More printed matter ( again )

rocketonarail

rocketonarail

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Location
Gloucestershire,England
Latest edition of Classic Bike .......... Interview with Roger and Richard Slater at the old Collington works ....... now a private residence , the owner kindly allowed the brothers access .

Nice pic of Richard and Roger with Richard`s 3C , which I`ve included .......... Last time I saw Richard at home the 3C was silver , if I remember correctly ......... Maybe Richard has decided to become one of Piero Laverda`s " orange people " .......... :) ............


You`ll have to read the article , but mention of Jerry Clayton seizing a new 3C on the M1 through lack of oil .... ( he was told it needed an oil change at 500 miles , only partly done by the sound of it ) ...... reminds me of a similar story recounted by Dave Minton regarding another journalist arriving at new importers Three Cross to pick up a triple for a forthcoming feature .

Three Cross took over as UK Laverda importers from Slater Bros in 1982 .

He was told the bike was in the workshop having a service and oil change .......... Give it ten minutes and it should be ready .........

So he enters the workshop ten minutes later and sees the triple there waiting for him with the keys in the ignition ......... Takes the bike out , but immediately realises something is wrong , and returns very carefully to Three Cross .

Apparently the mechanic working on the bike had decided to go for his lunch break having drained , but not replaced the oil , without telling anyone .

The bike was then refilled with oil , and returned to the Three Cross showroom .............



The Jerry Clayton episode sounds more like willful neglect / stupidity ..........

Clayton was a close friend of circus owner Gerry Cottle ........ so maybe his previous riding experience consisted of peddling round in circles on a kids tricycle wearing a bright oversize coat and a large red nose .......... although being a bit of a sidecar enthusiast he did once pilot a Jawa 350 combo from England to the factory in Czechoslovakia and back to England again , so maybe I`m being a little harsh .........


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The first time I met Richard would have been late `81 when I needed a replacement plastic ring which holds the ignition lock in place ......... the one on the bike had split .........

I decided to go up to Collington rather than deal with Avon Bikes in Bristol ....... they would only have to order it from Slaters , so I might as well go up there myself .

When I got there Richard informed me that the plastic ring wasn`t available separately ........ it only came with a new ignition lock , so that was obviously not going to happen .

Anyway , whilst I was there I had a look at the bikes in the showroom , and I remember seeing Richard stood behind the counter in the corner of my eye ....... watching me like a hawk , just in case I decided to relieve one of the showroom bikes of the lock ring with a couple of quick twirls ........

Not that I would have done that of course ......... honestly ...... I wouldn`t ............. :( ...................

That was the first of many visits over the next forty years ..........


BTW I eventually got a steel ignition lock ring from Phil Todd ...... so no more danger of that splitting through over-tightening ..... by the first owner of course , not me ......... ( cough ) .............

BTW ( again ) ......... The first ( and previous ) owner of the Mirage before me was a Richard ( Dickie ) Sayner ........... I remember that he placed an advert in LVV for some parts a year or two after I bought the Mirage ......... Not sure if he`s still around , or if anyone remembers him ...........
 
Not uncommon. A customer at the Oz importer pinched an idle mixture screw from a 3C on the showroom floor when spare parts didn't have one.
Pinching parts from parked bikes not so uncommon either.
 
rocketonarail said:
The first time I met Richard would have been late `81 when I needed a replacement plastic ring which holds the ignition lock in place ......... the one on the bike had split .........

I decided to go up to Collington rather than deal with Avon Bikes in Bristol ....... they would only have to order it from Slaters , so I might as well go up there myself .

When I got there Richard informed me that the plastic ring wasn`t available separately ........ it only came with a new ignition lock , so that was obviously not going to happen .

Anyway , whilst I was there I had a look at the bikes in the showroom , and I remember seeing Richard stood behind the counter in the corner of my eye ....... watching me like a hawk , just in case I decided to relieve one of the showroom bikes of the lock ring with a couple of quick twirls ........

Not that I would have done that of course ......... honestly ...... I wouldn`t ............. :( ...................

That was the first of many visits over the next forty years ..........


BTW I eventually got a steel ignition lock ring from Phil Todd ...... so no more danger of that splitting through over-tightening ..... by the first owner of course , not me ......... ( cough ) .............

BTW ( again ) ......... The first ( and previous ) owner of the Mirage before me was a Richard ( Dickie ) Sayner ........... I remember that he placed an advert in LVV for some parts a year or two after I bought the Mirage ......... Not sure if he`s still around , or if anyone remembers him ...........
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I met fireman Dick Sayner several times.
He moved to South West France many years back and was still about not so long ago.
Paul
 
I dropped the oil about a month ago and started doing a gear selector adjustment before finding a broken chunk out of the case cover. The bike got a big sign taped to the fuel tank saying: NO OIL. I read those riding without oil stories decades back. It's common practice in industry to fail-safe equipment getting maintenance requiring a specific acknowledged individual to sign off plant for non-operation and operation.
 
I have had a piece of card on my garage wall for decades, it reads "NO OIL" it has a hole in it for an ignition key, I use it a lot, right in your face as you turn on the ignition. Ray Sheepwash once rode from South London to Roubaix (France) with no oil due to an incompleted oil change, well not quite Roubaix (France) but close, a distance of (maybe) 140 miles! Paul Points collected him in distress, very fetching he looked as well.

CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
I have had a piece of card on my garage wall for decades, it reads "NO OIL" it has a hole in it for an ignition key, I use it a lot, right in your face as you turn on the ignition. Ray Sheepwash once rode from South London to Roubaix (France) with no oil due to an incompleted oil change, well not quite Roubaix (France) but close, a distance of (maybe) 140 miles! Paul Points collected him in distress, very fetching he looked as well.

CLEM
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I haven't forgotten that one. Ray was on his way back to Calais when he dropped in with his triple on a breakdown platform coming from Belgium.
Paul
 
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