What is a Jackson..?

[VintageBike]

Can anyone tell us what this bike is?  It was sent in to the site for inclusion in the galleries by Bob Story, but we don't know anything about the history of this make.  Can anyone help...?

There are more pictures of the bike at http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike%20Directories/OthersItoM/pages/Jackson.html

[cardan]

"There are rumours that it might be an early Australian marque"

I don't think so: the Australian motorcycle industry was prolific prior to WW1 (when there was a Jackson motorcycle in Tasmania), but there were only rare attempts at manufacture beyond the mid 1920s. I suspect someone will tell us the story of this bike, which obviously comes from a time and place far from pre-WW1 Tasmania.

Leon

[RichP]

An on-line registration check gives this info :-

The vehicle BS9113, a Royalenfield (Motorcycle), is on our database. To discover its history please continue.

...but doesn't the engine look more BSA ?

Is it a home-made special ?

It doesn't come up on the DVLA lists anymore.

[cardan]

I don't immediately recognise the motor, but it may well turn out that there is an Australian connection, which may require some thinking "outside the box". Rather than speculate, perhaps someone who knows the real story would like to recount it?
Leon

[cardan]

I asked a Royal Enfield friend, and he can recognise bits of RE amongst the cycle parts. He also suggested that the motor looked "a bit AJS", and after a scrounge I came up with the attached image: the AJS 996cc "S2" twin new for the 1931 season. It must have lasted only a year or two because by 1933 I think AJS twins used the familiar Matchless motor with the round timing chest and square tappet covers. I've never seen one in the flesh.
Anyway I'm pleased it's AJS, because I had feared that the motor might have come from an (Australian) Howard cultivator - a number of unfortunate specials have been built around this motor.
Apparently the bike is owned by Shaun Jackson of Portsmouth, and goes by the name of "1929 Jackson Indomitable 1000". Given the motor and gearbox, "1929" is an interesting date - perhaps the gas lights take it back a few years.
By the way, how do you register such specials in the UK? We have a historic registration scheme over here that doesn't cater for specials.
Leon

[Rex]

Good old Shaun, he keeps them guessing to the end....

[yebbut]

looks suspiciously like yet another fake "Vintage" bike to me

chaincase looks very M20 and certainly not 1929, unlikely to have had chrome one the tank in 1929 either and the whole styling looks 1930s anyway.

nicely doee  but some doe not look right about it.

I can't open the vintagebike link to see the other side however, that site always clogs up halfway on my computer

[Rex]

looks suspiciously like yet another fake "Vintage" bike to me[/i]

And so it is, a "special" that is, and built purely for the enjoyment of the owner.
Nicely done too, and guaranteed to get the rivet-counting beardies speculating.....

[VintageBike]

And here is the link to a few other pictures of the bike..

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/pictures/jackson-v-twin/

Nigel

[rogerwilko]

It's a special. There was an article in one of the bike mags a few years ago.