design was much as before. Be that as it may, a to- tally new two-stroke was announced at Page 3 North Birmingham News

and cone type, fully adjustable, The gearbox was of the three-speed and brake plates with integral clamped within a circular cutaway in type, but it differed from the earlier water deflectors. the rear engine plates. two-stroke units by having pushrod The tank, in black and lined At this time, the use of coil ignition on operation of the clutch instead of the with gold, had two fillers, the a was considered a some- now discarded face-cam type. It was one on the left for petrol and what daring innovation, even though it mounted in a similar fashion, sus- the other for oil. Oil was fed by had become acceptable on cars. But as pended by two studs from parallel gravity from the tank to the Veloce explained, even if the battery is tubes behind the rear engine plates. A pump in the crankcase, Veloce flat, running with the machine in bot- hand gear-change used a gate eschewing the use of petroil tom gear will provide sufficient current mounted on the side of the petrol- until they made the Viceroy for it to be started. What they failed to cum-oil-tank, but did not rely on this scooter. Unexpectedly, an igni- mention is that one needed the ability alone for holding the gear selected in tion coil was mounted upside to run at a speed of at least 20mph to be position. A spring-loaded detent down with in a sealed, circular able to start In this fashion, or to live at plunger had been added to the gear compartment formed in the the top of Ben Nevis! Lighting also was box end cover, which engaged with a forward portion of the left- electric, the headlamp being mounted notched quadrant within the gearbox, hand side of the tank. With it on two stalks from lugs on the forks. attached to the selector. Gear selec- was the condenser for the con- A twin-port downswept exhaust system tion was now much more positive. A tact breaker points, the latter was used, with twin fishtail silencers Velocette three-plate clutch, with within a detachable cover over with rounded, moon-shaped ends. This cork inserts, transmitted drive to the the right-hand end of the design of silencer was used throughout rear wheel via the usual outboard fi- crankshaft, on the end of which the entire production run and is exclu- nal-drive sprocket so characteristic of the operating cm was posi- all . tioned. The all-important bat- sive to the GTP model. The frame was unusual, in that it was tery was mounted on the right- no longer of the full loop type. In- hand side of the machine, im- The GTP proved to be a most delightful stead, the crankcase joined the front mediately below the saddle and model to ride, having none of the vibra- downtube and the base of the saddle counter-balanced by a leather – tion associated with the earlier, over- tube via the front and rear engine faced toolbox on the left. The hung-crankshaft models. The engine plates. Webb front forks were fitted, belt-driven dynamo was was slow-running and economical with adjustable side dampers of the fric- tion disc type. A steering damper was also fitted. Both wheels had bearings of the cup Page 4 North Birmingham News

blow lamp to burn the offend- I forgot to take any pictures dur- Autumn Run ing twig away. I’m just glad ing the Autumn Run, but this the twig didn’t insert itself up one at the Picnic Concours Run th 9th October Martyn’s trouser leg instead, coffee stop on 14 August not a bad advert for riding should probably be seen. It ap- After a run of decent weather the boots really. pears to be a rare shot of Kung week leading up to the run was Fu maestro Eric Greenfield dem- wet and cold, but the day dawned There was some concern at onstrating the latest karate hand dry and warmer. This probably The Swan as to what had hap- positions to ‘Grasshopper’ Colin helped us have a decent turnout pened to young Jonathan Lloyd. They are standing by with 16 riders signed on, though Clarke, a new member out for Maurice Trupp’s 1929 Ariel, newly engrandfathered Bill Danks his second run with us but the Norman. soon sloped off citing grandfa- first time on his A10. Perhaps therly duties, promising to do the he had carried on without stop- run on another day. ping…? Well he eventually

turned up, a bit hot and both- From the start we went up towards ered, revealing that as he Quatford Wood, then along past lacked a route sheet holder Stanmore before turning off for he’d tagged onto the back of a The Hobbins, a lane that seem- passing BSA C12, only to real- ingly very few had ventured down ise that perhaps it wasn’t on before. A short while later we the run when they neared Wol- went through Worfield village, verhampton. leaving up a hill that had been made muddy by recent rain, and After coffee we went up to Lit- ending at what we should now call tle Wenlock, around The Wre- Cow Poo Corner. I heard tales of kin, and then off towards several members flicking the back Cressage, Acton Burnell, up end round speedway style, doing Causeway Hill and onto nothing for their blood pressure. Wenlock Edge. Then it was The ‘loose’ surface probably led down through Bourton to to me seeing a number of riders Monkhopton and up Beacon- pull over to wash their boots in a hill for some more splendid puddle, thus maintaining NBS views before dropping down standards of appearance, makes back to Bridgnorth. you feel proud doesn’t it.

The run was 59 miles when I Then it was up through Badger planned it on the Velocette, and Beckbury and down into Iron- and 55 miles when I rode it on bridge Gorge for a coffee stop at the day on the Flash, aren’t The Swan. By the time we got Chronometrics great? After- there Martyn Griffiths had man- wards I think some members aged to insert a substantial twig went down to Hampton Loade between the lower frame tube and station to the Severn Valley gearbox of his twin that Railway Vintage Vehicles defied all efforts to pull it out. I Day. By all accounts the run was gently threatened with a bill if had been enjoyed and I think the gearbox should need removal, I’ll be allowed to put on an- which it ultimately didn’t, though other next Autumn. Truth to Martyn may have been motivated tell I think they just fancy an- by my offer to pop round with a other go at Cow Poo Corner… Page 5 North Birmingham News

Continued from the Autumn run

Continuation from page 3 to the original. The opportunity was also taken to link the oil existence – optional extras. From 1932 having a distinctive exhaust note ac- pump with the throttle slide so onwards customers could obtain the companied by the characteristic that more oil was supplied as high-level exhaust pipes that were such ‘ring’ of the exposed flywheel. Maxi- engine speed increased – an a craze in the early thirties. These cost mum speed was about 60mph, and innovation which the Japanese both roadholding and braking were re-invented three decades later. an extra 5s (25p) per pipe. Also listed well within the standards associated An improved front mudguard, was the patent foot-operated gear- with the Velocette marque. It soon with side valances, gave better change, a round box that bolted on to acquired a reputation as one of the weather protection and a sorbo the top of the gearbox end cover. This better machines of its type. -rubber pillion seat was fitted extra cost £1.15s and, strangely Such was the success of the new as standard, in place of the rear enough. I have never seen a GTP so carrier. There was also an im- model that the only changes in speci- converted. fication made for 1931 were the fit- proved four-stay mounting for the headlamp. The 1933 mod- ting of a rear carrier, the use of a dif- Before a pillion seat and footrests be- els followed similar lines and it ferent type of Amal carburettor with was not until mid-1934 that came part of the machine specification, a butterfly air strangler in place of a more substantial changes in these cost an extra 10s 6d and 4s per push-down air slide, and provision specification took place. pair. And there was also the speedome- made within the front brake drum for By this time, that long- ter, not originally a legal requirement, a speedometer drive. For the 1932 forgotten item that became an for £2.10s with trip, or 5s less if of the season, an aluminium alloy cylinder essential part of a manufac- non-trip type. A combined stop and head was fitted, of similar profile turer’s catalogue had come into rear lamp would add a further 10s 6d. Page 6 North Birmingham News

Continuation from page 5 a new shape rear brake pedal, done. One or two of these models are and silencers fitted with de- still running, having found their way 1934 became the year of major de- tachable baffles to aid clean- back to our shores. sign changes, as the result of which a ing. The dynamo drive belt When first announced, the GTP cost greatly improved model emerged for now had its own separate £38, and by the time it went out of pro- the 1935 season. But one modifica- cover. duction, the cost had risen only to £44 tion that had been applied to the early These modifications proved – not bad over a ten-tear span 1934 models had passed almost un- sufficient to see the GTP (production actually ceased during noticed, for it took the form of an though the 1936 and 1937 sea- 1940) made. Petrol consumption aver- internal modification to the engine. sons, the ’37 modes having the aged from 78 – 100mpg, depending on Piston seizures had been a problem distinction of a flywheel with a how the machine was ridden, and oil during high-speed running, and a Phil chromium-plated rim and a consumption well over 1,000mpg. The Irving said in a recent article, some more shapely petrol tank that overall weight varied from the original considered GTP was an abbreviation now held an extra ¼ gallon of 222lb to 248lb (1939). for Generally Tight Piston! petrol. I write about the GTP with affection, Alan Edwards, a former em- The last of the changes in because it so happen that my very first ployee and a two-stroke expert, was specification occurred for the motorcycle was a 19321 model, which asked to sort out this problem. Apply- 1938 season, when the electri- I bought during 1946 from a fellow ing knowledge no doubt gained from cal system was modified to technical college student. It was in a the six-port Levis two-stroke, he re- contain provision for voltage terrible state, yet it carried me many arranged the transfer passage in the control, dispensing with the thousands of miles, on occasions be- cylinder barrel to re-enter the cylin- half-charge resistance con- tween my home in Surrey and an RAF der wall just below the twin outlets tained within the headlamp. camp in infamous winter of 1946-47. used previously, by means of a rec- Extras had, at last, been de- By taking it apart frequently I taught tangular port. Using a new piston, leted from the catalogue, items myself much that put me in good stead without the cutaway in the back of such as a pillion seat, footrests during later years. I wrote so many the skirt, he arranged for a rectangu- and a speedometer now being letters trying to find parts that even to- lar shaped ‘window’ to be cut about regarded as essential fitments,. an inch up from the bottom of the As Veloce said on the reverse day I can remember the engine and skirt, in its back. of their 1938 catalogue, ‘It frame numbers – GA 1688 and E173 Now, gas transferred from the crank- would be strange indeed, if, respectively. It is too much to expect case passed through the opening in when buying a suit of clothes BV 546 to have survived, although if it the piston’s rear wall to the passage- one would be told that the but- has, I would not be totally stunned. If way in the cylinder and through the tons would be an extra charge.’ any machine was bullet-proof, this was 1939 and World War Two twin ports above. By diverting it. And that just about sums up the GTP brought production of the GTP through the piston the flow of gas range as a whole. from the crankcase, it helped cool the to a halt for all time, although a underside of the piston crown. Other batch of 250 were made imme- minor changes included the use of a diately after the war, all with piano-wire push-pull twistgrip, mud- magneto ignition, and all for guards with better valances, and a export. It was easy to effect a change to a lever-operated ignition magneto conversion by fitting advance control in place of the left- a sprocket to the taper nor- mally used for the contact hand twistgrip used for this purpose. The late 1934 changes that applied to breaker cam, and taking a the 1935 models amounted to the fit- chain drive to a magneto ting of a four-speed gearbox with a mounted on top of the rear en- fully-enclosed positive stop, foot gine plates, enclosed within gearchange, an oil-bath chaincase aluminium alloy covers like with different pitch primary chain, a those used for the Mark KSS lighter flywheel with a detachable magneto drive. It was a tight fit due to the close proximity of centre and belt-drive pulley, the carburetter, but it could be Page 7 North Birmingham News

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A modern version of the sidecar powered by Laverda Page 10 North www.vmcc-nbs.co.uk Birmingham News

PROVISIONAL FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS FOR 2012

CLUB NIGHTS JANUARY AGM

FEBRUARY Quiz Night with Brian Thomas

MARCH Talk on Smethwick based racing driver Ken Wharton

APRIL A biography of John Marston ( Sunbeam)

MAY Visiting speaker or social evening

JUNE Ride a bike and Concours night

JULY Fish and Chip supper

AUGUST Visiting speaker or social evening

SEPTEMBER Visiting speaker or social evening

OCTOBER Talk by Central Wheel Co

NOVEMBER Competing in the Iron Butt Rally by John Young

DECEMBER No meeting

DATE RUN ORGANISER Tel No JANUARY 1st New Years Day Martyn Round 0121-550-1547

MARCH 11th Severn Valley Run Bill Danks 01562-67103

APRIL 22nd Anchor Garage Run John Aston 01543-452695

APRIL 25th Mid Week Run 1 Bill Danks 01562-67103 MAY 20th Girder Fork Run Martyn Round 0121-550-1547

JUNE 10th Josie’s Jaunt Josie Stanley 01543-452695

JUNE 24th Long Mynd Run Colin Lloyd 01384-371835

JUNE 27th Ride a Bike and Concours Paul Harris 01902-842732

JULY 8th Trent Valley Run Brian Empsall 01543-264968

JULY 18th Mid Week Run 2 Ian Harris 01952-460254

AUGUST 5th Breakfast Run Rob Pell 0121-624-7674

SEPTEMBER 2nd Flight of Fantasy Trevor Bull 01905-778917

SEPTEMBER 12th Mid Week Run 3 Roger Greening 01562-730464

SEPTEMBER 16th Clun Run Ian Harris 01952-460254

SEPTEMBER 30th Levis Cup Road Trial Paul Hutton 01902-842732

OCTOBER 7th Autumn Run David Spencer 01746-762957

NOVEMBER 11th Winter wander Paul Harris / Martyn Round 01902-842732 / 0121-550-1547

Contributions and photographs from Bill Danks, David Spencer and Brian Empsall