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[Exile]

Now that's a proper bike, built just down the road from where I grew up in Essex, UK. My best mates Dad has one just the same. Never saw it run sadly, but was proud that my home county had made such a cool machine (I was twelve at the time !)

Jonhutchings, I didn't know any motorbikes were made in Essex.

Where were they built please?

[twomokes]

Jonhutchings, I didn't know any motorbikes were made in Essex.

Where were they built please?

The factory was in Church Road, Thundersley

[GlenAnderson]

Solid rear suspension. Mine was plunger which might just as well have been solid.

We’ve a rigid D1, a plunger D3 and an early swinging arm D3.

Given that a SIIA was made from 1961 to 1972 I think an early Armstrong/CCM bike might fit the bill?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong-CCM_Motorcycles

I had quite a bit of experience with de-mobbed Armstrongs in the middle 90s. Tall, heavy, hard to start and mediocre brakes. I didn’t like them at all.

[rustynuts]

I would say that it is not possible to compare a farm utility truck to a mode of transport which at the time was used primarily as a cheap mode of transport for the working man....  But if I was to, I would nominate the Norton 16H. Many thousands were produced for WW2 and were very capable on rough terrain and much preferred by riders over similar offerings from BSA and others. After the war, dealers converted thousands of them from olive green to the traditional Norton black and silver to sell to the new civilian population. Today they are a nice plodding classic and are still a fair bit cheaper than the sportier Norton models.

[Matt Reeves]

I have to agree with Rustynuts^^^

Many are suggesting period competition machines yet in period (1958-1972) the Land Rover was intended primarily as a multipurpose vehicle for rural, agricultural and industrial users. The fact that some owners decided to begin trailing and rallying theirs is largely beside the point.

Surely a Bantam, B40 and similar would be the nearest comparison in terms of intended and actual use and period they were produced?.

[PetrolFour]

.... The fact that some owners decided to begin trailing and rallying theirs is largely beside the point.

Surely a Bantam, B40 and similar would be the nearest comparison in terms of intended and actual use and period they were produced?.

I think you're right. I've changed my mind. Land rovers in period were 'cooking-grade' and very ordinary. The Greeves off-road ability is a red-herring. Today's off-road equiv. to a Greeves would be a Bowler. A Land riover was never a competition vehicle.

If it was Brit, dead-centre would be a Rokon, an all-wheel-drive motorcycle first made in the 50s. But it's Yank, not Brit.

It's something British, and frankly pretty dull, commonplace, we're after . A Bantam it is. Nothing vaguely interesting anyway.

[TJRL]

I had quite a bit of experience with de-mobbed Armstrongs in the middle 90s. Tall, heavy, hard to start and mediocre brakes. I didn’t like them at all.

Indeed.

I had a couple of the later replacement MT350s (made by Harley Davidson who brought the rights). HD added a very good electric starter (plastic panniers & gun scabbard), but starting on the kicker was a bit of an art and finding neutral with the engine running really a hit and miss affair!

I think they were primary purchased by the Army for convoy escort duty in Germany.

But like SIIs they were made to take abuse, be easy to get going again in the field and get you were you
needed to be (eventually!).
 

[2286]

I almost forgot, the Rokon.😎

https://www.rokon.com/

That gets my vote, they did one on welderup but I could not remember what they were called.

[GlenAnderson]

Indeed.

I had a couple of the later replacement MT350s (made by Harley Davidson who brought the rights). HD added a very good electric starter (plastic panniers & gun scabbard), but starting on the kicker was a bit of an art and finding neutral with the engine running really a hit and miss affair!

I think they were primary purchased by the Army for convoy escort duty in Germany.

But like SIIs they were made to take abuse, be easy to get going again in the field and get you were you
needed to be (eventually!).

I think if you’re over six feet, and well built, they’re probably a better choice than they were for someone of my five-eight and 11st. If the 500s had been fitted with an electric starter then I could have forgiven them the rest of their foibles, but my overriding memory of them is being red hot, exhausted and furious at the side of the road trying to get them to start. They weren’t bad to ride, and as an A-Road trundler they were comfortable enough. Convoy escort duties would have been well within their capabilities. You couldn’t really hustle with them though, they were too ponderous for heavy traffic and the brakes weren’t great when worked hard. Off road they were too heavy and cumbersome for someone of my size. The place I worked back then had over a dozen of them in the time I was there, and they were all much the same, so I’m fairly sure that it wasn’t just a case that I had a bad one.

The BSA B40 that predated it would be a much better equivalent to a Land-Rover IMHO, particularly in Ex-WD guise.

[ian_1968]

My AJS 350
Was slightly under powered on fast roads
Had just the correct amount of oil leaks
Was just the right side of reliable
Was comfortable most of the time
Was often very wet when it rains
Repairs could be done at home or more commonly by the roadside
Most people knew it was an AJS but often got the model wrong (like we all drive defenders)

[jonhutchings]

The factory was in Church Road, Thundersley

spot on, even in the 80's there used to be a few about in Southend. I remember going into a bicycle shop and there being one in the window amongst all the push bikes.

[TJRL]

I almost forgot, the Rokon.😎

https://www.rokon.com/

Ooh, I like them a lot (even if only 7hp)!   

[JPH]

A little later in era than the 2a ( More S3 tbh....)   but the DT175mx   has all the landy quality's:       Go green laning, ride it to work, down the pub, easy to work on with normal tools and even take the Mrs on the back round the ring at a steam fair!   

[w3526602]

Hi,

I've never had a lot to do with bikes, but my 1936 OK Supreme 350cc (JAP) and my 1936 Douglas 600cc fore & aft twin (hand shift) had "girder" forks at the front, which to my mind have advantages over telescopic forks, when it comes to simplicity and rigidity.

Both bikes had "solid" rear ends (no springs) which I found adequate (ignorance is bliss?).

We are comparing the "target" bike with Land Rovers, aren't we?

Instead of the conventional spoke or alloy wheels, would there be any advantage, cost wise, to having pressed steel wheels, say 13" dia, with "balloon tyres". I know that motorcycle tyres must not be fitted to cars ... or it it vice versa?

I believe a two-wheeled motorcycle can tow a 100kg trailer, (which should be adequate for a ploughmans lunch). I don't know what other constraints there are. Oh yes, two wheelers are restricted to carrying only two people, Sidecars are considered to be trailers, and yet are not prevented from carrying passengers. There is no mention of the number of dogs that may be carried.

There is something in the Movement of Animals Legislation, about horses and pigs NOT sharing a container, UNLESS they have been reared together. Whatever turns you on!

I know there have been "banking" sidecars, but there is nothing in my memory about banking trailers.

There was some historical legislation (invoked by one brand of bubble car) that allowed a tricycle with two wheels on a single axle to be counted as one wheel, if they were not more than a specified distance apart. Can anyone expand on that?

602

[PetrolFour]

Can't help notice how the term 'motorcycle' seems to be lost, both in this thread and in wider use. The Highway Code would refer to such things as 'motorcycles'. nay, we used to tax our 'motorcycles'. It was a taxation class. Now we tax 'motorbikes' and somehow this comes across as a tad lazier. Motorcycle or motorbike always was a little more interchangeable, but I think you take my point. Our language has changed so much in my memory.