Touring trips
Please excuse my tardy letter but I’ve got rather behind with my reading recently. I particularly liked the article in the July issue about the Sunbeam Model 90. It took me back to my courting days when my girlfriend and I enjoyed trips out on my 1937 250cc AJS often accompanied by my pal and girlfriend on his 350cc Matchless.
It was the tale of a trip around the Lake District that brought back a memory – negotiating the Hard Knott and Wrynose passes.
On our journey we were heading westwards up the Wrynose Pass when we were baulked on one of the steep hairpin turns by a descending car. When I’d bought the Ajay it was fitted with a Burman lightweight gearbox which had the unfortunate habit of jumping out third gear. I purchased a heavyweight ’box from a dealer conveniently situated 50 yards from where we lived and that solved the problem, once I’d got used to one up and three down.
The other difference was the fact that bottom gear was a bit higher, which caused the problem on Wrynose Pass. There was no way I could restart with my girlfriend on the back, so she had to hop off and leg it to the top of the pass in heavy motorcycling gear on a warm bank holiday Monday. She bore no ill feeling and we married a few years later. Happy times.
Keep up the great work on the mag.
Dave Whitworth, Mount, Huddersfield.