Test trials and tribulations

I was amused and taken back to the 1950s when I read the letter from Peter Biles in the January OBM. My experience was very similar when, in the summer of 1957, I took my test at Redhill, Surrey. My clutch was also a problem, so I know exactly the trepidation that Peter experienced as he describes. The clutch would not disengage fully, making gear changing and stopping a problem. The bike was a sporty little 1937

MOV Velocette for which I paid the princely sum of £20, having fallen in love with the polished aluminium nonstandard mudguards. I remember the bike had a problem with a leaky cylinder head and was fitted with two head gaskets. This appeared to stop the ‘squeak’ from the leaky head but

I could not cure the clutch problem, not being familiar with the quirks of the Velo clutch.

The test was virtually as Peter experienced, with the examiner jumping out in front of me for the emergency stop. I stalled the bike of course as the clutch would not free. This was apparently not a problem as I was issued with a pass ticket. It was a good job the examiner could not hear the crunching gear changes due to the clutch as he was mostly out of earshot as I rode round the block.

Happy days long ago but these and other memories are brought back by similar letters in OBM Readers’ Letters. Keep ’em coming. Doug Barton (Old Dude) Wokingham, Berkshire