It’s the kind of bike that only its mother could love – but our Julie’s Silver Arrow touches her heart

With no tank badges, this 90-year-old motorcycle in Julie Diplock’s possession often gets onlookers scratching their heads – and its technical details make for intriguing reading

JULIE DIPLOCK

An eclectic gang of motorcycles, built from 1914 to 1991, shares Julie’s life, but her tastes err towards the older, more British end of the scale. This 90-year-old machine is a case in point...

I’VE NEVER BEEN one to stick to a theme with bikes; I prefer to see what comes along. When I was offered the Matchless at a reasonable price I didn’t have much idea what it was – but, as it was mostly complete and unrestored, I said yes. “You snooze, you lose,” as a chap who missed a rather nice set of Matchless G80 crankcases at an autojumble once said. It certainly was an ugly motorcycle, but the Bakelite switches and knobs and the general oddness of the machine attracted me to it. Designed by Harry and Charlie Collier, the eldest of the Collier brothers, the Silver Arrow launched in late 1929 to great fanfare. It was marketed by Matchless as being: ‘A motorcycle which is as silent, as smooth running and as comfortable as a high-grade motor car’. The engine was a completely new configuration – a 400cc narrow-angle V-twin, fitted in the first sprung chassis to be offered by Matchless. There seems to be

some confusion as regards the exact angle of the V-twin; the 1930 sales brochure describes the two cylinders as set at an angle of 26°, whilst the instruction book of the same year states the cylinders are set at 18° to one another. I’m not entirely sure how to check this, without removing the barrel and taking some measurements, but maybe the blueprints are still around...

Many features echoed car-design, and the one-piece cylinder block and one-piece head give the appearance of an inline-four engine. The inlet manifold is cast iron, and the valves and tappets of the side-valve are fully enclosed by a chrome-plated cover; apart from the dry sump, the engine would look quite at home in an Austin Ruby. The oil tank is fitted directly to the front of the engine, with internal oil feeds and a Tecalemit filter.

For the 1931 range, the three-speed Sturmey-archer gearbox had been upgraded to a four-speed unit – although due to issues with the Silver Arrow’s lack of performance, this was overshadowed by the launch of the Silver Hawk designed by Bert Collier, the youngest of the Collier Brothers. His ’30s superbike used many of the features of the Silver Arrow to make a V4 ohc engine, fitted in the same sprung chassis.

I can’t help thinking that Bert

Spring brackets on rear suspension look home-made, but are original

Hand-change gate was a home-made lash-up when Julie bought the bike

Rear brake pivot-arm has been fitted upside-down, with the rod misrouted. It’s been purposefully (and not very prettily) bent to clear the kickstart

Speedo drive is an even less convincing ‘improvisation’ involving an ally bracket, a lump of timber and wood screw – but no speedo cable

No holding back on the boldness of the statement on the front cover of the model’s 1930 sales brochure!