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Mitchell
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 04:55 am |
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| I bought a Gold Star from Colin East about 25 years ago and he said he would not let me have it until he rebuilt the engine. 16 months later I got a call that the bike was ready to be picked up. Unfortunately, I was leaving for a 2 month tour of the Conyinent in about an hours time and let a friend have it. It was immediately shipped back to Australia and when he turned it over, found there was no compression. On lifting the head discovered only a conrod and no piston. Colin East must be the only person in the world who forget to fit a piston into an engine he rebuilt Attachment: Ex JAP JOR eng rt.jpg (Downloaded 129 times)
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Mitchell
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 04:57 am |
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| Sorry I've just sent the same pic twice. Here's another view Attachment: Ex JAP JOR eng no.jpg (Downloaded 127 times)
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 11:45 am |
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Ha! Never mind this old Prestwich rubbish, Mitchell, (sorry Dennis!) tell us more about the Blackburne...
Actually, wait a minute, putting two and two together it must be your OEC badged engine I have a picture of from Howard Burrows - I've been meaning to get in touch. I am trying to compile a history of Blackburne and I was interested in knowing more about some of the pictures Howard sent me.
R
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Mitchell
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 12:36 pm |
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| I dunno if I've ever sent a pic to Howard but we do exchange info regularly. I bought a badly restored OEC Blackburne. With it came an original OEC letter saying it was one of the two 35 Lightweights bikes. They only had one in 35 and Paul Ingham provided a factory photograph showing that mine and it were not the same. However, after a year of chasing down every possible lead, I bought an unpublished blurry I.o.M pic from Bill Snelling showing Alf Brewin astride his 34 bike unfortunately taken from the drive side. It clearly shows the engine is not through-bolted contrary to known info about early 30s racing Blackburne engines. Mine has a 20 degree downdraft bronze head, 7" Hiduminium rod with Manxman-like integral flywheels and mainshafts with weight added to the wheels. Unusually, it also has splayed push rod tubes and was in a standard OEC frame. With the purchase came a racing OEC frame with the letters TT after the frame numbers. The frame is different in several places from standard and has the racing oil tank and Webb forks. My engine number is BTE 102. B is 250. 102 makes it the 2nd of the series. I'm not very familiar with Blackburne so don't know what the letters TE mean. I'll send pics soon. Mitchell
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Mitchell
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 12:53 pm |
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| Here's a pic of a JAP OEC racer I'm building. Frame is road altered to racing with replica racing tanks. Mitchell Attachment: OEC racer.3.sm.jpg (Downloaded 121 times)
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DM
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 05:59 pm |
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I went to the MST auction at Dunkerswell where that bike was sold, it was then advertised by a dealer and re appeared in MidAmerica Auctions Jan this year. At the auction it was thought to be a 1933 C14 which should have had a Burman gearbox.
Early next week I will take some pics of the hub for you.
Carefull Rick, I might have words with you at Brooklands 
Dennis
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Thu Apr 17th, 2008 07:11 pm |
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Mitchell, you are quite right about BT meaning 250/TT. I believe the E refers either to calendar year or more probably model year. The 1927 350 TT motors were CTA, the 1930 parallel pushrods were BTC/CTC and GTC for 250/350 and 500 so E could either mean 1932 or 2 years development from the 1930 parallel motor. I've put a lot of time into the Blackburne numbering system, noone seems to have made much sense of it before - especially pre-1926.
Dennis, sorry but I have to make up for all the snidey remarks Jeff Clew made about Blackburne in "Jap the vintage years". I ought to kick his walking stick from under him...
R
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Mitchell
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Posted: Fri Apr 18th, 2008 07:10 am |
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| Rick, Here's a pic of my Blackburne engine. I'm in the process of replacing the seized big end with modern parts available off the shelf. Mitchell Attachment: timing side complete.jpg (Downloaded 113 times)
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Fri Apr 18th, 2008 12:47 pm |
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Yes, that's the pic from I got from Howard. That's kinda strange. Suggests that Blackburne dropped the parallel engine and went back to the angled pushrod for their TT engines. The cylinder mounting is even stranger but then again by 1935 Blackburne were in dire straits so they probably cobbled together anything they could and tuned it up to be a race motor. The story goes that here were only 5 or 6 of each of the 1930 parallel motors, I don;t think they were sold they remained factory property but by 35 they would have had long hard lives so maybe the factory used some if the parallel parts and shoved them into otherwise road going cases. This was the era that they sold Cotton a load of basically 1926 pattern 250 engines for their budget 250 OHV. I get the feeling that there was a lot of old stock stuff kicking about at Bookham. I just wish somebody had thought to get it all straight before everybody that worked there died. did you know the factory was still standing until a fe years ago when a fire destroyed it? Another great regret, I never thought to visit it. In recent years it was where police speed cameras were made.
The other pics I got, supposedly from you via Howard were black and whites of a parallel motor and also a peculiar twin cam thing with a '26 type top end with screw in rockers, any idea what that is, or where the pics originated?
R
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Mitchell
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Posted: Fri Apr 18th, 2008 01:40 pm |
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| The parallel pics came from me but I know nothing about the cammy job. Regarding mty motor. The thought is that it was indeed cobbled together for OEC from bits and pieces. The rod is 7" and my barrel seems to be 29 type. later parallel pushrod barrels look shorter and I believe the rod would have been 6.5" and idential to the first left port 250 Manxmen. My cases are also different. Martin Shelley told me he was offered a bronze head parallel pushrod engine for £6k in the early 80s. An acquaintance bought all Eric Fernihough's Blackburne engines and disposed of most a decade ago. I believe taht you are right about the parallel pushrod engines being extremely rare. OEC raced one in 34 (ridden by Brockerton) and 35 (FWS Clarke) and it was probably the same engine. The parallel pushrods are achieved by an overhang on the cam followers giving higher lift. My cases need no modification to be converted to parallel type. I would dearly like to see a timing side pic of Brewin's 34 Lightweight bike. Pictured is Brockerton racing at the 1934 TT Attachment: 34 works bike sm.jpg (Downloaded 109 times)
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Mitchell
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Posted: Fri Apr 18th, 2008 01:40 pm |
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| The parallel pics came from me but I know nothing about the cammy job. Regarding mty motor. The thought is that it was indeed cobbled together for OEC from bits and pieces. The rod is 7" and my barrel seems to be 29 type. later parallel pushrod barrels look shorter and I believe the rod would have been 6.5" and idential to the first left port 250 Manxmen. My cases are also different. Martin Shelley told me he was offered a bronze head parallel pushrod engine for £6k in the early 80s. An acquaintance bought all Eric Fernihough's Blackburne engines and disposed of most a decade ago. I believe taht you are right about the parallel pushrod engines being extremely rare. OEC raced one in 34 (ridden by Brockerton) and 35 (FWS Clarke) and it was probably the same engine. The parallel pushrods are achieved by an overhang on the cam followers giving higher lift. My cases need no modification to be converted to parallel type. I would dearly like to see a timing side pic of Brewin's 34 Lightweight bike. Pictured is Brockerton racing at the 1934 TT Attachment: 34 works bike sm.jpg (Downloaded 108 times)
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Mitchell
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Posted: Fri Apr 18th, 2008 01:41 pm |
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| The parallel pics came from me but I know nothing about the cammy job. Regarding mty motor. The thought is that it was indeed cobbled together for OEC from bits and pieces. The rod is 7" and my barrel seems to be 29 type. later parallel pushrod barrels look shorter and I believe the rod would have been 6.5" and identical to the first left port 250 Manxmen. My cases are also different. Martin Shelley told me he was offered a bronze head parallel pushrod engine for £6k in the early 80s. An acquaintance bought all Eric Fernihough's Blackburne engines and disposed of most a decade ago. I believe taht you are right about the parallel pushrod engines being extremely rare. OEC raced one in 34 (ridden by Brockerton) and 35 (FWS Clarke) and it was probably the same engine. The parallel pushrods are achieved by an overhang on the cam followers giving higher lift. My cases need no modification to be converted to parallel type. I would dearly like to see a timing side pic of Brewin's 34 Lightweight bike. Pictured is Brockerton racing at the 1934 TT Attachment: 34 works bike sm.jpg (Downloaded 106 times)
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DM
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Posted: Sun Apr 20th, 2008 09:10 pm |
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Rick,
Checked with Chris who owns the Earle bike.
Mackintosh was Earle, His mother did not like him racing hence he entered under another name.
Dennis
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Mon Apr 21st, 2008 11:04 pm |
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Aha, thanyou for finding that out. In fact that seems to be not unusual. Denis Loveday our Brooklands veteran told me that he got his Gold Star on his friend Paul Verdier's ariel but Verdier raced as "A Paul" because his family didn't approve. I saw the Earle bike at Brooklands but didn't get to speak to the owner.
R
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bradisbetter
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Posted: Thu Apr 24th, 2008 08:32 am |
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Here's another special a mate of mine has just finished. Unfortunately on its first run his special silencer came off and was run over by two cars so he has just cobbled it together until a new one is made. Douglas
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Sat May 10th, 2008 10:30 am |
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Dennis, at Stafford I was looking through a book of photos on a stand and bought a couple. As I was looking through, I remember spotting an Excelsior among them. I half thought of buying it in case it was of interest but the pics were a fiver each and it might have been nothing like your bike. Having since seen a picture of Syd Crabtree I have a horrible feeling it was him on the Excelsior in the picture. I certainly saw his Andrew Lloyd Webber-alike face somewhere in the album because I rmember recognising it but being unable to put a name to it.
Question is, who was selling the photos. He was in the back corner hall, next to the Bonhams hall and he was next to my mate 'Daredevil' Dave's tee shirt stall if anyone has a programme there might be a name. Kick myslef now. I found a lovley print of Dave Whitworth on his Rex Acme at Brooklands and I should have got the guy's number. Still I think they were reprints so there must be others somewhere...
R
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zesingle
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Posted: Sat May 10th, 2008 07:22 pm |
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 A 1930 New Map with 500 JAP , it's a french motorcycle
350 JAP New Map racer
Last edited on Sat May 10th, 2008 07:27 pm by zesingle
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Mon May 12th, 2008 08:30 pm |
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Very nice, zesingle! I did some work on a 1929 Terrot-JAP last month.
Rick
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starfirebird
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Posted: Mon May 12th, 2008 08:52 pm |
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Rick Parkington wrote: Dennis, at Stafford I was looking through a book of photos on a stand and bought a couple. As I was looking through, I remember spotting an Excelsior among them. I half thought of buying it in case it was of interest but the pics were a fiver each and it might have been nothing like your bike. Having since seen a picture of Syd Crabtree I have a horrible feeling it was him on the Excelsior in the picture. I certainly saw his Andrew Lloyd Webber-alike face somewhere in the album because I rmember recognising it but being unable to put a name to it.
Question is, who was selling the photos. He was in the back corner hall, next to the Bonhams hall and he was next to my mate 'Daredevil' Dave's tee shirt stall if anyone has a programme there might be a name. Kick myslef now. I found a lovley print of Dave Whitworth on his Rex Acme at Brooklands and I should have got the guy's number. Still I think they were reprints so there must be others somewhere...
R
Rick, I have checked the programme. Daredevil was on stands 380-381. Ducati Spares were on one side on stands 376-379 and Mark Lowrie on stands 382-384 so seems most likely to have been Mark Lowrie. Hope this helps.
Hazel
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Rick Parkington
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Posted: Mon May 12th, 2008 11:49 pm |
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Thanks Hazel! That sounds about right, I seem to remember the Ducati stall was on t'other side. I should say that Angie pointed out that I am a complete dork for not taking a programme for this sort of thing.
R
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