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Association of ABC Enthusiasts

NEWSLETTER No. 1018, Nov. 2015

 

It's amazing the way that contributions continue to trickle into the  Editorial Office.  Keith has been researching the apparently unsound credentials of last month's photo of "TT Number 48", Alex has very generously lent me a collection of dyeline prints illustrating some of G. Bradshaw's Sopwith motorcycle patents, and Registrar David has submitted a photo that would have qualified as a 1920s Vogue front cover! On top of all that, Giovanni is investigating the pros and contras of setting up our own website, which will be named for ABC Road Motors Ltd., a real though short-lived title of the Company in 1914.It mostly remains to decide upon the content of such a website: all ideas from you will be welcome. Keep up the good work, chaps, we are progressing!

 

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Here's another little bit of history from Alex, a dyeline print of the Gnome- Rhone version of the ABC. I think that this was a provisional design, before the definitive one. Close inspection reveals a variety of differences with the Sopwith pattern, most of which were in fact probable improvements!

The partly-readable text under the photo in Newsletter No. 1017 of the TT ABC is, according to Keith, incorrect. Photo and text were featured many years ago in the VMCC Journal, and were immediately attacked by the experts… No. 48 began life as a Senior machine, but was fitted with one-off reduced-bore cylinders for the TT, and was ridden in the Junior race by another one-off, Jack Emerson.
(An apology to Keith, in fact he never said No. 48 was a Senior machine, it was me that got it wrong).

 

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Top this for sartorial elegance! David actually owned this machine at one stage, and mentions that the petrol tank is sign-painted with the name of Welch & Co, perhaps the Bristol agent at the time. The quality of this photo is astounding:  even the AA badge on the handlebars can be zoomed into!

Evidently, no-one has yet tried to equip his Sopwith with K*w*s**i pistons,  as per the suggestion in the last Newsletter. Potential complications have come to light: (a)The Zephyr model is in fact quite old, so that piston-procurement could be difficult, and (b)apparently the Zephyr was made in about three engine sizes: I guess the 750 cc. version is the appropriate one, but I cannot be sure.

The page 3 illustration is the first of Alex's remarkable dyeline prints of theSopwith patent drawings. I think that this one belongs to Pat. No. 139570, which, according to Appendix 4 of the B. Jones book, refers to a laminated leaf spring motorcycle front girder fork suspension (a joint GB/ABC patent).  So there! In later times patent drawings were often quite misleading, to put would-be plagiarists off the scent whilst just retaining the essence of the spec ., but in 1919 this was clearly not the case.

 

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A welcoming port in a storm? Or just "Home sweet home", perhaps!