Dispatch rider in WWII

[Rex]

But your Grandma wouldn't have known the time he left, only what the rider had told her?

Cynicism's good. Otherwise you'd believe all the old boys' tales of rebuilding Manx engines by the light of a glow-worm, or carving a new set of points from a fag paper and an acorn, or making a replacement piston from a Heinz beans tin.
The stories grow year on year, or they may have been tall stories when first told, who knows? People's own memories play tricks on them, let alone when they're repeated time and again.
All interesting, but not to be taken as entirely factual.
After all, could you envisage keeping up a 60 MPH average (ie probably hitting 90 occasionally) on country lanes for eight hours on a girder/rigid bike from the 1930s in the dark?

[yebbut]

Its not cynicism but realism.

I have done some marathon rides on vintage bikes, and I mean vintage; the best I ever managed in daylight was around 400 miles on 1938 500 in France with relatively traffic free roads.
Not bad weather mind,  a nice May day,not in the hours of darkness and at the end I was totally knackered.

you are making the classic modern rider mistake of backprojecting your wishful thinking re speeds and possibilites.
There is no way you could ride a 350 Matchless, which was the best and fastest of the WD machines save maybe a good Ariel, at 60mph all that way in the hours of darkness even part way ,
I suggest you scrounge a ride behind a blackout mask one day........

At 60mph its near flat out. Brakes are, well try one for your self, they are 5inch diameter......

He would also have needd to refuel at least twice, where? with rationed petrol? at an Army base of his route? not likely

That is a nice Matchless but its still not a "scrambler", whereever did you get that notion? I repeat Matchless did not make a 750.


I thin its a good project and wish you well, but I still think you need to sit back a bit and do more research.
No disrespect to the old feller, but memories play tricks.

[r80gs]

I've done 100 miles in a days cycling and I'm a fat lad. In a ten hour day you only need to average 10 miles an hour. Hence on a journey of 400 (which is the actual distance there and back on the A roads) (even if it probably wasn't then!)you only need to average 40mph. Never said it would have been easy but it is very much do-able.
 
It's not a factual documentary for the BBC it's to make an old man happy who is no longer able to get on a bike. If I get facts wrong it's good to be corrected in a constructive fashion. What I'm really looking for are links and resources to help my research and hopefully achieve my goal.

[Rex]

author=r80gs link=topic=3402.msg11510#msg11510 date=1294166961]
I've done 100 miles in a days cycling and I'm a fat lad. In a ten hour day you only need to average 10 miles an hour. Hence on a journey of 400 (which is the actual distance there and back on the A roads) (even if it probably wasn't then!)you only need to average 40mph.
True, but if you average at 40 MPH, then to make up for the bits when you're doing 10 or 20 MPH, at other times you need to do 60 MPH.
So the old boy averaging 60 MPH would need to be really steamimg along at times, and sadly he really ain't going to be steaming along at 80+ on this bike in these conditions.

[yebbut]

Rex is right, banging along at 30mph or whatever  is not averaging 30mph at all.

I am not patronising you by any means but as a relative newcomer to motorcycling [I've clocked up 50 years on bikes this year] I am nor sure that you have really realised just how different things were back then.

But,still thinking its a nice project, with definate possibilites have you considered a helmet cam ?
for  period postcard views of  relevant scenes ebay is quite good, as is DelcampeGB and Frith photos.

Also the late Titch Allen wrote much of his experiences as a wartime despatch rider.
Get in touch with the VMCC about that.

[R]

<snip>
Is there not a matchless scrambler 750; this link may not but it but I did find a reference to it. http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/matchless/Matchless_1930_ohv_14-802.htm
<snip>
At 60miles an hour you could cover 480 miles in 8 hours which is about (if not less than) what the journey would have been at the time. Given he told me he left at 5am I find it quite plausible that he'd make it back to 'London the same night'.

That Matchless you quote is neither 750cc, ohv, or a scrambler.
Its a mis-labelled 990cc sidevalve.
A big, expensive, tourer to boot....

I'd agree, averaging 60 mph back then, when most bikes could barely do 60 mph, and where on most roads 60 mph was impossible, is bordering on nonsense. Maybe a lot more hours were involved ?

[esometisse]

this one here is a Matchless 750 ohv scrambler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPyComeHSRg 

[yebbut]

yes but you couldnt buy one in 1940

and R, that Matchless is not a mislabelled 990 sv but a series D ohv single; sloper engine as was the fashion then, certainly wouldnt average 60mph either

[r80gs]

I only said they were bikes he'd owned not necessarily over the war period.

[Rex]

I reckon that old Matchie was on the continent somewhere.
The number plate isn't British, and the pillion set-up is typically French/German/Austrian. Still see those funny contraptions on old European classics even now.

Nice old girl, but even Ago would be hard-pushed to average 60 on it....!

{Wish I had it though...sigh}

[yebbut]

If your grandad rode bikes pre war, and then had one of those 750 Matchless scramblers when they were current circa 1968-ish then he must be one tough old bugger for the age he would have been in 1968.

A heavy bike those and fast.

[R]

 that Matchless is not a mislabelled 990 sv but a series D ohv single; sloper engine as was the fashion then, certainly wouldnt average 60mph either

Have another look at it.
Its a v-twin, you can (just) see the base of the rear cylinder, magneto is behind the riders leg where you'd expect it on a v-twin. So a stock standard 990cc 1929 Model X with electrics, exhaust pipe at the front is where you'd expect it on a sidevalve.

http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/matchless/Matchless_1930_ohv_14-802.htm

[yebbut]

heres a 1929 X

http://www.veteran-motorcycle.com/images/Matchless/29X/MATCHLESSX29.jpg

nothing like the other one, which is obviously OHV
what you can see by the the rider leg is the magdyno


CORRECTION
I correct myself having managed to blow the pic up.
I still contend its OHV, not SV BUT look again I dont even think its a Matchless engine compare crankcases that one has a very smooth bullbous look to it, very continental.

[R]

Err, precisely, the magdyno IS the magneto.
The only way it can be behind the riders leg is if the engine is a v-twin.
You can also see the twin fishtails through the rear wheel - the lower one is pretty faint.

Folks who have looked at that "ohv" pic have concluded that what is visible is the sidevalve cylinderhead, and something in the background that makes it look like ohv.

Exactly the same bike as the 1929 pic you found, plus electrics.
Plus that continental looking pillion seat arrangement.

[wetdog]

this bike is NOT a Matchless