The Classic MotorCycle – September 2019

alreadylavishedonthis oddity.Nevertheless,questions

lie unanswered. So far,Paulhas spentaround £16,000 on

the initialpurchase and restoration.This mightseema

lot oftime and investmentonanunknown, butwhat if

it turnsouttobeworthasmall for tune? Of coursethat’s

not whyPaulboughtit. He just sa witasafascinating

proj ect–butwhat if?

Anyway,backtothe plot.Thebikewas purchased

fromagunsmith inBirmingham.This pr eviousowner

hadowned it fo rover25years andhadperformeda

number ofuseful jobsonthe bike,such asre-routeing

the rodfootbrake andfittingafront brak e, as it didn’t

have onefitted. He alsodid most of the baremetal work

on theframe and engineplates ,recoverin gthe original

framefixings, and makinggood thecycle th reads inthe

correct nickelfinish.Thehandlebarswere alsorepaired

and new partswere replacedasnecessary.

Butthenasthe years passed, he lost interest.

Intriguingly, hehadabit of oral hi storythat mayormay

not be true ,that the bike hasaBrooklands connection,

andmay have donesome racingthere. Perhaps that

explainedthe lackofafron tbrake?But wasittrue? Or is

this just anadd ed fanciful fabletagged on over th eyears

FishtailsareVelocette/Brooklandscan-esque.

Earlysaddle-typetankencapsulates

thetoptubeoftheframe.Thesolid

silverSpeedman’stypewatchis

fittedforspecialoccasionsonly.

Asinglecarburettor,with the

floatbowlstampedBrown

and Barlow,feedstheV-twin

viaaT-jointinlettube.

Ornatevalveliftermechanism, whichoperatesonbothcylinders.

Cowleyspeedo ismounted on

thesideofthepetroltank.

Magnetochaincoverlookstobe

well polished–whoknowswhat

it mighthavesaid on there?

40 THE CLASSICMOTORCYCLE|SEPTEMBER 2019