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KOP HILL CLIMB, 2015

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[Words and contemporary images provided by Colin West - historic research and editing by pd'o]
A 1922 shot of DF Fitzgerald on a Norton 16H with sidecar - look at that crowd!  And the lack of spectator barriers on the rough dirt road...
In the heart of Buckinghamshire Country, deep in the British countryside, the Kop Hill Climb is among the most historic of all road races. The first race was held in 1910 as a test of machinery on the unpaved, winding road up the tallest local hill. The course begins gently, but the mid-section is a 1-in-6 grade (17%), and steepens to 1-in4 at the end (25%), which seemed nearly insurmountable in those early years of single-speeders with slipping belt drives.
Freddie Dixon on one of his own creations - a Works racing Douglas TT Model 500cc flat-twin with tuned OHV engine, here being aviated at the top of the hill
Over the 15 years of its original existence, many famous names competed, on many long-gone marques, once bathed in glory from such competition – Duzmo, Motosacoche, Zenith, Douglas, etc. By the early 1920s, he event became more a speed trial than endurance run, as machinery grew multiple gears and respectable horsepower, and riders like Freddie Dixon, the original Iron Man, flew up the final steep section, catching big air at the top of the hill, setting record times. A variety of events, car and motorcycle, were held on this lonely stretch of road, including local owner’s clubs, University racing teams (Oxford seemed especially keen), and allcomers races.
Plenty of women raced too; this is Mrs. DeLissa on a Ladies' Model Motosacoche in 1913.  Her husband was the British importer for Motosacoche in those early years - read more here on the marque.
As the power of vehicles increased by the 1920s, the skill of the rider/driver became critical, and with no ‘test’ for entrants, the quality of some competitors was sub-par, and accidents drew negative attention from both press and government. By 1925, Kop Hill was in a precarious spot, and an accident that year - a spectator refused to move from an unsafe spot and was struck by a car, breaking his leg – put an end not only to this event, but all racing on public roads in Britain. Kop Hill was thus the last race held on a public road, and sprints/hillclimbs moved onto sympathetic private estates for the next half century.
The immortal Bert LeVack in 1920, here with a Duzmo-JAP single.  LeVack was the development engineer for JAP, and later Motosacoche.
Kop Hill was revived in 2009 as a non-competitive ‘parade’, and this year saw over 400 historic cars and motorcycles tackling the famous hill, and many more displayed in the paddock. Vehicles range in age from the early 1900’s to modern day exotics, and included the amazing crowd-puller Napier-Railton from the Brooklands Museum. This huge 24 litre, two-ton goliath is an awesome sight, and with a top speed of over 165mph, it had no trouble on the hill. Another star was the 1922 Isle of Man TT winning Sunbeam Grand Prix car, joined by a replica of the 1936 6.7L Cummins-Railton Special, the Napier-Railton, and the 1922 7.2L Leyland-Thomas No.1 recreation.
A 1932 Scott Flying Squirrel smokes off the line
Kop Hill is a charity event, and in addition to the stunning machinery, there’s a challenge for the local school kids on a ‘soap box’ circuit, where future motoring stars can cut their teeth under the guidance of motoring legends such as Paddy Hopkirk, a regular supporter of the Kop Hill event. Youngsters (and oldsters) can also ride a traditional steam-powered Merry-Go-Round and a Helter-Skelter. Charity stalls, food, bars and the famous ‘Wall of Death’ stunt riders make this a low-key alternative to Goodwood in September.
Historic land speed racers and Brooklands giants thundering up the hill in parade
Amongst the motorcycles this year was a stunning Brough Model W flat-twin (featured on TheVintagent.com), which was recreated from the 1922 drawings by Dave Clark, after he sourced the original engine – it’s a unique machine. Richard Duffin was seen to abuse the rear tyre of his 1932 Scott before disappearing up the hill in a cloud of smoke, closely followed by a gun-toting Alastair Flanagan on his 1944 Harley WLA in full military livery. Amongst the various two-strokes were two extremes of the Scott design with a 1977 Silk 70ss ridden by George Silk and a 1929 two-speeder Scott Super Squirrel ridden by Bob Woodman. For fans of historic cars and motorcycles being used ‘as the maker intended’, Kop Hill is an event in rare company.
Dave Clark's W.E.Brough flat-twin racer re-creation - read more here.
Early 1920s Scott 2-speeder of the type originally raced at Kop
The event originally included plenty of touring cars, although this Frazer Nash 'Byfleet' was a hot rod
The business department of a 1922 Sunbeam 8-cylinder 3L DOHC motor
The 1933 Napier-Railton 24L aero-engine beast


The Soap Box Derby was a hit with future road racers
Youngest on oldest - a 1900 Singer bolt-on motorized wheel
1910: B.A. Hill on a 2 3/4hp Douglas - looks lonely!
1910: W.A. Cooper on a 3.5hp Bradbury at speed
A Distinguished Gentleman - H.V. Colver in 1913 aboard a rare v-twin 2 3/4hp Royal Enfield with all-chain drive 
In the early years, the rider was weighed as well as the bike.  This is the 1913 weigh-in.
Not a Ladies' Model - the 17 year old daughter of Cyril Pullin, one of the first women to gain a motorcycle license in Britain, aboard a hotrod Zenith-JAP with a 2.5hp OHV racing engine
1914 competitors; Ms Berend and Ms.Davies sheltering from a deluge that year.  I presume Ms Davies was the daughter of 'Ixion', the famous writer for The Motor Cycle, and author of 'Motorcycle Reminiscence' and 'Motorcycle Cavalcade', both of which are fascinating accounts of coping with very early motorcycles, from a talented writer.
1920; a Mr Wallace rides a Duzmo (read more here) with very wide handlebars, as Dr. Archibal Low officiates.  Low was later known for his rocket-powered motorcycle experiments!  See more here

The inimitable Archie Frazer-Nash piloting a 8.7L GN racer in 1923 - her name was 'Kim II'
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BLOCKBUSTER STAFFORD SALE OCT 17/18TH

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One of two Brough Superior SS100 'kits'; this one a 1927 Alpine Grand Sports
I've been as guilty as the next 'good intentions' collector of hauling boxes of rare motorcycle bits from home to home over the decades, intending to restore them when I had time.  In truth, a lot of interesting motorcycles were preserved by pulling them to pieces, and are waiting for skilled hands to put them back together.  One benefit from the serious uptick in the price of rare machines is it makes financial sense, at least, to give a machine a first-class restoration, even if it's missing parts or is an absolute wreck.  Several 'kit' Brough Superiors and a Matchless V-4, plus the odd rough Vincent Series A single and some old GP racers in need of serious love are coming up for sale at the Bonhams Stafford sale Oct 17/18th.
A former kit, now complete: a 1938 Vincent-HRD Series A Rapide, built from parts with a replica frame.  Perhaps the last 'bargain' Series A twin?  A repro frame hardly matters when you're hammering down the road...
I believe this is the biggest Stafford sale on record, with around 350 machines to be sold over two days.  The Saturday auction is reserved exclusively for the Lonati collection of early American machines, which rivals the EJ Cole sale last Spring as a blockbuster of collecting.  Lots of very early Harley-Davidsons, including several 'Teens models, plus a few '20s JDH hotrods, and Indians, several Excelsior-Henderson 4s, Pierces, Reading-Standards, etc, make for a really interesting lineup.
GH Tyrell-Smith's ex-Works 1932 TT Rudge 350, in need of some attention, but with solid gold provenance, as shown aviating over Ballagh bridge in the Isle of Man in 1932
Sunday's sale is has, as mentioned, several amazing 'kits', including two Brough Superior SS100s from the 1920s JAP era, plus complete Broughs, a bunch of Mondial GP and Rumi flat twins, and Bonhams' usual range of bikes from the 'Noughts through the '70s, with a lot of barn find and incomplete machines to tempt tinkerers.  Take a look at the online catalog for the Saturday Lonati and Sunday sales; I'm already trying to decide what I need to bid on!  Too much cool stuff...
American Royalty; a 1910 Pierce 4 of 688cc, beautifully restored
Speed Demon; a 1916 Henderson 4-cylinder, the 'Deusenberg of Motorcycles'.  Take that, George!


Your eyes do not deceive you; this bike is wrong, and gloriously weird.  Part of a grand American tradition of stretching 4-cylinder motorcycles with two extras, just for good measure.  The builder/provenance is unknown on this 1924 Excelsior-Henderson 6, but it took a lot of work to make it! 

1926 Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sports project. Yes please. 

All the parts, plus rare spares, needed to build up a Matchless Silver Hawk V4 


The mucked-about state of the '27 Brough Superior SS100, fitted with a twin-cam SS80 motor at some point in Australia.  All Brough, and now it's all being sorted out...

Yet another Brough kit; a 1931 680 OHV 'Black Alpine' model




WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE BASKET CASES

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The 1926 Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sports basket case which fetched $400k at the Bonhams Stafford sale
Two Brough Superior SS100 basket cases sold for big money at the Bonhams Stafford sale last weekend - one for $400k, the other for $365k.  Both have landed high on my 'World's Most Expensive Motorcycles' list, which had no less than four additions from Stafford (a Series A Rapide with replica frame, and an Indian 402 with sidecar also qualified). The purchase price makes financial sense, on the assumption there's still money left to fabricate a bunch of missing pieces, and make a full restoration from a pile of parts.  But paying $400k for a basket case 1927 Brough Superior SS100 is still wacky; one imagines a future when three scraps of metal with engine/frame/gearbox numbers stamped on them fetching the same as a fully restored machine. This was exactly the situation with vintage Bugattis, when whole machines were parted out to make 3 new ones, since the owner's club would authenticate a machine as 'real' with any one of these 3 parts present. At least Mike Leatherdale, machine registrar of the Brough Superior Club, has no truck with such foolishness.
This 1927 Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sports basket case fetched $365k at Bonhams
These Broughs were from an estate of an Australian gent, who never got around to finishing a few restorations; a situation many of us - including myself - are guilty of.  But good on his family for reaping the benefit of his long-time vision, and unwillingness to ever sell anything.  Vale, Gary.
Half price HRD?  This 1938 HRD-Vincent Series A Rapide with a replica frame took $196k at Bonhams.  More typical for an intact model is $350-420k...
Looking at the numbers; the highest price paid at auction for an SS100 (intact) is $494k, with two more sold nearer the $450k mark.  Presumably, that means there's up to $100k left to finish up the basket cases in question, which seems a reasonable figure.  You can fabricate a whole motorcycle for that price, and while you're at it, you might as well make 10.   It's been done with Broughs many times...(and for a road test of one click here).
Top price paid at auction for an SS100 to date...
In the car world, people drive, race, crash, and rebuild multimillion dollar vehicles without too much fuss; let's hope motorcyclists who own such treasures will keep them alive by riding them now and then.  After all, you can't ride a Rembrandt...but you can ride a Brough.

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ROAD TEST: 1928 WINDHOFF 4-CYLINDER

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A drying barn mimics the bold finning of the Windhoff's 750cc oil-cooled OHC 4-cylinder motor
The creations of Hans Windhoff began in Berlin with radiator production for cars, trucks, and aircraft. In 1924, he entered the burgeoning motorcycle market with water-cooled two-stroke machine of 125cc - an excellent although expensive creation, with the engine built under license from a design by Hugo Ruppe, whose ladepumpe (an extra piston used as a supercharger to compress the fuel/air mix) design was used most successfully by DKW in their GP bikes.
From Tragatsch's 'Illustrated Encyclopedia of Motorcycles' - the bible! And as full of omissions, but it has a ton of great information, and is still the best general reference on old bikes.
Windhoff had much racing success with these smaller two-strokes, although enlarged racers of 493cc and 517cc were less reliable. By 1926, a totally new machine was offered; the 746cc overhead camshaft, oil-cooled 4-cylinder. Only Granville Bradshaw (creator of the ABC) had successfully used an 'oil boiler' engine in a motorcycle, and the new Windhoff was a technical tour de force.
The engine, designed by Ing. Dauben (later to join Mercedes to work on their legendary W194 - 196 racers) had no external 'plumbing', using only internal oilways to keep everything cool, with the engine finning acting as a giant radiator, and recirculating oil the cooling agent.
A period drawing of a Windhoff engine and gearbox, showing the valve cover removed, and the OHC mechanism clear.  The low-overlap camshaft lobes are also visible - not race tuned! 
With all major castings in aluminum (barring the iron cylinder head), the massive engine is impressive and aesthetically pleasing, with an advanced single camshaft up top, very much like the best automobile practice of the day. No other 4-cylinder production motorcycle of the period had an overhead camshaft. The 63x60mm short-stroke engine produced 22hp at 4,000rpm, which gave an 80mph+ top speed. This engine performance is on par for other 750cc V- or flat-twin machines, and about the same as American 1000cc or 1200cc F-head 4s.  An engine came up for sale in Las Vegas back in 2010, which I wrote about here.

The Windhoff chassis is as radical as its motor, with no ‘frame’ to speak of, and no need for one, as the massive engine casting is far stronger than bent or lugged tubing.  It predates the Vincent in this concept by nearly 20 years, but the Windhoff is a true 'frameless' machine, as the forks and rear subframe (4 parallel tubes) bolt directly to the engine/gearbox unit. The trailing-link forks use double leaf springs for damping, and there’s no rear suspension; the rear frame tubes emerge straight out of the gearbox casting, and hold the final drive housing for the shaft drive, and rear hub and brake. Despite its massive appearance, the total weight of the machine is only 440lbs. The price when new was 1,750DM, a bit more than the 1,600DM of a BMW R63. A bit expensive, a bit unconventional, and a bit slow on sales, nonetheless the machine ranks as a landmark of vision and development, and is understandably very sought after these days.

While technically and aesthetically the Windhoff is extremely advanced, the overall engine design suffers from a lack of development which would have made it the smooth, quiet, and powerful sports tourer it deserved to be. Sadly, it suffered the fate of a launch at the worst possible moment, when world economic calamity sent incomes spiraling downward, and global motorcycle sales into the ditch. Like most other manufacturers of the late 1920s, Windhoff gave up the ghost, but their legacy is yet fantastic and speaks to a a visionary designer with an excellent idea. On price alone, the Windhoff was considered a luxury sport-touring machine, a category of motorcycling which no longer exists, as anachronistic as wearing a necktie in a Grand Prix race.
The camshaft drive chain enclosure is up front, and a timed breather alongside.  The single, rather anemic carb restricts performance, but it goes well for the period. The bolted-on gearbox is clearly seen, as is the depth of those footboards! 
But therein lies its attraction today; a cutting-edge machine with its gorgeous styling born equally of an engineer’s and designer’s eye. The stack of horizontal engine finning is the centerpiece of the motorcycle, and the paired steel bars stretching to the rear hub continue the theme. There’s very little tinware for shape, the machine is almost all mechanical business, barring a shapely fuel tank capping the motor, and the rearward sweep of the handlebars. All else is practical, even ordinary; the fenders are simple C-section with no valence, and the ancillary components are bought-in from the usual suppliers like Bosch.
Smooth handling from the leaf-sprung front forks of short-trailing-link design
The magnificence of the engine, and the strong lines of the rear frame tubes, are key to the Windhoff’s visual success; it’s a stunning motorcycle, among the finest designs of the 1920s. Four cylinders of 187cc make for an easy kickover, and a slightly ‘gear-y’ kick brings the bike to a surprisingly sporty exhaust note. The 2-into-1 exhaust has little baffling, so the power is delivered freely, and the engine revs free too. The 3-speed hand shifter lies about at knee level, and a lack of a shift gate isn’t a problem as the internal indexing of the gears is apparent by feel. The clutch works easily on the left hand inverse lever, and getting off in gear is a simple matter of balancing the revs on the right handlebar throttle lever with a gentle clutch release. There’s plenty of urge from the motor, which sends the rider singing along quickly, accompanied by an audible engine gear symphony, not all of which is sweet music.
Hans Windhoff
The engine feels rougher than might be imagined, and it’s clear – confirmed by the experts – that the Windhoff could use more development to become the machine it wants to be. Canting the machine through bends is easy, and the handling is solid, inspiring confidence…too much confidence it seems, as the footboards are enormous hollow castings meant to hold the tool roll, and aren’t sprung or flexible. I was thoroughly enjoying the bends of the Schwabian countryside, and approaching a tighter corner I looked forward to feeling the chassis challenged a bit. But the bike would have none of it, grinding away valuable footboard aluminum before I rapidly modified my riding position to ‘hang off’ and keep the bike more vertical, taking it a little easier on the remaining bends. I know what I’d change, if the bike were mine!
I've been acquainted with the road test bike for many years; this was a first encounter in 2010
The Windhoff is elegant and sporty to ride, with a glorious aircraft-like bark from the exhaust, and a bit of gear noise between your legs.  There’s no forgetting you’re aboard a real machine with lots of moving parts inside, and riding the bike is a machinist’s erotic joy.  It’s my understanding that long-term riding ownership means keeping after the motor, but nobody’s putting a big mileage on such a rare beast today.  In fact, it’s entirely possible the machine I test rode is the only Windhoff actually in use in the world, the others being fixed into mausoleums and static collections.  More’s the pity, as everyone who sees the Windhoff is curious, and enthusiastic about its amazing appearance.  Would that more people could sample its riding pleasures.
What Windhoff tried after the 750cc 4; a big sidevalve flat twin of more conventional construction in 1929.  In the end, they made a few more small two-strokes with Villiers-licensed motors, then vanished. 
A Windhoff at the Bonhams Quail Lodge sale in 2013
Rear end detail; a massive aluminum casting keep the rear frame tubes in line.
...and the final drive casting, with a lug for a sidecar fitment.  Never seen a chair with a Windhoff, though.
The inside of the 4-cylinder 750cc Windhoff motor; a 3-main bearing crankshaft, with a wet sump and oil pump on the left. 
The cylincer head top and bottom, showing the passages through which oil circulates, and the flat combustion chamber tops, as per automotive practice. The two large holes at bottom are the exhaust passages; the inlet manifold bolted on.  This and the photo above are from the book 'Pluricilindriche' by Ing. Stefano Milani.  A remarkable, and unobtainable book.
At the end of their tether, the Villers-licensed engine produced for other German manufacturers.  From 'Motorräder Aus Berlin', by Karl Reese.

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1915 'RACE FOR LIFE' - THE FIRST WALL OF DEATH?

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A 1915 program for the Panama Pacific International Exposition, showing the Tower of Jewels, set with 102,000 'novagems' of Czech crystal, lit by 50 arc lamps.  Behind is the Rainbow Scintillator, the first use of searchlights for entertainment, as a cadre of Marines swung multi-colored lights in coordinated patterns at night.  Spectacle!
100 years ago, San Francisco was a new city. As with most cities, it was built atop older cities, and the terrific shaking and subsequent fire of 1906 was, while dramatic, merely the latest in a string of disastrous fires destroying the city, ever since the the former Spanish Mission outpost became a burgeoning port servicing the Gold Rush of 1849 (which is when my own family arrived).  The city was built not only over the ashes of its former self, but also the very ships which delivered thousands to the maw of Gold Fever.  Entire crews jumped ship to try their luck at mining, and the harbor grew a forest of masts from abandoned ships, an ironic contrast to the recently deforested hills and islands around the Bay.  Today, every new hi-rise downtown schedules a few months for archeologists to clear out the Clipper ship carcasses used as landfill for what was to become our downtown.
The PPIE almost finished - note no Golden Gate Bridge - that didn't go up for another 20 years. The bottom left of the photo shows The Zone, and clearly shows the scale of the open-topped Race for Life motordrome - huge!  The Tower of Jewels is at the top left...
The '06 Quake was different from previous disasters, as the city had an opportunity to establish building codes for earthquake safety, and reinvent itself as it saw fit.  My great-grandfather was a developer on the Van Ness corridor, the new artery from the Bay to City Hall, and built a few of the impressive reinforced-concrete auto dealerships which still stand, although few still sell cars.  Our family legacy included the first Ford dealership on the west coast, a lovely 4-storey concrete building with floor-to-ceiling industrial glazing, which I longed to inhabit in my post-college days.  But that's another tale.
The PPIE from the other direction, showing the color-coordinated exteriors of the buildings, a pink faux travertine made of a new plaster/marble mix.  Bernard Maybecks' Palace of Fine Arts is at right, and the only building still standing from the PPIE.
2015 is the Centennial year for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), and lots of attention has been focused on the Expo in local museums and books.  The enormous Exposition was built over the Harbor View neighborhood (now called the Marina), which was a squatter's tent camp on swampy marshland, just past the grazing pastures of Cow Hollow.  City fathers - notably our incredibly corrupt mayor 'Sunny Jim' Rolph - devised the genius plan to fortify the soil of Harbor View, and build an Expo on the site to celebrate the 1913 opening of the Panama Canal. Of course the Expo really celebrated San Francisco itself, and developers subsequently got rich on the land beneath the Expo, after it was torn down in 1916.  Hence the Marina district today, which swells with a tech-yuppie influx and is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in town, regardless of its vulnerability to future earthquakes, due to its landfill foundation.
The start of it all - a postcard showing Joe Hall circulating on a 1913 Excelsior 7C-based board tracker, at the 90degree mark in the Race for Life at the 1915 PPIE
While researching an article for The Automobile magazine on two auto races at the PPIE ('Race Around the Rainbow Scintillator', which I'll publish on TheVintagent.com in December), I came across Laura Ackley's excellent book 'Jewel City', which contains a postcard of Joe Hill circulating a Wall of Death on an Excelsior racer  - which was news to me!  Here was photographic evidence of a a very early Wall right in my home town, in the middle of the PPIE.  Time to hit the library...
The exterior of the Race for Life concession in the middle of The Zone at the PPIE - quite a thrill for $0.10.  Note the plaster racers at the top of the facade, and the mural showing the cars at vertical.  One of the racers stands outside.  (Courtesy SF History Center, SF Public Library)
Outside the central fantasy village of the PPIE - the 'Jewel City' of travertine and sparkling lights - was a funfair called The Zone, with dozens of concessions, rides, and attractions.  Within The Zone was the Race for Life, which according to fairground plans was a 40' diameter wooden 'two stage' bowl track, over which both cars and motorcycles sped.  Photographs show the wooden walls banking in 4 stages, the two widest sections at 78degrees an a fully vertical 90degrees, just below the spectator railing. While the Excelsior postcard is colorized and shows little detail, a never-published photo shows an Indian racer near the top of the Wall...the photo had been mis-labeled as a 'bicycle going at 90 degrees', and hadn't yet been digitized in their archives.  No wonder the image hadn't been discovered by the 'Net hounds; it pays to do a little footwork, and there are enormous photo archives at libraries and universities worldwide, waiting to be scanned.
A lovely c.1914 Indian board track racer with all chain drive, a 3-speed gearbox, and no starter pedals, here with its rider, and what looks like a 1913 Stutz 'white squadron' racer on a turntable outside the Race for Life concession. 
San Francisco Public Library archives also revealed the facade of the Race for Life, and a rough scale drawing of the layout.  Two postcards gave examples of the motorcycles used - an Excelsior ridden by Joe Hall, and an Indian, both ca.1914 machines, and both full-on board track racers.  The cars used appear to be c.1913/14 Stutz racers, and advertisements painted around the entry claimed the vehicles hit '100mph! Time it!'...which was of course nearly impossible with a stopwatch. There's no doubt the vehicles used in the Race for Life were capable of such speeds, being 'last year's racers', even though ~30mph is enough to keep a vehicle perpendicular.  Still, the thrill a genuine racing car or motorcycle speeding just beneath your feet feels like 'the ton' even today!  And counts for the enduring appeal of Walls worldwide.
From the grand plan of the PPIE, giving the scale of the Race for Life within The Zone at the PPIE.  The track looks to be 40' diameter, with a canvas roof in case of rain.  (Courtesy SF History Center, SF Public Library)
The Wall of Death phenomenon is an outgrowth of board tracks used by bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, although it was cyclists who started canting their tracks to increasingly steep angles in the 1890s, as tracks went indoors to smaller venues, and banking was required.  Truly vertical bicycle tracks appeared by around 1900 - these were no longer for competition, and were strictly fairground attractions.  Fairground motordromes with cars and motorcycles appeared around 1910, and their tracks grew increasingly steep, with vehicles circulating at 60-70degree banking as a kind of miniature board track race, with coordinated tricks and choreographed 'races'.  1915 is generally cited as the origin date for a truly vertical, motorized Wall of Death, as such an attraction opened on Coney Island that year.
Likely the very same Indian racer as seen above, in circulation.  A lovely shot from 1915...
But not much happens on Coney Island in February, in fact the boardwalk and funfair are seasonal, opening in Spring, while over in California we enjoy mild weather and year-round attractions...like the Race for Life, which opened on February 20th.  It seems likely the Race for Life predates the Coney Island attraction, and the documentation I've found from PPIE archives is more extensive than any other Wall of Death evidence from the era.  The Race for Life could well predate the Wall of Death, and be the true origin of today's legacy of excellent, traveling Walls, which still thrill spectators at shows around the world.
Inside the Palace of Machinery; a display of Excelsior bicycles and motorcycles...which must have had something to do with the Excelsior later seen on the Race of Life!
It wasn't just what was inside the fair, but who came.  This is Effie Hotchkiss and her mother Avis, who rode their 3-speed Harley-Davidson Model 11-F across the USA to see the PPIE, the first women to cross the country on a motorcycle.
Another of the motorcycles at the PPIE - a Dayton outfit.Subscribe here to TheVintagent.com in your email!

EL MIRAGE, VIA WET PLATE

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Shinya Kimura with the 'Spike', his much-modified Harley-Davidson '47 EL Knucklhead
The romance of the place is captured in the name, redolent of the invisible goals of speed.  El Mirage is nominally a town in the SoCal desert, nearest Palmdale, which is itself nearly nowhere, even though inhabited by many thousands.  Its raison d'etre is a dry lake bed, now bounded by the El Mirage Off-Highway-Vehicle Recreation Area, under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management.
Willy with a breed unique to the SCTA - the Belly Tank Lakester.  Built from a discarded aircraft fuel tank, this is a genre unique to dry lakes racing in SoCal.  This one used a Ford flathead V8 motor, and sounded amazing.
The lake bed is very nearly flat, with a cracked mud surface occasionally pockmarked by potholes, but with nothing of the inches-tall cracqueleure of Bonneville, nor its corrosive salt crust.  El Mirage lacks Bonneville's pristinely bizarre beauty, and its relative cleanliness - as vehicles pound the miles of dried dirt to reach the SCTA timing camp, clouds of sepia dust trail them, as it does the high speed vehicles racing across its surface.   The effect is dramatic and beautiful, but layers everything and everyone nearby with an ultrafine grit.  While some vehicles used air cleaners while racing, others take their chances gulping in the powder, and never need worry about bedding in their piston rings.
Alp Sungurtekin, who exceeded 175mph on his home-built pre-unit Triumph, featured previously on TheVintagent.
November 13th, 2015, became an infamous day for more nefarious reasons, but it was my first visit to the place, and I reveled in its spare beauty, and the fantastic characters who temporarily populate its puzzle-cracked earth. The goal was to explore, and take a few wet plate photos, which was accomplished.  As the racing is over a weekend, not a week as in Bonneville, there's no 'village' feeling, and the layout of disparate camps is chaotic, making introductions difficult.  Everyone is busy racing, and while very friendly, its hardly a relaxed place to take photos.  Thanks to the several people who took time for my work, I hope you enjoy the results. See more at MotoTintype.com
The full view of Willy's Lakester - a vision of a past Future, painted an unusual shade of mauve, supposedly a works Bugatti racing color
George Callaway, the 'Mayor of El Mirage', at his fantastic junkyard beside the dry lake.
Coming soon to Intersection magazine; a few shots of the Vintagent at work at El Mirage, thanks to photographer Gilles, captured here at George's junkyard, beside a familiar Renault
Alp's crew chief, Jalika, who betrays her former career as a fashion model
Shinya Kimura's Spike entier
Woody and his Aermacchi racer, emerging from chemical shadows... the Wet Plate process is unpredictable!

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THE LAST GREAT BROUGH HOARD?

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Rarest of the bunch; the 3-wheel Austin-engine Brough Superior 'BS4', built for sidecar work.  This one is ex-Hubert Chantry, and subject of a famous period press test.  They can be ridden solo, but feel odd!  Note the driveshaft between the rear wheels.  Click here for my Road Test of this model.
I've heard rumors of this collection for years; a fine collection of Brough Superiors, including SS100s and a 1-of-8 Brough/Austin 3-wheeler, sitting outdoors in a south England yard, and slowly rotting away.  The owner refused to consider many offers for individual machines or the whole collection, preferring to watch them slowly return to earth than watch grass grow in their stead.
Looking a bit rough; a 1938 AMX-engined SS100, looking very complete, and completely rusty!
The rumors were recently confirmed by Ben Walker, who had just secured the rights to sell the collection of the late Frank Vague of Cornwall.  When he sent a 'for your eyes' photo of the machines in Vague's yard, I knew this was the collection so long spoken of.   So true, and so very sad!  But, as given the value of all Broughs, there's no doubt every one of them will be brought back to as-new condition in short order, keeping the likes of Dave Clark and other Brough restorers busy for many years to come!
The Brough collection as unearthed after 50 years collecting dirt and rust...
Ben Walker says, “This is one of the greatest motorcycle discoveries of recent times. A lot of mystery surrounds these motorcycles, as very few people knew that they still existed, many believing them to be an urban myth. There was a theory that they still existed somewhere in the West Country, but few knew where. Stored in barns for more than 50 years, the motorcycles were discovered whole, in parts, and some were partially submerged under decades of dust, old machinery parts and household clutter. This is the last known collection of unrestored Brough Superiors; there will not be another opportunity like this. Only eight four-cylinder machines were built, and the example in this collection is the final one to be re-discovered.”
1150s have shot up in value since I rode one successfully on the 2014 Motorcycle Cannonball (with partner Revival Cycles maintaining the machine).  Still, there's probably wiggle room in the price for this 1938 1150 with plunger frame...expect to re-tube the frame and forks for any of these machines, and perhaps make new aluminum castings for certain parts. Obviously all new tinware!
Perhaps the most interesting machine in Vague's collection is the 3-wheel Brough Superior with a modified Austin 7 engine (the 'BS4'), one of 8 produced, and the last one to be positively identified [see my Road Test of a BS4 here!].  George Brough felt the 4-cylinder engine was the ultimate ideal for a motorcycle, and of course Honda proved him right 40 years after he began making one-offs with four pots.  The Austin-Brough was the only 4-cylinder BS produced in series, limited though it was; the others were the in-house sidevalve V-4 and 'Dream' flat fours, and a Motosacoche inline 4 scrapped when Bert LeVack died.  All of these machines still exist.  This newly discovered BS4 was the property of Hubert Chantrey, who rode it solo in the London-Edinburgh Trial, and was famous for riding his BS4 in reverse around Piccadilly Circus!
Bonhams will sell the collection next April 24th, at their Stafford Spring auction.  There are links to each machine below the bikes, if you're looking for price estimates...but I wouldn't put much weight on those!  Not a 'Brough guy'?  Well, there are two HRD-Vincent Series A twins at the same sale, and a Coventry-Eagle Flying 8 with KTOR motor...it's going to be one hell of a sale.
One of 3 SS80s on offer; this one a 1939 SS80 with plunger frame option, and Brampton girder forks. 

3 Incomplete Brough Superior 'kits' will keep the less well-heeled collectors happy; long term project anyone?  I've owned a few myself...there's no sin in a basket Brough.  This is a 1926 SS100 with the KTOR motor gone missing.
A 1936 SS80 project, with the AMC MX80 motor.  The Brampton girder forks, while the lowest Brough 'spec', actually give the best braking power of them all!
Last of the baskets; a 1937 SS80, missing its frame.  What man has made...
A 1938 Matchless-engined SS80 with Brough 'petrol tube' sidecar

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MOTORCYCLE BOOK OF THE YEAR: 2015

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The slipcover of 'The Book About My Bike', published by Niels Schoen
A host of terrific motorcycle books cross my desk every year; in this I'm very lucky, as books are one of life's great pleasures.  Books are also the foundation of TheVintagent, along with decades' experience with vintage machinery, and not web-search content - long may it remain so.  I write books too, and contributed this year to 'The Ride: 2nd Gear'from Gestalten, who published my magnum opus on choppers last year, 'The Chopper; the Real Story'.  And while I reviewed 'The Ride: 2nd Gear' on CycleWorld.com, there's a solo effort you won't find in any bookstore which absolutely blew my mind this year.
Niels' uncle Ko, Nikolaas Bernardus Konijn, who restored Nortons in his small shed
It's called 'The Book About My Bike, C11M14566', and I know - the un-sexiest motorbook title ever. I was merely geek-interested when Niels Schoen offered to send his self-published book about Uncle Ko's Garden Gate Manx, which he inherited and restored.  But Niels is a freelance CAD-engineer, and while taking his uncle's Manx to bits, he thought it 'a good training exercise'to render every single part of the Manx in the SolidWorks program, so the bike could be dis/reassembled virtually while the same was happening in his living room.  Niels lives in a 4-storey walkup in Rotterdam, and has no workshop, so the disassembly, scanning, cleaning, and reassembly was done literally in-house.
The actual Norton Manx as it appears today in Niels' living room
Scanning and rendering over 800 parts took 9 months, and was completed in September 2010. It took a further few years to figure out 'how to present and share all the oddities, the beauty and the marvels I encountered in the process.' He took inspiration from Mick Walker's 'Manx Norton' book of 1990, as well as an original 1948 Norton advertisement featuring the Garden Gate Manx.  The resulting layout is impeccable, as is the information; every exploded view of a parts assembly is accompanied by the relevant part numbers, and labeled according to Norton's original nomenclature.  The text is a mix of family history, Norton lore, and straight-ahead explanation of what's shown.  The book is, in sum, the best parts list/assembly manual ever devised for a motorcycle.  It's the manual every confused motorcyclist wishes for; an absolutely clear view of how it all fits together, so brilliantly self-explanatory it makes a Haynes manual look utterly primitive.
A SolidWorks rendering of the same Norton as it was being assembled virtually; some of the illustrations are very difficult to tell from photographs
I understand it's far too much work to create such a manual for every motorcycle, but I'm jealous there isn't such a book for all my motorcycles.  And for, say, a Velocette Mk8 KTT or Brough Superior SS100 for some fascinating entertainment.  Niels Schoen isn't the only person to have rendered every single part of a motorcycle; Uwe Ehinger has done the same for most Harley-Davidsons ever built, and anyone making replicas (or 'continuations') today is no doubt using SolidWorks to render their parts as well.  After building an actual motorcycle, I can't imagine a better use for all that information, than to share it with the world as Schoen has. It's a first-class integration of the very modern with the vintage, the new in service of the old.  I laud his accomplishment; may it serve as an example for others.
Live or Memorex?  Nope, digital.  Gorgeous!
The only way to order 'The Book About My Bike' is directly from Niels Schoen.  He has a FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/GGMbook) and to order, send an email to Niels direct (newstep3d@gmail.com) with your mailing address and preferred payment method (IBAN or PayPal), and he'll sort you out.
The long-stroke Manx engine, assembled digitally
How many washers, and where do they go?  Pretty clear here...
A page detailing the Enots quick-release oil cap, with relevant part numbers and explanation of assembly and function.

AND THEN CAME RUDGE...

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Carey 'Loftin' the front wheel of his 1947 Velocette MSS in the hills of SoCal.
A friend sent this to me today; an episode of the classic 1969 motorcycle TV show 'Then Came Bronson', in which James Bronson (Michael Parks) meets Carey Loftin in Sturgis.  Loftin has a 1937 Rudge Ulster hidden away in a friend's garage, and Bronson's presence reveals his secret, causing a bit of strife with his wife.  The episode has great riding scenes towards the end, with Loftin and Parks off-roading their respective machines (Rudge Ulster and Harley-Davidson Sportster) in the green grass of the Black Hills.  Bronson learns a bit about the viability of vintage motorcycles in the process - undoubtedly you'll think the Ulster a far more suitable off-road machine than a '69 Sportster!

Carey Loftin is an AMA Hall of Fame inductee, and a legendary stuntman who taught himself trick riding skills as a very young man.  At 19 he was hired in Skip Fordyce's traveling stunt-riding show after performing a back flip from the saddle, landing behind the bike and controlling it with the seat, before hopping back on and coming to a halt.  Loftin earned his living via trick riding and mechanicking during the Depression, and after WW2 started work in Hollywood as a stuntman and character actor, with hundreds of film and TV credits over a 50-year career, riding motorcycles and driving cars, including hairy scenes in 'Bullitt', 'The French Connection', and 'Vanishing Point.' Loftin died in 1997 at the ripe age of 83 - who says stunt riding leads to an early grave?
Carey Loftin and Tony Curtis aboard his Triumph Thunderbird and Steib sidecar
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WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...

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(Originally published in CycleWorld.com)
My favorite machine of the week, a 5/8ths scale Indian board track racer, which runs!  
The Las Vegas motorcycle auctions, held early January for the past 25 years, are the 800lb gorilla of the collector bike market, setting benchmark prices as the whole world is watching.  This year over 1000 machines sat parked two hotels - Ballys for trad English Bonhams auctions, and the South Point Casino for the all-American Mecum cattle drive, with a $30 cab ride separating the two.  Bring a bike or rent a car; it’s cheaper than cabbing from the Strip to the outerlands and back, because whether you stay in town or at the South Point, you’ll want to escape Las Vegas’ twilight interior netherworld at some point over 5 days.  This year I discovered a hip sushi joint in old-town Fremont, with a Portlandish interior and actual fresh air entering through operable windows – exotic stuff on the Strip.
Malcolm Barber of Bonhams auctions an amazing original-paint 1930 Harley-Davidson with twin headlamps
Full disclosure; I’m so in bed with both these auction houses it’s a scandal, with Bonhams the principal underwriter of my blog TheVintagent.com, and Mecum hiring me to provide ‘color’ during their auction and sportscast during their NBCSN broadcast. 
More than one 1965 Triumph T120 Bonneville came under the hammer at Mecum, and this one sold for $14k. 
There seems to be no middle ground in the moto-auction world today; the line in the sand is $100k, which sets the truly collectible apart from the ordinary riffraff.  The majority of bikes sell for under $30k (about the price of a new Harley dresser), while the fat-wallet boys push everything else into six figures, with almost nothing in between.  Collecting bikes has become a two-tier system…which looks a whole lot like our current economy.  Similarly, a small number of buyers dominated the Vegas proceedings, snagging dozens of bikes over the week; some for resale, most to bolster already large collections.  What’s the ideal size of a motorcycle collection?  One more.
Here are 10 examples from this years’ auctions, which say a lot about the market, and what buyers think is hot or not.
One of a string of really nice '50s/60s British machines which sold for peanuts at Bonhams, all in original or 'rider' condition.  This 1959 AJS Model 31 one looked to have a Von Dutch tank, but was a bargain in any case
1. 1959 AJS Model 31: Bonhams had two dozen no-reserve ‘estate’ British singles and twins lined up at Ballys, none of which I would kick out of my garage. This one piqued my interest; the paint job and pinstriping looked suspiciously Von Dutch.  Close examination revealed a ‘Bates…60’ signature, but the grumpy pinstriper liked pseudonyms. A gaggle of Von Dutch collectors examined the tank, we all shrugged our shoulders and said ‘probably’, but it’s headed to England now, selling for $4830.  Clearly the Von Dutch craze has cooled.   More good news: 1950/60s/70s Britbikes are totally affordable, with original bikes fetching $4-8k at Bonhams, and restored versions hitting twice that at Mecum.  Bonnevilles, Commandos, and other twin-cylinder weekend riders have very stable prices.
Yes, it looks like a red Rapide, but No! It's really a white Shadow in red!  Mind games are becoming very expensive in the old bike world...this bike had been modified for road use, with Mikuni carbs and Lightning brakes, etc.  Someone enjoyed it, surely, but the price today...
2. 1950 Vincent ‘White’ Shadow: Postwar Vincent twins have settled into a pattern; a Rapide model in good condition hovers around $45k, and its near-identical sister the Black Shadow costs two or three times that.  Unless it’s a ‘white’ Shadow, which looks like a Rapide but isn’t, and especially if it’s painted red, then you’re balls deep at $345k.  If that sounds confusing, you’re obviously not the sort to pay $1M for an ‘inverted Jenny’ postage stamp.   To explain; all Vincents are collectible, but not particularly rare – the company built around 7000 twins in 9 years after WW2, with a range of options.  Some options were rarely produced, like a Black Shadow with unpainted engine cases – colloquially called the ‘White’ Shadow.  The factory only sold one Series C Black Shadow with unpainted engine cases and red bodywork – the Red ‘White’ Shadow.  Vincent prices have become a geeky-greedy numbers game, based on hype and factory-records rarity.  Just like Musclecars.
Tasty! I'm certain this pre-unit TR6 custom sold for a record price for a Triumph custom not built by Von Dutch or owned by McQueen! 
3. 1959 Triumph TR6 Custom: I would never have recommended selling a custom motorcycle at Las Vegas – prices for customized Harley-Davidsons are embarrassingly low, with Brit customs much the same.  A lot of disappointed builders feel forced to drop their reserves, and sell for peanuts.  That said, this traditional Triumph bob-job had terrific attention to detail and an exceptional build quality; all boxes were ticked and it just looked right.  Several bidders at Mecum thought so too, duking it out for a full 5 minutes and driving the price to $34k including auction fees, but not sales tax.  That’s probably what the builder charged had into it, and I think this was a record for a Triumph custom not previously owned by Fonzie.  A bargain tweaked Triumph was a nutso twin-engine across the frame pre-unit ‘4’, at $23k.  Not reproducible at this price, and if one wanted to make a statement, this was an Oscar Wilde quip.  By double contrast, a sad ’59 T120 Bonneville ‘bobber’ in a rigid frame, with the droopy stance of a home-built special, fetched only $4300 at Bonhams, probably for its rare first-year powerplant.
Everybody wants one; so cute and sporty.  In the real world, they're slow; it's only a 125cc from 1960 after all! The Honda Benly Super Sport if a masterpiece of design and engineering though...
4. 1960 Honda Benly 125cc Super Sport:  Always coveted for its racy looks and hot spec (it was the fastest 125 in the world), this lovely restored Benly cost someone $13,400, which seems a lot for such a small machine, but they’ve stabilized at this price for several years.  Middle-aged dudes are also restoring Honda ‘Monkey Bikes’, which sell all day long for $4k.  Non-4 cylinder Japanese bikes hover in the $3-8000 range, even if they’re totally restored, so that RD350 or H1 you covet is still affordable.
Two people really wanted this Confederate Wraith, so the price went sky high.  I bet neither has actually ridden one!  I have - while the engine is terrific and powerful, and the suspension works well, the handling around corners is really weird, and felt like the rear wheel was jacked up in corners.  For showboating only, but what a looker.
5. 2007 Confederate Wraith: Pretty much speechless at the $103,500 hammer on this one, which meant TWO bidders were determined to take it home.  Actually purchased by a German friend of mine, who texted, ‘As the Confederate flag is now forbidden in your country, I thought I would take the Confederate bike too.’  Very considerate, Helmut…I think.  Meanwhile in the real world, a ’99 Hellcat Roadster sold for $20,700.
Nobody thought this ex-McQueen Triumph desert sled would recoup its $85k purchase price at auction several years ago...but they were wrong!  $103,500...people just want some Steve.
6. 1963 Triumph Bonneville ‘desert sled’: Steve McQueen magic levitates cash from wallets, and this beautifully patinated dirt bike, complete with mid-level scrambler pipes and a leather Bates seat, broke the ton at $103,500.  I’m often asked ‘what’s the McQueen multiplier?’  In this case, its 1500%.  Hero worship is not rational, nor is it consistent; McQueen owned a whole lot of motorcycles, some of which he rode, and some are titled to his Solar Productions business; Lord knows who actually rode them, but McQueen on the title is good enough.
Okay, it's a big plastic slab, but exquisitely crafted and part of a long evolution of alternative motorcycle design. Purchased for peanuts; buy one now while the market is at rock bottom, the Bimota Tesi 1D is a whole lotta motorcycle. 
7. 1992 Bimota Tesi: The typical value curve of used motorcycles starts with a 20% hit the minute they leave the showroom, then a downward slide till they hit rock bottom at the 20 year mark.  Prices perk up as nostalgia kicks in, and far exceed the original price eventually, bringing them to the value of a new machine, or much more if the bike is rare or the object of universal lust. Bimotas are at the bottom of that curve right now, with ten perfect examples selling in Vegas as little as $7000 (a ’96 Mantra DB3) or $16,750 for the remarkable 1992 Tesi 1D.  Early Bimotas, the 1970s models, are well over $20k now, so if you’ve ever had a hankering for hand-crafted Italian road jewelry, pull the trigger soon.
Factory cutaways qualify as guilt-free sculpture, and sell for big money, like $110k for this '56 BSA Gold Star
8. 1956 BSA Gold Star Cutaway Model:  Herb Harris is best known for owning the most famous Vincents in the world at various times, including the Rollie Free ‘bathing suit’ record-breaker.  He’s also a keen collector of factory display-model cutaway engines and whole bikes, like this BSA Goldie built for the ’56 Earls Court Show, which is motorized for both engine and suspension function!  An intact ’56 Gold Star might cost $25k, but one cut up by factory apprentices set someone back $110,000.  That’s a fine art price for a non-rolling sculpture.   Herb’s cutaway Norton, Matchless and BSA engines fetched $5-8k, about the cost of a whole machine.  Are moto-sculptures worth so much more than an actual riding experience?  For whatever reason, the answer is yes.
Jet bike. Kerosene is cheap! Blow away your neighbors, and your leaves too!
9. 2004 MTT Y2K Turbine:  You CAN own a jet bike.  It would have cost you $115,000 at Mecum.  Jay Leno hilariously recounts melting a Subaru’s bumper at a stoplight with the exhaust from his MTT; you can melt bumpers too.  I recall a pair of MTT’s firing up in the forecourt of the Ritz hotel at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours, then being shooed away by the staff; jets are powerful unburnt kerosene pumps.  1000% more obnoxious than an open-pipe Harley chopper.
Last of the American hot-rod Fours, a '29 Cleveland Tornado.  The Depression killed off the last of the small American bike producers, leaving just Harley-Davidson and Indian...but we once had a thriving and fascinating industry
10. 1929 Cleveland Tornado 4-cylinder:  The fastest American motorcycle in ’29, good for 100mph, which is why their #1 customers were cops.  Prewar American fours are floating around the six-figure mark, and this bike sold for $115k.  Two other fours (Pierce and Henderson) were similar money at Mecum, and an Ace four at Bonhams was much the same.  If you want an early American multi, expect to pay $25k/cylinder.
Blink and you missed it!  Working with the NBCSN crew on two broadcasts - sporstcasting for motorcycle auctions!  It's fun work - this is Scott Hoke, Mecum's regular commentator on NBC, along with John Kraman





           


THE BEST EXCUSE FOR PARIS - RETROMOBILE 2016

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Celebrating the odd; a selection of 'rhomboid' cars, with wheels in perpendicular axes, was a highlight of the 2016 Rétromobile show.  The 'Automodule' of 1968...
The august Parisian vintage motor show had a period of shrinkage when it changed hands a few years ago, when motorcycles virtually disappeared and it dropped to a weekend event.  The good news is Rétromobile has returned to a full 5-day exhibition of the world's most intriguing cars, and motorcycles are back, to a limited degree.  I stopped attending after my utter disappointment in the 2013 show, but returned this year as an adjunct to a research trip for my next book (hint; it's all about Zeniths). I was pleasantly surprised at the vigor, increased length, and much increased size of the show - it's grown into two enormous halls, with a unique mix of club displays, dealer booths, parts suppliers, autojumblists, factory spreads, specialist clothing booths, and art dealers.  Whether you're looking for a perfect 1890s Belle Epoque poster of a Léon Bollée trike, a pair of headlamps for the same, or the actual machine in the metal, you're likely to find it all at Rétro.
An Indian Powerplus graced my favorite poster stand, with an original 1890s Art Nouveau 'Motocycles Comiot' poster featuring a lady rider.  I wrote about this one several years ago...
The photos tell the story, almost. It's a bit overwhelming, and my 2 visits weren't quite enough to absorb everything on display, and chat with the folks I'd hoped too...there's simply too much to take in on a short visit, which isn't a bad thing. My favorites were always the unexpected oddities; an 8' long ship model for sale, a ridiculous lineup of '50s/60s F1 Ferraris, several unrestored 1920s supercars, and a repro of the Target Design MV Agusta tucked into a display, which nobody seemed interested in discussing with an American journalist!
A replica of the Target Design MV Agusta prototype, which inspired Suzuki to hire the firm.  The result was the Katana, a revolutionary styling exercise, and surprisingly, an improvement over this prototype.  I've read a series of 5 replicas will be built, using Albert Bold MV motors...
Rétro isn't quite the gearhead Disneyland of the Avignon Motor Festival, as there are no airplanes, and few heavy trucks / farm equipment / military gear, but Rétro remains a terrific show in the most romantic city in the world. Yes, the weather sucks in February, but that didn't stop a few parking lot demonstrations of the 1911 Fiat 'Beast of Turin' LSR machine - epic!
Of course, there's the rest of Paris to explore, and I caught the epic Anselm Kiefer retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, as well as the Bonhams auction preview at the Grand Palais.  That's an unbeatable venue, the grandest Art Nouveau interior space on the planet, and even the grandest cars are dwarfed within in that hallowed glass-and-iron greenhouse.   Most intriguing to see were a pair of rotten Brough Superiors from the Frank Vague collection, stood on display at the center of the motorcycle lineup for the auction, for all to examine.  And all did!
The MX100 Brough Superior at the Bonhams preview, which turned over and had a free clutch!  Remarkable...
...but the hunger of rust will not be denied, it eats what is not protected.  Not chromium though...
It's not often you see the devastating effects of rust on a fine old motorcycle...they're shockingly hammered...but crazily, the engine was free to kick over on the SS100, and the clutch was free too!  Mr Vague flooded oil on the mechanical bits, but couldn't seem to protect the bodywork, which has rotted in the most picturesque way.  While I'm a fan of 'oily rag' machinery, in this case, I look forward to a full revival of all 8 bikes in the hands of skilled restorers.   A ballsy move on Bonhams' part was featuring a brand-new custom motorcycle as their feature bike. The Praëm SP3 Honda, built by brothers Sylvain and Florent Berneron (who displayed their Ducati Scrambler at Wheels+Waves), is a fantastic piece of work, but as I've noted in the past, auctions are a terrible place to sell custom bikes.  It didn't help that the reserve reflected the actual build price!  How impractical to be so practical...but the rest of the bikes sold well.
The technical expertise of the Berneron brothers was insufficient to attract an $80k euro bid for their hotrod Honda, but it might have been a publicity exercise?
Also on the auction front, you may have heard that a world record price was set by Artcurial auctions at Rétromobile, with a 1957 Ferrari 335 S Scaglietti sports racer selling for $35.7M.  Wow, I coulda bought a Rembrandt!  Then again, the Ferrari is its own sort of masterpiece.   Enjoy the photos of the event - very few Americans make it across the pond for this one, but more should.
Original paint Mercedes-Benz 300SL roadster...love that dull sheen
An open cockpit gives me goosebumps.  This 1932 Aston Martin 1.5L Le Mans was left in its original appearance where possible, but the mechanicals were completely renovated, as were the seats.  Vive le Oily Rag! 
A shaft-driven DOHC Ballot motor sat beside the car it powered, a fantastic engine from the 1920s.
Ballot built motorcycles too; here's their in-bloc 175cc two-stroke
No gearhead visit to Paris is complete without a visit to the Arts et Metiers museum, housed in a former church.  It was forcibly de-consecrated by the Jacobins during the Revolution, and converted to a Church of Technology in 1792, which it remains today.  This Blériot biplane faces off with Foucault's Pendulum in the apse of the Gothic church.  
No worries about Zika virus with this mosquito nose! A big blower Bentley... 
Probably the best international selection of motoring books in one location at Retromobile, with a dozen dealers on hand to tempt the collector.  It's amazing how many titles are never translated into English...by bookshelves have a lot of Italian, French, and German texts on rare makes.
A faux garage inside the hall...and pretty much my ideal of a motorcar.  But then I'm a Velocette guy - into eccentric/brilliant engineering. 
Yes, motorcycles at Rétro; this stand was 100% Harley-Davidson, with some interesting machines, like the aborted VR1000 road racer
Big n little toys.
Art is where you find it. This F1 Ferrari has an amazing exhaust system...I well recall it from my youth, being a Matchbox model...
A phalanx of competition Ferraris at one display, next to a whole bunch more beside, and then the others...you'd think they were rare!  But they aren't rare inside these halls.
The monstrous 'Beast of Turin' Fiat LSR 300hp car from 1911
A hot Matchless G50 at the Coy's auction stand
Lovely original paint H-D with all ancillaries intact
A pair of kiddie-ride JLO bikes, among many such vehicles for sale
Let's not forget Lady Liberty was a gift from the French people - the original model lives in the Arts et Metiers museum
This book looks familiar...
Lovely Velocette Mk8 KTT 
I'm fascinated by early machinery like this V-8 

More rhomboidal cars...this one a cracked egg. 
The 8' long ship model I mentioned for sale, with its purpose-built case.  Where else does one find such a thing?
Original paint 1956 Porsche Speedster from Washington state.
The Target MV and a Magni version, amongst a sea of Porsches
Motorcycles tend to be tucked into corners of auto displays, in this case a '56 Triumph T110 keeping an Aston Martin DB2 company... 
The automobilia on offer is everything you might not be looking for...
The 1892 Millet at the Arts et Metiers museum, the first motorized vehicle to use pneumatic tires, with its fantastic rotary/radial air-cooled engine.
A c.1920 Leyat Hélica at the Arts et Metiers...one of my favorite vehicles of any era. Utterly impractical and totally dangerous, yet to this day road legal in France!  (Except Paris, which is about to enact a ban on pre-2000 motorcycles and cars...)
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The World's Fastest...Single!

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Dennis Quinlan was kind enough to forward an email from Stuart Hooper, the arch Velocette enthusiast who's been tweaking his 650cc Velo-based motor, and this year added a supercharger! The Reilly's were spectacular, as you'll read below: 

Email from Stuart Hooper....

The Big Velo has come through another speed week with flying colours. After an initial sighting run of 177 mph which appeared ok until we discovered a nearly empty fuel tank........ Almost 10 litres of fuel used is a bit much even for its insatiable thirst.  On the next run this fuel consumption became problematical with fluctuating cylinder head temps and eventually drowning the engine which at least allowed us to identify a very unusual fuel flow problem related to our specific installation.  For the third run we upped the supercharger drive ratio and the engine ran like a clock resulting in a 188 mph average ,however the Velo was not happy with major stability issues requiring me to roll of the throttle three times through the timed miles to keep her on the track. This run however put the Velo firmly in the record books as the Worlds Fastest Single Cylinder Motorcycle . A bit of head scratching over the errant handling led to a few minor suspension changes and we were off again, this was a dream run using only half throttle and 5000rpm she passed 150 mph in a mile and then it was tuck in and twist the throttle to the stop, this time she ran straight as an arrow and the revs just kept building to 6800 at the end of the measured miles, in fact I kept the throttle wide for another untimed mile just for the hell of it and saw another 100 rpm or about 2 to 3 mph on the old Chronometric tachometer. ... Five miles absolutely flat out .... 193.061 mph. ......  The next day looked like we might crack the magic 200 mark and the officials kindly offered us an extra timed mile, but alas it was not to be. Upon close inspection the oil was discolored and coming from the breather and the crank and cush drive was suffering badly so the nitro was left unopened, a Nitro engine failure at 200mph is not high on my bucket list !     

Truly there is nothing quite like ........... A fast ride with a naked lady !!

'HIGH AND LOW'

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[Reprinted from my monthly column for Classic Bike Guide, March 2016 issue]
A still from Akira Kurosawa's beautifully shot 'High and Low', a huge influence on cinematographers in subsequent decades
One of my favorite early Akira Kurosawa films is a B&W scandal called ‘High and Low’.  The Japanese Economic Miracle was in full swing in the 1950s, and before he rode off into the Samurai sunset, Kurosawa explored the deep hypocrisy characterizing that period of extraordinary growth. Enormous fortunes were fertilized by a government so bent on economic progress it happily shielded the obvious corruption and environmental damage, accompanied by stagnation of the working classes.  Today he could make the same film in China.
Hanging out with a miniature Indian Board Track racer...which supposedly works!  Adorable, and it beat the full-scale replicas is price!  Go thisaway, replicators...
I’ve camped out in Las Vegas every January for many years, watching with vested interest the classic motorcycle auctions.  It’s my fetish to keep track of oldbike price fluctuations, which has not been inexorably upward.  I’ve watched major price drops of bellweather machines (say, Vincent twins) after the real estate crash of ’89, the dot com bust of 2000, and the Great Recession of 2008.  The price of a good Black Shadow has plummeted from $100k to $30k before, and it can happen again.  Regardless, the general trend is upwards, which might seem a ‘natural’ fact, or a product of inflation, but placing financial value on items with no functional value is anything but natural. Looking at the trends in other collectibles markets, there’s no reason to believe the bike you paid x for this year, will guaranteed be worth x++ in 10 years.  It’s a reasonable gamble, but when I start seeing books like ‘Investing in Collector Cars’ on trade stands at Rétromobile (the PreWarCarbooth no less!), I catch a whiff of 2007, a heady if slightly rotten perfume.
Buddies Andy and Jean-Michel collaborated in the late 1980s; both their work has skyrocketed in value, becoming safe havens for cash in 'bonded warehouse'storage facilities.  Will top-tier motorcycles see the same fate?
Looking at the fine art market, you’d think anyone with a few million to stash would scour the land for spare Warhols and Basquiats, since there are so many, and they fetch so very much.  But dropping one’s binoculars to look at the broader art scene, it’s clear only a tiny slice of that pie is thriving (the ‘smart buys’), while the rest of the market grows stale.  It’s an all-or-nothing gamble in the money game, if that’s why you’re buying or making art... the very worst reason to buy or make it, of course.   The antiques business is seeing a similar shrink/swell of different eras.  It’s well known the old American furniture market, once reliable and considered a safe investment, has seen values drop shockingly in the past 10 years, by as much as 80%.  Friends at Christie's note with something like despair the prospect of their specialty being merged with more successful groups, or dropped entirely.  At Bonhams, the car and motorcycle departments are going gangbusters, keeping the whole company buoyant, while the art, antiques, and jewelry sales are more lackluster, barring a few stars.  It’s the same story at other auction houses, and retail establishments.
A reception for Conrad Leach's exhibit 'Paradise Lost' at the Gauntlett Gallery in London
My friend Richard used to run a fantastic man-cave of a shopselling cool old gear – automotive prototype models, 1930s cocktail sets meant for us while driving, great paintings of Spitfires and Nortons.  He’s shuttered the shop, complaining ‘there’s no middle anymore’; either clients wanted the $100k thing, or the $1k thing, with almost no sales between.  Since he needed that middle to survive, he was sunk, but his sanguine opinion was the business simply reflected the loss of a prosperous middle class; his customers were either ‘making it’ big time, or watching their coins carefully while saddled with a mortgage etc.  Other dealers have much the same experience today, and so it was in Las Vegas this January. 
The 1950 Vincent 'White Shadow' in Chinese Red, which fetched $345k at Bonhams in Las Vegas, January 2016.  Tie a string to it and float away...

With over 1000 old motorcycles on offer, there was something for everyone; from a MTT Y2k jet bike to a lineup of nicely unrestored British twins.  But ‘everyone’ fell into one of two camps; those with $50k and up to spend (repeatedly), and those looking for a bargain to take home.  Many of the high rollers were dealers, buying for wealthy clients or hoping for a quick resale.   It was clear the same small group of bidder numbers dominated the proceedings, peppered by a miscellany of one-shot bidders - the ones who looked genuinely excited when they won a bike, usually for well under $30k.  It was, to quote Kurosawa, a High and Low affair; individual collectors with money to buy a nice bike, and a cadre (1% anyone?) of deep-pockets bidders.  This is a new development of an old story (called Capitalism), but it’s important to note the old bike market was never like this before, being a fairly level playing field of genuine enthusiasts in the past.  I suppose investors are enthusiasts too, if only for more money, which is the worst reason to buy old motorcycles.  I’ve said it before; bikes make lousy sculptures, as the magic is the riding.  Keeping a bike static misses the whole point.  

GENDER UNSPECIFICITY: BECAUSE ITS TRANS-PORTATION

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Still the only individual to install a motorcycle in the British Museum, Grayson Perry is the role model for The Vintavagenta.
Starting today, in support of poly-gendered riders globally, TheVintavagenta claims its space as the only bias-free moto-culture website in the world. There's a side of us we've been ignoring, so it's time to get exploring, and let the Vintavagenta magenta flag fly!  As your cis-gendered scribe, my job this year is digging out bias from the previous 900 articles on TheVintavagenta.com, and each corrected piece will be featured first on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, so stay tuned!
There's 100 years of gender-neutral history yet to explore on The Vintavagenta!
But the basic idea is to have fun!

Click here to see more April's Foolery at TheVintavagenta.com! 

'HOLES IN THE MEMORY'

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[This is my current Cycle World column; this issue (May/June 2016) features the first ever hand-painted cover of the magazine, without a motorcycle photo!  It's an historic issue, and the cover looks great, by Ornamental Conifer - the 'Hand Built Issue'. It will definitely sell out, so find a copy!]
Cycle World editor-in-chief Mark Hoyer and myself at the Handbuilt Show, with the hot-off-the-press new issue.
"When Sylvester H. Roper attached a small steam engine to an iron-frame ‘boneshaker’ near Boston in the late 1860s, he had no idea Louis-GuillamePerreaux was fitting a micro-steamer to a pedal-velocipede at the same time, in Paris.  Kevin Cameron and I disagree on their species; he calls them ‘steam cycles’, but I think any motorized two-wheeler that delivers yeehaw is a motorcycle.  That’s a scientific measure; the all-important Y factor.  It’s what got both you and me and everyone else into bikes, even in the 1860s. Roper regularly rode his ‘self propellers’ around Boston, scorching the road between his home in Roxbury to the Boston Yacht Club, where he’d refuel and (presumably) have a beer. On June 1st, 1896, Roper was invited to demonstrate his steamer at the Charles River Speedway, a banked cement velodrome in Cambridge.  He out-paced a peloton of bicyclists, then steamed away from a top pro racer. Track officials urged him to unleash the hissing beast, and after a few scorching laps timed at over 40mph, Roper wobbled, shut down, and collapsed. He was 72 years old, and had a fatal heart attack during a major yeehaw moment; he was the fastest cyclist in the world, and felt it keenly.
 
'Did Joy kill him?' Sylvester H. Roper's obituary in the June 2, 1896 Boston Globe
SylvesterRoper invented motorcycling; he was its first speed demon, and its first martyr. He’s our patron saint, and died for the same sin thatstains 21st Century bikers - the lust for speed. His steam cycle of 1869 sits in the Smithsonian – their oldest powered vehicle, which they call a motorcycle – and the bike he died on sold for 500grand two years ago.  He’s pretty important to the history of our second favorite pastime, and a hero of mine. So while visiting Boston last year, I was keen to follow the Roper trail, and asked Dave Roper (the first American to win an Isle of Man TT, and a distant relative) if he knew the address of his namesake?  He recalled 294 Eustis St in Roxbury, but a visit in the company of photographer Bill Burke revealed a parking lot.  I hit the Boston State Library, and found we were darn close – he lived at 299 Eustis St, and the house still stands.  I told every Bostonian I met about this exciting discovery, and admit to crazy fantasies of buying the place, because Roper!  If he’d created a cure for smallpox, or invented the automobile, or written famous novels in his day, you’d find a plaque by the front door, with the house listed in tourist guidebooks.  But this is motorcycles, still a dirty word to some, so the house remains uncelebrated and overlooked, except now you know about it, too.
 
The Google Earth snapshot of 299 Eustis St, Roxbury MA, the former home of the inventor of Motorcycling.

There’s little published on Roper, certainly no proper biography, just a few columns in 1800s magazines, and a lot of ‘web conjecture. The first motorcycle books weren’t published until the early 1900s, and all were ‘how to’ until Victor Pagé wrotea history of motorcycles in 1914.  That might sound like the dawn of the industry, but ‘Early Motorcyclesand Sidecars’, which is still in print, was published 45 years after Roper and Perraux pioneered motoring on two wheels.  Many thousands of books about motorcycles were published in the next 100 years, from ADV travel in the late ‘Teens (it was all adventure then), to tell-alls about 1%er club misadventures, to hundreds of histories of long-dead makes, from Aermacchi to Yamaha.  But there are still big holes in the literature, and a lot of important stuff is missing from moto-history.  I’ve been approached to write books on two brands this year – Zenith and Motosacoche – which in their day held World Land Speed records, won championships, and made a dent in their world.   Researching those stories is hard work, but it feels good, like cementing the foundation of the House of Motorcycles.  Put a plaque on it!"

MALICK SIDIBE - 'THE EYE OF BAMAKO'

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1962 - a well-off Malian couple shows off their Honda CA72 Dream.  (c.Malick Sidibé)
Malian photographer Malick Sidibé died today at 80 years old...ish - he could never remember whether he was born in 1935 or '36.  Born into a shepherding family in Soloba, he showed an early talent for art, but it wasn't until he was 10 years old that he began an education - when the family could release him from watching goats, presumably because a younger sibling could to take his place!  His home was colonial French Sudan, and by 16 he'd earned a spot at the École des Artisans Soudanaise in Bamako, the capital.  By the late 1950s, he apprenticed with society portrait photographer Gérard Guillat (in his Photo Service Boutique), bicycling between night clubs and hot spots in the evenings with a Kodak Brownie camera.  Such was his gift, by 1962 he'd set up his own photographic studio, gaining the nickname 'the eye of Bamako' for his compelling portraits of Malian hipster nightlife.  The dandies, the discos, the families with their treasured motorcycles, brimmed with life after Mali gained independence from France in 1960, and Sidibé captured the vibe.
A young couple dancing at a nightclub in Bamako, Mali, c.1962.  (c.Malick Sidibé)
His work was 'discovered' by the Anglo/European gallery and museum cabal in the late 1990s, and a flood of solo exhibitions and retrospectives quickly followed; first at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago -  1996), then the Centre d'Art Contemporain (Geneva- 2000), Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (Rome - 2001), etc.  In the 20 years since that first Chicago exhibit, at least 9 books were published on his decades of photography, and his work can be found on postcards and Pinterest sites. The exposure doesn't detract from the magic of his work, which sympathetically captures the vibrant energy and aesthetic genius of the Malian people.  It was the mopeds, motorcycles, and scooters that caught my eye of course - "there's always a motorcycle" should be my website footer - but it's the two wheels in context that matters, with snappy young gents, courting lovers, or families posing with this important, treasured possession, the real and symbolic statement of Mobility, as Africa took over the reins to its own future.
A recent photo of Malick Sidibé.  (c.Jennifer Morgan Davis)
In 2010, Sidibé told London's Guardian that a good photographer required “talent to observe, and to know what you want,” but equally to be approachable and friendly. “I believe with my heart and soul in the power of the image, but you also have to be sociable. I’m lucky. It’s in my nature. It’s a world, someone’s face. When I capture it, I see the future of the world.”   Vale, Malick.
Three Malian 'sapeurs'(fashionable young gents) with their chic late-'50s Motobecane Mobylette mopeds, c.1962 (c.Malick Sidibé)
The fabrics!  Three youngsters with an East German Simson SR-2 'Star'50cc motorcycle (c.Malick Sidibé)
The quality isn't great, but the bike is - because I have this exact machine!  An MZ TS250, ca.1974 (c.Malick Sidibé)
As the '60s moved into the '70s, you bet those flares got wider, and I see platform shoes peeking out...(c.Malick Sidibé)
A 1962 shot from a disco - 'Regardez-Mois?' (look at me!). (c.Malick Sidibé)
An early 1970s Vespa with a familiar backdrop of locally-produced cloth.  While these shots are in black/white, no doubt the fabric included the vibrant oranges, blues, and greens typical of Mali. (c.Malick Sidibé)
One of my favorites; traditional garb and the all-important 1980s boom box...(c.Malick Sidibé)
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THE ENGLISH DIRIGIBLES

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A 1929 BSA S29 Sloper Deluxe ca. 1929/30, likely at Cardington, the home base of the R100 and the British Dirigile Project
A picture proverbially equals a thousand words, but if those words are lost to popular history, they bear repeating. A pair of images posted by Jim 'Buster' Culling on Instagram piqued my interest; their superficial charm lays with the old bike/dirigible mashup, but there's a terrific tale behind these images, pinpointing exactly where and when they were taken, and what was happening with British aviation.  The photos show a couple of friends posing aboard a c.1929 BSA 'Sloper' S29 Deluxe (the model # changed by year from 1927-35), with its chrome tank and fishtail muffler, which was designed by Harold Briggs (who'd left Daimler) for BSA in 1926, for the '27 season.  It used a wet-sump design, and proved a very quiet and fast machine, and a big seller for BSA. The gents in the photo are enjoying their triple good fortune on that day, with clear bluebird skies, a lovely BSA to ride, and the added interest of Britain's fantastic new dirigible, the R100, moored on a special mast which allowed 360deg of movement in case of shifts in the wind. The photo is probably taken at the R100's home base in Cardington, Bedfordshire, during 1929 or '30.
Likely a friend of the BSA's owner with the '29 Sloper and the moored R100.
The origins of lighter-than-air craft is documented as far back as the AD200s in China, when floating lanterns were used for signaling - 'Kongming lanterns'. The first Europeans saw of aerial lanterns was during the invasion of the Khans in the 1200s, as the Mongols studied captured Chinese signal-lanterns, and replicated them... which is exactly how Europeans were introduced to gunpowder,too. It took another 500 years for the first documented human flight in a hot-air balloon, in 1709, when Bartolomeu de Gusmao demonstrated the principle to the King of Portugal. Balloons grew in popularity through the 1700s and into the 1800s, for both popular and military/surveillance uses. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin witnessed observation balloons on a visit to the US during the Civil War, and was keenly interested in their potential.  A lecture on lighter-than-air craft for postal and commercial travel in 1874 inspired Zeppelin to sketch out his first dirigible that year, a rigid-framed airship using bags of hydrogen to lift the craft, and engines slung beneath for direction and power. Zeppelin patented his design in Germany and the US, and his first, privately-funded airship, the LZ-1, flew over the beguiling waters of the Bodensee on July 2, 1900.  Experiments, crashes, and a huge public interest in the project meant by 1914 the new Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH factory (still in business!) had built 24 ever more capable dirigibles, with over 1500 flights and 10,000 paying passengers under its belt. They proved unreliable and dangerous for anything but observation during WW1, and most bombers-dirigibles were destroyed by weather or enemy bullets, as giant hydrogen bas bags are easy, and spectacularly flammable targets.

The R100 on its mooring mast in Cardington, the HQ of the British Dirigible Project, looking very much like the landscape in our BSA Sloper photos
Post-war, the dream of regular dirigible airline service was realized by the Zeppelin company, who circumvented postwar restrictions on large aircraft by building Zeppelins for American companies!  And while they knew helium was the safer lighter-than-air medium, American patent holders on helium production refused to license rights, so the rest of the world carried on with hydrogen dirigibles, with occasionally spectacular failures. While Britain experimented with its own dirigibles in the 'Teens, they weren't particularly successful.  Still, it galled the British Air Ministry that Zeppelins were making great strides in Arctic exploration, global circumnavigation, and a popular passenger service.  In 1924, the Air Ministry launched the Imperial Airship Scheme to connect its far-flung empire with dirigibles. Two teams competed for a new design; the R100 by Vickers-Armstrongs, and the R101 by the Air Ministry itself. The R100 was built using 'conventional' Zeppelin practice, headed by Barnes Wallis who had experience with dirigible design (and who later used the truss dirigible frame design for the structure of Wellington bombers), which proved an exceptionally air-worthy craft, while the R101 was more experimental, terribly overweight, and unstable.  The R100 successfully crossed the Atlantic, made numerous test flights, and garnered excellent press. Politics within the Air Ministry meant the R101 was pushed into service.  In October 1930, the R101, on its first overseas flight, crashed in France, killing its design team and the Air Minister himself, Lord Thomson. That was the end of the British Dirigible project; the R100 was immediately grounded, and destroyed the following year. The story of the R100 is fascinating, and told brilliantly by engineer Nevil Shute in his book 'Slide Rule'.  Shute was Deputy Engineer on the R100 project under Barnes Wallis, and took over as Chief Engineer in 1929.  'Slide Rule'was recommended to me by Dennis Quinlan, and I'm passing the favor along to you; like books by Phil Irving, or Kevin Cameron's Cycle Worldcolumns, Shute manages to wrest very technical matters into an entertaining read.
The majesty of an enormous Zeppelin is undeniable, and when the LZ-26 was flown over the White House in 1926, president Calvin Coolidge called it 'an angel of peace.' After Count von Zeppelin died in 1917, the company was taken over by Dr Hugo Eckener, who was adamant the airship be used for peaceful purposes.  He was a vocal anti-nazi, and made an official 'non-person' during WW2, and only intervention by Hindenburg prevented his arrest.

2016 QUAIL MOTORCYCLE GATHERING

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Buy your tickets HERE for the Quail Motorcycle Gathering on May 14th, 2016
It's Quail time again!  What's become the best moto-Concours show in America has its 8th edition next week, with the Quail Ride (an instant sellout - fehgeddaboutit) on Friday May 13th, and the Quail Motorcycle Gathering on Saturday May 15th.  The show gained real traction about 3 years ago, with participants and machines coming from all over the US and abroad, as word spread about the superb facilities and organization of the Quail Lodge event.  This year there's a Cycle World tour on Saturday morning - click here for details - for those not quick enough to snatch Quail Ride tickets, and the roads around Carmel Valley are fantastic.
Cycle World will lead a ride through the winding roads of Carmel Valley on Saturday morning
There aren't many motorcycle shows where you can rub elbows with World Champion GP racers (Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey, and Eddie Lawson are regulars) and superstars like Mert Lawill, while strolling in a beautiful spot, eating fantastic food (and drinks!) and looking at a world-class selection of motorcycles.  The Quail is top-class, as anyone who's attended knows, and why more folks show up every year.  Still, it never feels crowded, as the facility simply expands as necessary, and more vendor/exhibit/food/champagne tents line the field. The Quail put together a terrific video of last year's event, check it out:
As usual, I'll be your emcee for the event, and if I can duck out of Concours judging duty this year, might have time for a chat if you collar me on the field.  I definitely prefer offers of a ride on your groovy bike!
The cool mix of machines typical of the Quail's field display
Taking care of emcee duties with the captain of the ship, Gordon McCall
Fringe benefits; riding the rare and unique!  In this case, a 1930 HRD-Vincent Python
Be there!
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MOTORCYCLE SPECIALS #1 - GRINDLAY-PEERLESS 'HUNDRED MODEL'

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[This is the first of a new series featuring artist Martin Squires' fantastic illustrations!] 

I was overjoyed to see this machine at Stafford Showground on 26th April 2015. I had seen the Original Bill Lacey Grindlay Peerless at Brooklands, but this original condition "Hundred Model" bought a true smile to my face. This particular machine is one of 2 known survivors. The Grindlay Peerless factory produced the “Hundred Model" to celebrate C W G 'Bill' Lacey becoming the first man to cover 100 miles in an hour on British soil in August 1928 on asub 500cc machine. It’s Believed that the Coventry mark only sold 5 to 6 machines, possibly due to the lack of demand for such a specialist machine. Bill achieved 103.3 miles in that hour on the Grindlay Peerless JAP, an incredible feet of endurance riding on such an early machine. Eariler in the 1920’s the 100 miles in 60 minutes was the ultimate goal for motorcycle manufacturers and their riders. Claude Temple was the first man to do so, averaging almost 102mph at Montlhéry in 1925 on his 996cc OEC-Temple-JAP. The following year at Monthlery Norton rider Bert Denly broke 100mph on a '500' for the first time.


In order to encourage such riding in England The Motor Cycle offered a silver trophy to the first person to break the 100mph mark. Brooklands was the only circuit for such an attempt, an unforgiving course with it’s renowned bumpy surface that launched its riders into the air at any given opportunity. On 1st August 1928 Bill Lacey raised the record to 103.3mph, hitting a top speed of over 105mph which in turn broke the 750cc and 1000cc records. Bill went on to dominate at Brooklands throughout 1928 finishing on the podium at every meeting.

In 1929 Bill increased his distance to 105.25mph setting yet another record. After this continued success Grindlay Peerles produced the “Hundred Model” these machines were essentially the same as the original record breaking machine, complete with nickel plated frame. The replicas were assembled at the Coventry works and then shipped to Lacey’s workshop at Brooklands where Wal Phillips, Lacey’s assistant, would tune the machines to enable them to reach the record speed. Lacey himself would then test each machine to above 100mph on the outer circuit in order to issue an official certificate.

J.D. Potts raced this particular Hundred Model at Brooklands in 1929, in September of the same year he went on to win the Amateur Isle of Man TT. Unfortunately he was disqualified after it was thought he had received factory support, were Grindlay Peerless trying to sell more of these replicas off the back of this, who knows.

In the 1930’s Cyril Norris acquiredthe Hundred Model. In 1934 Norris had E.C.E. Baragwanath a renowned Brough Superior rider and tuner fit a single port head as this got some more out of the JAP than the twin port the replica was originally fitted with. In order to compete in the 1936 Senior Manx Grand Prix an Albion 4 speed gearbox and an uprated front brake were fitted expressly for the race. These are still present on the machine today. Norris finished 23rd, with a best lap of 33 minutes 37 seconds, averaging 66.9mph.

In the early 50’s Norris used the machine on the road complete with close ratio gearbox and no kickstart! Norris kept the machine until his death in 2000 when it was bought form the family by it’s current owner. Seeing motorcycles like this is such a great experience as you can see the history not only in it's original condition but by the changes from the original factory specification.

Illustration and Words by Martin Squires
Special thanks to Peter Lancaster for his help researching this article.


'NORTON' GEORGE COHEN

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Dr. George Cohen at the Brooklands Centenary in 2007
One of my favorite characters in the old bike scene has left the saddle, and the world is poorer for his absence. Dr. George Cohen, otherwise known as 'Norton George' for his devotion to single-cylinder Nortons (plus a certain Rem Fowler's Peugeot-engined TT racer), fought well against an aggressive cancer diagnosed late last year, but knew the jig was up, that swarf had fouled his mains and blocked the oil lines.  What he leaves behind for those lucky enough to have called him friend, is a ton of wry memories, and his distinctive voice echoing through our heads, with some crack about our terrible workshops, ill-prepared machinery, or silly ideas.  He was mad as a hatter for sure, but a hell of a lot of fun to be around.
A favorite image of George Cohen blasting along on his 1927 Norton Model 18 TT racer on the Isle of Man
George was also a devotee of using his vintage machinery to the hilt, blasting his favorite 1927 Model 18 Norton racer on the Isle of Man, and the roads around his 'Somerset Shed'.  Arriving by train for a visit to George's sprawling country estate was an exercise in bravery, as he'd likely pick you up in his 1926 Norton Model 44 racer with alloy 'zeppelin' sidecar. Strapping your luggage on the back, and no helmet required, meant you experienced the full terror of an ancient, poorly braked but surprisingly quick big single in flight along the ultra-narrow, deeply dug-in Roman roads of the area. The mighty Bonk of the Norton's empty Brooklands 'can' reverberated along the 8' deep earthen walls, as we tore around blind corners of these unique Somerset roads like Mr Toad and Co., headed for home the fastest way possible.  Unforgettable!
George and myself in 2008, with my Velocette KTT and Sunbeam TT90 - sorry no Nortons that day!
George visited the USA a few times, and we were fellow judges at the Legends of the Motorcycle Concours in 2008, at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Half Moon Bay.  I'd brought two bikes for us to swap on the Sunday morning Legends Ride - neither a Norton, although I had a 1925 Model 18 racer at the time (it was hors de combat from my own relentless flogging).   So George got to experience a vintage Sunbeam for the first time, as the photos show, which he quite liked ('My Norton is faster', of course he said), but preferred a spin on 'The Mule', my 1933 Velocette KTT mk4, which shared his favorite Norton's camshaft up top.  Well actually it was the other way 'round, as Norton copied the Velocette design!  Which he grudgingly admitted with a half-smile as he hand-rolled another cig.
George on his only Sunbeam outing, in 2008
A few days prior, we'd picked up a pair of racing Nortons from California collector Paul Adams, which were entered into the Concours, and it would be hard to imagine two more dissimilar characters, who both loved Nortons with passion.  Paul Adams is an ex-Navy pilot of many years' experience, with the unflappable reserve of a military man, and George, well, flapped.  Those two were chalk and cheese, and barely kept from breaking into open argument! Still, George later admitted Paul had a very nice collection, and that his workshop was really clean.
George with one of his many 'specials' built for customers like Dunhill.
Something else he left behind; his incredible self-published love poem to Norton, created from his personal archive of early factory press materials, photos, and documents - 'Flat Tank Norton'. If you're a fan of early Nortons, it's essential reading, and an entertaining mix - some of the early photos of James Landsdowne Norton himself can be found nowhere else.  'Flat Tank Norton' is the kind of book only a devoted enthusiast can produce, as a publisher would have squeezed out the quirks to increase 'general interest', but they would have taken out the George factor, which is what give the book its tremendous charm.  It needs a reprint, as copies run on Amazon for nearly $1000!
Another memorable moment with George came not on a bike, but in one of his select few cars, at the 2013 Vintage Revival Montlhéry meeting.  He'd brought his c.1908 Brasier Voiture de Course after breaking down somewhere in France, while driving the all-chain drive monster all the way from his Somerset home.  He'd sorted the brakeless beast, and was enjoying flying laps around the banking, and offered me a ride, which I accepted with something like fear.  George drove like he rode, and the Brasier had no seat belts, roll bars, suspension to speak of, or front brakes, but it did have an enormous 12 Liter Hispano-Suiza V-8 OHC aeroplane engine with 220hp on tap!  I put myself in the hands of Fate, and George.  I climbed aboard, clinging to the scuttle, and filmed the ordeal with one hand, laughing 100% of the time, as he slid the rear end on the short corners, and got as high up the banking as he could, while the behemoth shuddered, roared, bucked, and squealed.  Unforgettable, just like the man.
With George in his epic 1908 Brasier de Course, with its 12 liter OHC Hispano-suiza aero engine, with 220hp!  Insane for a car with no brakes, and all-chain drive...
George with the re-created Rem Fowler Norton, winner of the very first Isle of Man TT in 1907.  He rebuilt the machine entirely after the disastrous National Motorcycle Museum fire. 
Thumbs up George!  I hate to say it, but goodbye friend.

If you care to send a note to his wife Sarah and his family, I'll gladly forward George's address - shoot me an email.

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