A stop gap blog of some of DQ's archival photos.......

Its time for another blog, I've been otherwise occupied in preparing for printing the latest Aust. Velo OC magazine and, well admit it DQ you're just too lazy to complete the research of some items in the pipeline......

So bear with me, with this offering of photos of no particular theme from my collection and apologies if the odd one has been featured before.... acknowledgements to S.R. Keig Ltd, Fox Photos and Morton's Motorcycle Media who own the copyright on several photographs....

Left click on images to enlarge...

This Mk.7 KTT, photographed 23.01.1947, owned by Bill O'Rourke, features a Rex McCandless conversion to a swing arm rear suspension....

Taken in 1954 following their victory in both the 250cc, 350cc and unlimited class with a 250cc BMW and a 600cc BMW in the first 24hour race held at the Mt.Druitt circuit on the western outskirts of Sydney. L-R...Wal Hawtry, Jack Humphries, Don Bain, Don Flynn, Jack Forest, Len Roberts.The 250 won its class by 54 laps and the 350cc class by 19 laps....Don Bain was involved with the machine's preparation as well as riding it, and I recall he told me scrutineering was not of the standard for originality of later years........

Brookland banking under repair during the winter layoff, 22.11.1935.

A pic scanned from a book on the R75 BMW...shows an outfit bogged to the axles in mud on the Eastern Front in 1941.......

H. Tyrell Smith aboard the Excelsior 4 valve, IOM TT 1936....

I originally had this photo above as the mechanical marvel Excelsior, hover and email in June 2012 corrected me...

".....Your photo of Tyrell Smith does not show him on an Excelsior Mechanical Marvel, these were 1933/34 bikes and pushrod, christened Mechanical Marvel because they went from the drawing board to win the TT. Tyrell was still riding Rudge in 1933/4 and did not ride for Excelsior till slightly later.

  Tyrell is in fact on one of the later works overhead camshaft 4 valve racing bikes made by Excelsior. if you need any further info, I have done a book called Excelsior the Racing Years , there are loads of period shots showing both types of bike and riders.

 I hope this helps .All the best regards, Paul." 

Ulster GP, probably 1959...MZ.

Smiths IOM raceshop, or rather tent...likely 1947 or 1948 .

Bathurst, NSW 1978, Tony Hatton aboard my ( then) Carey engined MAC in a Smiths frame ( copy of an English Beasley frame).....

The 2009 National Australian Velocette Rally....a brief wander through some of my rally photos....

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I would be absent for some 10 days....
I'm back in Sydney, currently finishing the editing for the lastest Australian Velocette OC magazine, FishTailDownUnder, which I want to get to the printers in a day or so, such that with a little luck, the 710 members of the Club will get their copy for a Christmas read.....
Organising the many photographs I took, seemed a good time to briefly take you, via some pics, through the rally, superbly organised by the Club's Western Australian centre, based as mentioned in an old , now disused, timber town, Donnelly River, some 4 hours south of Perth.
We checked in Sunday afternoon 15th Nov. meeting up with fellow club-members not usually seen for a year, due to the vast distances the Club encompasses...Sydney is some 4500 Km away...
Incidently one rider, Stuart Hooper - a name perhaps familiar to some as the man who is currently setting records on the salt lake, Lake Gairdner, South Australia on a Velo...131mph earlier this year- rode his Venom from Brisbane in Queensland the over 5000km in 5 days to the rally and of course proudly accepted the long distance award...
Stuart is featured below with myself on the left, Stuart in the middle with the award and Jim Day on the right. Stuart insisted we be photographed together...all cross Australia Velo riders ( mine and Jim's were done in Dec/Jan. 1969 on a Velo Thruxton and MSS).
Left click on the images to enlarge....




















While we are on awards, and the Club really isn't made up of "pot-hunters", but we do have some special awards...featured is the Keith Hamilton award for the youngest rider at the rally...for the second year awarded to Annette Albrecht from South Australia. The late Keith Hamilton had many friends worldwide and was a frequent contributor to the several Velocette internet sites.
Rally organiser, Paul Barfoot presents the award.
























The ride was a "hub rally", with us going for daily rides over 6 days.
Below is a stop at Walpole, on the southern coast followed by an aerial tree walk though a Tingle Tree forest. These trees grow only in this area.

































The rally as mentioned was based in an old timber camp and illustrated is the Rally HQ, aptly named "Hall Green Works" for the rally duration.

















There is always a funny side to everything and on day 2 we called in a "Gnomesville"...well it was an area near a round-a-bout on a road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, except there were gnomes or rather gnome statues everywhere!
I wont go into why...but we created a new gnome hamlet amongst then, named "Ven-gnome-ville"....
















There was native fauna everywhere to the delight of the international visitors, all loaned motorcycles, mostly Velocettes, by West Australian Centre members. Four from The Netherlands, two from New Zealand, one from the UK, five from the USA.
We organised as best we could a final photoshoot...seems the Western Grey kangaroos, lorrikeets and emus also participated....














































Regretably all good things come to an end and this occured with a farewell dinner on the final Saturday evening.....
A nice touch was the special Velocette oriented place-mats and the special menus, Velocette red wine, black, gold and silver balloons......









































































The next day, Sunday 22nd, was the closing of the two shipping containers, re-loaded with Velocettes for the trip back to the Eastern States via train...they are in transit as I write this....
Next year the 2010 National Australian Velocette Rally is in Northern NSW at Lennox Head on the East Coast...we look forward to it and thank each and every member of the Western Australian Centre of The Velocette Owners Club of Australia for their generosity, hospitality and companionship.
A great rally in what has become a tradition for the Australian Velocette Owners Club....

DQ's off the the 2009 National Australian Velocette Rally in Western Australia...the TT Rally...this blog an introduction.....

This will be my last blog until around 25th November....
The 2009 Annual Australian Velocette Owners Club rally is about to start....called the TT Rally it is to be run for a week based from Donnelly River, some 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia.
I live in Sydney on the East Coast of Australia as do a large percentage of the 700 or so club membership.....but the WA crowd are a resorceful lot and took up the challenge again to run a large national Velocette rally, again with an international flavour...they last did it in 2003 when they ran the Cape to Cape Velocette Rally, at nearby Margaret River.
A great success.....
They had a large international attendence then as now and John Jennings, JJ to his friends, has co-ordinated it again and tells me over 10% of the entrants are Internationals, all loaned Velos by WA locals.... on ya John and the lads....
In 2003 I drove over, trailering two Velos with three in the car, a 10,600km round trip....Jim Day and I rode 500cc Velos over and back in 1969...for a while I had a rush of blood to the head and the thought of redoing the ride, some 40 years later entered my mind...but only for a little while, then, for me anyhow, reason prevailed and 10 hours in a plane plus 8 hours in a rental car seemed a lot easier than 12 days in my car or on my Velocette's seat....
Yes I know...a whimp!
There is to be one Velocette ridden across this year, Stuart Hooper from Brisbane has set off to ride the 5000km there...but he will ship it back.
A real rider.....
So how to get a Velocette, rather a quantity of Velocettes over to the rally?
Clubmember Lee Hewitt in Melbourne works in the shipping game and came up with a proposal to fill 20 foot shipping containers with Velos from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, all to be on the same ship to Freemantle, a port near Perth, WA, then road freight to the rally and the return trip to be via rail across Australia...this being the most economical way to do the exercise.
Almost immediately it started to unravel...the Melbourne container cancelled out, then the Sydney container was unhappy with the shipping idea and opted for rail over, then the Brisbane container, a week or so before loading was due faced a cancellation of the shipping date and were forced to also rail across...
We used a Perth based transport company, Sadleirs Transport, the Sydney container loaded with 9 Velos plus at the last minute a Velo replacement, a BMW....caused a little hiccup in the loading due to it's size, 10 bikes in all.
The Brisbane container loaded with 8 Velos.
The trains re-assemble in Parkes, some 300km west of Sydney into a 2.5km long train with 4 huge diesels locomotives for the 4000km run across Australia.
In Perth JJ, who had bought two Velos in Brisbane and used the Brisbane container to transport them across, opened the Brisbane container in Sadleirs Perth yard and recovered them. Then Cutts transport of Manjimup, some 20km from Donnelly River transported both containers to their yard. Tomorrow, Friday, both containers are delivered via a side lift truck to the rally site and we will unload them Sunday at the start of the rally.....
Following are a series of photos of the container loading in Sydney and JJ collecting his bikes in Perth.
Likely my next blog will feature some of the rally with a followup in future blogs....
Left click on the images to enlarge.....
Think of me, Velocetting over the next week.....
Sadleirs Sydney yard...load starts
















As well as two tie-downs front and rear, wooded slatts aside the wheels, screwed to the next bikes slatts, old sleeping mattresses, recovered from the roadside cleanup campaing, were slid down between each bike so it one came free it would likely not damage the next bike.
































































Sadleirs yard in Perth, the Brisbane container awaits JJ


















John's "new" Velocettes, both 1948...a 350cc MAC and a 500cc MSS.

Another look at some pics from the Late Allen Burt's archive.....

It's time I re-visited some more of the late Allen Burt's photos....I've his motorcycling archive,and you may recall his sudden death on 25th January this year and my featuring a selection of items from his life......
If you've not, I urge you to click on "the death of a motorcycling friend" on the right column of this blog. I still find it very moving....
Left click on the images to enlarge.....
Likely one of Allen's last rides at Bathurst, Easter 1992, 1961 G50 Matchless.
















P & R Williams salesman ( unknown) astride an ex works KTT sent out by Veloce..likely either KTT1030 or KTT1031.























Outside "Rose Villa" on the promenade at Douglas, IOM June 1955...a favourite accomodation spot for the Commonwealth riders...L to R..John Hempleman (NZ), G.Roberts ( Canada) and Maurie Quincey (Australia).























Allen's racing MAC, outside Bain and Kessing's shop, Liverpool Road, Enfield,NSW, 1948.

















Probably on the start line at Bathurst,NSW for the 1957 Easter races,the Bathurst Junior TT, #10 Allen Burt, #5 John Shanks, #51 L.Deaton, #69 Keo Madden.














Allen with his MAC Velocette racer, likely in late 1940s.























August 1973, Veterans race at Oran Park, south of Sydney, this is the old ex Tommy Jemison 250cc MOV racer, restored by Allen after he found it in poor condition in the back yard of the Jemison's house. The bike held the Australian 250cc land speed record at 101.5mph, set prewar. Not broken until 1974 by Bryan Hindle on a Yamaha.

Cartoons from "MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling".......

I'm always partial to the cartoons that featured in the weekly UK motorcycle papers, "MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling"....these are from 1966 and 1967 and I'll feature more in future blogs....
The copyright of these is held by the family of the cartoonists and Mortons Motorcycle Media to whom I acknowledge their use....
Left click on the images to enlarge..