Peter Archer
In OBA 95 you asked if anyone has a photo of Peter Archer on his VTR1000 Honda. I don’t have a picture from 1999 Phillip Island WSBK, but I do have one from Eastern Creek. Peter’s VTR1000 was in Formula Xtreme spec, standard cams with altered timing, standard pistons, carbs and air box. Rear shock was the standard item with some internal changes and a remote reservoir. Forks were also standard with valving changes. Several exhaust systems were tried. Staintune’s Andy and Nigel Pitsch collaborated to come up with an excellent system. The bike proved very competitive in Formula Xtreme, winning the 1998 Thunderbike class after some very determined competition from Graeme Morris in his well prepared 916 Ducati, with both of them finishing in front of most of the four cylinder bikes. All engine work was done by Nigel Pitsch, who is very proficient in this field. All chassis work was done by myself. Peter’s father Jim Archer was team leader and performed that role with consummate ease, however the main reason for the bike’s speed was Peter Archer himself. He looked perfectly at ease, yet was blindingly fast, not just on the tar but dirt bikes as well. At Phillip Island the
VTR was 30km/h slower down the straight than the rest of the field, but from talking to people from the crowd he was as fast or faster than the best around the back of the track. I was proud to be part of Team CMA. to your magazine staff with my authority to publish it in the case in future you will write about MV Agusta models. My Father wherever he will be, will be happy and proud if his photo will be published, and maybe someone who sells the bike will publish it in your magazine and I will make my dream of having one come true. With my congratulations for the great magazine a big hello from Italy!
A sinister Scott
I read with interest the article in OBA95 about two-stroke running backwards. This brought back an incident that happened to me. In the late 1950s I owned a 1934 Scott Flyer 600cc, the first model with foot gear change. I wheeled the machine out of the garage and closed the doors, went through the usual starting procedure, turn on the fuel, flood carburettor, mounted the machine and got on the kick starter. Second kick it fired up and it sounded a bit funny. I listened for a few seconds then chose to ignore it because the motor was cold.
Straddling the machine I pushed it off the rear stand, selected first gear, revved up and let out the clutch. The machine shot backwards into the garage doors, leaving me sitting on the petrol tank, and then it fell over sideways with my shoulder hitting the concrete which didn’t do me a lot of good. The resulting damage was a crumpled mudguard, smashed tail light, and badly scarred timber work, the rear stand scribing a deep arc in the nice clear finish of the silky oak doors with fancy brass hinges. My father was not impressed.
It was a machine I could not come to terms with. Its handling was a worry; if you tipped into a corner it had a tendency to bury itself. The chain swish noise coming from amidships I found irritating and friends would ask me, “What have you got in your pockets, Laurie, spark plugs?” It was a case of buy
on Saturday and sell on Sunday. I advertised it for sale in the Sydney Morning Herald and it was sold at 6 o’clock Saturday morning sight unseen, and the phone never stopped ringing for a fortnight.
Silky Oak doors on a garage? Wow, I’m impressed. Just to complete the ‘Backwards running’ discussion, I remember being at one of the early meetings at the Mount Kembla Scrambles track near Wollongong. The final event of the day was usually a handicap, and I was in a line of bikes which was being flagged away one by one by the timekeeper. Just up from me was a Cotton which decided to cease idling just seconds before the rider was to be dispatched. Desperately pumping at the kickstarter, the engine finally fired (unusual for a Cotton) just as the flag dropped, and the rider dumped the clutch and shot off backwards, pranging into the rider beside me and putting both off them out, which made my task in the race slightly easier.