Carr’s Motor Cycles Shops
My father passed away recently, we found these photographs and thought you might like to see them. Dad (Sydney George Boucher) is pictured in the centre of the group. He ran Carr’s Motor Cycles in the Arcade, Okehampton, Devon, 1954-1968. When the Okehampton branch closed, he took over the running of their motorcycle shop at Tavistock until 1972, when Carr’s ended their motorcycle business, after which dad ran their vehicle workshops in Plymouth Road.
As dad was so well known he continued to help out his old motorcycle customer base, often free of charge, as they had become his friends. At Okehampton, the BSA machines would come from Birmingham by rail, then dad and his staff would prepare them for sale. He told me the best years were 1959 and 1960, and on one Saturday he sold 23 new and used motorcycles. After 1968, Carr’s dealt in less British machines, but more Hondas and Yamahas. Brian Boucher, email.
Another superb glimpse at our past when many towns sported one or more motorcycle shops plus mechanics hidden down alleys who’d repair motorcycles, build wheels and sell a few second-hand machines. Carr’s of Okehampton operated in a primary trading position and that Sydney Boucher sold 23 motorcycles on his ‘best’ Saturday confirms the firm must have carried sizeable stocks.
Mr Boucher and his two staff, their overalls proudly confirming loyalty to BSA, are either side of a unit single cylinder BSA or 250cc C15 or 350cc B40 and to their left is a 149cc Francis-Barnett Fulmar. With its AMC engine, the Fulmar could hit about 5055mph, while the sports version would attain almost 60mph.
The scooter to the back of the shop looks very like a Maicoletta, a machine many press writers stated was the most powerful scooter on the market at the time, offering good top speed and acceleration combined with handling more akin to a motorcycle. On the UK market it was at 320lb the heaviest and one of the most expensive scooters, but they were tough and durable. Launched by Maico of Pfäffingen, Ammerbuch, Germany in 1954, with options of 174cc or 247cc single cylinder two-stroke engines, a 277cc version appeared in 1957. The smallest model was tested at up to 60mph, while the 247cc clocked 68mph and the 277cc, 16.2bhp@5500rpm version neared 75mph.
Maicolettas had a Bosch six-volt electric start system, the action of which would take pages to explain. It was a complex system which rocked the crankshaft back and forth, rather than swing the engine over compression, involving extra sets of points – one of which fires the engine to start it, cams and a control box. And you needed this to work reliably, as the Maicoletta had no kickstarter.
The second picture illustrates the later
1950s to early 1960s period even better, as next to Carr’s is Okehampton’s Snack Bar, a blast from pre-health food days where little or nothing green would be served, rather mugs of piping hot sweet tea, fry ups and chips to die for. Happy days. Oh, and the motorcycles are mostly lightweights, but the first machine is a BSA pre-unit twin, perhaps by its light colour a 500cc A7 Shooting Star, while a Bantam slumbers in the shop window.