A visit to Sammy Miller's Museum

On my way back from the Goodwood Revival I thought I'd drop in on Sammy Miller's museum at New Milton. I'd been to the old one (at Old Milton?) years ago and thought I'd be there half a day. In the end I was there all day and could've stayed longer. There's so much to see.

This Moto Guzzi is just one of the treats in store at Sammy Miller's Museum

It was as I was examining this lovely Guzzi - even before entering the museum proper - that a chap in a blue coat asked me to lend him a hand in the workshop. Of course, I knew it was Sammy. Even if I hadn't, he'd been racing bikes at Goodwood a couple of days earlier in leathers with his name across the shoulders. I think he was working on the recently re-discovered works Ariel and just wanted me to rest it on some axle stands while he lifted it, so I naturally obliged. I could also see he was busy so didn't try to distract him with idle banter. That's the way I am when I wanna get on but as it turned out I seemed to keep bumping into him that day.

The co-efficient of interesting stuff in this museum is very high. Highly original restorations are always nice to see but it's the specials I really like - New Milton is bursting with Vintage Things. It's enough to make me want to take out a subscription to The Classic Motorcycle magazine, where many of Sammy's machines have appeared in well-informed articles.

Some of these bikes are very obscure but as many motorcyclists are engineers - something that doesn't seem to occur with car drivers - the really obscure stuff is just  as interesting as the mainstream classics.

Most people would restore this machine to within an inch of its life but this Matchless-OEC is oozing history as it is

It's not every day you see an OEC frame. Its duplex steering is a paragon of stability (apparently) even at the expense of restricted lock. And this Matchless Silver Hawk engine is the first one I've ever seen outsid eof the history books. At Sammy Miller's you get to see both together.

The tank on the Matchless-OEC is indeed unmatched for patina. It looks like scarred flesh but scarring demonstrates survival.

The OK-Supreme lighthouse model - except it's not a model, it's a real one. Dreckly it'll be displayed the other way round. This image was possible only with my dinky little digital camera.

It was as I was examining a very rare OK-Supreme lighthouse model, that Sammy Miller came round the museum. He was showing around a much younger fellow Ulsterman who, unfortunately, was unfortunately was on crutches. I had a strong feeling he was somebody I'd heard of but I couldn't place him. Anyway, we had a quick chat about this bike.The way it was displayed, the famous lighthouse, with its little window to see the cam, wasn't obvious. Sammy asked me if I had one because I was taking such an interest in it but it was just my usual intense interest.

If you want to hear this bike run check out the Youtube clip. It sounds just like a UJM!

I took the opportunity to ask him about this very early across the frame four. The RCS was built by Bob Collier who Sammy seemed to know as a very astute engineer. It features an Austin 7 engine no less, and you all know how much I like baby Austins. What fascinated me was the air cooled head. This was home made but it looks as if Bob added a few further strips of ally where he thought a little extra cooling would be beneficial. The block is a standard Austin 7 but again cooling strips have been added. I gathered that the end result runs very sweetly and it makes much more sense to me than the Brough Superior attempt at adapting an A7 engine for two wheel use. Six were made but it's incredible that a more mainstream attempt was never made. Imagine one of these babies with an ohv head! And a sprung frame!

It was through a Classic Bike magazine article about the AJS V4 that I first heard about Sammy Miller. He used his panel beating skills, fist exercised in making prototypes of the Ariel Leader, in remanufacturing the tanks.

I think the bike I liked the most, though, was the AJS V4. The engine is simply a work of art. Best of all it goes. What potential this machine would've had if only WW2 hadn't intervened is only known to those of us who can travel from one parallel universe to another.

But Sammy Miller's Musuem is not so much a home for lost causes as a celebration of innovation. The racing bike gallery alone took me all afternoon to look at properly. And while I was there, Sammy Miller came round the building again, this time with a couple of architects in tow. I think he might be throwing out a new wing in the not too distant future so that his mechanical marvels - Excelsior and others - can all be displayed to even greater effect.