Sunday, December 5, 2010
In the 1930's British factories supported the countries effort to win the various ISDT...International Six Days Trial...... trophies.
Our interest in this blog is the Velocette outfit ridden by Stuart Waycott for the period from 1936 to 1939.
Well there was no ISDT in 1939, the clouds of war were over Europe and there was great concern that should WW2 breakout during the ISDT, the safety of the British riders could not be guaranteed and the event was cancelled.
As it was WW2 commenced in early September 1939.
But what is this ISDT...?
It was the International Trophy presented to the Federation International des Clubs Motocyclistes as a perpetual trophy by the British Cycle and Motorcycle Manufacturers' and Traders' Union, in 1913.
It is a road trial, seemingly always on tracks and trails, that runs for six days duration, with controls to pass through and route etc cards to be stamped, culminating with a speed trial often held on a road race circuit.
After I wrote this I realised the original Phil Irving notebook on the trials bike with all his design calculations still in my possession had interesting stuff that needs to be opened to all...and so I'll do a blog on this notebook shortly....
Left click on the images to enlarge...
We used a Velocette OHC engine in a Velocette framed outfit.
For 1938, the period we are going to look at, the outfit was a modified Goulding sidecar that Phil Irving comments was at Veloce at the time.
The chassis of the outfit was altered considerably with springing and a sidecar wheel brake.
For 1936, Waycott used a KSS Mk.2 engine, but the actual capacity of the engine I cannot ascertain,although Phil Irving in his article detailed further down this blog indicates it was a TT engine, but my notes from a letter I wrote to the late Bob Currie in Dec.1981, editor of "The Classic Motorcycle", indicate a photo in "MotorCycling" of 2 Sept.1936 showed Waycott being farewelled by Percy Goodman and George Denly as he left for the 1936 ISDT and he is clearly riding an outfit with a KSS Mk.2 engine in it, but I didn't know the capacity. They were nominally 348cc.
Search as I may that copy of "Motorcycling" seems to have disappeared from my library.......but for 1937 and 1938 he certainlyused a 500cc OHC TT engine that was altered to 595cc with a bore of 85mm and stroke of 105mm.
Phil Irving was involved with this project in his time at Veloce Ltd.Ironically the entry in the 1937 ISDT program is 595cc whereas in the 1938 program it is 598cc.
The bore and stroke information came from the notebook of Phil Irving and a calculation from them reveals 596cc.
Just the same the outfit looks super for it's day....
When you've good original photographs, and these original 1938 "Motorcycling" photos taken with a plate camera give fabulous detail when enlarged.
Two items I'll feature...
The special carburettor swill chamber off the float chamber to ensure under extreme cornering on the outfit that the float level kept a semblance of a level over the jets.
The other slightly less obvious is the exhaust valve lifter mechanism...difficult work starting a big single without a valve lifter, especially a Velocette with the low kickstart ratio...OHC racing TT Velocette engines didn't need valve lifters, so this was likely a job PEI attended to...
I've made copies from the original PEI carbon copy ( no computers for PEI then...) and while it is 9 pages, it is historical and deserves to be in the public domain.
Stuart rode earlier in the ISDT on other makes, always an outfit...
He emigrated to Australia and had a farm in Western Australia....
David Main of Albany,WA in an email to me takes up the finalisation of the story...
"...The latest issue of FTDU reminded me of my friendship with Stuart Waycott whom I met in 1969 when I emigrated from the UK I rode out on my Vincent to visit him on the farm at Kweda WA Bristol
Stuart had a house full of awards, cups, photos etc. Sadly all were lost when he died. He did give me 2 press photos taken outside their Bristol Premises. One was the ISDT Team, 2 Velos but Stuart is riding a matchless! Ivan Rhodes dates the photo as 1934/5. The other photo shows Stuart on a Rudge outfit. I believe one of his passengers was called Rowley but have no more info. Maybe some of the members can help out Stuarts Velo outfit had special QD wheels and a hole in the petrol tank for easy S plug changing. Tools clipped on the side somewhere."
The photos emailed to me follow...
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