Vintage Thing No.76 - 1937 Levis 600 twin port

Restored with only a brochure as reference material this Levis 600 has a pushrod tube that masquerades as a camshaft drive

At the 2010 Great Dorset Steam Fair, I heard a great story about this very rare bike. The owner and restorer was looking round the autojumble at the 2009 show for Norton parts and saw a curious oil tank that might have been a Norton one. He asked the vendor about it and he said that it that it belonged to Levis 600 and that he had the whole bike under the bench - not the bench at home but the bench at the show.

Levis are often confused with jeans manufacturers and the parent company latterly traded as Leviss to avoid this although this was long after motorcycle manufacture had ceased. Founded by the Butterfield Brothers in Old Station Road, Stechford, Birmingham, in 1911,  Levis were TT winners in 1922 with a 250 two stroke and went on to build a range of ohv four strokes in 30s until World War 2 ended production. They were always pretty rare machines and I'd never seen one before.

I'm guessing that the Levis 600 had a  single inlet valve and that the twin exhaust ports were for show only - like so many fashionable bikes in the 1930s. The name is derived from the motto Levis et Celer, Latin for Light and Swift. Gearbox was by Burman.

How many 600 singles were made is anybody's guys but I believe there are just a handful of survivors and that this bike is one of only two survivors from 1937. Here's a link to one (not in such good nick) and another that sold at auction both examples dating from 1938.

I can't remember how much the example at the Great Dorset Steam Fair sold for but it wasn't more than a grand. However, its restoration was not a task to be undertaken lightly and potentially full of difficulties.

Levis 250s, 350s and 500s are much better known but as Cyril Ayton put it in his excellent A-Z of British Motorcycles, "there was a certain 'handbuilt' quality about them."

Cylinder dimensions are 82 x 112mm for a capacity of 597cc, enough for 90 mph and 80 mpg. Head and barrel were in iron.

Model letters were given to the rest of the range - the 500 was the D for instance but the 600 was always simply the 600, although, apparently, the factory code name was "cool"! The 600 introduced a cradle frame to the marque for the first time,with twin tubes running under the engine from the single down tube, and the engine castings were cleaned up with strengthening ribs on the inside instead of the outside. Another first for the bike was fully enclosed valve gear.

The bike's weight told against it in outright performance but this didn't stop Bob "Fearless" Foster using one in scrambles and trials.

Weighing 375 lb (170 kg), the Levis 600 was heavy for its day. 7 inch front brake is smaller than the 8 inch rear.

The principle difficulty in restoring the bike was how determining how it should look. The only guidance was a brochure so the fittings, paint and lining were all done form that.

But what a beauty! If any bike in need had to find the right owner, it was this bike and this chap. Over a single winter he brought back to life and incredibly rare bike from a heap of parts. The guy's modest ,too. "Well I am retired," he said when I expressed amazement. And "I've done a few Nortons," he replied when I asked if it was a difficult restoration.

This didn't stop me being hugely impressed and this was the bike of the show for me.