VELOSOLEX OWNERS GROUP

(The VOG’s)

April run

The VOG’s were on the roads again on a bootiful Tuesday morning April 18th . Starting point at “Woolston Club” 12noon . Somewhat of a mission getting to the Club with road closures in the area. Hargood St closed from Ferry road as was Tiford St in fact the only way into the Club carpark was via Compton St but never mind all 14 riders on the day made it to the start on time. Barrie Walker was our leader this time and with a different format of an afternoon run as he had arranged a visit for us to Auto Restorations at 3:30pm. So it was lunch first at the “Club” with an extensive lunch menu to chose from. Something for everyone even Bob Kinnaird who chose a “Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae” as a change from his normal bowl of fries. We thought maybe Rose was only going to serve him up meat and three veg for dinner so he was having his dessert first . After a long leisurely lunch break killing time and chewing the fat it was on the roads for a ride of confusion especially for Pieter Maat who was doing backup for us this time. Barrie had planned us a ride around the Linwood, Woolston and Heathcote areas along the many new cycleways in these areas. It was when we came to Heathcote Valley that the trouble started for Pieter, as the roads that had been chosen were all closed for maintenance work. It was ok for us riders as we could mount the footpaths to ride on. Unfortunately Murphy struck again when Wayne McCrone had a break down along Bridle Path Rd and alas there was no Backup in sight so there was a bit of pedalling required by Wayne until we tracked down Pieter and the backup trailer along Humphries Drive – Wayne was consequently chosen once again to receive the Hard Luck Trophy for the month. Fortunately there were no further casualties on our return trip back to the Club. It was then load up our bikes and head off to Auto Resto’s where George Kear was there to welcome us and conduct a very

Graham Barnett. Field Tests

informative tour through their premises. Mind boggling as usual with all the exotic vehicles there undergoing restoration or complete rebuilds. Interesting to hear from George that if you get a vehicle that has the rego’ expired and you are rebuilding it from scratch you need every weld, panel replacement or other work to be certified along the way to be able to get a final compliance. They have several vehicles in there under that situation.

What an amazing array of vehicles we saw in the workshop or on the floor for sale. I don’t think any of our Velosolex’s would even come close to cover a deposit on these. The red Alfa Romeo sports on show at 1.1 million would look good in my garage. A big thank you to George for his time showing us around.

Its that man again! Philip Jeeves on an earlier restoration of his. 1924 Triumph Model P

Royce

Big End Knocks

The other day I went in the workshop for a screw driver and picked up a 30-year old Motorcycle magazine. As you do, started thumbing through and found an article on a 1927 Villiers powered machine. I think it was a Levis. Anyway, it was beautifully restored and the owner had given the engine a thorough rebuild with new bearings etc. The disappointment came when he tried the ride. It started well and ran, but was totally gutless, could hardly drag its shiny self along, let alone a rider.

Now the funny thing at about this point of the story, I remembered now about 30 years ago I was given a big old Atco lawnmower with a near identical Villiers engine, also a 1927 model. It was a very elaborate spec’ machine with a triple roller and a blade that left the grass like velvet, but weighed a ton! To start the thing, you had a crank handle and it was always at least ten brisk cranks before it popped into life with a cloud of blue smoke that drove away the birds and made my eyes water. The funny thing, it would run and tick over nicely, but in a blue haze that was a danger to the lungs.

In a fit, I decided (with the help of my neighbour’s 11 and 9-year old boys) we would strip it down and give it a clean. The crank case had a quarter inch layer of thick black sludge for the boys to scrap off. We did little more than scrape off carbon and re assemble it. To combat the smoke, I went all modern and put it on a diet of modern two stroke oil. The boys were well impressed when it started and ran with almost no smoke. But the damn thing wouldn’t pull the machine along, let alone cut grass. I couldn’t work out what was wrong and the 8-year old said “I think it’s too old to give up smoking.”

My Dad had a similar Atco where he worked when I was a boy and I remembered his words, “Half a pint of Castrol to the gallon boy.” So, I tried and yeah verily the smoke did come back and slowly so did the power and the lawn did get mowed. Anyway, back to the magazine. As I read on and turned the page, our hero had come to the same conclusion and his horses slowly got stronger. In fact, he had done the “Banbury Run” and it climbed the notorious Sunrising Hill (a mere pimple compared with Cashmere.)

It seems those old Villiers engines with plain bronze main bearings need the amount of oil which is what, 8 to one? The smoke it seems as the boy said, these old two strokes are too old to give up smoking.

I found some more to read in the Motorcycle magazine so never did get the screw driver.