Ruminations and Rumi reminiscences
As a long-time subscriber of OBM, I did enjoy the recent articles about the old Earls Court Motorcycle Shows and the reproduction of the old glass plate photographs.
Coincidentally, there was an archive link that appeared on a digital newsletter that I receive from The Engineer regarding a ‘hover scooter’ that was unveiled at the 1960 Earls Court show.
The article describes the machine which was produced in the USA and utilised an air-cooled twin two-stroke Yamaha engine. It goes on at length regarding this peculiar machine before some description about the newly-introduced Velocette Viceroy scooter.
However, the bit that really caught my eye was the reference to the Moto Rumi
‘La Strada’ motorcycle, a small capacity vee-twin four-stroke. It must have been a prototype as I have never heard of it and always associated Moto Rumi with the little two-stroke twin scooters.
What made me smile was the journalistic style of the time, to quote: “The ‘La Strada’ in which the engine, of 98cc, 125cc, or 175cc, is an ohv V-twin: this arrangement has been obsolescent for some years in this country but is presumably the only form of four-stroke that would not compare conspicuously badly with the Rumi engine extant, on which a duo-decagonal threepenny piece can be balanced whilst they are running.”
Where’s Wendy?
Having copies of the old magazines to pore over in these dismal winter days helps keep me sane when not in the workshop! But I wondered if any readers know whether Wendy Clarke (pictured right), continued with her two-wheeled exploits after winning the Isle of Man Scooter Girl Competition and her fund-raising ride to Brighton? She certainly looked as though she was enjoying herself on her Lambretta in 1960!
Fingers crossed we may get out riding again by summer.
Roy Warren
This also reminded me when I was a spotty teenager back in the late 1960s on my Ariel Arrow Sports. I used to keep it in my dad’s garage which was some distance from the house. The garage next door was used by a guy who kept an old Ford Anglia van in it which was used for his daily commute to work at the Land Rover factory. However, packed in at the back was a P&M Panther sloper with double adult sidecar and a Velocette Vogue resplendent in its beige and brown livery – no wonder they didn’t sell! You couldn’t give them away at the time.
On the other side, the garage was used by a guy who had filled it with numerous different motorcycles, all in various states of repair. Essentially there weren’t any complete bikes but many projects awaiting the time, money and inclination to continue. But there was one exception, that being a rather tatty red Moto Rumi scooter onto which had been grafted some home made expansion chambers ready for a visit to the TT.
I can still see the guy, complete with oily ragged Belstaff, scratched and chipped silver pudding basin helmet, screaming up the road in a blue haze on the way to Liverpool to catch the ferry. To my surprise, he made it to the TT but returned courtesy of the RAC with the little Moto Rumi well and truly seized after the exertions of a Mad Sunday lap.
Hope this is of interest to the OBM family.
Len Eades