We get everywhere...

[JamezF]

For somewhere around thirty years I've been a member of a UK bikers email list. For a good while now, there's also been a Facebook group, though some people still just use the mailing list and others now prefer the FB group. The latter has around 240 members, though I'd say that at least 80% post rarely, if ever. Of the ones who do, it turns out at least four are beekeepers. That seems an unusually large proportion. I wonder if it's the risk that's the attraction? Or that the sound of a bee in flight reminds them of wringing the neck of some two-stroke crotch rocket down the finish straight at Cadwell Park?

James

 

[fian]

For somewhere around thirty years I've been a member of a UK bikers email list. For a good while now, there's also been a Facebook group, though some people still just use the mailing list and others now prefer the FB group. The latter has around 240 members, though I'd say that at least 80% post rarely, if ever. Of the ones who do, it turns out at least four are beekeepers. That seems an unusually large proportion. I wonder if it's the risk that's the attraction? Or that the sound of a bee in flight reminds them of wringing the neck of some two-stroke crotch rocket down the finish straight at Cadwell Park?

James

Curious, although I would say that the large proportion is that those who publish on FB are beekeepers and not the beekeeping/cycling relationship. According to your own estimates you are 4 of 20% of 240. That is to say 4 of 48 or a little more than 8% while the other does not reach 1.67%.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

For somewhere around thirty years I've been a member of a UK bikers email list. For a good while now, there's also been a Facebook group, though some people still just use the mailing list and others now prefer the FB group. The latter has around 240 members, though I'd say that at least 80% post rarely, if ever. Of the ones who do, it turns out at least four are beekeepers. That seems an unusually large proportion. I wonder if it's the risk that's the attraction? Or that the sound of a bee in flight reminds them of wringing the neck of some two-stroke crotch rocket down the finish straight at Cadwell Park?

James

I wonder if there's a sales opening for Castrol R flavoured honey?

 

[blackcloud]

Now that you mention it-I have motorcycles......

 

[Kaz]

Now that you mention it-I have motorcycles......

Me too

 

[Erichalfbee]

I had a scooter in my youth. Does that count or am I forever doomed?

 

[Sutty]

I have a bike too, though unridden for over a year.

 

[Garry R]

I had a Raleigh Runabout moped (worth about £2000 now) bugger - wish I had it ............. Progressed to a NSU Quickly Sport (wish I still had it...... Then the dizzy heights of a Francis Barnett Plover - wish I still had it .... Do you see a theme recurring here?

 

[pargyle]

I've consigned enough motorcycles, in the 1960's, to the scrapyard that are now considered to be highly valued 'vintage' machines that, if I still had them, I could have retired comfortably on the sale of them now !

Why did I not just put them in a shed and keep them .... ? To name a few ..BSA B31's, Goldflash, C15's, Scott Squrrel, Ariel Leader, Ariel 350, Square four, Triumph Tiger cub, Francis Barnett, Royal Enfield 350 - enough ex-Post office bantams to fill a shed on their own, people used to give them to me and my friends ... they were usually non-runners and we fiddled with them, messed about with them, some we got running and then normally broke them and off they went for scrap ! Even the ones we sold on would be worth a fortune now...

If only ...

 

[JamezF]

enough ex-Post office bantams to fill a shed

Oddly enough, when we took one of our cars to our local garage last year the owner had a Bantam in full Post Office livery that he had been working on parked outside.

James

 

[pargyle]

Oddly enough, when we took one of our cars to our local garage last year the owner had a Bantam in full Post Office livery that he had been working on parked outside.

James

We used to replace the standard head gasket with a thin paper one with gasket goo to increase the compression, start them on a carburettor full of petrol and then run them on paraffin ! (cheaper than petrol in those days ...). The pistons or conrods usually gave up ... and ... off they went to the scrapyard as there was always another one to be found. We would salvage and re-use the best bits on the next one ...

They went better without the standard silencer which we were convinced was made to slow them down so the telegram boys could not do more than 30mph ! Sounded like a strangled banshee on an open pipe ! I got 55 mph out of one of them going down Melton Hill .. not that I dared look at the speedo at that speed - it was my mate behind on his T100 that told us afterwards !!

As I recall the standard speedo only went up to 55mph anyway ...

 

[JamezF]

Ahhh... Bantam cylinder heads. I have a nagging feeling I've posted this before, but it's one of the earliest photos I have of me...



James

 

[pargyle]

THERE YOU GO... already increasing the compression when you are barely tall enough to get your leg over the saddle ! I stll have a pair of mole grips like that ...

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I've consigned enough motorcycles, in the 1960's, to the scrapyard that are now considered to be highly valued 'vintage' machines that, if I still had them, I could have retired comfortably on the sale of them now !

Why did I not just put them in a shed and keep them .... ? To name a few ..BSA B31's, Goldflash, C15's, Scott Squrrel, Ariel Leader, Ariel 350, Square four, Triumph Tiger cub, Francis Barnett, Royal Enfield 350 - enough ex-Post office bantams to fill a shed on their own, people used to give them to me and my friends ... they were usually non-runners and we fiddled with them, messed about with them, some we got running and then normally broke them and off they went for scrap ! Even the ones we sold on would be worth a fortune now...

If only ...

I started with a Francis Barnett 150 two stroke. It was stolen and wrecked so I graduated to a Panther with a 250 Villiers twin two stroke engine. Next step was a BSA 500 then I built a 500 Triton using a slimline Norton frame. All the bits sourced from Pollards scrap yard at Dinnington (Speed on Garage). The Triton had a 5 gallon tank and with the tank full to the brim, weighed very significantly less than the BSA. Having travelled up and down the M1 from Leicester to Goole frequently with Mrs J on the back and having to empty rain out of my boots on a number of occasions I sold the Triton in favour of a minivan with a non-synchro gearbox. Sliding windows, pull cord door handles, double declutching to change down through the gears, an ineffective heater. Oh happy days.

 

[pargyle]

Pollards was the goto place for motorcyle parts even in my day - George was a legend ... his daughter lived in Mexborough where I come from. I always wanted a Triton ... the nearest I got to it was an ex-race bike that had a T110R full race motor, ally swish tank and a Hailwood frame ...we bought it for £85 ... a fortune in those days .. three of us clubbed together. We found it under a tarp in a back street spray shop when we were trying to borrow a longer hose for the compressor to spray the roof of a morris 10 van. It had not run for some years and was gummed up to the gunnels with CastrolR. The bloke said he would sell it to us if we could get it going - I don't think he thought there was a prayer in hell ... it took us three weekends and a lot of fettling ... I don't know who was more surprised when the thing (two people pushing and me half on the seat and clutch) fired up and took off over the yard like the devil had bit it .... scared me witless. We bought it but ... it was useless for road use, nothing under 3000 revs, it would not run with a silencer, it was never road legal, near impossible to start and we were finally offered £135 by a local cafe racer and we sold it - another one I should have kept.

One of my (no - the only) rich friends had a Dresda Triton he bought new frim Dave Degens ... must have been 1967 I reckon... it had a red tank with the Dresda Triton in white lettering ... It cost him £720 - nearly the same as a new MGB in those days. I drooled over it ...Featherbed frame and pre-unit T110 motor with twin amals and red fairing.

They were the best of the best.

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/...-loveable-mongrel-with-race-winning-pedigree/

 

[Newbeeneil]

[QUOTE="Gilberdyke John, post: 856893, member: 10233"
a minivan with a non-synchro gearbox. Sliding windows, pull cord door handles, double declutching to change down through the gears, an ineffective heater. Oh happy days.
[/QUOTE]
My first car was a mini of similar vintage with all the mod cons you mention.
It also had the annoying habit of flooding! If you drove on a wet road water would be forced through the rust on the top of the near side wheel arch and fill the passenger footwell.
I well remember driving over Butser Hill on the A3 en route to Leigh Park Bowling with my mate bailing out around his feet. The problem of flooding was sorted by drilling holes in the floor pan. Job done!!!!

 

[blackcloud]

I've still got my AJS Model 14 in a shed,Austin A35 in another

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Pollards was the goto place for motorcyle parts even in my day - George was a legend ... his daughter lived in Mexborough where I come from. I always wanted a Triton ... the nearest I got to it was an ex-race bike that had a T110R full race motor, ally swish tank and a Hailwood frame ...we bought it for £85 ... a fortune in those days .. three of us clubbed together. We found it under a tarp in a back street spray shop when we were trying to borrow a longer hose for the compressor to spray the roof of a morris 10 van. It had not run for some years and was gummed up to the gunnels with CastrolR. The bloke said he would sell it to us if we could get it going - I don't think he thought there was a prayer in hell ... it took us three weekends and a lot of fettling ... I don't know who was more surprised when the thing (two people pushing and me half on the seat and clutch) fired up and took off over the yard like the devil had bit it .... scared me witless. We bought it but ... it was useless for road use, nothing under 3000 revs, it would not run with a silencer, it was never road legal, near impossible to start and we were finally offered £135 by a local cafe racer and we sold it - another one I should have kept.

One of my (no - the only) rich friends had a Dresda Triton he bought new frim Dave Degens ... must have been 1967 I reckon... it had a red tank with the Dresda Triton in white lettering ... It cost him £720 - nearly the same as a new MGB in those days. I drooled over it ...Featherbed frame and pre-unit T110 motor with twin amals and red fairing.

They were the best of the best.

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/...-loveable-mongrel-with-race-winning-pedigree/

My Triton had the Triumph engine and Norton gearbox coupled together with Duralumin plates produced courtesy of the local aircraft factory apprentice training section using patterns from a motorcycle magazine of the time.
I had a friend Eddie (Granville Head, now sadly racing on the great track in the sky) from Sprotborough who raced an outfit with a Bonneville engine. He fitted racing cams (do E3134's and 120 degrees of overlap sound right? I do recall watching him set up the valve timing once.but it was back in the 1960s so memory could be inaccurate). It was around that time we went to Croft Autodrome where he raced against an outfit called "impetus" which was built around a Hillman imp engine. That was a groundbreaker in using a hydraulic brake system with a master cylinder mounted on the handlebars directly operated by the brake lever. Within months this idea had spread widely. Owen Greenwood was also blasting round the track with a mini (I think it was called Maximum but again it's long ago now) in which the back wheels had been brought close together to qualify as a three wheeler to enter sidecar races.
Edit I just found this bit of video. The hydraulic brake can be seen through the fairing.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

M

I stll have a pair of mole grips like that

Mole grips - another good Welsh invention

 

[pevanstone]

Ahhh... Bantam cylinder heads. I have a nagging feeling I've posted this before, but it's one of the earliest photos I have of me...

View attachment 35140

James

Only one word lovely.