1919/20 Chater Lea lightweight

[P.V. Motorcycles]

Does anyone on the forum have one of these? It's a wedge-tank design with a Villiers 269cc engine, and a little hand-change, two-speed gearbox with no clutch or kickstarter, of Chater Lea design and manufacture.

There is at least one about, in 'project form', registered OE 6455, according to pictures via Google.

I want to re-make the gearchange lever, quadrant and frame-mounting bracket for one of these, so pictures and dimensions would be really useful.

Nick

[cardan]

Hi Nick,

But it doesn't have rear springing!!

Sorry, I don't have one but I do have some potential contact information of owners, from the VMCC Journal in the 1990s. However I fear that the surviving bikes are the earlier model (pre-wedge-tank) and these seem to have a different gear change quadrant that live high on the left side, at the back of the tank.

We had the wedge-tank model out here in Adelaide in 1920, with Vivian Lewis Ltd the agent. The attached advert is interesting, particularly in regard to the front fork which is described as "Chater Lea patent" even though the illustration shows Druid. Does your bike have the CL fork (presumably the same as in the Motor Cycle image)? I'd be interested to see a photo or two because I've never seen this fork in the flesh.

Cheers

Leon

[P.V. Motorcycles]

Thanks Leon - my interest is only in the gearbox, which P.V. fitted for 1919 and probably into 1920.
It's just pot luck that CL did a machine which used it concurrently, and that offers the best chance of finding an original to copy.

Indeed, there is one out there, but I don't know where.

I don't know about the forks either way - certainly not the centre-spring ones which appeared around 1911.

Nick

[cardan]

Phew! I thought you'd gone over to the dark side!

The little CL gearbox must be very rare, but I suppose worth looking for an original lever/gate to copy before you make one from the grainy pic. I'm sure it would be a simple thing, with the lever sprung against the gate with detents for low-neutral-high. Burman had a nice mount for the lever that clamps onto the lower tank rail of the frame, so you could start with something like that.

Do you have the gearbox itself?

Cheers

Leon

[P.V. Motorcycles]

Yes, I have the 'box.

Nicely made, with ballrace bearings on the input and layshaft, and a double-row roller bearing (loose rollers, hand-assembled) on the output to the pulley.

I think you're correct, from what I can tell of pictures of a survivor - a clamp on the lower frame rail, and (in theory) a fairly basic lever.

Nick