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...