Motorcyclist sandwich men

Want to publicise your dance? Well, of course you need motorised sandwich boards then.

The members of Cheltenham Motor Cycle Club doing their bit to promote their annual dance, taking to the streets on their array of machines, literally taking the weight of promoting the club’s annual dinner dance on their own shoulders/backs.

The picture was published in the March 3, 1921, edition ofTheMotor Cycle, and one wonders howmany of thesemen had endured the horrors of the First World War. You’d have to say probably not the youth nearest the camera, on Triumph registration number NB1687, as he barely looks old enough to be ridingamotorcycle in 1921, let alone to have served in a war which had ended nearly two-and-a-half years before.

Though the young man’smotorcycle may have done, as it’s a ModelHTriumph, as supplied to the war effort in vast numbers (30,000 or so) with many later finding their way onto the public market. This example has been fittedwith a rakish set of handlebars, and a gas headlight, while the hand change lever for the three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox looks to have been turned downwards, providing an early footchange. Though it was some years before the positive-stop arrangement of footchange came into popularity, such a modification as demonstrated on ‘NB’ (a Manchester-issuedmark) was to find favour with many sportingmen in the 1920s.

Next along, the somewhat older fellow – though it’s all relative, not one of the motorcyclists in the picture is probably older than about 25 – is aboard seemingly a Royal Enfield two-stroke, registration FH1371, a number issued fromnearby Gloucester. Enfield’s 225cc machine (the Model 200) had first appeared at the Olympia show inNovember 1914, complete with a two-speed gear, and was instantly popular. It rejoined the postwar range, again finding favour, its lowweight – a claimed 147lb – and economy a winning combination. What’s also of interest is that in 1929 a new Model 200 cost £73-10s; before the war it was £39-18s, exampling just howprices had risen, owing to the clamour for motorised transport. By 1925, the boomover, the equivalent Enfield was just £35. Looking at the 1930 range, the base model two-stroke was £32-10s, while the list price of the 1920 two-stroke was over £10 more than anymodel in the line; aModel K, 976cc V-twin, was £62-10s.

OH641 is third from the left, which is most likely a Sunbeam judging by the leaf-spring front forks, though many of the machine is obscured. Again, the handlebars are tilted down. It’ll be a side-valve model for sure (as an overhead valve was a few years away) and an expensive one at that. Though relatively new to powered two-wheelers, with a first motorcycle announced in 1912, Sunbeam went straight to the top of the class, earning an instant reputation for the build quality of its machines (initially designed by Harry Stevens, of Stevens brothers, makers of AJS, fame) and backing that up with Alec Bennett’s TTwin in the

1920 Senior race, the first post hostilities Isle of Man spectacular.

The silver tank of FH1881 (so Gloucester again) identifiesa Norton – again a sidevalve as anOHV jobwas a bit in the future – with the local registration FH1857 on the next unidentifiable machine.

Then we have twomore Triumphs, with possibly an Indian V-twin the next machine, while sticking out a bit further along – and with what looks like electric lights – probably a Royal Enfield (ormaybe AJS?) V-twin.

Final two wheeler in the picture is the cycle on the left of shot, with the young lad stood behind it. Following the fashion of gentleman riding tall motorcycles, this one comes up to just below the little fellow’s armpit.

Location ofTheMotorists’ Dance was Cheltenham Town Hall – which would appear to be the building in the background. Built around 1902/3 (so not even 20 years old at the time of our picture) the hall boasted – so says the website www. cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk – ‘marbled Corinthian style columns, intricately decorated coved ceiling dance-friendly sprung floor, beautiful balconies, internal decoration and fixtures and fittings’ and the cost was put at £45,000; over £5.5 million in current terms.

Checking on the DVLA’s database, none of the registration marks that it’s possible to identify are still in use, which is a shame, though the town hall is still there, albeit quiet for much of 2020, one is sure. Let’s hope that the 1921 dance was a success and that the sandwich men’s work was a contributory factor, while, hopefully, in 2021 the town hall will be able to return to doing what it was designed for, too.