Page 3 Paradise & Gell has been located on Michael Street in Peel since 1974. Here you will find a wide range of furnishings to enhance any living space. Whether you are looking for something contemporary or a more traditional piece, then look no further than Paradise & Gell. Page 4 Contents Page 2 Secretary's Notes Page 3 New Members Page 4 Chairman's Chat Page 5 Yellow Belly Notes - "A Indian Summer" Page 8 Resuscitating the Donkey - Ray Knight Page 12 VMCC Trials Results Page 13 My Last Race - Cyril Taft Page 17 Book Review - Villiers Everybody's Engine Page 22 The Birth of Excelsior Page 25 Sons of Thunder - Pt2 - Allan Jermieson Page 30 Just another Velocette Racer? - Dennis Frost Page 33 Motorcycles - Part 3 - Bob Thomas Page 39 Fixture List Editor: Job Grimshaw Sub Editor: Harley Richards Cover Pic.. (Amulree) That young whipper snapper and club member Bill Snelling, 36, riding in a pre' 65 trial at Salisbury in 1983. Bike is Bob Thomas's 1931 Douglas Light 500, so called because it was pared down to a specific weight to qualify for a cheaper road fund licence. Note the rear tyre- so hard that very little air was needed! Page 1 Secretary’s Notes Hi Everyone, You will find, in this edition, next year’s fixture list incorporating the trials list coloured in red. For the road runs the start venue and time is detailed but not the finish venue, as sometimes changes have to be made. Full details can be found on our web site before the run, or give me a call on 878242 before the run when I can give you the finish details. You will also notice that the Club Nights are not necessarily on the second Thursday of the month, this is to avoid other events. I do ask all members to check your fixture list and keep it safe. A lot of Committee time goes into arranging these dates so as not to clash. The Annual Dinner has been rescheduled to Saturday January 14th, and is to be held at Mount Murray. Tickets priced at £15.00 will be available from Committee members. The ticket price has been heavily subsidised this year in the hope that more of our membership will attend. Our aim is to lift attendance to at least 150 persons this year. The meal will be more “up- market” than hitherto and entertainment has been arranged that should please everyone. More importantly, for the first time in the Section’s history our Guest of Honour will be the Island’s Governor, His Excellency the Lieuten- ant Governor Mr. Adam Wood. In our view it is a great honour to have His Excellency with us to present the awards. Hopefully, this, plus the price, plus the food, plus the entertainment will persuade you all to swamp us with demands for tickets. We need you to support our hard working Chairman and Committee. Your Committee has already started work on the T.T. Rally, the M.G.P. Rally and the VMCC Festival of Jurby. We are also working closely with the Government to bring about more enthusiasts to the Island, particularly for the Manx Grand Prix Festival fortnight. As you may have seen from the Press reports, the numbers attending this years Festival were well up. The VMCC Isle of Man Section can pat itself on the back for playing a major role in that success. Page 2 The Lakeland Rally [Harry’s Run] is being organised once again for depart Friday July 6th return Tuesday July 10th 2012. Every year the Lakeland Section gives us a great welcome. The Hotel that we stay in accommodates us in a very friendly, welcoming manner and the Steam Packet Company offer us a discounted ferry crossing. For friendship, scenery, gentle riding and a good laugh, you will not better this event. Phone Roger Halliwell on 675149 or myself on 878242 for further details. The road runs have been well attended in 2011, but would be even better if more of you supported them. We shall continue to offer free tea and buns etc at the end of each run, for as long as the Section can afford it, and even if you are unable to ride on the run itself you are most welcome to join us at the refreshment stop afterwards. We are also planning for Jan-Feb a film night at the Peel Centenary centre. A full screen, tiered cinema seating show with refreshments, showing archive film from VMCC HQ Library by Castrol, Renold Chain, Shell, Ferodo etc. Featuring Trials, Scrambles and road Racing but, for a change, not from the Isle of Man. Hopefully we can fill the Centre which seats 200 max. A nominal fee will be charged for the evening, and we really need your support to make this a very popular event. Till the next time, happy riding. Tony East Page 3 Chairman’s chat Dear Members, Another year nearly over and we are well into the winter series of club nights at Knock Froy, all our events this year have been as popular as ever, so we must be doing something right. The committee have already started on next years events and have had meetings with various interested parties, more info to follow. The annual dinner and prize giving will be at the Mount Murray hotel and country club on January 14th 2012. I am pleased to tell you that the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, Adam Wood will be attending, this should be a good night, and all for only £15:00 per head. Your club is subsidising the evening to the tune of 50%, this being achieved through careful budgeting and hard work throughout the year. Reserve you ticket now by contacting me, or any committee member. Tony has secured some period motorcycle films for a show in January, details in this mag or from Tony. It only remains for me to wish you all the Compliments of the Season and happy and safe riding for 2012. If you have any new ideas for runs or events I am always pleased to hear from you. Keep between the hedges. Richard A FILM SHOW WITH A DIFFERENCE Friday January 27th 2012 at Peel Centenary Centre Sponsored by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club Isle of Man Section Two and a half hours of professional films from yesteryear, Featuring Trials, Scrambles,Road Racing and 3 wheel racing. On loan from the VMCC HQ Library. Come and support us, £3 entry fee, with light refreshments available. This is something different, be involved from the start. Tickets available from Tony East 878242 or email tonyeast@ manx.net Page 4 Yellow Belly Notes An Indian Summer or m’mmm Springfield Owners club meetings at the MGP give the onlooker a chance to talk to enthusiasts of their chosen marque. The turn out of Indian motorcycles was fantastic and it was no surprise that the owners were friendly, knowledgeable and keen to discuss all things Indian. The chap in Pic 1 had assembled this racer from authentic parts which he had tracked down from all over North America. He was a top man and to call the bike a replica would be to do it an injustice. It was the nearest thing possible to a 1911 T.T. racer. Indian had a clean sweep in the Senior T.T. that year with O.C.Godfrey, C.B. Franklin and A. Moor- house taking the hon- ours. To celebrate that cen- tenary, owners and en- thusiasts had travelled from Europe and the Pic. 1 U.S.A with their fabu- lous bikes. Pic 2. Made in Springfield U.S.A., the Hendee manufacturing Com- pany produced Indian motorcycles until the Pic 1 mid 1950s. Page 5 Pic 2 Pic 3. Page 6 At the VMCC Jurby Classic Festival this fabulous example of a cherished and used four cylinder, was one of the many on display. Pic 3. It was good to see so many of these bikes in what I call “oily rag” condition. Congratulations to all I.O.M. members for a great day out. Pic 4 Many years ago, I produced a series of illustrations for a now defunct motor cycle magazine and I came across this water-colour of an outfit I had seen on the Pioneer Run. Pic 4. It was not done as a technical illustration, but more an attempt to give an impression of the shades of red in the paintwork. Maybe that’s why it was never published! Pat Sproston, Louth, Lincolnshire Footnote: At the “Milestones of the Mountain” parade at this years T.T, a Canadian built replica of a 1911 580cc Indian racer was due to lead the pack away. Sadly it did not make it to the grid. That bike was for sale at the Bonhams auction at Stafford on the 16th October. It was sold for £18,4000. Page 7 Resuscitating the Donkey The prospect of recreating my 1968 Daytona Production Race winner for the Millennium Lap of Honour seemed easy enough at the time...... From an abandoned project, the motor came in three boxes of bits and pieces, many covered in thick oily ‘gunge’ and the aluminium parts were positively growing a grey coat that pitted the alloy; an interesting jigsaw. The ‘donkey’, seemed to have had something of a chequered history having started life in 1972 as an export model to the US of A. The 'chequered bit' was the fact that it spent some time underwater and it had probably seized.