Bike Fest, North Weald 2015

(ink sketch)

It's been a while since I have visited North Weald, it is great to see the airfield being used for a sprint event. Bike Fest runs a Test & Tune category that enables anyone with the correct attire and a motorcycle of any description to take part in the sprint. This means that you get a great range of machines that turn up, from standard road machines to purpose built drag bikes. I spent time with some legendary and classic sprint machines on a Sunny Sunday afternoon:

Mighty Mouse

(ink sketch)

Super Mouse

(ink sketch)

 I was very happy to see Brian Chapman and his two legendary machines at North Weald. I had heard the name Mighty Mouse mentioned a lot when researching drag bikes and having a chance to chat with Brian about his bikes was great. Brian was a self employed carpenter from Waltham Abbey. Hegot involved with time trials using various machines which were also used for every day use, as many people did back then as they couldn’t afford a second motorcycle. On one occasion Brian entered his Vincent Comet into a club time trial, having to compromise on his tuning aspirations, as it had to get him to work the next day, Brian decided it was time to build a purpose built machine. Mighty Mouse was the result, the engine came from a 500cc Vincent Comet. The bike was developed over many years with its main achievements, A.C.U. British Drag-Race Champion, B.D.R. & H.R.A. Bike Champion, N.D.R.C. Overall Bike & Top Bike Champion, all in 1977. The fastest time to date is 8.81 seconds at 157.9 m.p.h. Its last incarnation features a supercharger which comes from an aeroplane cabin pressuriser. This was a popular choice for drag bikes of the period and is normally coupled with an S.U. carburettor from a Jaguar, which was easily found in a scrapyard of the time. Mighty Mouse improved every season that Brian raced it until he got under 10 seconds which is a major achievement for the time and machine used. Brian then went on to get his time under 9 seconds making him the first person in the world to achieve this on a 500cc machine.

Many times Brian would beat twin engined machines on the single cylinder Mighty Mouse, one race of note was when Brian and Mighty Mouse match raced against Danny Johnson on his double engined 3500cc Harley ‘Goliath’. Brian was invited to America in 1978 where his machine beat more double engined Harleys during his visit.

Towards the end of Mighty Mouses development in the late 1970s early 1980s, Brian decided to apply what he had learnt with Mighty Mouse to build a drag bike using a Vincent twin called Super Mouse, which debuted in 1981. Brian stuck with the same configuration he had with the single by using two superchargers, one per barrel. The bike worked just as well as its predecessor and the times dropped down to 8.25 seconds at 170 m.p.h. In 1982 Brian was thrown off the bike, the bike was rebuilt and run but Brian soon retired from competitive racing.

1937 Velocette 250cc Ossie Neal Special

(ink sketch)

Well I can't get enough of Ossie Neals specials this is the third I've sketched this year! Knowing that this Velocette was going to be at North Weald was one of the main reasons for attending the event.

The Velocette has all the trademarks of an Ossie Special, Holes on every sensible surface in order to save weight

The Velocette barrel was made from two different barrels in order to give high compression. Many parts on these bikes show what an engineer Ossie Neal was, from copper exhausts on the Scott to variable screw in jets so that they didn’t have to be changed at a meeting. Ossie’s Irish heritage is apparent on the machines as he used to attach coins to various parts of the bikes for good luck. Sheelagh has been asked to identify  one of his bikes in the past and when she saw a coin on the machine she had no doubt it was one of his.

Seeing these specials out of the workshop and being used by Sheelagh makes me so happy and I’m sure it would make Ossie happy too. These bikes are built for a purpose and that is racing. Many machines like this that are not used and I tend to agree with Sheelagh when she says that if the bike goes ‘bang’ then at least it was doing what it was built to do when it does.  

Ossie’s Irish heritage is apparent on the machines as he used to attach coins to various parts of the bikes for good luck. Sheelagh has been asked to identify  one of his bikes in the past and when she saw a coin on the machine she had no doubt it was one of his.

Ozzie Neal's Sprint outfit.

BSA B25 Sprint Bike

(ink sketch)

This B25 was the type of sprint bike I was hoping to find at North Weald. Like the Bantam Sprint bike I sketched at the beginning of the year at Newark this bike shows how a vintage sprint bike can be built and run at a low cost. The frame was scratch built by the owner Philip Hazelwood out of Reynolds tubing. The engine itself hasn't been tuned but it has been supercharged. Philip has used a unit that comes from a small South American Ford that is currently in production. Coupled with an SU carb it looks just the part. The bike also runs on Methanol to give it even more pep. The bike has been in constant evolution. One of the modifications of note was moving the fuel tank up front as it was originally hung front the top tube and as the bike took off the fuel moved to one end of the tank which stopped it getting out. Moving it to the front now allows the fuel run freely. It is also made from an Atco mower fuel tank which gives me an idea of how to use the one I have stashed away somewhere!

1933 New Imperial Grand Prix

(pencil sketch)

There weren't as many classic bikes as I'd hoped to see at the event but this New Imperial more than made up for that. To the best of the owners knowledge it was bought in 1997 at a Hendon sale, from an estate which included some Spitfires amongst the auction line up. Nothing is known about this particular bike, but the owner has been actively racing it whenever possible.

 More Photos...

GM 500cc Sprinter for sale at £2700 ono!

JAP Engined Sprint Bike

Stripped to the bone Honda

Good to see the Yellow Peril on display

The bigger brother to the B25

Pit antics

Nice AJS in the bike park...

chained to this great Vincent.

A rather smart Magni Moto Guzzi.

Donald Campbell's Blue Bird Sunbeam Runs at Pendine Sands

I attended the event described in the article below, the top image and the engine detail were sketched in pencil on site. The inking, and the last two panels were done back in the studio using reference photos from my phone. Events like this are difficult to sketch at, but I thought I'd try something different with this one as it was such a special occasion. I will let the article explain the rest, hope you enjoy it....

Blue Bird Returns to Pendine (ink with digital colour)

VMCC Founders Day 2015

1912 Rudge 'Brooklands Special'

 (ink sketch)

This is a special machine indeed, 35 years ago the long time owner Dave McMahon rode to Brighton on his Rudge. Whilst having a rest a passer by started looking at his bike. Realising that it was a Rudge he told Dave that his son kept telling him about a Rudge that was rotting away in a hotel basement. Dave took his details and traveled back to see the bike. On seeing it Dave knew it was an early machine but it was in a bad state, it had been in a bad crash and it was rotting badly. He offered to buy it from the owners of the hotel who were, according to Dave, the biggest gangsters you ever saw. They turned up in a very fancy car, negotiated a price and split the £130 between them. Dave had to fix boards to the bike to get it out of the basement in one piece. Once on the trailer the journey managed to shake the machine down to half it's original height! 

Dave researched into the bike and found that the frame and engine numbers indicated that this was the first bike to break 60mph at Brooklands. Dave assumes that it was raced after this event and ended it's career with the crash and left in the Hotel Basement.

1931 Triumph 250cc Sprint Bike

(ink sketch)

My very first sketch of 2015 was a Scott Hill Climb Outfit built by Ossie Neal and still campaigned by his daughter Sheelagh. Whilst sketching the Rudge Sheelagh turned up with this fantastic Triumph. It was another of Ossies bikes which started was originally a road racer in the early 1950's. It was turned into a sprint machine in the late 1950's, with further modifications using BRM H16 parts in the 1960's.

The bike is still campaigned by Sheelagh where it's allowed as the exhaust emits 126 decibels which is too high for some events. It runs 14.5 second quarter miles on straight petrol, apparently it didn't like methanol. The compression is 7 1/2 - 8 to 1, and the bike doesn't have a power band it just provides straight torque all the way.

Sheelagh told me that her father always put coins on his machines as part of an Irish tradition.

Once she was asked to confirm whither a bike was built by her father. On seeing the bike she found a coin mounted on it and that answered the owners question.

Another distinguishing element of Ossie's machines is the colours, this particular colour came from left over paint from Cambridgshire County Council. It was the colour they used to paint their doors.

The other side of the Triumph.

Imme R100

(ink sketch)

Look closely and you will see some unusual things going on with this machine. Norbert Riedel worked on designing a starter engine for the Messersmitz 262 jet fighter. After the war he started to play around with ideas for a small production motorcycle. Steel was hard to get hold of and so he had to think of ways round this. He was told that he could have 3 meters of 40mm tubing per bike, and so he decided to make the frame, front fork and rear swinging arm / exhaust all out of this tube. This explains not only the minimal frame but the fact that the front fork only has one side and so does the rear swinging arm / exhaust.

The Exhaust also doubles up as the swinging arm!

The engine name also translates as 'Power Egg'!

More Photos...

The Taverners Section who run Founders day have a strong trials connection

It was great to see some great trials Bantams, as it always inspires to get mine finished!

There is always a jumbler at founders day who has some fantastic cycle motors. 

 A very smart van conversion of a Morgan 3 wheeler.

 The theme for the day was Mods and Rockers, there seemed to be more Rockers than Mods though.

My pick of the Rockers bikes was this TriBSA with Dustbin fairing.

 Last spot of the day was Rob with his newly completed Levis cycle motor.

The engine is New Old Stock.

The frame is a cycle master making it heavier duty than a standard frame.

The fuel tank is two fire extinguishers welled together, with a lawnmower fuel cap.

A very smart job and I look forward to see this a bit further down the road once he's run it in a bit!

Dirt Quake IV

4 years on and Dirt Quake is continuing to get bigger and better. Organised by Sideburn Magazine the event is not only a fun spectators sport as road bikes and choppers are ridden round the track. It also works as a fantastic way to introduce people to the world of flat track racing without having to invest in a race bike. Additions to the usual madness (See my reports from 2014, 2013 & 2012) were Ken Foxes Wall of Death, Flat Track Limbo and Davros entertained on the Saturday evening!

As well as the main Dirt Quake event the DTRA ran Round 4 of their ever growing race series which is getting not only bigger but more competitive. I urge people to try and watch at least one round of this fantastic sport at a racetrack near or far from you!!

Enough chat I will let the sketches and photos do the talking....

DTRA Rookie Bikes

(ink sketch)

Honda Flat Tracker 

(ink sketch)

Bantam Street Tracker

(ink sketch)

 Richard Baybutt's Honda Helix

(Garden Trug Mode)

(ink sketch)

Turtle Ninja, Dirt Vespa

(ink sketch)

 Turtle Ninjas in full effect alongside their arch enemy Shedder aka Maxwell Paternoster.

Photos....

More bikes from the DTRA Rookie class

Vintage Speedway bikes were on display and on the track during the event. 

Here you can see some of Classic Race Jackets fantastic hand made reproduction speedway bibs.

 Eat The Rich's 'Old Blue' in it's 2015 guise

 Davida's 'Bird is the Word' ladies entry was more like a Peregrine Falcon on the track!

 Good to see a two stroke OSSA on the track.

 Good looking Matchless Competition

 Hard Luck Tattoo's Dirt Quaker.

 Honda Dax in the mix showing the variety of machines on the track.

 Harley Heavy Weight

 Norton Domi Racer one of fifty built, on the Krazy Horse stand.

In the Car Park

The Trip Out's amazing Econoline alongside another!

A couple of traditional flathead rods to finish.