classic motorcycle forum

Re the date, I think (but I'm not absolutely certain) that the white splash on the CC tanks was a 1930-1931-ish thing. Earlier in the 1920s, the tank was black with a scarlet nose.

Leon

The last time I suggested a bike was a Coventry Eagle I was quite wrong. This time, however, I'm quite sure as I can read "Eagle" on the tank and see the winged CE logo underneath.

1930-ish, and a 350 or 500 OHV. Very sporty, but I can't quite nail down the exact model.

Cheers

Leon

Well done! I'm pleased we didn't see you on the news.

Looking closer at the motor - oil box without a detachable cover - it's of the type used c 1920. These mostly had a 20/ prefix to the engine number. The EXU is a common suffix, and denotes three features of the motor. From 1921 the engine number would have a letter prefix like KT/N. So I'd say the motor is 1920-ish.

Good coffee?

Leon

Didn't that oddball  OHC Matchless with the exhaust out the side have a Brough shape tank with two fillers?

Google the 1928 catalogue - Matchless built everything that year, from a veteran-looking Model H sidecar outfit to quite sexy beasts with the Brough-like tankyou mention.

33D6: Yes I see now how it all bolts up. Let me see if I can find a parts list, or maybe you can dig out a frame illustration for me.

This little bit of research is part of a huge thing I'm doing on racing Rudges. I have a 1932 Works Rudge, complete, and I certainly don't want another! However I have the head for the Wassall/Bruce Matchless/Rudge (it's 1928-29 Works only, with longer rocker-plate mounting studs to attach the struts seen in the photos), but the bottom end of the motor is with an enthusiast in Melbourne. It's a late-season 1929 Works motor, and quite different from the Ulster that was the hottest thing available to the public. Because it has no frame, I think building a replica would be a good use of the parts - so don't lose those frame bits!

Re the tank, it has a rather distinctive shape - horizontal for the front bit, then sloping down. Unlike those posted above that slope most of their length? Could it be from something like a 1928 250 R/S? This has the oil tank upstairs, as seen on the Wassal bike.

Cheers

Leon

Here's the 1928 497cc Matchless that Alan Bruce built to go racing himself, but handed over to Eric Thiele for the solo race at Phillip Island in 1928. Thiele is the rider in the photo.

After the solo race, Bruce fitted a touring sidecar and rode into 4th place in the 200 miles sidecar race, the first 500 home. If the handling was evil solo, I wonder how the outfit steered?

Wassall's Matchless as a 350. In the late 1920s, the Motordrome was too dangerous for the bigger bikes and capacity for the few meetings held on the banked saucer was limited to 350cc. Most of the meetings at the Motordrome were Speedway, held on a flat dirt track at the centre of the saucer.

Cheers

Leon

On 5 March 1930 a team lead by Alan Bruce set records on the Melbourne-Geelong Road, which was temporarily closed to traffic. Electronically-timed two-way-average speeds for the flying quarter mile were 109.75 mph solo (Jimmy Wassall aboard) and 95.75 mph sidecar (Alan Bruce riding, and "Titch" in the chair) For the sidecar record there was no time to change gear ratios, so the runs were done in 3rd gear.

I know quite a lot about the Rudge engine/gearbox, which came from a racing Rudge imported by Tommy Rogers in Melbourne. I've only just learned from the writings of Alan Bruce in the 1980s that the cycle parts were those of Jimmy Wassall's 1928 Matchless 350 Sports Solo, which Alan had built for him the previous year to ride at the Motordrome, a concrete saucer track in Melbourne.

Anyway, I can see the Matchless frame (somewhat modified with a big curve in the front down tube, and well strutted), Rudge forks, and Rudge motor and gearbox.

Can anyone identify the clutch and petrol tank? The tank has twin filler caps, and might be a cut-down Rudge item. It doesn't look very Matchless.

The bottom end of the motor survives. Has anyone seen the frame? (No pressure, 33d6!)

Cheers

Leon

Oh it's a lovely little bike! Everything a vintage bike should be, provided you're not tall.

The steering damper is an easy fit to the flat tank bikes, because the anchor just clamps around the top frame tube. More difficult with the saddle tank bikes, where the tank has to have a mounting point built it.

I found another photo of the 1923 545, and the gearbox was certainly Sturmey Archer CS as on the cafe bike. I think we could be pretty certain that it is/was an early 545, with a JAP twin engine fitted, and the Coventry Eagle red/black paint job to replace the powder blue (?) CL tank scheme.

As much as we'd like to know the frame number, I'm not sure we want to encourage 33d6 to climb his ladder and do a partial disassembly at ceiling height!! I can just imagine the report on the evening news when it all goes wrong.

Cheers

Leon

I think you're getting very close John. The front diamond also has quite a few CL features, like the rear-exiting seat post, and the seat stays that attach a little way down the seat tube. As a teenager in the 1970s I devoured the Vintage Road Test Journals, and remember the sporting Blackburne-engined 1923 CL in Volume 2 very well. The book is still on the bookshelf, and the clear photos are useful here. The detail around the seat lug looks very much like the cafe bike, as does steering damper. No sidecar lugs on the frame, though. But 1923 was the first year of the 545cc side valve, using Chater Lea's own engine. That had sidecar lugs, and they're identical to the cafe bike. No dampers shown on the front forks in the Motor Cycle photo, but production bikes may have differed. A Sturmey Archer gear box was fitted, just like the cafe bike.

I wonder if we're looking at a 1923-4 545cc Chater Lea, with a JAP twin shoe-horned in at some stage, many years ago by the look of it.

Love the CL frames John, but hope you've got more parts lurking in the shed!

Cheers

Leon