"Classic Allparts"....Classic Motorcycle Parts available in Sydney......

Every large city at some time in the past had a shop that specialised in motorcycle spare parts...
We had several in Sydney, but time has taken its toll and Jack Graham Motorcycles closed a year or so back after trading from prewar, Ryans Motorcycles 10 years or so ago closed, Allparts over 10 years ago, W.F.Omodei, the list goes on......
This left Jim Eade Motorcycles as the last survivor still trading.
Trading from before WW2.....
A year or so back Max Eade, son of the original propritor, Jim Eade, decided it was time to "hang up his apron" and as luck had it Bob Milner who had purchased a lot of the old Allparts parts cache intending to trade at swap meetings etc was able to arrange a deal with Max and so intitially Eade-Classic Allparts, but now Classic Allparts took over.
Same address.... 536-540 Parramatta Road, Ashfield, NSW 2131, Australia.
Same telephone numbers...02.9798.7822 ( international +61.2.9798.7822) and fax 02.9799.9798 (+61.2.9799.9798)
Postal Address; P.O. Box 8, Riverwood, NSW 2210, Australia.
But now with a website.... www.classicallparts.com
And email....classicallparts@bigpond.com
















So in this era of shrinking parts we source them from where we can.....
Lets take a stroll through Classic Allparts.....
Left click on images to enlarge....
















Bob Milner now tends to customers needs. Bob has been involved with motorcycles all his life and had a career in aviation engineering, as well he's a member of the Australian Velocette Owners Club.
I mentioned Bob bought a large part of the old Allparts cache...he has much of this stored elsewhere and so spends Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and occasional Saturdays at this new venue and the rest of the time sorting and searching for parts from this cache to fill orders received.
















I mentioned Max Eade...after a lifetime in the trade he finds it hard to resist a day a week assisting ..."I'm scared if I don't keep exercising the brain I might end up with dementia!..."

















Racks and racks of organised new parts , basically now 1950's onwards but still some prewar stuff around...it often pays to enquire.
































Racks of second hand parts...

The Motor Cycle Book for Boys 1928........

For 1928, "The MotorCycle" produced what they intended to be an annual for boys , introducing them to motorcycling.
Regretably it only appeared in 1928 and there were no more editions, for what reason I have never ascertained.
As you will see from the following, it has really neat and interesting information, cartoons, pen and ink drawings and a double page spread of petrol tank colour schemes...really handy for a restoration.
195 pages, 11" x 8.5" and 3/4" thick......
I rarely see any for sale, but there was one in the UK auction mid 2008... see the extract from the sale prices below...
Gasp....
Left click on images to enlarge....

Further racing photos from Keith Bryen's photo album....1956

This is a series of blogs featuring the Australian privateer, Keith Bryen ( finally rewarded with a factory Moto Guzzi ride in late 1956) from photographs he kindly provided me from his private collection.
He briefly wrote to me over them, and they tell the story well of the nomadic life led by these intrepid racers on the "Continental Circus"...a far cry from the MotoGP of today...
Keith says...
"...1956 was a good year for me as I gradually improved and gained a lot of confidence.
Never at any stage did I harbour any thoughts of becoming a factory rider, I was just enjoying the racing and being able to see other parts of the world and having Gwen with me made it all so much more enjoyable....."
Below is Keith in his first race in 1956 in Europe at Silverstone, UK and it was wet....
Left click on the images to enlarge...
















Racing in Florreffe, Belgium, 6th May 1956....















Hotel de Florreffe, Belgium.....


















20th May 1956, Chimay, Belgium, surveying a seized 350cc Norton...
















Refuelling depot in the pits, Hockenheim, Germany.















Hockenheim, Germany, 13th May 1956...






























Gwen holds Keith goggles preparing for racing at Hockenheim.
















On the starting grid at Hockenhein, 13th May 1956.

The "Southern Cloud", lost in 1931, wreckage found in 1958...a magneto comes to light in 2009....

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm are two names in aviation in the 1920's and 1930's that bring to mind long distance aviation record attempts in the London to Sydney and the cross Pacific Ocean flights.
Both died in these pursuits sadly, but this blog is not about their exploits, rather an aircraft that was one of a fleet of several Avro 10 Trimotors made under license to Fokker, named "Southern Cloud" and Australian registered VH-UMF, it was similar in appearance to Smithy's favourite aircraft "Southern Cross", itself a Fokker Trimotor.
Smith and Ulm had formed the fledgling airline ANA...Australian National Airways in 1929.
The following two photos are of "Southern Cross", VH-USU with a poor photo of "Southern Cloud" taken from another aircraft and a pic of a painting of a model made much later of "Southern Cloud" in country around the Southern Alps of Australia.
Credit for these following photos goes to Ian Mackersey from his book "Smithy", the life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, published by Warner books 1999 edition ISBN 0 7515 2656 8, and information from articles by Mathew Higgins, senior curator People and Environment, titled "Another Piece of Southern Cloud laid to rest" in Friends magazine, Vol.17,No.3, September 2006 and "Into the Abyss and back" by Macarthur Job, published in Flight Safety Magazine, July-August 2006.
And photos of the crash site and Tom Sonter, from the website of the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT. NMA Homepage/Collections/Southern Cloud clock. These photos by Matthew Higgins.
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/southern_cloud_clock/
Left click on the images to enlarge....
































































































































The "Southern Cloud" took off from Sydney's main airport of the time, Mascot aerodrome on the morning of March 21st 1931.
In those days there was little in the way of meteorological information to help pilots, and many actually referred to the morning newspapers isobar chart on a map of Australia... based on information from the previous 24 hours and and some educated scientific guesswork.
The weather bureau initial forecast had been for wind with heavy rain.

































Some hours after the plane had taken off the weather bureau revised its forecast for the Southern Alps to conditions bordering on cyclonic and with no radios fitted in those days there was no means of communicating with the pilot Travis Shortridge, who undoubtably was a skilled pilot, having survived WW1 aerial warfare....
The co-pilot was Charles Dunnell and there were six passengers two of whom were women.
By Goulburn, some 120 miles south of Sydney, the aircraft would likely have run into the edge of the closing weather and Shortridge would have had no idea of any changed wind direction, speed and drift... a receipe for disaster.
The reverse flight from Melbourne to Sydney, another ANA aircraft "Southern Moon" that left also that morning experienced tailwinds of 160kph plus...It arrived safely in Sydney following a buffetted, rough, albiet fast ride.
"Southern Cloud" never arrived at Melbourne's Essenden airport and a large search was mounted with ground parties, aircraft from ANA piloted by Smith, Ulm and others, all to no avail.
A court of enquiry was convened and if nothing else, air safety went up a notch with the recommendation that all aircraft have radios, which became compulsory for commercial passenger aircraft.During the 1950's Australia embarked on a major hydro-electric program in the Snowy Mountains in the Southern Alps and large numbers of workers were employed.
One, a carpenter, Tom Sonter, who liked to bush walk and take photographs on the day off they likely had each week, was bush walking on Sunday 26th October 1958,when he stumbled onto the wreckage of a crashed aircraft. He went for help and returned with co-workers and later Police and air crash investigators. One of the co-workers was Morley Robson, father of the wife of my best friend, Jim Day.
The wreckage was that of the ill fated "Southern Cloud"....after 27 years, she had finally been found and for the loved ones of the deceased on board closure could occur.
The following photos show the type of terrain, the site and a memorial plaque at the site.






































































Various parts of the aircraft which had crashed were salvaged and with bushfires having burnt through the area in the many years since the crash there would be damage to items on the site. Some of these form parts of a memorial display as you leave Cooma on the road to Jindabyne and Thredbo in and around the area near the crash site.
Other items are held by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, ACT and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
On 26th October 2008, 50 years after the discovery a memorial service was held. The discoverer, Tom Sonter attended.
He is pictured below at the site during the memorial service.































Sadly Morely Robson is long dead, but he had salvaged items, unknown by official sources, and held for years in an old sugar sack, a sack I believe may have been used to transport them from the site all those years ago, and some items were wrapped in newspaper. He gave this sack to Jim Day, his son-in-law and who held it tucked away on a shelf in his shed for more years. Jim had dragged one item out several years back, a damaged magneto from one of the three aero engines to show me. We discussed donating it to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, who have an excellent section of early aviation items, including many engines from WW1 onwards.
The opportunity occured on Saturday 11th July 2009 when we attended an open day at the museum's aircraft repository at Castle Hill.
Following a conversation with the curator, Ian Debenham, Jim by now having flown to the USA to participate in this years US Velo Club's annual Rally/ride, I took the sack to Ian's office with details of the family etc and its method of discovery.
Had an interesting comment via email from a motorcycling friend, Dave Blissett after reading this blog...seems his father's brother, Bob Blissett was a policeman stationed at Cooma during the period the "Southern Cloud" was discovered and accompanied the first investigating party to go to the crash site.
Small world....
Before I left home in the morning I laid out the contents of the sack to photograph and two photos follow of the contents.
This was the first time I had observed all the items.






























































The damaged old newspaper proved an invaluable item..it was dated... "The Sunday Telegraph 26th October 1958", the day they found the "Southern Cloud"....
Poignent reminders of the personal tragedy of the families of the crash victims can be seen with the metal clasps of a womens purse, some shards of glass likely from a womens compact.
As well there are spokes from the wheels, several spark plugs and of course the magneto, covered in dirt off the crash site from all those years back.
The Powerhouse museum will conserve these items and they will in due course form part of a display with full credit to Morley Robson and his family.
With the current spate of civil aircrashes fresh in our minds...Air France off South America, the Russian aircraft tonight in Iran.... little has changed with time, the anguish of those left behind in such tragedies remains heartbreaking.....

The 1936 Velocette DOHC engine....some say a disaster, but was it?

Browsing through the motorcycle weeklies of 1936 prior to TT time we come across a comment that Velocette had some secret internal modifications to their race engines...
In fact Velocette introduced a double overhead camshaft engine in their 350 racers for the first time and this pre-empted Norton.
See the comment from a weekly....
Left click on the images to enlarge....
























Three engines were built for the 1936 TT. I'm unsure if they tried them in earlier races, but the factory records list them as having been built on 13th May 1936.
Engine numbers KTT483/S;KTT482/S and KTT481/s, with the riders being Stanley Woods, Ted Mellors and Ernie Thomas. Additionally Woods and Thomas' machines had the new rear spring frame. Mellors eschewed this for the tried and tested rigid one and interestingly used a block pattern front tyre on his machine....
Listed is a page from the factory KTT records and list special racing engines for 1936 and 1937.
















The motorcycle weeklies were filled with sketches of the engines and the valve train...this from The MotorCycle 28th May 1936.
























Following are photos, courtesy of S.R.Keig Ltd., Circular Road, Douglas, IOM of these three machines with their riders.









































































































The start is Ted Mellors pushing off...note the block front tyre....
Photo credit Fox Photos, London.


















This shot is Ted Mellors rounding the Governors Bridge hairpin and the DOHC cambox is clearly visible.Photo credit Fox Photos, London.
















So after all the fanfare, what actually happened to them in the TT. The most publicised was the failure of Stanley Woods machine during the first lap with what was later reported as a sheared oldham coupling in the camshaft drive train. It was considered the additional load of the gear train etc contributed to it.
But the other two finished....




















Looking at the ACU Stewards report of the race you will see that Ted Mellors came third and Ernie Thomas fourth. But a closer look reveals that Thomas crashed on lap 6 and was at that stage lying second, a minute and a half behind the winner Freddie Frith and over two minutes ahead of "crasher" White who eventually came second.
It is likely Thomas couldn't have won the race, but he probably would have finished second.
But as the old saying goes..."if your Aunt had balls she'd be your Uncle"....
Harold Willis the Velocette design and race chief was said to have gone off the DOHC idea after this...he seemed to be a rather superstitious man and reverted to the SOHC layout.
Norton of course took up the idea and made well out of it.
It seems that the DOHC was rarely used in the later European GP's of 1936, Mellors, who did the GP's in Europe for Velocette used the Mk.6 KTT prototype, Stanley Woods was contracted for the Irish races, the IOM TT and the Belgium GP. However a photo of Mellors in the Swedish GP appears to be on a DOHC machine, but this photo in the weeklies is poor quality and I could just be hoping it was the DOHC engine...
So what happened to these engines???
Following the outbreak of WW2, Frank Mussett the Australian rider who appears to have struck up a good friendship with Percy Goodman, the Velocette managing director and designer, was given an engine and additional head/cambox which he took back to Melbourne, Australia.
During the war, Sid Willis, a well known lightweight rider was able to purchase a head/cambox from Mussett and used it on both his 250 and 350 racers to good effect.
Sid told me that on his favourite piece of road south of Sydney, used for testing, usually around dawn...the Heathcote Road, he gained another 1000revs over his SOHC setup on his 250.
Sid took this 250 DOHC to Europe in 1953 and finished 5th in the 250 IOM TT, the first privateer home.
Sid is pictured in the pits at the IOM in 1953. Photo credit again to S.R.Keig Ltd., Circular Road, Douglas, IOM.























The complete engine ended up also in Sydney in the hands of Ron Kessing, another successful Velocette racer who was in business with Don Bain in Enfield, Sydney as "Bain And Kessing" during the late 1940's.
Pictured outside their shop around 1948, is the DOHC 350 beside another ex factory 500 SOHC racer from 1934, it nicknamed "The Monster"...notice the "Loch Ness "monster seat... used on factory Velocettes before Velocette sold the patent for the dual seat to Feridax Ltd.


















The following photo is of Sid Willis in the 1950's in Australia, not at Bathurst GP/TT races as he is carrying #30 and always rode #45 at Bathurst. The bike is a DOHC Velocette, but whether it is a 250 or 350 we can't be sure as Sid used the head on both. The date is 1954 or later as he is riding a Smith frame, a copy of the Beasley frame he bought from Doug St.Julian Beasley while in the UK in 1953 and crashed it badly at the last race, for him, of 1953, the hill climb in Freiburg, Germany. The frame was supposed to be repaired in Sydney by Stan "Nugge" Smith, who built a jig off it and built Sid a new frame, cutting up his original Beasley frame to investigate the tubing used, much to Sid's annoyance.


















The third DOHC cambox was brought to Australia by Keith Campbell, the Melbourne based racer who won a world championship for Moto Guzzi and who tragically was killed racing. Keith brought a pile of factory Velocette parts back with him early in the 1950s and Gordon Harper a mate of Sid Willis and Jack Hogan rushed down and bought some of it, including a DOHC setup.
Jack Hogan used one on his 250 as a DOHC and won the 250 TT at Bathurst in 1955.
This cambox is in Western Australia and is featured in the photos following...
The engine is the ex Jack Hogan engine which won the 1955 250 TT at Bathurst, west of Sydney.










































The cylinder head featured is a locally made one from special aluminium and cast by Sid Willis from a pattern made up by Ted Carey. Ted had made his own DOHC 250 setup on a MOV engine in 1948 and will feature in a later blog. These heads were nicknamed "Carey heads".
The original heads were initially used for the "Dog Kennel" engines, which were SOHC and the camboxex being easily removed, the DOHC version could be fitted to these heads.
One is featured below, ex Gordon Harper.















Finally a few parts from the DOHC setup... note the "pushers" between the cam and valve...they are made hollow and two piece to keep the unsprung weight down.
Ever inovative were Velocette.....