INCOMING!

I must mention the good people at Rickman motorcycles. I have recently bought a Honda CD 250U with a Rickman fairing from the 1980s. Unfortunately the screen was homemade and too short to be much use. Despite it no longer being listed, Rickman still have the moulds and were able to supply a perfect new screen at a very fair price. Lovely people!

Keith Rimmer, member

RUDGE RACER

Could I shed a little light on the Horne Rudge admired by PUB in RC184? This could be a restored version of the bike raced in the 1956 Junior TT by Jackie Horne, whose father had a motorcycle business in Scotland. I served my National Service in REME attached to the Royal Signals Driver Training Regiment where Jackie was a motorcycle instructor. His fellow instructors included works supported riders Arthur Lampkin (BSA) and Peter Fletcher (Royal Enfield). Our camp really was a nest of motorcycling talent including the famous White Helmets.

L/Cpl Dave Bell

Thanks for the info – we checked on iomtt.com and indeed there’s a whole page with photos dedicated to the Horne Rudge, built by father AG and son AJ. Apparently, Jack raced the 250 Rudge several times at the TT and at the NW200, Ulster Grand Prix and such, and won the Scottish Championship aboard it. Rowena

ARIEL OILING

RC184 brought back happy memories of my first big bike, a 1956 Ariel Huntmaster. It was just like Doug Walker’s but scruffier and less original, as working classics often were nearly forty years ago.

Ariels of this period have a dodgy feature in the oil tank which very nearly caused an engine breakage. Beneath the filler cap lives a circular cup which guides the returning oil into the gauze filter below. It holds a permanent puddle of oil which I mistook as a full tank when checking the contents in poor light, and narrowly averted disaster. I later met someone who wasn’t so lucky.

When I rode my Huntmaster up