CANDLESTICKS, JAMPOTS AND TELLIES…

To hear AMC enthusiasts talk, or to come in halfway through a conversation, you could be forgiven for thinking household appliances were being discussed. Tellies are a reference to front forks and the term is applicable not only to AMC machines but any motorcycle with telescopic forks. It may seem odd to modern readers but in the Fifties telescopic forks were still a new idea and not fully understood. Norton, with their Roadholder forks were seen as the market leader in front suspension, but AMC were challenging that assumption with their Teledraulics and there are those who feel the Teledraulics are better forks. Certainly thanks to AMC’S wartime metallurgical experience the stanchions benefited from heat treating and were lighter and stronger because of it.

Talk of candlesticks and jampots refer to AMC’S own rear suspension, they made front forks so how difficult can it be to make rear suspension? Quite difficult apparently, as the first units looked like candlesticks and were okay for road but brilliant for competition use, though it has to be said Geoff Ward won the British scrambles championship on AJS with such units.

A more robust damper was introduced soon after though and is known far and wide as ‘Jampot’ because it looked like two jam pots sliding together. The rub here is inside the works ones were Girling units, as Wally Wyatt admitted to Don Morley when he was interviewed for the AMC sections of his books. Apparently once the truth of the dampers became known to AMC’S management, Girlings were permitted for the team.