Engine Punk

A good turn out of bikes including a lone quad This was another one day, single venue trial virtually on my doorstep. It would almost be rude not to have joined in after the organisers had gone to such trouble. And trouble aplenty there was! I was nearly a non starter. The car electrics were completely dead but after a quick call to Adrian Booth, my car's creator/developer, the issue was chased to the isolator switch in the boot. I had jogged it whilst trying to rationalise the tides of flotsam and jetsam including really useful stuff needed on a trial somewhere. Mr Graham Beddoe feeds the inner man Today's somewhere was Dunmere Woods. I had driven passed it many times but never ventured in. I had the privileged sense of exploring a hidden corner of God's own country. Organised by the Camel Vale Motor Club, most of the sections were dead ends and involved reversing back down again. I prefer the straight through ones, probably as a result of my backgrou...

Greater than the sum of its parts I would say While looking for a photograph of something else the other day, I came across an old smudge of this. Continuing the search for whatever it was - whatever that was escapes me now as it escaped me then - I found another photograph of this motorcycle, which intrigued me sufficiently in the good old/bad old days of 135mm films and SLR cameras to expend four whole frames on it. Horizontally inclined (as opposed to horizontally opposed) cylinders make a lot of sense to me. I am surprised there aren't more of them. I can't remember where or when I came across this machine but think it might have been at the Blackwater traction engine rally in the early 90s. The engine consists of two 125 Moto Rumi two-stroke twin engines. The result is a two stroke in line four with horizontal cylinders. As UJMs (Universal Japanese Motorcycles) go, across the frame fours are almost unremarkable but no Japanese manufacturer ever made a two-st...

Pop Asylum may be responsible for the Beetle's muddy face (Photo : Graham Beddoe) Regular listeners will remember that in last month’s episode I almost circumnavigated the course of the Exeter Trial but broke a half shaft on Tipley with my recently acquired Arkley-MG.  Look at my shafts After an involved rescue mission back to the secret lair of its developer, a cunning plan evolved requiring £600 worth of uprated Quaife shafts with detachable output flanges. The inner remains of the tortured shaft came out in several increasingly smaller instalments and the good shaft – considered to be good only by comparison to the broken one – revealed not just an ominous twist in its splines but also a wobble on its output shaft so it was bent as well. It's a twister! Adrian – Professor Booth of Doublebois – had broken a shaft on the other side of the axle on Crackington in last years’ LET. This was the same occasion and hill that Binky and I snapped a perch bolt on the A...

I got up Simms. I broke a halfshaft. Everybody was brilliant. I had a great time. That's the executive summary of this year's event. For a more detailed account, please read on. Essentially the plan was this - meet Lee Peck (Mr Heritage Motorsport) at Okehampton to start from Betty Cottle's, get a feel for the car in my second event with it since the Camel Classic, make it to the finish at Torbay, meet up with my trialling family over the Club Supper, spin a few yarns, recount more tales of derring-do over a hearty breakfast, swing by Betty's again so Lee could pick up his truck (did you see what I did there?) and then drop the Arkley-MG back to Adrian Booth's workshop for another chinwag and perhaps a brew. Scrutineering at Betty Cottle's. The pub is much cosier inside I got the first bit right. I also met a few familiar faces at the Okehampton start. Pete Adams was there with his two boys, Shaun and Scott. Their naturally aspirated diesel 205 now pack...

Contemplating the route card over Christmas I have just been plotting with my mud brother, the irrepressible Lee Peck, about the forthcoming 90th Exeter Trial. The 90th! Lee's Christmas shopping in Oxford. I had barely woken up as I am trying to bank sleep before the excitement of the festive season begins - Christmas, New Year, Exeter Trial. There is a LOT about which to get excited. Lee will be passengering me in my recently acquired Arkley-MG Midget, running in Class 7. We'll be starting from Sourton Cross near Okehampton and as this is only the second outing with this car, after the Camel Classic earlier this month, we are out for the crack and a Finisher's certificate. So what's new? Anything more than that is a bonus. Shiny new trials car The Arkley was owned by Ray Goodwright for many years and has been developed for much of that time by another mud brother, Adrian Booth. Age bought it last year and brought it back to life with lots of new p...

Vickers Wellington (Photo : Wikipedia) Thanks to my cousin, John Turner, who contacted the archivist at Davidstow Airfield museum , I can now confirm that it was not flying boat but a Wellington crash that my mother witnessed. Even better, this crash occurred with no loss of life although the crew were quite shaken up. Well wouldn't you be? From the crash site, one can see the control tower at Davidstow airfield jut below the horizon, far left  My 89 year old mother is writing her memoirs and this was one of the mysteries in her life that we wanted to clear up. This is how she relates the tale of her sighting and also how we resolved this long-standing mystery. "While we were staying in Cornwall during the war, I witnessed an air crash. "This must have happened while we were staying at Otterham Mill, near Boscastle with Mrs Hocking. I suppose it was a sort of private evacuation and we arrived at Otterham station with our bikes on the train. My father ...