1930 RUDGE RACER

A picture full of appeal; Vintage-era racing bikes are light and purposeful.

Manuel Parra of Spain sent photos of his just-completed restoration of a 1930 'TT' Rudge, which was originally raced in France under pilot Ric Felix Llamdo.  A French collector owned it for many years, and began the process of restoration, and on his death, Manuel purchased the Rudge, and finished the job.  There are quite a few unique features on the racer, added no doubt by the Llamdo during the course of his racing career, including the very FN-like 'pistol grip' fuel tank, and French tachometer and control levers.

The Rudge 4-valve pushrod engine; note ingenious method of opening two valves with a single pushrod.  The near-side rocker opens the far-side valve via a 'rocker arm' across the top of the cylinder head.  Simple and durable, as smaller valves need lighter springs, with consequently less load on the valve train.

The Rudge 'Ulster' was the top of the range model from Rudge's hottest years on the track; they dominated the Isle of Man TT in 1930, after many years battling with Sunbeam and Norton for supremacy.  Sunbeam had already won their last TT in 1929, taking first and second place in the Senior TT under Charlie Dodson and and Alec Bennett...while Rudge, Norton, Velocette, DOT, Cotton, and Montgomery filled the Top 10 that year, a veritable poem to a lost British motorcycle industry, once world-dominating, now largely forgotten.   In 1930, Rudge engineer George Hicks redesigned their signature four-valve cylinder head for more power, which worked well enough to relegate Jimmy Simpson on his Arthur Carroll-designed Norton, and Charlie Dodson on his Sunbeam, to third and fourth places.

Graham Walker after his second place the 1930 Isle of Man TT, having a well-deserved smoke!

Little did they all know in 1930 that the Isle of Man TT, the toughest and most prestigious road race in the world, would never again see a pushrod-engined machine win the prestigious 'Senior' race.  By the 1931 TT, Norton had sorted out their engine and chassis issues with the new 'Carroll' OHC motor, which would dominate racing for the next two decades, as the 'International', then the 'Manx Grand Prix', and finally, simply the 'Manx'.

Wonderful hand-numbered tachometer, which Manuel wisely kept 'as found'

The Rudge 'Ulster' and later 'TT Replica' models were still potent racers, taking many firsts in European road racing for years to come, and

Manuel included 'before' and 'after' photos...and isn't it a pity the machine couldn't be kept in the 'before' state?  Hard won racing patina is a mighty sexy finish...

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NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, ENGLAND

It's a pilgrimage to a messy shrine, the quintessential English shed grown wild with money, but the shed-mind remains, and the hallowed relics within overwhelm visitors in a nearly-stacked jumble.  The National Motorcycle Museum, phoenix risen from its own-damn-fault ashes, warehouse of glistening talismans, entombing shrine of Speed and a glorious, vanished industry.

Can you spot the...?  Neither can I.

Anyone who loves British motorcycles simply must make the trip to Birmingham, and spend a few hours soaking in the oily ambience...not that the pyramidal halls are anything but clean, and their 'NMM'-logo carpet well vac'd.  The bikes are fantastic, some of the most historic British prototypes, racers, and roadsters anywhere, a cornucopia really of the stuff you want to see, because the collection is just amazing.

Double Trouble Twins; Brough SS100 with JAP and MX engines

As with every time I've stopped in, the halls were nearly pedestrian-free when I visited this week, which is shameful for such a fantastic collection of machinery.  But, some basic rules of museum management are roundly ignored at the NMM... imagine if MOMA or the Tate stuffed every artwork in their collection to their walls in a vertical paintstorm, some pressed into corners, far away from their roped-off viewers. Things may have been done that way in the 1800s, but in the century since, Museum Studies has emerged as a discipline, and people get advanced college degrees in curation and display, studying ways for museums to attract viewers, and properly display their wares.

The Triumph zone was better accessible than other areas...

The NMM ignores most of this accumulated wisdom and pursues a used-moto-lot aesthetic, bikes jostling handlebars in long lines, with terrible sightlines and an utter impossibility to gain any detailed visual information from most of the displays.  A few sit on plinths, arranged so timing and primary sides can be examined close-up, but these are the exception, and if you're interested in figuring out how a 1908 Humber sorts out its magneto position, you'll have x-ray through several similar-era Triumphs and Rexes...in other words, impossible.

Collection as a numbers game; a lineup of the Norton rotary racers

Because the motorcycles themselves matter, it would be a revelation if we were actually able to see them in the round, well lit and fully visible.  I reckon that if the NMM held back part of its collection to give breathing space, and rotated themed 'blockbuster' exhibits like any other museum, visitors would find reasons to return, and the halls wouldn't be empty.  Better still, we'd be able to actually see these fantastic machines.

'Nero' and 'Super Nero' Vincent sprinters (one supercharged, one not)...would that I could have taken decent photos of the whole machines...

The incredible AJS ohc 1000cc v-twin one-off record breaker, which never really set records, but was stuck at around 130mph.  Note long induction tube from the blower, with blowoff valve at the top, and super large magnesium cam chain (and magneto chain) covers...

 Second primary chain drives the blower, atop the gearbox.  Bronze heads, hairpin valve springs, that crazy teardrop tank; simply stunning.

The placard claimed this BSA Rocket 3 with Gold Star bodywork was a suggestion from a US dealer for a potential big seller...I want one too!

Vincents don't look so bad now...this is the TRUE plumber's nightmare!

Bronze head on a semi-radial valve Rudge TT Replica racer

A short row of Brough Superiors of all varieties; an early MAG-engined Mk1 in front

Now those are Brooklands cans...on the back of a McEvoy 1000cc racer

Cutaway Triumph cylinder head

Italian sauce, English-style.  Lovely home-built 125cc dohc racer, the 'LCH', built by Leonard Clifford Harfield of Hampshire. Gear-driven double overhead camshafts, he based the engine on Rudge 250cc crankcases, and cast up the rest.  The engine would reliably rev to 11,000rpm, making 18hp, good enough for 95mph, and first privateer home in the 1957 Ultra-Lightweight TT.

The front brake of a 1950 Douglas 90+ racer

A much earlier Douglas, this is Freddie Dixon's 1928 Isle of Man TT racer, with wet sump under the engine, and an oil pressure gauge just behind the oil filler. He made 18th in the Junior TT that year, and fell off in the Senior (same bike apparently, with different cylinders and heads), injuring his hands and ending his bike racing career. Dixon, a gifted development engineer, switched to racing cars, and won the 1935 and '36 TT Auto races...the only man to have won TTs on two (1927 Junior TT), three (1923 Sidecar TT), and four wheels! 

The Brough Superior 'Dream', with 4-cylinder flat-4 engine, shaft drive, and groovy gold paint job.  Basically two Triumph twins on a common crankcase, it never ran properly as GB didn't have the cash for development work, and realized the market for such a machine was too small to justify the expense...

The 'Dream' cylinder head and exhaust manifold...grace in alloy.  The cylinder barrels were cast into the crankcases - one less joint to leak.  As far as I know, only Wooler and Brough attempted an ohv "H-four" motorcycle of this configuration.

New Imperial v-twin 500cc racer

Martynside v-twin, with their own-make engine

The McEvoy with big JAP KTOR racing engine, fed by a Binks 'Mousetrap' carb

Were they ever really like that?  Montgomery 4-pipe big Anzani twin with lots and lots of nickel...

Morgan 'Beetleback' Sports with big Matchless MX engine

Another failed Norton revival...the Nemesis, with special V8 engine

More successful were the Norton John Player-sponsored racers of the 1970s

Lovely old Norton 16H racer from the early 20s. Note the AMAC sports carb.

CTS (Chris Tattersal St.Annes) sits protected from English weather...

Lots of prototypes at NMM; this Royal Enfield triple is 3 cylinders from their 220cc two-strokes on a common crankcase

Another gem; the one-off Rudge 250cc v-twin prototype racer

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TRAINING DAY

Vintage vehicle clubs across the globe are gripped with fear that the current, aging generation of their membership represent the 'last wave' of people interested in actually using old cars/motorcycles.  We are generations past the utility or even remembrance of using the earliest motorcycles, and events like the Pre-1916 and Pioneer Runs are sometimes the only airing a really old bike will have during the year.  And the average age of club members is going up, up, up.

How to involve a new generation of riders to the game?  If you, on your 1957 BSA or '38 BMW, and do not express the visceral joys of riding an imperfect machine to a youngster, who has only experienced the perfection which is every motorcycle nowadays, how will they know what they are missing?

The VMCC in England is experimenting with 'Training Days', in which, for the princely sum of £30, 50 riders have the opportunity to ride at least 15 different old bikes, twice each, around a simple course.  The machines at the May 1st event at Arborfield army base in Reading ranged from a 1910 belt-drive Triumph to a 1936 Royal Enfield 1100cc v-twin with sidecar.

Riders learned the skills of using a lever throttle, hand-shift, dummy-rim brakes, foot clutches, decompressors, ignition advance levers, etc, each instructed briefly by the owner of the machine, standing by to fill in the newbie on the drill.

Every rider looked to be having a really good time, and the bike's owners were patient and took minor problems in stride.  A Douglas 'Aero' seized briefly from too-slow running, a Rudge-JAP lost a shift lever pin, some bikes oiled plugs, but these were all dealt with, and the machines kept circulating.

I can't think of a better way for every Vintage club to reach out for new members.  Kudos especially to the owners of these machines, who loaned/risked their treasures for the day, knowing the greater good was served.

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