Expat wrote:Very nice too Neville. Are these recent pics of a new acquisition or from many moons ago?
Sadly, I decided to sell it after an accident on my 350 Matchless a couple of years ago when I could no longer ride it having lost the use of my right arm and hand and an unreliable right leg as it was just too heavy, and couldn't bear to see it gathering dust and taunting me in my shed. I now ride a modern bike (the 250cc 'Mutchless') far and wide, but still ride my 350 Matchless occasionally off-road only as I'm too much of a danger to others on public roads!
It belonged to Arthur Ellis, the owner of Jeffery's Motorcycles in Guildford, Surrey. He bought it new from his stock and it was more or less his only transport until he was 83.
Here is his dealership:
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Here he is in his shop which closed down I believe in the 80's. The lad in the brown coat was an arts student and was his Saturday Boy. When Arthur Ellis died he bequeathed it to the lad who never registered or rode it but kept it under a sheet in various garages for around 20 years. The 'lad' advertised it on this Club's 'Bikes For Sale' section. The 'lad' was then Head of Art and Design at Eton College the famous private school.
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After I had loaded the bike onto my trailer the chap asked me if I wanted 'a few old spare parts' and led me to a shed. It was stuffed with cardboard boxes, packages, various bits of frame, boxes of gaskets, pushrods, dynamo bearings and brushes, fork parts, a '47 replacement engine and a couple of gearboxes, plus numerous components, all labelled and priced (e.g 7/6d - about 38 new pence for a valve, and there about 20 of them. Everything was new. It would've taken me hours to go through it all so we agreed a fair price and I left with my motorhome down on the springs and testing the clutch in order to move off.
Literally many hundreds of parts, gears, front wheel axles, oil pump plungers, Lycett saddles, springs, brake shoes and linings, tank caps, oil filters, headlights, rear lights.........plus shop posters, AMC Dealer Service Notes.
This CP gearbox shaft for example (and there were enough gears to rebuild maybe 5 or 6 complete gearboxes) would now be 20 years later around £20 or more.
Most have been distributed to pals and some sold on eBay just to get them back into circulation.
14-C-4. CP Gear. Sliding. Mainshaft. 18 & 23 teeth (640x479).jpg
Apologies for clogging up this technical thread with my rambling (yet superficial and hopefully interesting) historical tale
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