WorcesterVista.com

1918 Triumph.

National Motorcycle Museum’s 750 Triumph Bonneville

Immaculate AJS Twin at The National Motorcycle Museum.

I first began motorcycling in 1957. With a 250cc Excelsior Talisman Twin, Powered by an Excelsior sometimes unreliable two-stroke twin engine,
It made a very distinctive sound when accelerating. But it had a fundamental fault, it would only run for about 15 minutes, after allowing to cool for half an hour would start and run for another 15 minutes. Good job my workplace was only 12 minutes away.
The problem appeared to be in the magneto but the fault remained undetected.

I quickly exchanged the Excelsior for an old 500cc Triumph Speed Twin, a nice machine, but a bit fast for an inexperienced rider.
I was soon in trouble with the locals for speeding past on blind bends. One day the village policeman caught up with me and told me have a little more consideration for other road users, which of course I did, so I sold the Triumph.

I soon obtained my next bike, a much more sensible 250cc BSA C11; it had a rigid frame, making it a bit difficult to ride at speed.
I was travelling along Pheasant Street in Worcester and at the Junction with George Street, had a collision with a chap on a scooter who got in the way.

My next acquisition was an AJS 500 twin; it had a problem with a slipping, clutch.
We soon put this right by substituting the clutch material.
My friend Roger said why don�t we go on the bike to Silverstone car racing, and we set off, halfway, a noise came in the engine, so we turned to ride slowly back to Worcester.
Next day, after stripping the engine, we found the fault; the big ends had given up and ruined the crankshaft. A new part could not be obtained, so we had to resort to having a specialist firm in Birmingham, use a special process to build up the crank, and machine it back to the original dimensions.
We rebuilt the engine at great expense, and had no further bother. But the AJS had to go.

However I soon bought another bike a 500cc BSA B33 it was a heavy machine a real plodder but it gave me some good service. The exhaust was quite noisy.
One day, George Neal a local person came to my house and said I want a word with you, I can not go to sleep before you come home, your bike makes that much noise
Can you come home earlier?
Late one night when travelling home a Landrover pulled out of a side turning and I was unable to avoid a collision this put me off work for some time.
After recovering I rebuilt and put the machine back on the road, but soon decided to give up motorcycling, in 1963.
BD