Brooklands Sun 10 Oct - Morgans, and Cotton Motorcycles

[Tony oily bike]

If you’ve got nothing planned, you could always visit Brooklands Museum near Weybridge in Surrey on Sun 10th Oct, as not only will the museum be open, but there’ll be a display of Morgans and Cotton motorcycles, with the test hill having demo runs for the Morgans & Cottons (I think) in the afternoon.

Note - There is a charge for entry.

http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/

http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/index.php?/events/details/2009/10/11/

http://cottonownersclub.com/page27.htm

[Manky Monkey]

Morgan 3 wheelers? Ooh, I lurve them.

[Tony oily bike]

Hopefully a chap I met and his lovely lady will be there with a thier 1928 1260cc Morgan Super Aero (which runs on methanol...)  luveleeeee and it smells great!

Think another mate will there with his competition Cotton Jap.

Its good to gas.

[Manky Monkey]

That's beautiful.

[Tony oily bike]

Here we go, some shots from the Morgan and Cottons at Brooklands

[Tony oily bike]

more Cottons, note the style of the frame, and most of these were running JAP or Blackburne engines.

[Manky Monkey]

2 top seat rails?

[Tony oily bike]

Now here's a story about a 3 wheeled Morgan.

A friend of ours who’s around 80 popped along with a photo of the Morgan he had as a young man (we’re talking around 50 years previous here) with a girlfriend of the time in the passenger seat, and against the odds, out of the half dozen 3 wheelers ‘his’ was there! He hadn’t seen it for decades, and the new owner (who’d owned it over 40 years) was amazed at the old the photo. The two old fellas rabbited & rabbited, and both were later seen driving around with beaming smiles.

This is the Morgan, him and the current owner, and the photo he brought along for the day

[Tony oily bike]

'Thier' Morgan

[Tony oily bike]

Just some of the 4 wheeled variety

[Tony oily bike]

The fantabulous Napier Railton with its Napier Lion aero engine looking very pretty in 2010.

Here's some footage of it back in 1935 at Bonneville.

John Cobb drove for 500 miles at an average of  over 147 mph, then went on to break 15 worlds records including 24 hours at an average of over 134 mph! 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=5984

[Tony oily bike]

Aside from the old stuff was a very interesting Harley based 1920/1930s inspired machine (check the photos). The engine is based on a Heritage Sportser but heavily modified, the frame home-designed by the owner (an artist based in London) and built in the states. Chatting to him, he said the bike had only just been shipped over, and it was at  Brooklands for a photo shoot.

The overall lines and style of the machine really work (in my book at least), and there is a huge attention to detail, but without being ‘in ya face’. Its subtle and striking, with a great blend of old and new, a very well balanced build (guess what, I want one!)

I suspect we’ll be seeing this in some of the bike/lifestyle mags very soon.

[Tony oily bike]

Another shot of the HD

[Tony oily bike]

The HD with its owner

[Tony oily bike]

In answer to Mankey's question about seat rails, I'ce copied the following from the Cotton Owners Club website:

http://www.cottonownersclub.com/page4.htm


The Cotton Motorcycle Company of Gloucester was founded in 1919 by Frank Willoughby Cotton at 11a Bristol Road, Gloucester. F.W. Cotton had competed in motorcycle hill climb and speed trials during 1912-13, and it is said that he took over from a Mr. A.H. Camery and developed further the motorcycle made by Mr. Camery known as the Sudbrook.

In 1913, Cotton devised a triangulated frame layout in order to cope with the alignment problems peculiar to the motorised cycle. Most early machines were really ordinary push cycle frames distorted almost out of recognition to accommodate engines, tanks, gearboxs, etc. Cotton chose not to use these diamond frames and instead utilised triangulation with its strength and lightness using straight tubes under compression and tension loading which avoided metal fatigue through flexing, and maintained wheel alignment under all conditions.Frank Cotton patented a triangulated motorcycle frame design in 1914. He persuaded the Levis Company to construct and test two frames. The First World War prevented marketing the company, but enabled the production design to be finalised. The first machine which, with its low centre of gravity making cornering easier, had a top speed of 60 mph and appeared in 1920.