The bike in question.

There was no Thursday post last week, so my apologies if you came here looking for the second lost footpath post.

It doesn’t seem very blog related, but I’ve been without a working motorcycle and the past couple of weeks has been taken up in trying to remedy that.

I rely on a motorcycle for being able to explore the countryside for the North Bucks Wanderer, especially those narrow dead-end lanes which have nowhere for a car to turn round, or those spots where there’s a great photo to be had but nowhere to park a car.

There’s nearly always a corner or a narrow verge I can park the bike on, and it’s a simple matter to turn round when I’ve spotted something to show you. So creating varied and interesting posts is much easier.

Also, it “drives” me crazy not being able to ride. Okay, I’ve made it into a joke, but when I get this bike back on the road I’ll be a much happier man; the bike is part of my support system.

The second lost footpath post will be published on Thursday.

The Monday Photo

1953 connects this classic motorcycle, the church behind it, and our late Queen.

You probably know that her late Majesty’s coronation was on 2nd June 1953, and just before Christmas that year this 500cc BSA was despatched from the factory to a dealer in Edinburgh.

I expect the bike was put together early in December, built from parts made by the factory in the first few months of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. I now own this machine, and there’s a huge difference between this bike and the motorcycles you can buy now, in performance and technology.

I often get people looking nostalgically at my obviously ancient bike, but in 1953 it was state of the art. It was easy to maintain, cheap to run basic transport; just what was needed in Britain, still coming out of wartime austerity.

Considered slow now, (I never cruise at more than 55mph) when first on the road it was faster than many cars. This model, an M33, was built to take a sidecar, an unusual sight now but very common in the years after World War 2. BSA even made their own sidecars, and in 1953 there was a choice of a family sidecar or a single seat de luxe tourer.

Behind the bike is the church of St Thomas the Apostle, in Simpson, Milton Keynes. Unusually, the central 13th Century tower is the oldest part of the church.

In the nave and above the tower arch is painted the royal arms of George II. This mural was carefully restored in coronation year, and on it GR2 for George Rex II was changed to ER2, of course for Elizabeth Regina II. There’d be uproar if this was done today!

And here we are in another coronation year. The death of Queen Elizabeth II was a shock, but not, I suppose, a surprise.

Long live the King.

The Monday Photo

In May last year I showed you a picture of the nearest bike in this photo, a 1932 Levis.

It was an old shot from 2010, with the bike sat on a grassy lane at Clifton Reynes; just the place for an off road machine.

But this photo was taken yesterday, at the Stony Classic vehicle show in Stony Stratford. The show takes place on the first Sunday of StonyLive, Stony Stratford’s annual live music festival. The festival and show all usually happen in June, but you all know why it’s late this year.

I hadn’t seen the Levis since 2010, so when I spotted it at the show I went straight over for a good look. Five minutes later the owner Graham appeared, ready to head off along with his mate, whose BSA isn’t much younger than the Levis. You can see the BSA in the photo.

Before he rode away Graham told me the Levis has recently had some new bits fitted; front brake, exhaust and carburettor. I think it’s been off the road while the work was done.

There’s more about the Levis at the first link on this post, above. By the way, it’s pronounced Le-viss, not Lee-vize.

For travelling round the back roads of North Bucks, you can’t beat a motorcycle. Photography and motorcycling go hand in hand, so a bike is ideal when I’m out looking for subjects for the North Bucks Wanderer.

The Monday Photo

I parked up the bike on the junction's grass triangle, so I could take a picture. I had just visited the lovely Hillesden church,  and I didn’t realise I was still in the parish, though I had ridden well over two miles from the church.

It was a Sunday afternoon in March. The day was sunny, but even today, two years later, I remember how cold it was. I would head home after this stop.

I like these old cast iron finger posts. There are quite a few left in North Bucks; there’s one at Swanbourne just across the road from the church, and another one at Mursley.

This type of sign began to be installed in the 1920s, and this example has a mistake. In the Polo mint-like circle at the top, it says “Cowley Road” (this bit might be correct), and underneath it says “Preston Bissett”. It should say “Hillesden”, because that’s the parish the sign is in.

The parish border is very close, though; about thirty feet from the finger post, out of shot on the left. A mile further on is the county border with Oxfordshire.

The other two finger posts are different. The circle on the Swanbourne finger post says “Swanbourne Bucks”, and the one at Mursley says “Bucks County”. Perhaps they were made in different years.

If you know of other finger posts in North Bucks, please let me know in the comments.

I’m looking forward to being able to go out on bike rides again, and it looks like that’ll be allowed fairly soon, as the lockdown rules change. The riding season doesn’t really start until April anyway, so until I can get out on rides I’ll be spending time in the shed, getting the bikes ready.

That’s quite satisfying, too; all part of the biking experience.

The Barrel Bikers, a local motorcycle club, usually have a Christmas party every year. It’s always held after Christmas, on a Saturday near the beginning of February. This doesn’t stop them giving out raffle prizes wrapped in Christmas paper!

The Monday Photo

Ten years almost to the day that I borrowed a bike for a photo in this same lane in Clifton Reynes, I came back to photograph my own classic British bike.

It wasn’t until I got home that I looked at that other shot and checked the date on it. I hadn’t realised that yesterday was the closest Sunday I could have chosen to that other Sunday, a whole decade before.

The 1932 Levis I borrowed that day was built as an off road sport machine, for trials and scrambling. My 1953 BSA was built for the road, and to have a sidecar attached. It’s known as an M33.

Bike ownership for both solo machines and bikes with sidecars hit its peak in the 1950s, so there was also a B33 for solo use, very similar but lighter. Both had a 500cc single cylinder engine.

There are a few differences between my bike and the B33.  On my M33, there are attachment points for the sidecar chassis, built into the bike. The gear ratios are different; more widely spread to cope with the weight of  ‘the chair’ (the sidecar), yet still give a reasonable cruising speed. The frame is braced underneath, but there’s no bracing on the B33.

My M33 is the version with the plunger frame. An advance on the older rigid frames that gave no rear suspension, the rear axle plunges up and down on two strong rods, more or less controlled by big springs.

It gives a gentler ride than no rear suspension at all, but gets a bit confused at modern road speeds on bumpy back roads. If you ever follow an old bike like this and the rider slows down where you wouldn’t, it’s probably because the road is a bit too bumpy; they are doing their best!

The top speed on this BSA, without a sidecar, is about 83 mph. That probably doesn’t seem very fast compared to a modern 500, but back in 1953, a typical family car would only be good for 70 mph. Much of the traffic in those austere days was pre war, and slower.

I cruise around at 50 or 55 mph, but when the bike was new 50 was more likely to be the maximum cruising speed for private vehicles, on good roads. I’ll never take it up to 83 mph.