The "Buzzing" Club

The Wirral Wobblers had a successful weekend at the Manchester Bike Show recently, winning three awards for their bikes on the stand.

“Best Unrestored Classic” was won by Martin Archer for his scruffy, warts-and-all but sweet running (It goes on many Wobblers and Buzz’ards runs) Excelsior Autobyk G2.

“Best Moped” was won by John Burgess for his superbly-restored Leopard Bobby 5 (seen above), of which only four are known to survive.

“Best Moped Runner-up” went to Dave Watson for his rare and superb HEC Powercycle, which has a Levis engine.

Barry Cooksley was unfortunately badly injured on April 14th when he crashed on his bike while out with 10 fellow section members on one of their runs near Ogmore by Sea. Barry came off his bike (no other vehicle was involved) and landed hard on the road, cracking the rear of his helmet and injuring the back of his head. He was unconscious and had to be airlifted to hospital.  He is making a  slow recovery and is improving every day but it might be a while before he is back in the saddle.  Thanks to Ray Butcher and Ivor Slade of the Vale of Glamorgan group for the information; I’m sure all NACC members wish Barry a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action soon.

The bi-annual NACC stand at the Stafford shows, superbly organised by Liz Butler & Bob Terry of the South Staffs Section, won an unexpected award for the sheer variety of machines displayed! They were; John Young’s NVT Easy Rider, John Burgess’s 1957 Leopard Bobby 5, Neil Howell’s 1950 ex-Keith Walker Bown autocycle (which gained a Highly Commended rosette), Simon Lake’s Puch VZ50, Rob Hirons’ 1948 Brockhouse Corgi, Ian McGregor’s Solex 6000, Nick Devonport’s Motobécane Mobyx X7VL, Bob Jeffcoat’s newly-restored Norman Cyclemate and Dave Beare’s ex-John Hook Dawes/Bernardi Buzz cyclemotor. Read all about the show and the bikes in the June issue of Buzzing!

Good news regarding the cancelled As It Was Buzz cyclemotor-only run. Originally planned to start from The Royal Oak in Pewsey, organiser Colin King decided to cancel the 2019 event due to the atrocious state of the lanes used for the route and the unlikelihood of them being resurfaced in time for our run. However Robin Cork, the Thames Valley Group coordinator, has found an alternative route for Saturday 22nd June run, now called the Hampshire As It Was Buzz, which will start from The Four Horseshoes, 1 Haygate, Long Sutton, Nr. Hook RG29 1TA, the same starting point for the following day’s Odiham Run. So the As It Was Buzz is saved! Same date but different venue.

Robin has added the following information for riders;

1. The Four Horseshoes PH offers overnight camping in a field opposite the pub, a fiver a night, which includes access to an outside loo and washbasins, but no other facilities.
2. Static display machines are welcome on both days.
3. Both the Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd runs are cyclemotor-friendly.
4. All NACC-type machines are welcome at both the Hampshire As It Was Buzz (Saturday) and the Odiham Run (Sunday)

Hope to see you there.

Dates have been confirmed for the 2019 NACC Coast-to-Coast run, starting on Saturday 22nd from Crimdon Dene near Hartlepool on the east coast, an overnight stop at Alston, followed by the run down to Whitehaven on the west coast, Sunday 23rd. The NACC Yorkshire Section has been organising this run for over 20 years, it is an enjoyable challenge for man and machine. Not done it before? You should!

For more info contact Dave Stevenson at stevensonbown@gmail.com

• 

Great news, Malcolm of Classic Moped Spares has recovered from his major illness and the shop and website are both open and active again.

Above is a part of the extensive display of Piaggio-manufactured mopeds on show at the newly-extended Museum complex, housed in the very active Piaggio factory at Pontedera, near Pisa. Read all about it in April’s issue of Buzzing magazine.

Andy Speak died at 3am on 1st March 2019, following a devastating stroke he suffered on 17th January 2018, from which he never recovered consciousness.
Never other than a proud Boltonian (Lancashire, not Greater Manchester), his life was generally lived within a square mile of his home in Great Lever, Bolton. His business, A & S Motorcycles, operated from a railway arch in Bolton, which displayed a notice bluntly stating that no Chinese machines would be worked on.
Andy never embraced change or modernisation! Gruff, stubborn, monosyllabic, set in his ways, of fixed opinions and outlook. Andy was all of these, but beyond all that, he was clever, funny, and a thinker. Not one to suffer a fool, Andy was very ready to help a friend, which included anyone riding a New Hudson. Other makes were tolerated.

Last year David Stevenson rode his late father’s 1949 Raleigh-built Rudge Pathfinder bicycle, fitted with a 1952 Trojan Mini-Motor, from Land’s End to John O’Groats because he likes a challenge and wanted to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Both David’s father and uncle died of Alzheimer- related dementia. David’s uncle Bob Skinner originally owned the Rudge, then sold it to David’s father Robert before David inherited it after his father passed away. The bicycle has been is the same family for seventy years.

David’s LeJog run took twenty days and covered 1,104 miles of often difficult terrain, with rain, headwinds and endless hills impeding progress along the way and requiring a good deal of pedal-assistance and pushing. En route the Rudge/Mini-Motor was displayed on the NACC stand at April the 2018 Stafford Classic International Show, where artist Martin Squires immortalized it with a detailed drawing which is featured in the 2019 NACC calendar.

Peter Lee Warner, after whom the VMCC trophy is named, rode a tradesman’s delivery bicycle fitted with a Power Pak Synchromatic engine round the world in 1953. Lee Warner’s motive was to “have a look at Australia” and he originally planned a one-way trip, only to change his mind in Baghdad, Iraq, and decided to carry on from Australia to go the whole way round the world. He flew to San Francisco, rode 3,000 miles across America to New York and took the Queen Elizabeth liner back to Britain.

If you would like to contribute to Alzheimer’s Research UK, payments can be made via https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/raleighrudginit

“Koper – The Koper District Court sent famed motorcycle maker Tomos into receivership on Thursday after the Koper-based company failed to find a strategic partner to help it cope with liquidity issues. The proposal for receivership was filed last November by Tomos employees after the company failed to pay their wages, contributions and the annual holiday allowance.”

“Since Tomos had neither contested being insolvent nor asked for a deferral, it is considered insolvent under the insolvency law. The court decided to send the debtor into receivership, says the court’s decision, posted on the website of the Agency for Public Legal Records (AJPES). The court appointed Štefan Veren the official receiver, giving creditors until 3 April to report their claims and secured debt.”

“When the workers filed for receivership, Tomos director and owner Iztok Pikl said the company could still be saved. However, he admitted it owed its employees two monthly salaries and the holiday allowance. Pikl or his company MPO Kabel bought the manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters in 2015 from industrial conglomerate Hidria, which sold it as a non-strategic asset. Hidria acquired Tomos in 1998, it briefly liquidated it in 2012 only to revive production later on.” (The Slovenian Times, 4/1/19)

A very sad end (though it might be resurrected by somebody) to a business which began back in 1954, when the company acquire a licence to manufacture Puch mopeds and motorcycles from the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch.