48 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
I did not havethe £60 he wanted but he was
very interested in finding a swinging arm Ariel Red
Hunter. After putting together a complicated deal to
acquire a friend’s Red Hunter, it all fell through.
Commiserating over a couple of ciders my old mate
Tuck mentioned he had the worn partial remains of
a post war Scott, which if I twisted his arm hard
enough, he would part with. So after putting
together another tortuous deal I became the proud
owner of a 1946 Scott Flying Squirrel.
After the first flush of enthusiasm and resisting the
urge to tear everything apart, I quickly concluded that
rebuilding the engine, and obtaining a radiator was
going to be costly. As I had a few other machines to
work on, I took the attitude that it was going to be a
long term project which would be worked on when
money, resources and new skills allowed.
The rolling chassis was the easiest part to start with,
stripping the paint off the frame found it in very good
condition, straight and undamaged, but there was
something odd about the frame. It took some time
for the penny to drop as the modification was so well
done, two additional loops of tube had been bronze
welded to the upper rear frame tubes to support the
rear mudguard. I then realised that the non-standard
rear mudguard was from a Francis Barnet! I decided to
keep the modifications, they looked so right and
Scotts are renowned for owner modifications.
Stripping the Dowty Air Forks (correct for 1946)
revealed they had been converted to the later
spring in-tension forks and everything was well
worn. Hard chroming the fork legs, turning up some
new bushes and a bit of hand scraping eventually
produced a good set of forks. The forks were one of
the first “upside down forks”; the fork legs slide up
and down inside the outer fork tube, a lot sturdier
than some of the alternatives. The Royal Enfield
double sided front wheel just needed a good clean
up and a new rim, although the double-sided single
leading shoe front brakes took some time to bed
down. The rear wheel was another issue altogether
and no doubt the rivet counters have already
spotted the problem. No matter how I tried, the
brake stay would not line up, further research
revealed that I had a swinging arm rear wheel. After
a bit of head scratching and a couple of cardboard
prototypes I made a rather neat brake anchor. Four
decades later Tuck found the correct rigid rear wheel
buried in a pile of Birmingham Swinging Arm Scott
bits, and it’s now sitting in my garage.
The three-speed gearbox was the next challenge;
originally a Velocette design that Scott bought after
Velocette moved to a 4-speed box. The Velocette
gearbox was attractive because the inboard clutch
lined up nicely with Scott engine’s primary drive
sprocket on the left hand side of the central
flywheel. The final drive sprocket sits on an
extended main-shaft and is supported by its own
self-aligning bearing assembly. Scott converted the
gearbox to foot change in 1934 by adding a ratchet
mechanism that moved the original gear selector.Stripping the gearbox revealed two related
problems, the input shaft bearing sleeve and the
bronze bush it ran in, were both badly worn. After
lapping the input shaft bearing sleeve for hours,
making a new bush, shimming the end float on the
shafts and hand scraping the new bush, it seemed
to go together quite nicely (more of this later).
The project stalled whilst I saved up enough
money to have the engine rebuilt by Sam Pearce, a
well-known Scott engineer. Although the engine is
relatively simple, it is not one on which you learn by
your mistakes, they are easily damaged and parts
can be difficult and expensive to obtain. The rebuild
took longer than planned, the badly worn barrels
had frost damage and another had to be found.
Sam ran it on his test rig explaining that those that
vibrated slightly were usually more powerful than
the smooth engines, however mine vibrated and
had the power of a smooth engine!
With the engine rebuilt we were on the home
straight, whilst I attended to all the plumbing,
rebuilding the Pilgrim pumps and electrics, there
were two more key items. Although I had found
a very second-hand later water tube radiator with
a loose baffle plate, I really wanted a honeycomb
radiator, they just look so much better. Replica
radiators were being made, they were expensive
and there was a waiting list. Arriving early at one
of the Scott National Rallys, I spotted a brand new
replica honeycomb radiator for sale at a bargain
price, I have never written a cheque so quickly.
The final key item was the twin cylinder Magdyno.
Scotts used a special Magdyno with different 1946 SCOTT FLYING SQUIRREL
The rebuild
in progress.The quirky Pilgrim
pump on the
crankcase door.MAIN The finished
product. Note the
Francis Barnett
rear mudguard
and brackets.
RIGHTThe prized
honeycomb
radiator.