Engine Punk

It's an AMC gearbox I knew my mates would oblige with identifying the gearbox on the Gregory 500. Pete Low has come up trumps but is just as perplexed by the Gregory 500 as I am. Not only that, but he's mentioned another weird and wonderful machine by the name of George. Here's his e-mail to me in full. "I've never seen this bike. The engine looks Jawa to me, from the timing side, with its exposed oil pump, but I agree that the timing side is weird. "A mate of mine took over a thing called "George" (after its maker) it was a BSA B31 with a Jawa engine grafted in, but I remember it used a timing side cam drive that made use of the Beeser's alloy push rod tunnel. Now that's got me wondering. Was it a Jawa bottom end with a BSA head? or vice versa? Sorry can't remember! "The gearbox is simple. AMC type, as used by AJS/Matchless/Norton from mid 50's to the last of the Norton Commandos, and the clutch goe...

Slim and light, this Jawa Rickman looks very inviting for uphill blasts. Another mysterious machine from the past is this speed hillclimbing motorcycle from the 1980s. When I say hillclimbing to many people they automatically think of the dirty business of trialling but hillclimbing,  in Britain at any rate, means against the clock and and on metalled roads. My friends know what I'm on about but others who not so steeped in engine punk don't quite catch on. These photos are so old they date back to when I would carefully write on the back what they depicted and a good thing, too, for the Gregory 500 apparently was a 1980 Rickman JAWA. This is not a common motorcycle and Phil Gregory, who was named in the long since lost programme for this event, made it even more special. It looks like he had some help along the way. There's a sticker on one of the downtubes that says "Don  Barton - GRP" and another on the tail is for Kidderminster Engineering Services....