Some old bikes rack up really high miles, criss-crossing the country. Others stay rather closer to home. This sporting stroker is a truly local lightweight, never straying far from its roots. Henry Gregson reports…
Some old bikes rack up really high miles, criss-crossing the country. Others stay rather closer to home. This sporting stroker is a truly local lightweight, never straying far from its roots. Henry Gregson reports…
As a move towards reducing the number of accidents involving young motorcyclists, in 1961 the government of the time changed the law to restrict learner riders to machines of 250cc or less. This meant that many manufacturers of lightweight motorcycles realised that they had to come up with something that would prove attractive to the young buyers. History has shown that, with rare exceptions such as the Cotton Conquest, the British offerings couldn’t compete with the influx of sophisticated small Japanese and Italian machines on performance. So what the British bikes lacked in speed they needed to compensate for by at least looking as if they could go fast. Probably the most successful of these glamorous offerings was the legendary Royal Enfield Continental GT.
The giant AMC concern manufactured James, Francis-Barnett, Norton, Matchless and AJS motorcycles. They produced sporty fourstroke lightweight twins in the Norton range; singles from AJS and Matchless with their CSR models, and from James, the Sports Captain. This was a two-stroke 200 with an Italian styled flair to its design which it was hoped, along with competitive pricing, would woo the young purchasers.
Introduced for 1961, the Sports Captain was produced until the demise of the company in 1966. The initial 1961/62 models featured the same petrol tank as the standard Captain, but thereafter the Sports was fitted with the quite attractive and very Italian looking ‘jelly-mould’ tank. Maybe this tank was used by other companies too, as several sportsters of the era use them, and they do look very similar…
Inevitably, the average Sports Captain was subjected to a hard life by the budding racer / learner rider who bought it, and the bikes are now quite rare. One machine that has survived the years, and with very few miles, is the example seen here. It belongs to retired engineer Harry and it has a very comprehensive history. It’s never lived more than 10 miles from its initial supplying dealership, Whittakers Motorcycles of Blackpool, a shop that was owned by long term VMCC member Dick Isles.
The James was first registered by that dealership on October 8th 1963, purchased by WM Whiteside of Staining. Within twelve months he had traded it in for a car at Freckleton Motors, around half way between Blackpool and Preston. It must have resided there for some time as it was not until June in 1966 that it found a new owner, a Mr Bowling, who lived just a couple of miles away.
Mr Bowling must have experienced some problems with the James, because in 1967 it was taken off the road and stripped down. It stayed that way until 1986, when Harry was told he could have it – providing he collected it within two days.
Now when I say ‘stripped’, I really do mean stripped. Not only had the engine been dismantled, but the entire bike as well! Harry is a bit mystified by this, because when he commenced the reassembly, apart from the inevitable odd missing bits, the only fault he found was a damaged piston (a picture
of which should be displayed somewhere close by). The piston is of an unusual design with cast-in transfer ports, as can be seen, which engage with a pair of deflectors in the cylinder head. The idea here was to make the cylinder barrel easier to cast, as instead of having conventional transfer ports cast-in, there were simply depressions in the bore to permit gas movement. Why the strange design? It would appear that the idea didn’t catch on…
The damage to the piston looked to have been caused by the bike being stored in a damp garage for decades, rather than through mechanical failure. Working from a photo in a magazine, Harry loosely reassembled the James and found that the kickstart gear and handlebars were the only things missing. A replacement gear was located at Vale Onslow, where his enquiry was met with the answer ‘How many do you want? Bantam John had some handlebars.
The missing parts located, the James was rebuilt and submitted for an MoT… which it promptly failed. The reason? As mentioned, Harry had used a photo of a James Sports Captain as his guide. Unbeknown to him, the photo had been reproduced as a reversed image, so he had put the front wheel in the wrong way round!
That wasn’t the only problem he encountered. The details entered on the original logbook also caused some confusion. The ‘S’ stamped as part of the frame number (S for Sports) had been interpreted by the licensing authorities as being a number five. It took some correspondence before this issue was eventually cleared up. Once the problem was solved, the James was returned to use. Despite now being 55 years old, it has still only covered 3000 miles from new, 2700 of those while in Harry’s ownership.
Associated Motorcycles were a longterm customer of Villiers, the company who provided the engines for their twostroke James and Francis-Barnett machines. However, spare production capacity within their own factory encouraged AMC to produce their own engines of 175, 200 and 250cc, designed by the Italian, Vincenzo Piatti, with polished porting. However, the shape of the supposedly ‘gas flowed’ transfer ports caused a problem by trapping the piston rings. Before too long, both design and production problems soon gained the engines a poor reputation for reliability. AMC were placed in the embarrassing situation of having to seek help from their old supplier, Villiers, eventually reverting to buying in proprietary engines again.
Despite this, when tested by the press the Sports Captain was praised for its performance, handling, steering, braking and ease of starting, so there really didn’t
appear to be much wrong. Top speed was in the region of 60mph and at this speed the machine had a reported fuel consumption of around 70mpg. Cruising speed was more in the region of around 45 to 55mph.
It is one of these now quite rare 200cc four-speed AMC 20TS engines that powers Harry’s James. Although the engine cannot in all honesty be described as sporting, Harry says it can ‘hold its own’, in traffic and cruises quite happily around 50mph, giving a very economical 100mpg.
Does the poor reputation of the Piatti / AMC engine matter today? Well, in its present incarnation as a classic it will be treated with a lot more respect than it was shown by 1960s teenagers. And since it’s been put back into regular use, the James has proved to be reliable. It starts easily and the clutch is light.
Harry does struggle a bit with the fourspeed gearbox. This is no fault of the James, it’s just that the one-up, three-down action is the opposite to the Triumph Harry also owns. Confusion can set in at times and he describes the action as ‘upside down’ (other opinions are available…). Still, at least there is no chance of the James dropping a valve!
The generic James / Francis-Barnett rolling chassis copes quite adequately with the James’s modest power, but Harry does say the quite narrow 5-inch drum brakes could be better. However, he praises the 6V lights which he finds no problem at all.
The James’s riding position is somewhat cramped for a full-grown adult. Being in excess of 6ft tall, the only way Harry can get comfortable is by sitting halfway back along the seat. The suspension and the seat are just
fine, it’s just that the bike would suit a smaller person. Ideal, really, for the teenagers it was designed for.
This unusual and attractive bike does get quite a bit of attention from inquisitive admirers. A nice touch which adds to its local history is the addition of a cast alloy ‘Freckleton Motorcycle Club’ badge. This club was formed in the 1930s, and was disbanded at the start of WW2. The club met in the stables of a Freckleton pub, the Coach and Horses, which still exists. In 1996 the club was briefly re-formed, and a wall plaque depicting the club’s badge was temporarily displayed in the bar. An embroidered cap badge was also produced and just one of these remains.
However, the cast alloy badge displayed on Harry’s bike has fared better. An original item was found in an old toolbox at a local garage and from that a further 10 numbered replicas were cast. These were sold all sold to enthusiasts within the Freckleton area. Since then a further 10 have been commissioned for local enthusiasts.
As we all know, in the long run the cosmetic makeover given to the British lightweights wasn’t enough to fool the buying public. The bikes may have looked Italian, but they certainly didn’t perform in the same way. Nevertheless, I do think that Harry’s machine has a certain simple and attractive charm about it. If AMC had invested in an engine with better performance and a bicycle with some decent brakes, they might just have been able to justify that ‘sports’ claim.