Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet This Weekend....

A few of us in the Moto Guzzi club were asked if we'd help out as Marshalls for the Sunbeam's club old bike run, one of the organisers is also a Guzzi member, and the Sunbeam club isn't about the Sunbeam motorcycle, they're more into proper Olde Worlde bikes, so I thought it would be good to have a mooch around....

Got home from Paris Saturday late morning, more late than usual due to all the idiots smashing into each other, SO darn glad I use the commuter, if I was in me tin box I'd still be making me way home, it was THAT bad....

Any road up, after a shower and a cuppa, I pulled out Cochise from the fettling shed, it was already loaded and both fuel tanks were full, so just a case of going trough the starting rigmarole, and away we did go. The venue was the Brenzett aircraft museum, set on the Romney marsh, the weather was cold and windy, and a slight touch of drizzle in the air, but as I pulled onto the site, and unloaded the wet stuff cleared and we were set for a one night camp....





The *Plan* was to call for a takeaway to be delivered, so just a question of waiting for the rest of the lads before working out what we would be eating that night, then the lads in question turned up, two hours later than they said, and with the information that they'd already eaten at a pub. So sod them, we went for a short ride to a nice country pub, a couple of pints and something from the kitchen and then something I've NEVER done on the Indian, I was riding it at NIGHT, in the dark with 6v lights. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lights on Cochise were very good indeed. Got back to the camp for a convivial night, before falling into the canvas hovel and collapsing into a deep sleep....


Woke up and went for a mooch....





Just a hand full of campers....






Well that was the site we were camped at, now to sort out a cuppa....







As the day started proper, the Sun came out and tried it's best to warm us up, then people started to arrive, I saw this wonderful Panther chopper, seems the lad has done 120,000 trouble free miles since building it a good few years ago....







Now to mooch around the actual bikes that were going to do the run.....

Then the call went up, and everyone on the run started off.....




































A couple of bikes from the same maker, they made the ride and sat there cooling down in the Sunshine....







All the mooching and stuff meant that I didn't get a call for marshalling duties, very handy when you consider what was just a couple of miles away, so I fired up Cochise and made my way there, with a bunch of others....





Oh YES indeed the Red Lion at Snargate, a wonderful gem of a proper pub, also all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions show up there, like this thing. Whatever it is, one of them plug in jobbies, pretty sure they'll never catch on. Who wants to ride a bike you can't hear....







And so another fine weekend retreats to the memory banks....

shaun...excellent report as usual and much appreciated too.... what type of planes used field?

An RAF Spitfire squadron used it as an alternative landing field for their main base, a Polish unit flying Mustangs on anti Buzz Bomb patrols was based there, along with an American AAA unit ....

Lannis

What a neat lot of REALLY OLDE bikes, glad to see them out on the road. It's amazing that we've lived long enough to see 115-year-old motorcycles out riding around! Glad Cochise behaved well, even though gentlemen don't generally motor around after dark.

And I don't generally question much of anything I hear from folks about their bikes, but if that Panther guy has done 120,000 miles on that seat, I'll eat it with a fork and spoon .... I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin' .....

Lannis

Dang dude, what a fine outing- yet another one… I’m ALMOST speechless. That Panther sloper chopper is fanbleepintastic what a lovely and unique machine that is.
It was well worth checking in to this thread, just to see that one photo, not to even mention the scads of truly old machines coming out for this run!

Thanks fer posting, my man.
Good bikes, good people, good times.

regarding Panther chopper 112,000 miles? did ale make you type an extree 'zero' or is that true? 112,000???

Lannis thanks was 122 "Bombay " Squadron i believe

raf940 lad, that Panther's done 120,000 miles with the lad who built it, I'm on a Panther Facebook thing, and it's always somewhere in the country, but this was the first time I saw it in the flesh....

So shaun what you are saying is lannis better het busy with his fork and spoon?

He'll need more than his forkin' spoon

...fantastic; no doubt that UK old iron events are impossible to defeat.

-Why some bikes still have the proper "small" black and white rear license plate and most now have the horrendous yellow too big one? If these are the latest why the "man" does not oblige to use it?

Thanks

They probably have some version of "antique" plates, which most of our states have. A vehicle over a certain age qualifies. Here in Tennessee the tag lasts forever, without the need to pay an annual fee. The only catch is that technically it's only good to drive on weekends and to and from shows.

reverb lad, back in the day ALL vehicles had a Black number plate, then I THINK sometime in the 70's the 'Man' changed it to Yellow, most likely so the myopic copper could see the number and hand out a speeding fine...

These days we've got cameras for that, and never see a copper doing anything, they're all about 12yrs old anyway....

Thanks for the pickies
E-bikes will catch on and they make a lot more sense than e-cars do
Down side is they will be the same as modern rice burners or rice burner clones
With no feed back to the rider you are forced to ride on the instruments which means too much time with the eyes on the dash & not on the road .

As for plates, highest contrast is yellow against black which is why in nature most nasties that hurt have yellow/black stripes

Just peg a a couple of playing cards onto the frame so they get hit by the spokes. Worked for us when we were kids with pusbikes. :


Great report!

Ray

We have new tags in Tennessee, blue with white letters. They look sharp but the man is complaining that the traffic cams can't read them at night.

Ray, that leads me to think that there may be a future for an eBike accessory that generates fake exhaust noise. You could pick what sort of exhaust note you want to emulate, maybe a Vincent or even a Jawa single ("pop pop pop"). I can see young tearaways of the future parking their Ducati soundalikes outside the local juice bar of a Saturday morning and comparing speakers. Maybe having a Dunstall Decibel bass and a Commando Peashooter tweeter with a Seeley crossover network to capture that booming note on acceleration with a trace of a twitter on the over-run.


Not sure if I'm the new Nostradamus or just going ga-ga.

I just had a look into the Maeving eBike, don't think I'm ready for it just yet. Seven thousand pounds plus another thousand for a second battery to give a 45mph speed and 80 mile range. For that price I expect some fun, and I can't afford to spend that much just to be seen to be suffering for the sake of the environment.

Kinda surprising that Haley is making electric bikes. Maybe they are planning to introduce open-pipe sound systems to satisfy old customers?
I find the hybrids around here annoying. I can't hear them coming up behind me when I'm on my bicycle. Maybe they need a reverse beeper in forward gears as well?

I understand that the BMW prototype electric car had selectable sound effects.
At the turn of a knob you could have the sound of a V8, or a turbocharged V6 etc etc.
I guess it didnt make it into the production vehicles.
But as Sammy says--- for a budding entrepreneur--- market it as an aftermarket accessory???

You could always get one like this for an e bike

I don't know why that's so funny, but it is. Maybe it's because my dad used to play the trombone.

He usually wouldn't let me play it because when he did, I would make noises a lot like the guy on the back of the bike is doing.

Worlds smalles power band and biggest gearbox
Now what bike has 15 gears
Loved it

Like the looks of the Panther chopper. He did a real nice job on that. Also like the AJS Twin and several other proper machines. Over here we’re lucky to get one of the old ones at a meet. Can’t wait for my first UK trip next June. Going to Birmingham to the museum and a Camel concert.

I wonder if Lucas will bring out an electric bike?