It's the 1957 racing season for Aussie Keith Bryen......

This is the fifth blog if done featuring the racing photos of Keith Bryen, who led the life of a privateer on the Continental Circus during the early to mid 1950's, I guess ever hopeful of a factory sponsored ride, although Keith is too modest to acknowledge it.
During the TT of 1957 he rode a factory 350cc AJS and as with all the privateers, they started the season in Europe riding in minor race meetings before travelling to the IOM for the TT races.
Those following Keith's exploits will know he kindly sent me a CD-R with many of his photos on and I've featured them...
This is some of the early season shots......
Thanks Keith and Gwen....
Left click on the images to enlarge.....
At the Bourg-en-Bresse, France with his two bikes and Allen Trow, another privateer.























Lunchtime in the Bryen's van, at Bourg-en-Bresse, May 1957.



















On his 350 Norton, finished 3rd, Bourg-en-Bresse.

















Awaiting the start of the 500cc event, Bourg-en-Bresse.
























Gwen and Keith at the Grande Prix of the Sarre,Keith finished 4th. 12.05.1957.

















Over to the Isle of Man for the TT races....
Keith leads Walter Zeller, BMW during practice......
Keith is now on AMC machines, he notes he rode a factory 350 7R AJS, and is featured on a G45 Matchless, which I assume is also a factory entry.
A check of that years TT program reveals he was entered by Arter Bros. for the 350AJS and Bob Foster for the Matchless.....
He was 13th in the Junior TT and also 13th in the Senior TT.
















Keith on the G45


















On the G45 over Ballaugh Bridge.

Pen and ink drawing from "MotorCycling"..... yes I really like them....

Earlier blogs on pen and ink drawing can be found from the RHS index, but this little lot come from the Nov.2nd 1938 edition of "MotorCycling" and I wish to make acknowledgement to the copyright holders, Morton's Motorcycle Media, UK for their use.....
Great skill by the artist, with accuracy...usually any gear shown have the correct number of teeth etc....
A cartoon to finish..... another interest of mine and to be featured later......
Left click on the images to enlarge.....

Some items from the late Phil Irving's literature collection and some more from others ............

Phil Irving is well known to those of us interested in British Motorcycles and to digress, his autobiography really is a "must read".......
Following his death, eventually his literature collection was sold and occasionally the purchaser drops by with little "gems" that I make a copy of....better still, if it is Velocette he has of late been giving them to me......
Hope springs eternal.....
From one of Phil's four small black notebooks is a page on a supercharged Velocette that was in development while he was there....as it was early on, it is "Wiffling Clara", which Ivan Rhodes is currently restoring, and the Foxwell supercharger was proving ellusive to source, so he is having one made....PEI has helped with some notes...
Left click on images to enlarge.....























Phil at Veloce a little later, during WW2, was involved with the development of the MAF, a military variant of the MAC.























PEI was offered a job back at the Vincent-HRD company during 1943....















































During 1934, Vincent collaborated with R.C.Cross for the development of a rotary valve cylinder head...pictured is the rider, Millard, with R.C.Cross. Note the cable operated rear brakes.



















At Bathurst, NSW, Australia during the Easter races, Harold Braund is featured on his Vincent "Black Lightning" outfit with passenger Noel Bailey.
















A photo of Kel Carruthers' highly successful 1961 250/4 Honda, restored and just prior to shipment from Australia to his home in the USA.( Years back, I can't recall the date...)
The bike now is in the Barber Motorcycle Museum in Alabama.

















OEC record breaker, with Leo Tobin aboard...details of where and when are sketchy, so I'll follow this up in a later blog.

The Dowty Oleomatic Strut…more simply the Mk.8 KTT rear suspension unit…..

The Mk.8 KTT was the first production motorcycle to be fitted with a rear swinging arm and as we call it now the “twin shock” rear suspension setup.

The model was introduced around May 1939, although the Velocette factory racers had them from early 1936.

But let me look at these rear units first…..

Made by Dowty, a UK company in the Gloucester area….

George Dowty was an aircraft engineer, starting his engineering career at Heenan and Froude, well known for their engine test equipment, but during WW1 built aero engines under War Dept. contracts. His apprenticeship with them lasted from 1915-1918. He moved through various companies before joining the design staff at A.V.Roe in 1921 and published scientific papers in aviation journals and in the Institute of Aeronautical Engineers, several were of arresting mechanisms for aircraft for there were early attempts at what we now know as the aircraft carrier to launch and retrieve aircraft from ships.

During the latter half of 1920’s he published more papers on possible designs for aircraft undercarriages and a form of shock absorber strut.

He moved onto to the Gloster Aircraft Company in the design department shortly after and it was from here he made the decision to go out on his own.

He had formed his own company “The Aircraft Components Company” in 1930 while still at Glosters to sub contract out production of some of his designs but due to a misunderstanding in a quotation he made for the supply of six internally sprung wheels for the Kawasaki Company of Japan he was forced to make them himself and so with a small staff the future giant Dowty organisation was born.

It wasn’t until around 1932 that he offered the Dowty Oleo Pneumatic Strut for sale and readers so far are perhaps wondering as to this preamble….

It was early in 1936, barely 4 years after Dowty had started making these struts that Harold Willis and Percy Goodman of Veloce Ltd. made the trip to Cheltenham to speak to George Dowty about the supply of a special oleo leg to be used on the rear suspension of the factory Velocette racers.

Now who actually thought up the idea of this is shrouded in the mists of time, for all participants are dead and I’ve discussed this on numerous occasions with Ivan Rhodes.

The consensus between us seems to be that either Harold Willis, Charles Udall, possibly Phil Irving and others or all in discussion came up the idea of removing the rear fork section of their current rigid frame, welding a form of steering head casting across the rear down tube and fabricating some arms that initially were internally spined and slid onto a splined trunnion shaft ( some accuracy needed here to ensure the axle slots at the end of the forks were dead in line…). The “bearings” were the actual cup and cone steering head races.

Ivan has the one of the first frames made, designated SF2 and the picture below, clearly shows all the above.

Some form of springing and damping mechanism was needed.

As Harold Willis flew his own aircraft a DH60 Moth known by him as “Clattering Kate”, he obviously read the flight magazines, “Flight” and “The Aeroplane” of the day, as well as technical society papers and according to Charles Udall in an interview with Ivan late in Udall’s life , Willis was the one who came up with an idea and visits to the Dowty company in Glostershire, presumably with Percy Goodman, followed.

These units were fitted to the Veloce race team from 1936 and as mentioned offered on the production racer, the mk.8 KTT made by them for sale to the racing public from 1939 to its cessation in 1951.

I corresponded with the Dowty Organisation in the late 1970’s in an effort to unravel the puzzle but regrettably George Dowty, now Sir George after being knighted for his contributions to aviation, had died some 9 months earlier.

His replacement was unsure of this aspect of their early work and offered no help, so the matter rests as it is.

What are these units?

They have no internal spring and rely solely on air as the suspension medium, with oil as the damping medium, which can be adjusted. The units are pumped to 40 psi of air, which isn’t much and I’ve raced with them on my mk.8 KTTs and provided the internal seals are under oil ( which has a tendency to leak out), the units stay up and do work.

But what they would be like after over 200 miles of racing during an IOM TT race I cannot hazard a guess.

These first units illustrated below on the 1936 works bikes were machined from solid material and the external dust covers were leather sleeves.

Those fitted to the 1939 Mk.8 were a production version, but also had leather gaiters for dust protection and the damping adjustment was via a needle valve similar to an Amal carb. pilot jet. With the reintroduction of the mk.8 in 1947, the units were basically identical and Drew Duncan has kindly photographed one dismantled and laid out for inspection. The external dust cover was an aluminium sleeve with fibre blocks top and bottom, but the damping was done with a hollow bolt with two milled grooves of different widths to regulate the oil and effect damping. The bolt had an arrow stamped on the head of the bolt and this allowed the bolt to be rotated through up to just short of 90 degrees to mask off these grooves.

Below are a variety of photos to illustrate, from my archive and whose use is acknowledged to Morton’s Motorcycle Media, S.R. Keig Ltd and others.

Left click on images to enlarge….

Stanley Woods on his 1936 350 DOHC Velocette with rear oleo legs. IOM TT.

Prewar views of the rear Dowty Oleo legs....

David Whitworth, June 1939, IOM TT

Australian Frank Mussett, left and NZer Len Perry on their newly collected Mk.8 KTT racers in May 1939

A brace of Mk.8 KTT's in the Veloce race shop awaiting despatch to new owners, May 1939.

Post-war mk.8 KTT and factory rear oleos...

The post-war rear units dismantled.

A small device made to the factory instruction for inflating both units to the identical pressure. Difficult as using a normal tyre pressure guage with such a small amount of air in each leg meant that on removing the guage, the invariable loss of air differed in each leg.

Initially excess air is pumped into the unit and this device attached.

Careful study of the device show how the knurled screw rotates in and lifts the kilner valve seal open.

Using the carb. type pilot screw, air is slowly released to say 35 to 40 psi, depending on what you were using.

Then the knurled screw is rotated out allowing the kilner valve to seat and the inside of the oleo is at this pressure and when the device is unscrewed off the kilner valve, there is no internal air loss. Cunning.

Time for some more pen and ink drawings and cartoons from the Motorcycle media of the past.....

I've done several blogs on this subject and I admit again to being enthralled with the use if skilfully wielded pen and ink to illustrate a subject and to detail a cartoon that makes fun of aspects of the motorcycle scene we enjoy.....
Acknowledgements to Morton's Motorcycle Media, the families of the various artists for displaying their handiwork.....
Left click on images to enlarge.....