Didn't realise there were rigids post '54 J-B - hence my " '54'" suggestion based on brake / hub only. (Had thought '54 was the end of the line for the rigids, but IKBA about year on year changes apart from on twin engines, have to admit.)
Tis a nice pic, I think.
As Taid said, probably are outward- not inward- bound though, being reg'd already. Should've twigged that!
Oh - Edit - I notice the one coming off the back of the truck is Sprung - spoilt for choice or what?
Just a picture
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Groily
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Joker_Bones
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Re: Just a picture
I had a look on the DVLA site... 'no records found' for the registration numbers.
Google found a couple of pictures of Hallens, I like this one...
The Hallens building is still there, recognisable on street view, the edwardian looking houses on the other side of the road in the first picture are gone tho'.
Google found a couple of pictures of Hallens, I like this one...
The Hallens building is still there, recognisable on street view, the edwardian looking houses on the other side of the road in the first picture are gone tho'.
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Groily
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Re: Just a picture
Yup, shop's still there J-B.
My daughter bought a dreadfully unreliable Bullet Electra from them a few years back. Which we soon swapped for a 600 Yam Diversion which worked rather better!
My daughter bought a dreadfully unreliable Bullet Electra from them a few years back. Which we soon swapped for a 600 Yam Diversion which worked rather better!
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Joker_Bones
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Re: Just a picture
Ahhh.... It's just the building that is there now. Hallens look to have moved to another address in Histon Road some years back and were there on street view up till a few years ago... but not there now either.
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Groily
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Re: Just a picture
Think you are right J-B, as ever.
T' interweb says variously they're at Histon Road, also Chesterton Road (as originally) but also says on Flickr 'Dead and Gorn'. Maybe the daughter said Allins, or possibly Haywards, both of whom I think exist and could have confused me - so easily done! (Mind you, she got her OIlfield more than a dozen years back, 15 maybe, so still a 'could be', maybe.)
I only ever bought one machine (a '57 Ariel VH Hunter, £80) from a dealer myself - from SS Motorcycles of Southampton (Bitterne rings a bell), in 1973 I think. Anyway, I was in there later getting various bits. It was that very grim day when Saarinen and Pasolini were killed, or the day after. The guys in the shop were big race fans and so upset they just gave me whatever I'd come in for.
I really didn't want to profit from such a horror show . . . but I was a teenager and pretty penniless so just said 'Wow, thanks guys!' and departed before anyone changed their mind.
Who said all traders are horse-thieves . . .? Those blokes weren't and I remember them fondly half a century on for their kindness.
T' interweb says variously they're at Histon Road, also Chesterton Road (as originally) but also says on Flickr 'Dead and Gorn'. Maybe the daughter said Allins, or possibly Haywards, both of whom I think exist and could have confused me - so easily done! (Mind you, she got her OIlfield more than a dozen years back, 15 maybe, so still a 'could be', maybe.)
I only ever bought one machine (a '57 Ariel VH Hunter, £80) from a dealer myself - from SS Motorcycles of Southampton (Bitterne rings a bell), in 1973 I think. Anyway, I was in there later getting various bits. It was that very grim day when Saarinen and Pasolini were killed, or the day after. The guys in the shop were big race fans and so upset they just gave me whatever I'd come in for.
I really didn't want to profit from such a horror show . . . but I was a teenager and pretty penniless so just said 'Wow, thanks guys!' and departed before anyone changed their mind.
Who said all traders are horse-thieves . . .? Those blokes weren't and I remember them fondly half a century on for their kindness.
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Reynard24
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Re: Just a picture
Biscuit tin front hub is 1954 only, ‘55 on were the barrel shape with 7 circumferential ribs.
Hallens had a second branch in St.Ives, Huntingdonshire, sadly both the shop and the county are long gone.
Hallens had a second branch in St.Ives, Huntingdonshire, sadly both the shop and the county are long gone.
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Joker_Bones
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Re: Just a picture
Good story Groily... I don't have any from those days, my interest in motocycles is a more recent acquisition.
The only bike I have bought from a dealer was my N15, and in keeping with this thread...
The dating certificate for it said the factory records showed it being supplied to 'Frith' Motorcycles in Toronto.
Google revealed little until I thought it seemed a strange name and tried Firth.
Couldn't find any photos but found a painting... The building is still there...
The only bike I have bought from a dealer was my N15, and in keeping with this thread...
The dating certificate for it said the factory records showed it being supplied to 'Frith' Motorcycles in Toronto.
Google revealed little until I thought it seemed a strange name and tried Firth.
Couldn't find any photos but found a painting... The building is still there...
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Groily
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Re: Just a picture
Good one J-B! Frith of Froth or Firth of Forth . . . etc!
Thinking of dealers who are still there (or not) - my '54 Model 20 was sold originally by Brown's of Godalming to its first owner in Dec 1953. I'm the third owner, the in between one is a 50-year mate who rides it regularly still. Owner # 1 used it to commute to London from somewhere around Guildford for about 20 years, reputedly, so no wonder it had some miles on it when I got my hands on it back in '76. The crank was on -80, BMC Mini shells, and there was a wee bit of wear shall we say. One of the wire-wounds in it, forget what oversize, had cracked pretty well right across the crown - but she just kept on going, as they do.
GD Browns still exists as an 85 years' young business it seems.
Wonder idly if they'd offer me a good PX against one of the modern Piaggios and stuff they sell? Can't claim she's been "main agent serviced for 70 years", but she runs as well as the day she was made in most respects.
Thinking of dealers who are still there (or not) - my '54 Model 20 was sold originally by Brown's of Godalming to its first owner in Dec 1953. I'm the third owner, the in between one is a 50-year mate who rides it regularly still. Owner # 1 used it to commute to London from somewhere around Guildford for about 20 years, reputedly, so no wonder it had some miles on it when I got my hands on it back in '76. The crank was on -80, BMC Mini shells, and there was a wee bit of wear shall we say. One of the wire-wounds in it, forget what oversize, had cracked pretty well right across the crown - but she just kept on going, as they do.
GD Browns still exists as an 85 years' young business it seems.
Wonder idly if they'd offer me a good PX against one of the modern Piaggios and stuff they sell? Can't claim she's been "main agent serviced for 70 years", but she runs as well as the day she was made in most respects.
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Joker_Bones
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Re: Just a picture
Two things you said there strike a chord...
When I stripped down the N15, I found the shells at +40 and the journals worn undersize to them. +40 were the largest oversize shells I could see listed, assumed there was nowhere to go and shelled out, pun intended, for a replacement recon crank. I could have fitted even larger oversize shells from a car???
Last year I built a 350 single 'special'. When reassembling the engine I noticed a crack, just a little one, in the piston, across the wrist pin boss.
I thought... If I use it, I bet it will be okay and go on like that for miles, but bottled out and bought a new piston.
Lol, I haven't been in this game long enough!!!
When I stripped down the N15, I found the shells at +40 and the journals worn undersize to them. +40 were the largest oversize shells I could see listed, assumed there was nowhere to go and shelled out, pun intended, for a replacement recon crank. I could have fitted even larger oversize shells from a car???
Last year I built a 350 single 'special'. When reassembling the engine I noticed a crack, just a little one, in the piston, across the wrist pin boss.
I thought... If I use it, I bet it will be okay and go on like that for miles, but bottled out and bought a new piston.
Lol, I haven't been in this game long enough!!!
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Groily
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Re: Just a picture
Don't think undersize shells work for the Notrun engine J-B. I'd have done what you did.
Like Trihards, Notrun cranks are like a bit of bent wire compared to 'our twingles', or to Beesas for that matter. Not sure it was that smart an idea on the twingles either tbh because of the closeness to the surface of the angled oilway drillings from centre main to big end journals- but in the days when it was a Q of make do and mend, it was an option. The registers on the A series BMC shells were on the wrong side/end and an extra notch had to be filed in the rods, but it worked.
That undersize crank of mine died after I'd had it metal-sprayed back to standard, probably because the radii were lost by the people who did it. It broke soon after. Not saying metal spraying isn't good, but it was over 40 years ago and things have moved on - T&L will do it now, and claim good results if a crank is structurally sound.
Anything these days - first stop T&L for me as everything they have ever done for me - and it's been quite a bit, on various marques - has been good.
And I would have bottled out with a cracked piston too, even a 'little one'. You never know for sure - but failure = catastrophe probably, and I think only a real chancer would carry on knowing something like that was amiss. You'd be scared to ride it I reckon. (And your bikes are very beautiful so the guts should match!)
None of us has been at it long enough to know 'enough' though - I'm not sure it's possible even. After a few beers some of us suddenly find we know a lot more however! (Which reminds me, it's that Time of Day again . . . I'll be wiser in a couple of hours, mark my words!)
Like Trihards, Notrun cranks are like a bit of bent wire compared to 'our twingles', or to Beesas for that matter. Not sure it was that smart an idea on the twingles either tbh because of the closeness to the surface of the angled oilway drillings from centre main to big end journals- but in the days when it was a Q of make do and mend, it was an option. The registers on the A series BMC shells were on the wrong side/end and an extra notch had to be filed in the rods, but it worked.
That undersize crank of mine died after I'd had it metal-sprayed back to standard, probably because the radii were lost by the people who did it. It broke soon after. Not saying metal spraying isn't good, but it was over 40 years ago and things have moved on - T&L will do it now, and claim good results if a crank is structurally sound.
Anything these days - first stop T&L for me as everything they have ever done for me - and it's been quite a bit, on various marques - has been good.
And I would have bottled out with a cracked piston too, even a 'little one'. You never know for sure - but failure = catastrophe probably, and I think only a real chancer would carry on knowing something like that was amiss. You'd be scared to ride it I reckon. (And your bikes are very beautiful so the guts should match!)
None of us has been at it long enough to know 'enough' though - I'm not sure it's possible even. After a few beers some of us suddenly find we know a lot more however! (Which reminds me, it's that Time of Day again . . . I'll be wiser in a couple of hours, mark my words!)